Chapter 3: Focusing on iPhoto

In This Chapter

Importing pictures from your hard drive or digital camera

Organizing images with iPhoto

Tweaking the appearance of photographs

Sharing photos with your friends

For years, the Macintosh has been the choice of professional photographers for working with digital images — not surprising, considering the Mac’s graphical nature. Apple continues this tradition with iPhoto, its photography tool for the home user that can help you organize, edit, and even publish your photographs. (It sports more features than a handful of Swiss army knives.) After you shoot your photos with a digital camera, you can import them into iPhoto, edit them, and publish them. You’re not limited to photos that you take yourself, either; you can edit, publish, and organize all kinds of digital image files. You can even create a photo album and use the iPhoto interface to order a handsome soft- or hard-bound copy shipped to you, or create a slideshow that you can burn to a DVD.

In this chapter, I walk you through an overview of what iPhoto can do. After that, I give you a brief tour of the controls within iPhoto so that you can see what features are available to you, including features for managing, printing, and publishing your photos.

Delving into iPhoto

In Figure 3-1, you can see most of the major controls offered in iPhoto. (Other controls automatically appear when you enter different modes; I cover them in upcoming sections of this chapter.)

Although I cover these controls and sections of the window in more detail in the following sections, here’s a quick rundown of what you’re looking at when you first launch iPhoto:

Source list: This list of image locations determines which photos iPhoto displays.

• You can choose to display either your entire image library or just the last set of digital images that you downloaded from your camera.

• You can create new albums of your own that appear in the Source list; albums make it much easier to organize your photos.

• Photos can be grouped by Event (when they were taken), Faces (who appears in the photos), and Places (where photos were taken).

• You can view the photos you’ve shared online using Facebook and Flickr.

• Photos synced with your iOS devices (like your iPhone and iPad) appear in Photo Stream.

• You can create books, calendars, cards, and slideshows.

Viewer: This pane displays the images from the currently selected photo source.

You can drag or click to select photos in the Viewer for further tricks, such as assigning keywords and image editing.

Full Screen: Click this button in the upper-right corner of the iPhoto window to switch to a full-screen display of your photos. In full-screen mode, the Source list disappears, and both images and events appear as thumbnails. You can double-click a thumbnail to view the image (or the contents, if it’s an Event) using your Mac’s entire screen real estate. You can also use the same controls that I discuss later in this chapter for chores like sharing and editing images; the toolbar is still available at the bottom of the screen.

Search: Click the Search button to display the Search text box. Click in the Search box and start typing to locate photos by specific criteria, or by description and title.

Zoom: Drag this slider to the left to reduce the size of the thumbnails in the Viewer. This allows you to see more thumbnails at one time, which is a great boon for quick visual searches. Drag the slider to the right to expand the size of the thumbnails, which makes it easier to differentiate details between similar photos in the Viewer.

Play Slideshow: Select an event, album, book, or slideshow in the Source list (or multiple images you’ve selected in the Viewer) and click this button to start a full-screen slideshow using those images.

Info: Click this button to display information on the currently selected photos (or the item selected in the Source list).

Edit: Click this button to edit the selected photos. (I cover editing in depth later in this chapter.)

Create: Click this button to add a new blank album, book, calendar, card, or slideshow to your Source list.

Add To: Click this button to add the currently selected photos to an existing album, slideshow, book, card, or calendar.

Share: Click this button to share the currently selected photos on Flickr or Facebook as well as those from your other iOS devices via Photo Stream, if you’re using Apple’s iCloud feature. You can also order prints or e-mail the photos.

The toolbar buttons you see depend on which operation you’re performing. For example, you see different toolbar buttons when you’re editing a photo.

Working with Images in iPhoto

Even a superbly designed image display and editing application such as iPhoto would look overwhelming if everything were jammed into one window. Thus, Apple’s developers provide different operational modes (such as editing and book creation) that you can use in the one iPhoto window. Each mode allows you to perform different tasks, and you can switch modes at just about any time by clicking the corresponding toolbar button.

In this section, I discuss three of these modes — import, organize, and edit — and what you can do when you’re in them. Then I conclude the chapter with sections on publishing and sharing your images.

