Chapter 3: Importing and Viewing Photos

Understanding the iPhoto Workspace

iPhoto enables you to organize, enhance, and share your collection of digital photos. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the iPhoto workspace.

Thumbnails

Small versions of your photos, called thumbnails, appear here in the photo browser. You can change their size using the slider in the bottom-right corner of the workspace or magnify them by double-clicking. See the tasks in this chapter for more about viewing photos.

Source List

By clicking different buttons in the source list, you can filter and sort your library photos by when or where they were taken, or by the faces that appear in them. See Chapter 4 for more about organizing photos.

Organization

You can organize photos into subject-specific albums or display them as slideshows. With slideshows, you can control the transitions between photos as well as slide durations.

Name Faces

The Name feature allows you to label the faces in your photos with names. iPhoto automatically recognizes faces in your images to help you with the labeling.

Editing Tools

You can edit the color, lighting, and other characteristics of a photo using various tools. This can help you fix poorly exposed or washed-out photos. You can also remove unwanted objects or blemishes with a Retouch tool. See Chapter 5 for more.

Search Box

A search box allows you to search by title or description, date, keyword, or rating.

Play Slideshow

A button at the bottom of the workspace lets you quickly show the currently displayed photos as a slideshow with a theme and background music.

Keepsakes

Keepsakes are photo-related projects such as photo books and calendars that you can create in iPhoto. You can have your finished keepsakes printed professionally. See Chapter 6 for more about keepsakes.

Sharing

You can share your photos by posting them to Web galleries, sending them by e-mail, or transferring them to online services such as Facebook and Flickr. See Chapter 6 for more information.

Import Photos from a Camera

You can bring digital images into iPhoto directly from a camera. Most digital cameras connect to a Mac through a USB cable. Mac computers come with multiple USB ports where you can connect cables.

For details about connecting your specific camera, see the documentation that came with the device.

Import Photos from a Camera

Connect your camera to your Mac using a USB cable and turn the camera on.

iPhoto launches and displays the photos on your camera.

If iPhoto does not launch automatically, click iPhoto in the Dock to launch it.

• The camera name appears here.

-click the photos you want to import.

Type an event name to categorize the selected photos.

Note: For more about how iPhoto organizes photos by event, see Chapter 4.

Type a description of the event.

Select Autosplit events after importing to automatically group your photos by date ( changes to ).

Click Import Selected.

• You can click Import All to import all the photos on your camera at once.

iPhoto downloads the photos from your camera and adds them to the iPhoto library.

iPhoto displays a dialog enabling you to delete the imported photos.

Click Delete Photos to erase the imported photos from your camera.

iPhoto displays the imported photos in the photo browser.

• The event name appears above the photos.

What photo file formats does iPhoto support?

iPhoto supports the JPEG, TIFF, and RAW file formats, which are how most digital cameras save their photo files. It can also import Web formats such as GIF and PNG, Photoshop (PSD) files, and many other types.

Can I import and play movies in iPhoto?

You can import movies from a digital camera into iPhoto just like you do still photos. iPhoto can import and play many popular video formats including QuickTime (MOV), MPEG, and AVI. Double-clicking a movie in iPhoto opens the movie in QuickTime Player. If you want to edit movies, see Part III of this book, which covers iMovie.

Import Photos from Your Computer

If you already have photos stored on your computer, you can bring them into iPhoto to organize and edit them. This is useful if you have a collection of scanned photos or art on your Mac. You can also use these steps to bring photos into iPhoto from a CD-ROM, DVD, memory card, or flash drive.

Import Photos from Your Computer

Use the Import command

Click File.

Click Import to Library.

The Import Photos dialog appears.

Navigate to the folder on your computer that contains the photos.

Note: You can also navigate to a CD-ROM, DVD, memory card, or flash drive to import photos.

-click to select the photos. You can press + to select all the photos.

Click Import.

• iPhoto imports the selected photos and displays them in the photo browser.

Note: For information about how to organize imported photos, see Chapter 4.

Click and drag from the Finder

Open the folder containing the photos to import in the Mac Finder.

-click to select the photos. You can press + to select all the photos.

Click and drag the photos from the Finder to iPhoto.

iPhoto imports the selected photos and displays them in the photo browser.

Does iPhoto make copies of my photos when I import them?

By default, iPhoto makes copies of imported photos and puts the copies in the iPhoto library. You can change the preferences to keep iPhoto from making copies. This can help save space on your hard drive.

Click iPhoto and then Preferences.

In the Preferences dialog, click Advanced.

Click Copy items to the iPhoto Library ( changes to ).

Click to close the Preferences dialog.

iPhoto saves the changes.

Import Photos from the Web

You can easily import a Web photo into your iPhoto library from your Safari Web browser. This is useful if you store photos on a photo-hosting site and want to use one of the photos in an iPhoto project.

Import Photos from the Web

Click Safari in the Mac Dock.

The Safari Web browser opens.

View a Web page with the photo you want to import.

-click the image you want to import.

From the menu that appears, click Add Image to iPhoto Library.

iPhoto imports the photo and titles it with the file name.

Click the title.

The title becomes editable.

Type a new title.

Press .

iPhoto saves the title.

How do I import a photo using a Web browser other than Safari?

Getting your photos into iPhoto from another Web browser takes a few more steps. Here is how to do it in Firefox:

In Firefox, open the Web page that contains the image you want to save.

