It looks like its becoming a yearly update, last year at Macworld 2004 iLife ‘04 was received well as the latest update to the iLife suite, this year we got iLife ‘05, a modest update to the suite of five applications that are practically unmatched on the other side. Last year saw the introduction of Garageband, this year four of the apps (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and Garageband) saw new releases. iMovie turned into iMovie HD, Garageband turned 2, iPhoto and iDVD went 5, but iTunes is still stuck at 4 (4.7.1 to be exact). Apart from iTunes which is a permanent fixture in any dock nowadays, and with the advent of digital cameras, iPhoto is the most commonly used. iMovie would probably be a contender if video cameras were in wider use, but they’re not, so we’ll look at the new features in iPhoto, some which are likely to be controversial in the developer arena, and some which are simply awesome (if you live in Apple’s Worldwide - Europe, Japan, Canada and the U.S.).
iPhoto began as a simple way to take your photos off your digital camera and store them in a database organised by dates. Soon enough people were looking for more features and soon enough Apple added minor image tweaking functions. Simple things like integration with Mail and iTunes were included also. This year’s version offers a lot more along the same lines, improved and increased editing functions, newer photo books to order (irrelevant if you live down under), and a slightly changed layout. Don’t however, be fooled into thinking this a small update, these changes bring with them some brilliant features, and will likely having Adobe looking closely at this and the next update.
[img]http://www.appletalk.com.au/articles/iphoto05/Search-by-Date-Menu.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' align='right' style='padding-left: 5px;' />iPhoto’s biggest strength has always been its integration with digital cameras, simply plug it in, iPhoto starts, and then just click import. Simple. I have had three cameras (hp, Sony and canon) which have all worked flawlessly in this way. No need for third party or manufacturer software. This version is no different in that regard. There has however, always been some contention with the way photos are stored, separated into folders by year, month and day, which makes it somewhat difficult to navigate to particular photo with other apps such as Photoshop, however for libraries that number in thousands of photos its still the most effective way to organise. Apple have however, included a small search menu and date menu at the bottom of the side bar. You can now add
keywords and comments to photos and search like you would in iTunes for songs (this makes great use of metadata, which means you’ll probably be able to use spotlight to search through photos in Tiger). You can also group photos into categories such as Birthday and Vacation, and use a search feature similar to what you would use in GarageBand to group loops together. There is also a calendar view, similar to the one in iCal, where you can search for photos according to the date they were taken.
[img]http://www.appletalk.com.au/articles/iphoto05/thumbs/Adjust-menu.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' align='left' style='padding-right: 5px;' />The newest feature added to iPhoto is the adjust menu. A simple menu window with simple image editing sliders. Users can now edit elements such as brightness, contrast, tint and exposure. A great new feature for people who struggle to hold a camera straight is the straighten slider, a grid appears on top of the image and the user can adjust the tilt of the photo and match it up accordingly, iPhoto automatically crops your image so you don’t have weird corners or anything like that going on, quite simply this is a great feature. The adjust menu itself is in a new style which looks similar to the one for viewing full screen movies in Quicktime 7 that Steve demoed at the keynote, its transparent and looks somewhat like a dashboard widget.
[img]http://www.appletalk.com.au/articles/iphoto05/thumbs/Straighten-feature.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' align='right' style='padding-left: 5px;' />When I mentioned that Adobe might look closely at iPhoto, this is the area i was referring to. iPhoto is no way near Photoshop or Photoshop Elements in terms of what it can do, but slowly we are seeing an increase in its editing capabilities. First we saw the retouch and enhance tools and now this new feature may make users think twice about purchasing Photoshop Elements to edit photos that they’ve taken. The layout for viewing and adjusting images has also changed, now there is a window at the top displaying photos as well as a done button next to the left and right buttons, this seems like a far more effective way than having to constantly click organise and edit like in previous versions. The black and white, red-eye reduction and sepia buttons are still the same, as are the constraint and crop buttons.
The iPhoto team have also added support for RAW images, which to some may not matter either way, but to others this is a great addition. I personally don’t use RAW images, but reports on macfixit.com are that it handles RAW images quite well and is fairly fast. ?For anyone that uses their digital camera to take short movies, iPhoto can now import these, so along with your photos directly from your camera. The only downside to this new feature is that movies have to be played in a Quicktime player instead of directly in iPhoto, but it is a nice alternative way to store movies. You can also add movies on your hard drive directly into iPhoto, but I have noticed that it doesn’t support .mp4 files.
[img]http://www.appletalk.com.au/articles/iphoto05/thumbs/Book-View.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' align='left' style='padding-right: 5px;' />During the keynote, the feature which received the biggest response in iPhoto was the new books included, and I have to say they are quite stunning. Books can be made simply by organising photos into an album and clicking the Book button. The great feature about Books is that they can be made manually, or automatically by iPhoto. You can also edit photos while your make a booking, click the new Done button, and you’ll be brought back to the book with everything you’ve just done still there. There are 8 new themes to choose from and 7 themes from previous versions, but overall the book making experience on iPhoto has improved drastically.There are however, some bugs which I encountered during my book making experience which caused iPhoto to crash (this was before and after a complete OS reinstall which I had scheduled to do). I won’t dwell on Books anymore, because at the moment they are only available to Japan, Canada, Europe, U.S. and U.K. even though it was said they’d be available worldwide. It has been said in the forums that someone at Australian Macworld figured out a way to order Books online, if this is the case then its definitely something worth looking into.
Overall however, iPhoto 5 is a great update, the new features are great additions to a simple application for everyday photographers to capture, import, edit and store home photo’s. If your looking for a sophisticated image editor, this isn’t your app and Photoshop would be your way to go, but for simple tasks and an easy way to do things iPhoto is your app.
Edit: There have been some issues associated with upgrading from 4 to 5, particularly with large libraries. For further info and how to avoid this problem read wickeddigital's thread here