Import images 101

In import mode, you’re ready to download images directly from your digital camera — as long as your specific camera model is supported in iPhoto. You can find out which cameras are known to be supported by visiting the Apple iPhoto support page at www.apple.com/support/iphoto . And you’re not limited to cameras, of course: You can also import photos from a memory card reader (like the SD or SDXC card slots sported by most current Macs, or even a Kodak PhotoCD.

Follow these steps to import images:

1. Connect your digital camera to your Mac.

Plug one end of the camera’s USB cable into your camera and the other end into your Mac’s USB port and prepare your camera to download images.

2. Launch iPhoto.

Your Mac will probably launch iPhoto automatically when your camera is detected, but you can always launch iPhoto manually by clicking its icon on the Dock (or in your Applications folder or from Launchpad).

3. Type an event name for the imported photos, such as Birthday Party or Godzilla Ravages Tokyo.

4. To allow iPhoto to automatically separate images into separate events based on the date they were taken, select the Split Events check box.

5. Click the Import All button to import your photographs from the camera.

The images are added to your Photo Library, where you can organize them as you want.

To select specific images to import, hold down the key and click each desired photo; click Import Selected instead of Import All.

Depending on the camera, iPhoto may also import video clips.

6. Specify whether the images you’re importing should be deleted from the camera afterward.

If you don’t expect to download these images again to another computer or another device, you can choose to delete the photos from your camera automatically. This saves you a step, frees space for new photos, and helps eliminate the guilt that can crop up when you nix your pix. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

“What’s that about an Event, Mark?” After you download the contents of your digital camera, those contents count as a virtual Event in iPhoto — based on either the date that you imported them or the date they were taken. (Yet another reason to set your camera’s internal clock!) For example, you can always display the last images you imported by clicking Last Import. If you want to see photos from your son’s graduation, they appear as a separate Event. (Events and Last Import both appear in the Source list.) Think about that . . . it’s pretty tough to arrange old-fashioned film prints by the moment in time that they document, but iPhoto makes it easy for you to see just which photos are part of the same group! I explain more about Events in the next section.

Here are four methods of organizing photos: by album (which you may be familiar with from older versions of iPhoto), Events, Faces, and Places.

Organize mode: Organizing and sorting your images

In the days of film prints, you could always stuff another shoebox with your latest photos or buy another sticky album to expand your library. Your digital camera, though, stores images as files instead, and many folks don’t print their digital photographs. Instead, you can keep your entire collection of digital photographs and scanned images well ordered and easily retrieved by using iPhoto’s organize mode. Then you can display them as a slideshow, print them to your system printer, order prints online, use them as Desktop backgrounds, or burn them to an archive disc.

A new kind of photo album

The most familiar method of organizing images in iPhoto is the album. Each album can represent any division you like, be it a year, a vacation, your daughter, or your daughter’s ex-boyfriends. Follow these steps:

1. Create a new album.

You can either choose File⇒New Album (as shown in Figure 3-2) or press +N. iPhoto creates a new entry under the Albums heading in the Source list.

2. Type the name for your new photo album.

3. Press Return.

iPhoto also offers a special type of album — a smart album — which you can create from the File menu (or, from the keyboard by pressing Option++N). A smart album contains only photos that match certain criteria that you choose, including using the keywords and rating that you assign your images. Other criteria include text in the photo filenames, dates the images were added to iPhoto, and any comments you might have added (as well as camera-specific data like ISO and shutter speed). Now here’s the really nifty angle: iPhoto automatically builds and maintains smart albums for you, adding new photos that match the criteria and deleting those that you remove from your Photo Library (as well as removing the photos that no longer match the smart album’s criteria)! Smart albums icons carry a gear symbol in the Source list.

You can display information about the currently selected item in the information pane at the far right of the window. Just click the Info button at the bottom of the iPhoto window, which sports the familiar “i-in-a-circle” logo. You can also type a short note or description in the Description box that appears in the Info pane, or add keywords to help you organize your photos.

