IPhoto
was the main topic at the February 7th meeting of the Long Beach MacGraphics
Group. There was a large crowd at the meeting seeking to learn more about
iPhoto, and they were not disappointed. Leader, Roger Kroll made the presentation
of iPhoto as well as a brief demo of the beta Extensis Portfolio 6.0 at
the meeting.
IPhoto is an incredibly complex application that has an exceptionally
intuitive interface. Apple wanted to solve the “shoe box” metaphor
of camera use. Before iPhoto, you would copy your digital camera shots
onto your hard drive and would have a bunch of files called DCP_0645.JPG,
DCP_0646.JPG, DCP_0647.JPG, etc. You would double click on an image and
it would open up in Picture Viewer. After deciding which picture you want
to edit or keep, you would open them up in a program like Photoshop and
do your editing. Then you would need to rename your file and organize
it on your hard drive. Not a real easy solution. That’s where iPhoto
comes along to save the day. IPhoto requires Mac OS X.1 and is a free
download off their website. After iPhoto is installed on your Mac, just
plug your digital camera into the Mac’s USB port and iPhoto automatically
imports your photos, stores them and displays them on your screen. It
even has an option to delete the images off your camera after they are
safely copied on your hard drive. Simply drag your mouse, and iPhoto magically
grows or shrinks your photo thumbnails right before your eyes. So you
can view individual shots in greater detail for precise cropping. Or see
hundreds of photos on the screen at once, and quickly scroll through thousands
to find the one you’re looking for. Gone are the days of scavenger
hunts to find pictures on your hard drive. You can also import folders
of images from your hard drive into iPhoto. This can include files you
downloaded from the web. IPhoto recognizes jpeg, gif, pict, and layered
Photoshop files. It does not recognize Illustrator or eps files.
IPhoto excels in organizing your images. You can create new albums, which
are like folders on your hard drive. An album is a collection of photos
you select from your photo library and arrange in the order you want.
You can use an album to chronicle a special event, such as the Feb 7 meeting
of LBMG, or display a particular subject such as a project that you are
working on. Once you have an album, you can run a slide show in iPhoto,
save for the web, create a QuickTime movie of your album, export the pictures
scaled proportionally to certain dimensions such as 4 X 6, order Kodak
prints of your digital photos, or create a book.
The slide show option shows an entire album on your computer screen. You
can add background music (Apple supplies 2 free tunes) and the pictures
automatically fade into each other.
Now is a very good time to order prints through iPhoto because Apple is
giving away the first 10 4x6 photos you order when you sign up for 1-Click
Ordering. Apple adds “be prepared: when you show them off, no one's
going to believe your photos weren't shot on film.” Normal 4x6 prints
are 50¢ each, 5x7 are 99¢, 8x10 are $3.99, 16x20 are $14.99
and 20x30 are $19.99 each. When ordering prints, there is a caution triangle
that indicates low resolution may result in poor print quality. The prints
are sent o addresses in the US and Canada and 1 set could be sent to an
aunt in Florida while another set could be sent to you in California,
just from a click of the mouse
The book option is also very innovative. IPhoto allows you to create hardbound
books directly from its software. Have an album selected and click the
book option. You are given six themes to organize your photos; catalog,
classic, picture book, portfolio, story book, and yearbook. Depending
on the theme you choose, you can put in captions describing the photos
on each page. In the story book option, the photos are tilted automatically
for a dramatic effect. You can choose how many photos appear on each page
from 1 to 4. Once you are done with the book, you can print the book from
your OS X supported printer or order the 9x11.25 linen cover book on acid-free
glossy paper in black, gray, burgundy or navy from Apple for $29.99 for
the first 10 pages and $3.00 for each additional page also with just a
click of the mouse.
 
Another compelling aspect of iPhoto is the HomePage sharing option. With
your album selected, iPhoto connects with your .mac account, creates
thumbnails and full size images, allows for captions describing each
photo, and four different framing options. Once you are satisfied with
your website,
click on the publish button and all the images and slide show options
are loaded on your ,Mac site and it tells you what the url is and allows
you to view your site. This is way cool and
pretty darned easy.
I also briefly went over the features of Portfolio
6, which is a professional tool for organizing your images. Portfolio
runs $200, but offers many features not present in iPhoto including: recognition
of many more file formats including Illustrator and Freehand files, renaming
files in the catalog program which also renames them in the finder, Portfolio
Express which brings your files for easy placement into QuarkXpress, FolderSync
which synchronizes your Portfolio catalog with your actual files and folders,
Collect & Publish which streamlines the process of publishing Portfolio
content for distribution on CD, Power Field Editor which greatly simplifies
and speeds up the process of adding, replacing, deleting, and emptying
field data for all selected records.
After the presentation, there was a raffle for the many T-shirts I collected
at MacWorld. Everyone who bought a raffle ticket went home with at least
one T-shirt.
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