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While I was totally occupied with Webstock over the last couple of weeks Mac stuff happened. I still haven’t caught up with it all. Phil Roy though, of NZMac.com has created a tutorial showing the process for ordering a photo book, using iPhoto.

Non-Kiwi readers will wonder what the fuss is, but the fact is it’s taken, what? 4 years for this aspect of iPhoto to reach us.

Over the weekend I completed the preparation of a book within iPhoto ‘08 to have printed using the newly announced iPhoto printing service. As this was a first for me, I thought I would provide users with an idea of the process in images. As with the development of the books themselves, the process is incredibly easy. The only thing you need to be aware of is the size of the data that is sent through to Apple and the time that this process might take.

I ordered a 56 page (double sided) hard-cover photo book. I can’t include any images of the book here sorry due to privacy issues (sorry, but I feel I would be obliged to seek permission from everyone in any photo), but here’s how the whole thing works …

[Via : Ordering a book from iPhoto (in pictures).]

I’ve long wanted to create a calendar from some of my photos. Eventually I aim to try this out from within iPhoto.

Have you tried the iPhoto printing feature from New Zealand? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Many new Macs include an iSight camera and the Photo Booth software to use it for still shots. In this Newbies Guide Miraz Jordan shows you how to have some fun in the virtual photo booth. [First published June 2006. Update, February 2008: under Leopard Photo Booth has added some exciting new features. Watch out for an updated article coming soon.]

There’s a strange green light shining at the top of your computer screen: smile … you’re on camera!

If your new Mac has a small black square at the top of the monitor then it includes a built-in iSight camera. You can use this or an external video camera while video chatting or you can use Apple’s own Photo Booth software to take some stills shots, email them to friends, add them to a web page, use them as your iChat buddy icon or your user picture for the login screen. You can even use it like a regular camera for taking shots of scenery and so on — a bit easier with a MacBook Pro than a desktop model Mac!

It’s easy and a whole lot of fun.

Get in the booth

Look in your Applications folder for Photo Booth.app and open it. A green light next to the iSight camera comes on to show you the camera’s active. You’ll also probably suddenly see yourself on screen. If you’re using an external camera make sure it’s plugged in and switched on.

Screenshot 1: Author Miraz Jordan and her dog Sasha having fun with Photo Booth.

Once you’ve stopped making silly faces, or find a silly face you’re particularly proud of, commit it to posterity by clicking the red Shutter button below the image. A countdown appears below the image and after three seconds the screen flashes to add some light while the camera takes the photo.

Screenshot 2: A countdown appears.

Where’s my photo?

You’ll find the photo in the Photo Booth folder in your Pictures folder. Select a photo and choose File > Reveal in Finder to locate it easily.

Photo Booth numbers photos in sequence: Photo 1.jpg, Photo 2.jpg and so on. But don’t make things too hard for yourself — you probably don’t need to find the actual photo in the Finder as there are several things you can do from within the Photo Booth itself.

The photos from my MacBook Pro were 640 pixels by 480 pixels and were approximately 45 to 75 Kilobytes in size. That’s a fantastic size for emailing or adding to a web page.

Flip your photos

Photos you take are displayed on the shelf at the bottom of the window. use the scroll arrows at each end if there are too many photos to see them all at once. Select one to see it at full size in the display area.

Screenshot 3: Flip photos — one at a time or automatically.

After you’ve taken a few shots you’ll probably notice that all the photos are back to front. Select a thumbnail and choose Flip Photos from the Edit menu. You may wish to set Photo Booth to Auto Flip New Photos to save you the bother in future. This isn’t retrospective though — you’ll have to flip any existing photos yourself.

Share your photos

With a photo selected click a button on the Toolbar to email it using Apple’s Mail.app, send it to iPhoto, set it as your Account picture or as your iChat Buddy picture.

Screenshot 4: Select a photo and choose an action from the Toolbar.

Delete your photo

Click the small x in the bottom left of a photo thumbnail to delete the photo. If that was a mistake choose Undo Delete Photo from the Edit menu. If you choose Delete All Photos … from the Edit menu you won’t be able to Undo that action, so be careful with it.

A warped view

Had enough fun yet? Click the red Shutter button below the image and you’ll see a couple of Effects buttons. Click button 1 and you’ll see filters you can apply as you take a shot: Sepia, Black and White, Glow, Comic Book, Colored Pencil, Thermal Camera, X-Ray and Pop Art are all available here, along with the Normal button dead centre. Effects button number 2 gives you Bulge, Dent, Twirl, Squeeze, Mirror, Light Tunnel, Fish Eye and Stretch, along with the Normal button dead centre.

Screenshot 5: Miraz got a bit Dented in the Booth.