You can also change information on an image by selecting it in the Viewer and clicking the Info button. Click the Title heading in the pane and you can simply click in the box to type a new value.

You can drag images from the Viewer into any album you choose. For example, you can copy an image to another album by dragging it from the Viewer to the desired album in the Source list.

To remove a photo that has fallen out of favor, follow these steps:

1. In the Source list, select the desired album.

2. In the Viewer, select the photo (click it) that you want to remove.

3. Press Delete.

When you remove a photo from an album, you don’t remove the photo from your collection (which is represented by the Photos entry under the Library heading in the Source list). After all, an album is just a group of links to the images in your collection. To completely remove the offending photo from iPhoto, click the Photos entry under the Library heading to display your entire collection of images and delete the picture there. (Naturally, this also removes the photo from any albums and projects that might have contained it as well.)

To remove an entire album from the Source list, just click it in the Source list to select it — in the Viewer, you can see the images that it contains — and then press Delete. (Alternatively, right-click or Control-click the offending album and then choose Delete Album from the contextual menu.)

To rename an album, click the entry under the Albums heading in the Source list to select it and then click again to display a text box. Type the new album name and press Return.

Change your mind? Daughter’s ex is back in the picture, so to speak? iPhoto comes complete with a handy-dandy Undo feature. Just press +Z, and it’s as though your last action never happened. (A great trick for those moments when you realize you just deleted your only image of your first car from your Library.)

Arranging stuff by Events

As I mention earlier, Events are essentially a group of images that you shot or downloaded at the same time — iPhoto figures that those images belong together (which is usually a pretty safe assumption). Figure 3-3 illustrates some Events I created in my iPhoto collection.

An Event can be renamed, just as an album can — you just use a different procedure. Click the Events entry under the Library heading in the Source list to display your Events in the Viewer; click the existing Event name in the caption underneath the thumbnail. A text box appears in which you can type a new name; click Return to update the Event.

Although a photo can appear in multiple albums, it can appear in only one Event.

Try moving your mouse cursor over an Event thumbnail in the Viewer, and you’ll see that iPhoto displays the date range when the images were taken, as well as the total number of images in the Event. Ah, but things get really cool when you move your mouse cursor back and forth over an Event with many images. The thumbnail animates and displays all the images in the Event! (Why can’t I think of this stuff? This is the future, dear readers.)

To display the contents of an Event in the Viewer, just double-click the Event thumbnail. To return to the Events thumbnails, click the All Events button at the top of the Viewer.

Decided to merge those Prom Event pictures with your daughter’s Graduation Event? No problem! You could drag one Event thumbnail on top of another, but that’s the easy way. Alternatively, click the Events entry under the Library heading in the Source list to display your Events and then hold down while you click the Events that you want to merge. Heck, if the events you want to merge are selected, right-click one of them and choose Merge Events from the menu that appears; then click Merge in the confirmation dialog.

Whilst organizing, you can create a brand-new empty Event by choosing Events⇒Create Event. Feel free to drag photos from albums, other Events, or your Photo library into your new Event.

Working with Faces and Places

iPhoto includes two organizational tools: Faces and Places. These two categories appear in the Library section of the Source list.

Putting names to Faces

First, tackle Faces. (Well, don’t literally tackle anyone’s face, dear reader.) Faces is a sophisticated recognition system that automatically recognizes human faces within the photos that you add to your Library. (I don’t know whether it works well with pets — but you can try, anyway.) Naturally, you have to identify faces first before iPhoto can recognize them, which it does through a process called tagging.

To tag a face, follow these steps:

1. In the Source list, click the Photos item to display your image library.

2. In the Viewer, click the photo with a person you want to tag.

The photo is selected, as indicated by the yellow border.

3. Click the Info button in the iPhoto toolbar at the bottom of the window.

iPhoto displays the Info pane you see in Figure 3-4.

4. Click the Add a Face link in the Faces section of the Info pane.

Note that iPhoto has indicated each person’s face in the photo with a label. If a face has already been tagged, the label will match the person’s face.

5. If the face is unrecognized (labeled as Click to Name), click the label to open a text box and type the person’s name.

