67 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The latest update to the ever-useful iPhoto manual, February 15, 2008
This review is from: iPhoto '08: The Missing Manual (Paperback)
During the early years of digital cameras, just making the camera-to-computer connection was a nightmare. You had to mess with serial or USB cables, install device drivers, and use proprietary software to transfer, open, and convert camera images into a standard file format. Apple's answer to this was iPhoto. iPhoto 08 doesn't represent a big overhaul, but there were enough changes that it really did warrant a new edition of the program and thus of this very helpful book.
This book serves as the iPhoto manual that should have come with the software. It explores each iPhoto feature in depth, offers shortcuts and workarounds, and discusses features that the online help doesn't mention. The book also provides a quick introduction to professional photography. It discusses the artistic factors such as composition, lighting, and manual exposure and how to apply them using the myriad features packed into the modern digital camera.
This book is divided into four parts, each containing several chapters:
Part 1, Digital Cameras: The Missing Manual, is a course in photography and digital cameras. The first three chapters cover both the basics and the secrets that the pros use to take consistently good photographs. The basics of selecting the proper digital camera are mentioned along with proper usage. Hardware is also discussed. This section of the book creates a bridge between everyday snapshots and the kinds of shots seen in magazines and newspapers.
Chapter 1. Welcome to Digital Photography
Chapter 2. Composing Brilliant Photos
Chapter 3. Beyond the Simple Snapshot
Part 2, iPhoto Basics, shows how to use your Mac to gather, organize, and tweak all these photos so you can share them with the rest of the world. This is the core of this book--compiling, organizing, and adjusting your pictures using iPhoto, and then transforming this random collection of digital photos into a professional-looking slideshow, set of prints, movie, Web page, poster, email, desktop picture set, or bound book.
Chapter 4. Camera Meets Mac
Chapter 5. The Digital Shoebox
Chapter 6. Five Ways to Flag and Find Photos
Chapter 7. Editing Your Shots
Part 3, Meet Your Public, covers the presentation methods you have available via iPhoto. There is basically a chapter per presentation method.This includes taking your static images and turning them into a Quicktime movie complete with musical accompaniment.
Chapter 8. The iPhoto Slideshow
Chapter 9. Making Prints
Chapter 10. Email, Web Galleries, and Network Sharing
Chapter 11. Books, Calendars, and Cards
Chapter 12. iPhoto Goes to the Movies
Chapter 13. iDVD Slideshows
Part 4, iPhoto Stunts, covers miscellaneous and additional iPhoto features, that didn't really fit anywhere else, like turning your photos into a screen saver, using AppleScript to automate photo-related chores, and harnessing iPhoto's partnership with Automator. The final chapter is a lesson in iPhoto file management, which is much less of a chore now that iPhoto can manage 250K photos per library.
Chapter 14. Screen Savers, AppleScript, and Automator
Chapter 15. iPhoto File Management
At the end of the book, Appendix A offers troubleshooting guidance, Appendix B goes through iPhoto's menus one by one, and Appendix C lists some Web sites pertaining to digital photography.
The book is well-illustrated with plenty of screen shots of the application, step-by-step instructions, and full color before and after shots to show you what you should accomplish by following the book's instructions. In part one, descriptions and advice on actual hardware are accompanied by photos of digital cameras and their attachments along with tables that relate memory card capacity with number of photos. A very professionally done effort and highly recommended.
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
2 Thumbs up - Without a question, February 23, 2008
This review is from: iPhoto '08: The Missing Manual (Paperback)
This book is great! The purpose of iphoto is to catalog your photos, and keep them organized. This isn't a photoshop type program, but - Using Photoshop myself, it is a wonderful tool for organization and sharing your edited photos. There is SO MUCH functionality built into this program that you would never know existed. This book shows you absolutely everything you would want to know about the architecture of the program and its' use.
There is a SHORT reference if you are in the market for a new camera. It tells you what to look for you so you don't over-spend, or buy something that doesn't suit your needs. It is a brief section, but very informative. There is also a short section on how to take better pictures. The author is using the philosophy that it is hard to produce good results with a poor starting photo (without compromising quality).
The book is, without a doubt, one of the most well written informational manuals I have ever read. I liked the book so much, that I now have purchased the "Missing Manual for MAC OS X Leopard" by the same author.
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