Getting Started With iPhoto

One of the areas I see a lot of people have difficulty with when using a Mac is trying to use it like Windows. The first thing that is important to remember is that the Windows OS and Mac OS have a lot of differences. Take pictures for example. Every Mac comes preloaded with a very nice tool to store, manage and even manipulate your photos. iPhoto can store all of you photos for you and makes them readily available to you whenever you need them.
When you first import photos into iPhoto it will separate them into events by the dates the pictures were taken. If you have an event that is spread out over more than one day it is easy to combine the events so that the photos can stay together and been seen in one large group. Simply click on the event you want to move and drag it over the top of the event you want to merge it with. When you do this a little plus sign will pop up informing you that the two events will be added together. Once you do this a message will pop up informing you that the two events are going to be merged together if you select ok you now have your photos in one event. One thing that can be very useful is to give each event a name so that you always remember where you were when the pictures were taken. Over time it can become increasingly difficult to remember where everything was taken and sometimes a date is just not enough. If you hover your mouse over the date it will bring up the name of the event. If you have not put an even name in you will notice that they all say untitled event. Just click on untitled event and give the event a unique name that will help you remember where all of your wonderful pictures were taken. These are just some simple ways to start organizing your photos.
Once you have them put into events and have given the events names you can start doing things like setting up Faces or Places. Faces uses facial recognition software to help you organize photos of individuals into their own groups. If you double click on a photo to bring it up to a larger view you will notice a little icon that says names in the bottom left area of iPhoto. Clicking this will bring up little name areas and boxes around faces. All you have to do is start tagging people in your photos. the more you tag the more the software built into iPhoto can find the faces for you and start putting them into the same group. The nice thing about the software is that it will always ask you if it is the right person. Sometimes it does make mistakes and you will have to tell it that is not the right name but the more you put in the better it will get. If you are into social networking and use Facebook this feature is a lot like tagging people in your Facebook albums. It is a nicer way to help keep things organized and helps you remember the names of people you might not see often enough. Once you have started using faces you can click on the Faces Icon under Library in the Left hand navigation area. This will bring up a page that shows all of the people who have marked or tagged in your photos. If you run your mouse along the photo above a persons name you will see it scroll through the photos of that person. A quick double click on the photos opens up the library and shows you all the photos of the person you clicked on. The more people you make the easier it will be to find pictures of them when you need them.
The other feature I really like in iPhoto is the ability to add a flag to the picture to show where it was taken. iPhoto calls this feature places. When looking at a folder you will notice a little "i" pop up on the picture if you hover the mouse on it. Clicking on this opens up the information page. Through here you can add a brief description of the photo and also find the location of where the photo was taken on a map. Simply type in the City and State of where the photo was taken and drop a pin. Once you tag your photos you will be able to click on the Places icon in the Library section of the left hand navigation bar and see a map of all the places where your photos have been take. This is a nice little feature to help you remember where you were and maybe even jog your memory about the trip there.
Using iPhoto can really help you keep your pictures organized an help you find the exact picture you are looking for when you need it. Through the editing tools you can even do things like fix red eye, rotate or crop you pictures. It is a very nice tool to use and will take away the headache of trying to organize and store all of your pictures because it does all of the hard work for you. If you are someone who likes to share their photos online it even offers easy uploading to sites like flickr or facebook. As you explore iPhoto you will see that it is quite a powerful tool that is included with your Mac. It even has simple ways to make photo books, photo calendars or custom cards to give to your friends and family. If you have any questions beyond what we covered today let me know and I will be happy to go into greater detail. Check back soon for advice on how to keep your Mac running in top condition and a free tool that you can download to help you with this.