If iPhoto recognizes the face correctly and the name matches the person, click the check mark to confirm the tag. If the face is incorrectly identified, click the X at the right of the text box, and then you can enter a new name.

If the name appears on a Contacts contact card — or is recognized as one of your Facebook friends — you can click the matching entry that appears to confirm the identity. Wowzers!

To delete a Face recognition box that isn’t necessary, hover your mouse cursor over the box and click the X button that appears at the top left corner of the box.

If iPhoto doesn’t recognize the face at all in the photo (which can happen if the person’s face is turned at an angle to the camera, or is in a darker area of the photo), click the box border and drag the box over the person’s face. If necessary, you can resize the box using the four handles at the corner of the box. Now you can click the label and type the person’s name.

6. Click the Info button to hide the Info pane after you’ve identified all the faces in the photo.

After you tag an image, it appears in your Faces collection, which you can view by clicking the Faces entry in the Source list. You can double-click a portrait in your Faces collection to see all the images that contain that person.

Notice the Confirm Additional Faces button that appears next to the person’s name? Click it, and iPhoto displays other photos that may contain this person’s face, allowing you to tag them there as well. If a face is a match, click on the thumbnail to confirm it.

As you might expect, the more tags you add for a specific person, the better iPhoto gets at recognizing that person!

Putting photos in their Places

Places makes it easy to track the location where photos were taken, but it requires a digital camera that includes GPS tracking information in the image metadata for iPhoto to do so without your help. (This is a relatively new feature for digital cameras, so older models aren’t likely to support GPS tracking.) Places also requires an Internet connection because it uses Google Maps.

Click the Places entry in the Source list to display a global map, with pushpins indicating where your photos were taken. You can switch the Places map between terrain and satellite modes, or choose a hybrid display. If you’re familiar with Google Maps, these settings are old friends of yours.

If you click a specific photo (that includes location information) to select it and click the Info button, you’ll see a close-up map of the location where it was taken.

Alternatively, click the text Location buttons at the top of the map to display a character-based browser, where you can click country, state, city, and place names.

No matter which view mode you choose, clicking a pushpin or location displays the images taken in that area.

Organizing with keywords

“Okay, Mark, albums, Events, Faces, and Places are great ideas, but there has to be a way to search my collection by category!” Never fear, good Mac owner. You can also assign descriptive keywords to images to help you organize your collection and locate certain pictures fast. iPhoto comes with a number of standard keywords, and you can create your own as well.

To illustrate, suppose you’d like to identify your images according to special events in your family. Birthday photos should have their own keyword, and anniversaries deserve another. By assigning keywords, you can search for Elsie’s sixth birthday or your silver wedding anniversary (no matter what Event or album they’re in), and all related photos with those keywords appear like magic! (Well, almost like magic. You need to choose View⇒Keywords, which toggles the Keyword display on and off in the Viewer.)

iPhoto includes a number of keywords that are already available:

Favorite

Family

Kids

Vacation

Birthday

RAW

Photo Booth

Movie

Checkmark

What’s the Checkmark all about, you ask? It’s a special case: Adding this keyword displays a tiny check mark icon in the bottom-right corner of the image. The checkmark keyword comes in handy for temporarily identifying specific images because you can search for just your checkmarked photos.

To assign keywords to images (or remove keywords that have already been assigned), select one or more photos in the Viewer. Choose Window⇒Manage My Keywords or press +K to display the Keywords window, as shown in Figure 3-5.

Click the keyword buttons that you want to attach to the selected images to mark them. Or click the highlighted keyword buttons that you want to remove from the selected images to disable them.

Drag the keyword buttons that you use the most to the Quick Group section of the Keywords window, and iPhoto automatically creates a keyboard shortcut for each keyword in the Quick Group. Now you don’t even need to display the Keywords window to get business done!

Digging through your library with keywords

Behold the power of keywords! To sift through your entire collection of images by using keywords, click the Search button in the toolbar, and then click the magnifying glass button next to the Search box and choose Keyword from the pop-up menu. iPhoto displays a pop-up Keywords panel, and you can click one or more keyword buttons to display just the photos that carry those keywords.