Broader horizons

I don’t know how you might go with a bigger Mac, but my MacBook Pro’s very portable. When I spotted a great sunrise I just turned it around and took a photo right out of the window. It’s nowhere near the quality of my fancy Canon Digital Rebel, but if I’d had to go find the real camera, get it lined up and compose the shot properly, the moment (and the cat in the lower window pane) would have been long gone. This one’s a bit crooked, a bit off-centre, totally spontaneous and very real. And actually, the built-in camera did quite a nice job of capturing the rosy sky.

Screenshot 6: iSight sunrise.

There’s something about a photo booth that seems to bring out spontaneity and high jinks. Apple’s Photo Booth software is well-named and simple to use. It’s not burdened down with hundreds of controls and settings, or acres of esoteric commands to learn. It’s a point and shoot type of software. If you don’t have it on your own Mac stroll on in to your local Mac supplier and play with the machines on display.

Update February 2008: I’ve been using Photo Booth for almost 2 years now and I love it. It’s spontaneous and fun. It’s not intended to be deeply serious and professional and meaningful. Spontaneous shots with all their flaws often have a high emotional content that’s lacking with carefully lit and posed shots that are then later edited and cleaned up. Really: if you haven’t tried out Photo Booth just give it a whirl.

First published in Macguide magazine Issue #27 May / June 2006 and republished with permission. This article may have been modified from the original.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Miraz Jordan (miraz@mactips.info) reveals some of Preview.app’s secret powers. This article was written using Tiger’s Preview.app. Leopard has added even more features. Plus, of course, Leopard’s Quick Look can replace some of these functions.

Preview is a deceptive piece of Apple software. It looks as though it’s just for reading PDF files, but it has some secret powers.

View images

Did your cousin send you a dozen digital photos in that last email attachment? Of course you could load them all into iPhoto, but you could also view them with Preview.

Select all the photos in the Finder and choose File > Open With > Preview.app.

Preview opens and displays each photo on its own page within one document.

See a slideshow

Now in Preview choose View > Slideshow. Your screen goes black and after a moment the first photo is displayed. The next should appear after a few seconds, but you can also move forward and back with the right and left arrow keys.

The slideshow controller is also visible at the bottom of the screen. Controls include: Previous Page, Pause / Play, Next Page, Index Page (shows thumbnails of all photos), Fit to Page / Actual Size, Add to iPhoto, and Exit.

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Screenshot 01: Preview is displaying half a dozen photos as one document. Screenshot 02: The slideshow controller is visible.

Try out the Add to iPhoto button purely for the extra cool animation that shows the photo being ’sucked in’ to iPhoto.

Convert files

Open an image, choose File > Save As… and then choose a new format from the Format pop-up. With some formats, such as PDF, further options may become available.

For example, you can make a PDF sepia toned, or reduce the filesize, or perhaps encrypt it. My 2.5Mb test photo turned into a 25Kb PDF, when I chose the Reduce File Size option, though the picture quality was also degraded.

Note: this article was written using Preview version 3.0.9 (409) on Mac OS X 10.4.9. Older versions of Preview may not include all these features.

Add bookmarks

Open a PDF and find a page you often need. Now choose Bookmarks > Add Bookmark. Edit the name of the Bookmark to make it more useful and click the Add button.

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Screenshot 03: I encrypted this PDF; a password is required to open it. Screenshot 04: A bookmark allows you to open that page in that PDF even if the PDF isn’t open.

You might think a Bookmark allows you to find that page again easily, and it does, even if the PDF isn’t open. So long as Preview’s open, go to the Bookmarks menu and choose the bookmark. The PDF opens right at the relevant page.

Keywords and searches

Adding keywords to a PDF lets you use a Spotlight search to find the file.

I opened a photo of one of our new puppies in Preview and saved it as a PDF. Then I chose Tools > Get Info and clicked on the Keywords tab. After clicking the Add button I typed in a keyword.

I added ‘Oshi’, ‘puppy’ and ‘dog’ as keywords. Now the results of Spotlight searches on any of those keywords will include this PDF.

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Screenshot 05: I’ve added two keywords and am about to add a third. Screenshot 06: My PDF shows up after a search because of the keywords I added, even though the filename is an unhelpful IMG_9364.pdf.

Remember to save your changed PDF if you add keywords.

Preview’s automator actions

Preview’s powers don’t stop there — make sure you have a good look through the menus and Preferences for further options for viewing PDFs and image correction — but extend to manipulating photos from within Automator.

Open Automator (in the Applications folder). Next select Preview in the Library column, and look at what’s available in the Actions column. You’ll see options for scaling and cropping images, as well as creating thumbnails and more.

Preview.app is much more than a PDF reader.

This article was first published in Macguide magazine Issue #33 May / June 2007 and may have been modified from the original.

Popularity: 21% [?]