Customer Reviews

iPhoto '08: The Missing Manual

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

Apple really needs to collaborate with Mr. Pogue and put this book in every software application! I was at a loss converting from one system to a Mac but this book has truly made it so much easier for me. I have finally been able to stay off the phone with Apple and work on my photos! Thanks Mr. Pogue! Once again you have come through for me!

I have showered so much praise on these 'Missing Manual' books it may seem like I am getting paid by David Pogue himself to write these reviews, but I guarantee you that is not the case!!

Full of crisp, clear, color photos that jump off the page, a writing style that is fun and easy to follow, and a layout that is second to none, there simply is no line of books for learning applications on the market that is better than the 'Missing Manual' series.

If you use an application (whatever it is) and you want to learn to use the tool in question, forget going online or taking a class. Either it will be a waste of time, money or both!!! Just look at the name of the app you are interested in, see if there is a Missing Manual book for it and BUY IT.

These books are that good, that impressive, that well written, and that well published. I put the highest stamp of approval on this line by O'Reilly.

***** HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION

Are you a professional photographer? If you are, then this book is for you. Authors David Pogue and Derrick Story, have done an outstanding job of writing a book that is designed to serve as the iPhoto manual.

Pogue and Story, begin by covering buying, using, and exploiting your digital camera; choosing the proper image resolution settings; and, getting the most out of batteries and memory cards. Next, the authors cover the fundamentals of getting your photos into iPhoto, organizing and filing them, searching them, and editing them to compensate for weak lighting. Then, they cover the many ways iPhoto can present those photos to other people: as a slideshow, as prints you order from the internet or make yourself, as a professionally published gift book, on a Web page, by e-mail, or as a QuickTime-movie slide-show that you post on the Web or distribute on CD or even DVD. Finally, the authors cover a miscellaneous potpourri of additional iPhoto features, including: turning photos into screen savers or desktop pictures on your Mac; exporting photos in various formats, using iPhoto plug-ins and accessory programs; managing Photo Libraries; backing up your photos using iPhoto's Burn to CD command; and, even getting photos to and from cameraphones and Palm organizers.

This most excellent book provides an invaluable grounding in professional photography. More importantly, used together, any good digital camera and iPhoto have all the technical tools you need to produce photographic presentations of stunning visual quality.

David Pogue has always been a favorite of mine. I have his earlier books on Apple OS-X 10.3, 10.4 and 10.5 and always found them to be very useful. The key to this type of book is in the index. You don't read a book of this nature, but instead you pull it off the shelf when you have a problem and for this the index is crucial. You need to find an immediate reference for your problem there in order to locate the solution and in this regard David Pogue has always been tops.

I can highly recommend this volume as well as the OS-X Missing Manuals by the same author.

iPhoto 08 was exactly what I needed to get the most from my home photography. It is well written and easy to follow. The price was excellent and the quick service was greatly appreciated.

Packed with great information, well organized and presented in a humorous fashion. I keep it right alongside my computer for reference.

iPhoto '08 is very useful for newcomers to iPhoto. One surprising, to me, plus is that the book actually begins with a couple of chapters that are photography tutorials that are helpful without being too technical. I think this 'missing manual' can help many get the most from their use of iPhoto '08.

This book has saved me a ton of time and answered a lot of my questions about iPhoto and I am only about a third of the way through the book so far. It is a real joy. Questions that Apple staff in the local Apple store were unable to answer to my satisfaction are amply covered in this book. While the first section on fundamentals of digital photography is more basic than I need, still I got some useful information out of that section. I gained an understanding of the workings of the iPhoto image files - original and modified - and on how iPhoto interfaces with Elements 6.0. I also bought the Missing Manual for Elements 6.0 and find the two albums play well together.

Things that I previously was unable to figure out became clear within a short time thanks to the Missing Manual for iPhoto '08. I feel more confident that I am going to master the photo processing software and spend much less time at the iMac while doing a better job of editing and printing my images. A great value because it translates right into time saved. Much easier than using on line help and tutorials because the manual asks the questions that I was unable to even think to ask - and then proceeds to answer the questions. I am very pleased with this book. I have over 15,000 images in iPhoto now and feel that I will soon be in command of the images and not the other way around.