The images that remain in the Viewer after a search must have all the keywords that you specified. If an image is identified, for example, by only three of four keywords you chose, it isn’t a match and it doesn’t appear in the Viewer. (You can create a smart album with specific keywords to get around this limitation — use any instead of all as the argument.)

To search for a photo by words in its description, just click in the Search box and start typing. You can also click that same magnifying glass by the Search box to search through your images by date and rating as well.

Speaking of ratings. . . .

Playing favorites by assigning ratings

Be your own critic! iPhoto allows you to assign any photo a rating of anywhere from zero to five stars. I use this system to help me keep track of the images that I feel are the best in my library. Select one image (or more) and then assign a rating using one of the following methods:

Choose Photos⇒My Rating and then choose the desired rating from the pop-up submenu.

Hover your cursor over the photo and click the More button that appears in the lower-right corner of the thumbnail, and then click on the desired star rating in the menu that appears.

Use the +0 through +5 shortcuts.

Sorting your images just so

The View menu provides an easy way to arrange your images in the Viewer by a number of different criteria. Choose View⇒Sort Photos and then click the desired sort criteria from the pop-up submenu. You can arrange the display by date, keyword, title, or rating. If you select an album in the Source list, you can also choose to arrange photos manually, which means that you can drag and drop thumbnails in the Viewer to place them in the precise order you want them.

Edit mode: Removing and fixing stuff the right way

Not every digital image is perfect — just look at my collection if you need proof. For those shots that need a pixel massage, iPhoto includes a number of editing tools that you can use to correct common problems.

The first step in any editing job is to select the image you want to fix in the Viewer. Then click the Edit button on the iPhoto toolbar to display the Edit mode controls at the right side of the window, as shown in Figure 3-6. Now you’re ready to fix problems, using the tools that I discuss in the rest of this section. (If you’re editing a photo that’s part of an Event, an album, Faces, or Places, note the spiffy scrolling photo strip at the bottom, which allows you to switch to another image to edit from the same grouping.)

If you’d prefer to edit images with more of your screen real estate, click the Full Screen button at the upper-right corner of the iPhoto window (refer to Figure 3-1). To switch back to the standard window arrangement, press Esc.

Need more features than iPhoto provides when editing a prized photograph? iPhoto even allows you to specify another image editing application like Photoshop Elements (in addition to the built-in editing controls that I cover in this section). First, choose iPhoto⇒Preferences⇒ Advanced. From the Edit Photos pop-up menu, opt for Choose App. Navigate to the image editor you want to use, select it, and click Open. Close the Preferences dialog, and iPhoto will automatically open the application you selected when you click the Edit button. If you decide to return to iPhoto’s built-in editing controls, just open the Advanced pane again, open the Edit Photos pop-up menu again, and choose In iPhoto.

When you’re done with Edit mode, click the Edit button again to return to the Viewer.

When you first enter Editing mode, the Quick Fixes tab is selected, providing you with the tools I’ve already covered. (These are the changes you’ll make most often, so having Quick Fixes as the default selection makes sense.) However, you can also choose to apply an effect from the Effects tab, or make specific changes to the appearance of an image from the Adjust tab.

Rotating tipped-over shots

If an image is in the wrong orientation and needs to be turned to display correctly, click the Rotate button to turn it once in a counterclockwise direction. Hold down the Option key while you click the Rotate button to rotate in a clockwise direction.

Find yourself using that Option key often when rotating? Consider reversing the default direction. Choose iPhoto⇒Preferences, click the General tab, and then select the Rotate radio button to change the default direction.

While you’re editing, you can use the Next and Previous buttons at the left of the tab button to move to the next image in the current group (or back to the previous image).

Crop ’til you drop

Does that photo have an intruder hovering around the edges of the subject? You can remove some of the border by cropping an image, just as folks once did with film prints and a pair of scissors. (We’ve come a long way.) With iPhoto, you can remove unwanted portions from the edges of an image; it’s a great way to get Uncle Milton’s stray head (complete with toupee) out of an otherwise perfect holiday snapshot.

