After years of dreaming and drooling over digital SLRs, I finally bit the bullet and invested in a used Canon Digital Rebel XT last week. After years of shooting with my Nikon FM-10, a fully manual 35mm SLR, I have the basic skills under my belt, but considering that camera has been non-functional for several years, and I’ve never used anything with automatic functions, I’m currently in “learning mode.” Luckily, iPhoto is very helpful with aiding in the learning process without being overwhelming.
While most professionals and even pro-sumers primarily use Aperture or Lightroom for their photo organization needs, iPhoto actually has quite a few robust tools to help those who aren’t quite ready to graduate to that higher level yet. The biggest tool for me has been using the “Extended Info” window. Open iPhoto, select a picture and go to Photos > Show Extended Photo Info. This brings up a robust info window with many helpful details about the picture. If you’ve been shooting with a point-n-shoot or a cell phone you might not see too much information. However, if the picture was taken with a digital SLR, you would be able to see important details like aperture, shutter speed, ISO, metering, exposure and much more.
So how is this helpful? In learning the features of a new camera, I often take the same shot using multiple settings. Once the pictures are on my computer, I can see the differences, but I don’t necessarily always remember exactly which settings I changed for each shot. By leaving the extended info window open, I can clearly see what settings yielded what specific results.
As an extra bonus, iPhoto allows for photo comparison. This is the perfect feature for me as I can select several similar pictures, double-click on them and watch them come up side-by-side on my screen. By entering full-screen mode (pressing the button that looks like two arrows pointing away from each other), I can really take the time to compare the details between photos while keeping my eye on the extended info window to remind myself how I created the image.
Once I find an image I like, I like to flag it. There are two ways to flag a photo: press the flag icon on bottom left if you’re in the photo browser, or press command+. if you’re in edit or full screen mode. Flagging allows me to start pairing down the photos I like without going through the rigamarole of creating a photo album and dragging photos over. Once I’ve gone through a set I can view all of my flagged photos by selecting “Flagged” in the “Recent” menu on the left column of the photo browser. I can then go through the flagged images and select the few that I want to share.
Sharing in iPhoto 9 has become easier than ever. I can select individual photos, events or albums and simply press the button that corresponds to how I want to share my pictures. I split my photos among three main sites: Facebook, Flickr and MobileMe. It’s insanely easy to upload to all three locations right from within iPhoto. After selecting the pictures I want to share I just hit the “Flickr”, “Facebook” or “MobileMe” button, my pictures are automatically resized for the web and posted.
If I forgot to change the name of my picture or if I don’t like the generic name that iPhoto gave to the set I can edit that information right from within iPhoto and it will re-sync the changes to the web for me. I can even drag and drop additional pictures into the established photo set or delete photos from the set as desired. iPhoto takes care of all of the resizing and uploading for me.
Easy-peasy!