iPhoto '08
We know that not everyone is as obsessed about Apple news as we are, so we're going be going through each updated app in iWork '08 and iLife '08 to highlight some of the big ticket new features. We're already done this for iWeb and Garageband, and now it is iPhoto in the spotlight (haha, get it?). Here we go:
Events
Events is the feature that his Steveness spent the most time on during his presentation. The idea is that since you
are usually taking pictures at an event, iPhoto should be smart enough to group them together for you, which has the side benefit of allowing you to browse your photos that much faster. Each Event (notice the capital E) has one picture that represents it, which you can choose. These Events, in turn, make up a new iPhoto view that shows you each Event (as seen above). When you hover the Event you can 'skim' through the photos to see the individual photos that much up that Event. You can also split up the generated Events, in case iPhoto doesn't group the photos correctlySearching
I don't know about you, but I have given up on organizing my digital files. Search is my crutch, and luckily search is much improved in iPhoto '08. iPhoto 6's search is capable, but it just gives you one way to look at the results. New in iPhoto is highly organized search results, as seen to the right. This is going to save me lots of time.
Web Galleries
iPhoto has long been able to publish web albums, but now Apple has really beefed up this offer. Combine iPhoto '08 with a .Mac subscription (still going for $99) and you get .Mac Web Galleries. They offer up a slick, Web 2.0 interface for both your photos and videos. You can email pictures to a special email address and have those pics added, and synced to your copy of iPhoto (think camera pictures from the iPhone). You can, of course, decide who can add pictures to your galleries.
Other Stuff
Photo editing has been beefed up. You can now applied edits to one photo, copy them, and then paste them onto a number of other photos. The new Shadow and Highlight controls let you lighten shadows, or highlight something without impacting the overall brightness of the photo. Printing from iPhoto has been spruced up with a number of new templates to choose from, and ordering photo books, calendars, and cards is just as easier but the results are of higher quality.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Nick said 10:36PM on 8-07-2007
Why does iPhoto have the iTunes 7 scroll bars when none of the other iLife apps do?
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Trevor Feeney said 11:09PM on 8-07-2007
I was watching the presentation, thinking...aren't events the same thing, or at least really similar to rolls. It looks like there is a lot better, more intuitive interface for dealing with the groupings, but one could definitely group without albums before. I know when I import in '06, I just name the group before I import off my memory card. Regardless, it certainly looks like a better way to interact with the groupings.
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Richard Lomas said 11:14PM on 8-07-2007
Do we know if iPhoto still only imports RAW but won't non-destructively edit it like Aperture?
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iceswimmer said 11:16PM on 8-07-2007
Can you finally store your entire library somewhere other than the default location? Like you can in iTunes? I hate not being able to store my photos where I want to without hacking around.
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dylan said 11:23PM on 8-07-2007
You know I kinda wish Apple's software guys would put some effort into the "Pro" apps like Logic which have been languishing in recent years. Maybe post-leopard which I'm looking forward to, but otherwise apple's focus has been on capturing the "lay" audience to expand market share.. I just hope they remember their base!
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ToreUs said 11:56PM on 8-07-2007
iceswimmer, you can choose alternate libraries in iPhoto 6 just like you can in iTunes by holding down the Option key when starting the application.
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JeffDM said 12:06AM on 8-08-2007
I thought iPhoto was non-destructive for everything. It's non-destructive with jpgs. I can make a change, and ask it to show me the current file or show me the original file.
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JeffDM said 12:13AM on 8-08-2007
What I did to relocate the library is move the library to my data drive, make an alias of the new location (right click & click make alias) and move the alias to my user account.
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podaddy said 8:13AM on 8-08-2007
iceswimmer,
Just move your iPhoto library somewhere else. When you re-open the app, it will ask you if you want a new library or where to find the old one. I just moved mine to an network drive array.
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JeffDM said 12:15AM on 8-08-2007
Oops, I forgot to mention that the alias has to be renamed to Pictures, it can't say alias in the name or have stray spaces.
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Richard Lomas said 12:21AM on 8-08-2007
It's never been non-destructive with RAW files though, like Aperture. It can import the RAW file and manipulate it, but that's it. I'd really like this feature, as I only make very standard adjustments to my RAW files usually and Aperture is a TOTAL CPU bog down drag. Total bloatware.
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consumer_q said 1:48AM on 8-08-2007
Will iPhoto generated keywords goto the IPTC of an image file yet?
Please?
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Trevor Feeney said 2:55AM on 8-08-2007
Richard: iPhoto isn't destructive to RAW from what I've experienced. It works such that when you make adjustments, it then creates a jpg file and uses that from then on. If you use "Revert to Original" you will be presented with the RAW file again. Perhaps I'm just misunderstanding what you mean by "destructive"
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Clifford said 2:24AM on 8-08-2007
Aperture isn't bloatware -- it just takes a fair amount of processing power to render your RAW files live, which is what you're asking it to do when you want non-destructive editing. You can't push pixels in RAW without rendering it, which is what iPhoto does.
You can't have it both ways -- you can have it the iPhoto way or the Aperture way, but there's no in-between.
And I love how people complain that these programs don't have features that they've had for years already. When COULDN'T you move the iPhoto library?
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Matteo said 3:23AM on 8-08-2007
Is something Event like also going to be available for Aperture?
I mean, I just donwloaded 124MB of upgrade yesterday, I hope some of the new iPhoto features will also be available for users who spent a fair amount of money for Aperture (a software that I have to admit, I like very much).
I haven't had a chance to look around for the new Aperture features, so I am looking forward to a review by someone about what has been added or about the way Aperture interacts with iPhoto 08.
For a 124MB update I expect some changes...
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J.Y. said 8:33AM on 8-08-2007
I'd love to see facial recognition tech added to iPhoto for automated tagging as well. A web startup called Riya offered such tech about a year ago. They've since changed direction, but the original concept was neat - see this for reference http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/001419.html
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Greg said 8:54AM on 8-08-2007
iPhoto 08 looks great. However, I was hoping for a way to not have to import everything on your memory card into iPhoto. You should be able to see thumbnails and select what you want to import. Also, nobody has mentioned the new iPhoto icon yet. It looks similar, but the camera on the icon is different.
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Johnny Thrash said 10:20AM on 8-08-2007
If you are not obsessed with Apple news... why would you read this site?
It is about Apple...
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stefan K said 6:38AM on 8-09-2007
Greg – You kinda can already do that. I know it's not quite the same as doing it directly within iPhoto, but you can use the Image Capture application to do exactly that and import just individual shots.
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Zach said 7:10PM on 8-08-2007
This update is a giant waste.
-Is manually creating an album to file your pictures that difficult?
-.Mac's web sharing is an improvement, but it's still not as good as Flickr. And .Mac is more expensive than Flickr.
As iPhoto is the only aspect of iLife that I use, I'm going to pass on this version.
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