Follow these steps to crop an image:

1. Click the Crop button on the Edit toolbar.

2. Select the portion of the image that you want to keep.

In the Viewer, click and drag the handles on the rectangle to outline the part of the image that you want. Remember, whatever’s outside this rectangle disappears after the crop is completed.

When you drag a corner or edge of the outline, a semi-opaque grid (familiar to amateur and professional photographers as the nine rectangles from the Rule of Thirds) appears to help you visualize what you’re claiming. (Check it out in Figure 3-7.)

You can expand the outline to the full dimensions of the image at any time — just click the Reset button.

3. (Optional) Choose a preset aspect ratio.

If you want to force your cropped selection to a specific aspect ratio — such as 4 x 3 or 16 x 9 for an iMovie project — select the Constrain check box and select that ratio from the Constrain pop-up menu.

4. Click the Done button.

Oh, and don’t forget that you can use iPhoto’s Undo feature if you mess up and need to try again. Just press +Z.

iPhoto features multiple Undo levels, so you can press +Z several times to travel back through your last several changes. Alternatively, you can always return the image to its original form (before you did any editing at all) by clicking the Revert to Original button.

Straightening what’s crooked

If your camera slightly tilted when you took the perfect shot, never fear! Click the Straighten button and then drag the Angle slider to tilt the image in the desired direction — iPhoto also slightly crops the image to return it to a rectangular shape. Click the Done button to return to Edit mode.

Enhancing images to add pizzazz

If a photo looks washed out, click the Enhance button to increase (or decrease) the color saturation and improve the contrast. Enhance is automatic, so you don’t have to set anything — but be prepared to use Undo if you’re not satisfied with the changes.

Removing rampant red-eye

Unfortunately, today’s digital cameras can still produce the same “zombies with red eyeballs” as traditional film cameras. Red-eye is caused by a camera’s flash reflecting off the retinas of a subject’s eyes, and it can occur with both humans and animals. (I’m told that pets get blue-eye or green-eye, actually, but iPhoto can handle that, too!)

iPhoto can remove that red- and green-eye and turn frightening zombies back into your family and friends! Click the Red-Eye button and then select a demonized eyeball by clicking in the center of it. (If the Red-Eye circular cursor is too small or too large, drag the Size slider to adjust the dimensions.) To complete the process, click the Done button.

Retouching like the stars

The iPhoto Retouch feature is perfect for removing minor flecks or lines in an image (especially those you’ve scanned from prints). When Retouch is active, the mouse cursor turns into a circle; and like when using the Red-Eye tool, drag the Size slider to change the size of the Retouch cursor. Just drag the cursor across the imperfection and then click Done when you’re finished touching up. Don’t forget to take a moment and marvel at your editing skill!

Switching to black-and-white or sepia

Some shots look better in black-and-white (grayscale) or old-fashioned sepia tone (shades of copper and brown). It’s fun to try. Just click the Effects tab, which offers nine different effects you can apply to the photo, including black-and-white and sepia. You can also make “one-click” changes to your photo from the Effects tab, including lightening and darkening an image or enhancing the contrast.

Adjusting photo properties manually

Click the Adjust tab to perform manual adjustments to brightness and contrast (the light levels in your image), as well as attributes like sharpness, shadow, and highlight levels. To adjust a value, make sure that nothing’s selected in the image and then drag the corresponding slider until the image looks the way you want. Click the Close button to return to Edit mode.

Producing Your Own Coffee-Table Masterpiece

Book mode unleashes what I think is probably the coolest feature of iPhoto: the chance to design and print a high-quality bound photo book! After you complete an album — all the images have been edited just the way you want, and the album contains all the photos you want to include in your book — iPhoto can send your images as data over the Internet to a company that prints and binds your finished book for you. (No, they don’t publish For Dummies titles, but then again, I don’t get high-resolution color plates in most of my books, either.)

At the time of this writing, you can order many different sizes and bindings. The largest size is a 13" x 10" hardcover book with 20 double-sided pages for about $50 (extra pages cost $1.50 each). Smaller sizes include an 8.5" x 11" softcover book with 20 double-sided pages for about $20 and a hardcover 8.5" x 11" album with 20 double-sided pages for about $30 (shipping included for both). Extra pages can be added at $0.70 and $1.00 a pop, respectively.

