Wazza’s QuickStart Mac OS X
Downloading, Organising & Printing Photos iPhoto 5
Mac OS X automatically recognises a digital camera connected via USB, mounts the
camera on the desktop as a disk, and launches iPhoto.
If your computer has had some other settings applied, and another program runs when
you connect a digital camera, see the last section of this document which describes
how to set your computer’s preferences.
Downloading photos from your camera.
1. Connect your camera to your computer using a USB cable.
The camera control should be set on the View Photos setting.
2. Turn the camera On.
3. If you have anti-virus software installed on your computer, you may see the
software scanning your camera card for viruses.
4. The iPhoto application will launch automatically.
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5. You can choose to provide a Roll Name and Description (both optional),
and whether or not to delete the photos from the camera after they are
imported into iPhoto.
If the Delete items option is displayed as a >> icon, making the window
larger will display the full text. Alternatively, click on the >> icon to display
the full text.
6. When your import settings are correct, click on the Import button.
7. If you chose to delete the photos from the camera, you will be asked to
confirm your decision.
8. You will be advised of the progress of the import.
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9. The photos from your camera will now be downloaded to your computer,
and be imported into iPhoto.
Your entire photo collection is displayed in iPhoto’s Library.
Your most recent download is displayed in the Last Import album.
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Viewing and organising your photos.
1. You can create new albums in iPhoto, as subsets of the main iPhoto
Library. This will make it easier to organise your photo collection.
Choose New Album from the File menu:
2. Give the Album a name, and click on OK
3. You can then drag photos into the new Album from the main Library
window.
Alternatively, you can select photos before making the Album, then choose
to make a New Album from Selection, in the File menu.
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4. When you have created new albums, a list of your photo albums is
displayed in the left pane of the main window.
Each album is a subset of the Library, which contains all your photos.
5. Photos can be dragged from the Library window to other albums in the left
pane of the main window.
6. Details of each photo can be displayed at the bottom left corner of the main
window, when an individual photo is selected.
Click on the small i icon to display this option.
You can rename each photo in the Title field.
7. The size of the thumbnail display in the main window can be adjusted
using the slider at the bottom right of the window.
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8. The View menu provides an option to organise your photos as Rolls.
This provides a neat categorisation of individual downloads.
9. To have your photos printed at the local photo shop, insert a blank CD, and
simply drag the required photos onto the CD, then burn the CD.
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10. You can share photos with other Macs on a network by selecting to share
your albums in the iPhoto preferences.
A separate Quickstart is available describing this process.
11. You can also export your photos to clickable thumbnails on a web page.
This option is available in the Export option under the Share menu.
A separate QuickStart is available detailing the process of exporting your
photos to a web page.
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Editing your photos.
1. Open the iPhoto preferences.
2. Click to set photos to be edited in a new window.
Close the Preferences window
3. Double-click a photo to edit it.
You now have access to some basic editing tools.
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4. The Crop tool can be used to remove unwanted detail from the photo, and
set the photo to a “standard” size.
5. Other Editing tools include:
Enhance
- automatically balances brightness & contrast
Red Eye
- removes red tones from the selected areas
Retouch
- “smoothes” out scratches and blemishes
Adjust
- adjusts brightness, contrast, sharpness, tint, etc.
6. You can access some other options here too, such as Rotate.
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7. At any time in the editing process, even after you have saved your work a
number of times, you can always choose Revert to Original from the
Photos menu, to dispose of all changes you have made to the photo.
8. The built-in iPhoto editing tools are very basic.
You can also set iPhoto’s Preferences (in the iPhoto menu) to open
photos for editing in another application, such as PhotoShop or
GraphicConverter, when you double-click a photo within iPhoto.
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Printing your photos at home.
1. Select the Album, or individual photos you want to print.
2. Click on the Print button in the bottom pane of the iPhoto window
3. The Print dialogue box provides options for picture size and paper quality,
as well as a preview of the printed page.
When your selections are complete, click on Print.
4. Congratulations! You have entered the digital photo era!
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Setting Image Capture Preferences.
The first time you launch iPhoto on your computer, you are asked if you would like
to make iPhoto the default application for processing digital photos. You should
click the button to use iPhoto.
If you didn’t select iPhoto to launch when a camera is connected, the default
application which launches when a USB camera or scanner is connected to
Mac OS X, is Image Capture.
You can use Image Capture to download photos from your camera directly to a
folder on your computer.
While the direct downloading of photos with Image Capture may be useful in
special circumstances, you can set the Image Capture preferences to launch
iPhoto, rather than Image Capture when a camera is connected.
1. Connect your camera to your computer and turn it on.
2. Launch the Image Capture application.
Image Capture is in the Applications folder.
3. You will see the Image Capture window.
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4. Choose Preferences from the Image Capture menu:
5. Choose iPhoto from the Camera Preferences popup menu
You may have to choose Other and navigate to the iPhoto application in
the Applications menu.
6. Close the Preferences window and Quit the Image Capture application.
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