-click the image.

Select Save Image As from the menu that appears.

From the Save Image dialog that appears, type a file name for the image.

Click here to select where to save the image.

Click Save.

The browser saves the image to your computer.

See “Import Photos from Your Computer” to bring the image into iPhoto.

Magnify a Photo

You can view magnified versions of your photos that you have imported by clicking the small versions, also called thumbnails, in the iPhoto photo browser. You can also view photos at full-screen size. You can cycle through the photos using the arrow keys.

Magnify a Photo

Double-click a thumbnail in the photo browser.

iPhoto magnifies the photo to a larger size.

You can click the enlarged photo once to return to the thumbnail view.

Click Enter full screen ().

iPhoto expands the photo to full-screen size.

Move the cursor to the top of the photo.

• iPhoto shows thumbnails of the other photos in the group you are viewing.

• You can click the thumbnail of a photo to view that photo in full-screen view.

Press or to view the previous or next photo in your library.

Move the cursor to the bottom of the photo.

• iPhoto displays editing buttons. For details about editing, see Chapter 5.

Press to return to the thumbnail view of the library.

How do I adjust the size of the thumbnail versions of my photos in the photo browser?

You can use the thumbnail slider:

• Click and drag the slider left to shrink or right to enlarge the thumbnails.

• Click to minimize the thumbnails.

• Click to maximize the thumbnails.

When viewing the photo browser, you can also press number keys (0, 1, 2, or 3) to resize the thumbnails.

View Photo Information

You can view extra information about a photo, including its description, map location, and camera settings. This can help you categorize a photo.

View Photo Information

Click to select a photo in the library.

Click ( changes to ).

• iPhoto displays basic information about the photo, including the dimensions and time taken.

Click Photos.

Click Show Extended Photo Info.

• iPhoto displays the extended information, including any existing location information and camera settings.

Position your cursor over an image.

iPhoto displays an information icon ().

Click the icon.

• iPhoto displays map and other information about the photo.

Note: To add a photo to the map, see Chapter 4.

Click Done to close the information box.

How do I find a photo on the Mac file system?

You can open a Finder window that shows where the photo is stored outside of iPhoto on the Mac file system.

-click the photo thumbnail.

In the menu that appears, click Show File.

• If the file has been edited, you can click Show Original File to view the unedited version.

• A Finder window opens showing the file and its location in the file system.

Change the Title and Description of a Photo

You can edit the title and description of a photo to add information about its subject and location. When you import a photo, iPhoto assigns the file name as the title and a blank description.

Change the Title and Description of a Photo

Under a photo thumbnail, click the title text.

The title becomes editable.

Type a new name for the photo.

Press .

iPhoto saves the title.

Position the cursor over the thumbnail.

iPhoto displays an information icon ().

Click the icon.

iPhoto displays map and other information about the photo.

Click Enter description.

The description becomes editable.

Note: You must keep the cursor within the edit box to edit the text.

Type a description.

Position the cursor outside the edit box.

iPhoto saves the description.

How can I include titles and descriptions when I share a photo?

When you share a photo by e-mail in iPhoto, you have the option of automatically adding the title and description to the e-mail message. Click the Titles and Descriptions options ( changes to ) in the Mail Photo dialog to add them. For more details, see Chapter 6.

How can I search for photos by title or description?

Perform a search using the search box at the bottom of the iPhoto workspace. For more information about searching, see Chapter 4.

Change the Date and Time of a Photo

You can edit the date and time associated with a photo in your iPhoto library. This can be helpful if the time on your camera was incorrect when you took the picture. Because iPhoto organizes photos by time in the photo browser, this can also change where the thumbnail displays when you browse photos.

Change the Date and Time of a Photo

Click to select a photo thumbnail.

You can -click to select multiple photos to adjust their date and time to a single setting.

Click Photos.

Click Adjust Date and Time.

In the dialog that appears, click a date or time field.

Click here to adjust the field.

Repeat steps 4 and 5 to adjust the other fields.

• iPhoto displays a summary of the adjustment.

• If you are changing the settings of an edited photo, you can optionally click to modify the original copy as well ( changes to ).

Click Adjust.

iPhoto adjusts the date and time.

• The date for the associated event changes as well.

Note: For more about events, see Chapter 4.

What is another way to adjust the date and time of a photo?

You can adjust the date and time in the information panel.

Click a photo to select it.

Click ( changes to ) to view the information for the photo.

Click to edit the date.

Click to edit the time.

Change Settings for a Batch of Photos

You can use the batch feature to change the title, date, or description for multiple photos all at once. This is useful for adding common information to photos from the same event or place, or with the same subjects.

Change Settings for a Batch of Photos

-click to select the photos.

Click Photos.

Click Batch Change.

Click here and select Title.

Click here and select a title type.

• You can click to add an incremental number to each photo in the batch ( changes to ).

Click here and select Date.

Click a date or time field.

Click here to adjust the field.

• You can optionally click Add to adjust the time applied to each photo in the batch ( changes to ).

Click here and select Description.

Type a description.

• You can optionally click to keep any existing descriptions ( changes to ).

Click OK.

iPhoto applies the changes to the batch.

What are some keyboard shortcuts when browsing the iPhoto library?

Here are some useful shortcuts. For more, see the iPhoto help documentation.