You can also use iPhoto to produce and automatically order calendars and cards, using a process similar to the one I describe in this section for producing a book. Who needs that stationery store in the mall anymore? (You can even order old-fashioned prints from the Share toolbar menu.)

If you’re going to create a photo book, make sure that the images have the highest quality and highest resolution. The higher the resolution, the better the photos look in the finished book. I personally always try to use images of more than 1,200 pixels in the shortest dimension.

To create a photo book, follow these steps:

1. Click the desired album in the Source list to select it.

Make sure that no individual photos are selected in the Viewer. This way, iPhoto uses all the images in the chosen album.

2. Click the Create toolbar button and then choose Book from the pop-up menu.

3. Select the type of book using the Binding buttons (Hardcover, Softcover, or Wire-bound) at the top of the window and the Size buttons (Small, Medium, Large, and Extra-Large, depending on the binding) at the left side of the window.

Your choices determine the number of pages and the size of the book. iPhoto displays the approximate cost of your book as you browse the options.

4. Choose a theme.

Use the left- and right-arrow keys to cycle through the theme selections. The theme you choose determines both the layout scheme and the background graphics for each page. To change the color scheme for a theme, click one of the color swatches at the right side of the window.

5. Click Create.

iPhoto adds your new book project under the Projects heading in the Source list, and you see the controls shown in Figure 3-8.

In Book mode, the Viewer displays a collection of thumbnail images, each of which represents a portion of your book — the front cover, internal pages, or the back cover. To display the photos you selected, click the Photos button in the toolbar. You can drag any image thumbnail into one of the photo placeholders to add it to the page.

Switch to another theme at any time by clicking the Change Theme button at the top of the window.

6. Rearrange the page order to suit you by dragging the thumbnail of any page from one location to another.

If you prefer a book without page numbers, right-click any page and choose Show Page Numbers to toggle it off. The check mark next to the menu item disappears.

7. Need to change the look of a single page? Click either cover or a page to select it, and then click the Design button in the toolbar to change the color and design layout for that element.

Clicking a design thumbnail automatically updates the page display.

8. Double-click a page to edit captions and short descriptions.

Click any one of the text boxes in the page display and begin typing to add text to that page. Some themes don’t have captions or description text boxes, but you can add them by displaying the Design pane, clicking the desired photo placeholder, and then clicking one of the Border thumbnails that includes a text box.

After you’re done editing, click the All Pages button at the top of the window to return to your full spread.

9. To add pages to your book, click the Add Page button in the toolbar.

As I mention earlier, the price for additional pages varies according to the size and type of binding you choose.

10. To view the book at any time, right-click any page and choose Preview Book.

After a short wait, Mountain Lion’s Preview application opens, and you can then scroll through the contents of your book (or even print a quick copy). To close the Preview window, choose Preview⇒Quit Preview.

Why limit yourself to just paper copies of your publishing success? You can also right-click any page and choose Save Book as PDF to create a snazzy electronic version of your book.

11. When you’re ready to publish your book, click the Buy Book button.

12. In a series of dialogs that appears, iPhoto guides you through the final steps to order a bound book.

You’ll be asked for credit card information, so have that plastic ready.

Putting Photo Stream to Work

iPhoto includes a feature called Photo Stream that automatically shares the photos you take between your Mac, your PC, and any Apple device running iOS 5.0 or later (which includes iPhone 4/4S, second- or third-generation iPads, and iPod touch). Click Share and choose Photo Stream, and iPhoto automatically sends the selected images to all compatible devices over your Wi-Fi connection. (Note that all devices using Photo Stream must be configured iCloud accounts.)

To turn on Photo Stream, choose iPhoto⇒Preferences and click the Photo Stream toolbar button. Select the Enable Photo Stream check box.

Optionally, you can also specify whether iPhoto should automatically import Photo Stream photos to you library, and also whether iPhoto should automatically upload the most recent 1,000 photos to Photo Stream for sharing with your other devices.