Photographer Shane Murphy has published a helpful step-by-step tutorial on how to best capture ISS flyover shots like the fantastic one he took, above. Snip: First things first, the most important thing to do is to plan well. Forward planning is vital to any night sky shot, along with a steady tripod and a [...]
You can do just about anything to an image with Photoshop, but if you don’t have the cash to shell out, free program the GIMP —available for Windows, Linux, and OS X—can take you pretty far. Here are our favorite Photoshop how-tos that also work in the GIMP. Note : If you’re looking for a more native image editor on OS X, you might want to check out Seashore . It can’t do everything the GIMP can do, but it comes pretty close, and runs much better on Macs. 10. Enhance and Touch Up Photos with Color Correction and More Retouching photos is one of the first basics of Photoshop we covered in our night school, and you have most of those tools available in the GIMP as well. You don't have the advanced histogram that Photoshop does, but you can access the Color Balance, Levels, and Curves tools under the Colors menu in the toolbar. The closest equivalent of Photoshop's “Auto Tone” feature is the White Balance tool under Colors > Auto, and you'll find the Healing Brush and Clone Stamp tool in GIMP’s toolbox , with the familiar stamp and bandage icons near the bottom of the topmost pane. 9. Remove Red Eye Those of us with lighter colored eyes always seem to look like the devil in certain pictures, and while you can remove those red eyes with a program like Picasa, you’ll get much better results if you take the time to do it manually. We’ve talked about how to do it in Photoshop before , and the process is identical in the GIMP—the only thing you need to know is that to change the layer's Blending Mode, just click the “Mode” dropdown at the top of the “Layers, Channels, Paths, Undo” toolbar. 8. Whiten Teeth Whitening teeth is easy in Photoshop , but requires a tad more work in the GIMP. the GIMP doesn’t have a “Sponge” tool like Photoshop, you can emulate it by creating a new layer, making saturation changes to that layer, and then using the eraser to isolate the teeth. You can find more information about this technique at this GIMP user forum thread . The GIMP does have a Dodge tool, however, so you won't have to do anything differently there—it's the last button in the top pane of the toolbox . 7. Remove Blemishes None of us are perfect, and if you want to remove a few blemishes from your photos , it’s just as easy to do in the GIMP as it is in Photoshop. Like we said above, the Clone Stamp and Healing Brush tools are right there in the GIMP, and the Resynthesizer plugin works much like the Content-Aware Fill introduced in Photoshop CS5. With a combination of all three, you can banish that blemish and make it look as if it was never there. 6. Brighten Up a Specific Part of an Image Brightening up just one portion of an image is easy, no matter what editor you're using. We've already discussed the tools necessary—mainly the Levels, Curves, and other color adjustment tools—so doing it in the GIMP is just a matter of learning the technique and knowing where the tools reside in GIMP instead of Photoshop. Check out our video tutorial to see how it’s done. 5. Create Easy Reflections of Any Image you want a cool reflection effect on some text or other image, it’s incredibly easy to do, and actually just uses basic tools. Our video tutorial uses Photoshop, but you can flip an image in the GIMP from the Image > Transform menu, and all your eraser options are in the Toolbox, right where you'd expect them to be. 4. Extract Your Subject and Put Them on a New Background We talked about this in our how-to on altering reality with Photoshop , and it’s fairly easy to do in the GIMP as well. GIMP doesn’t have a separate Polygonal Lasso tool, but you can still select areas in the same way with the regular lasso tool. Instead of clicking and dragging, just single-click different areas to get a polygonal selection. In fact, in the GIMP, you can even mix freehand and polygonal segments in one selection by hitting the “F” key as you select. You don’t really have a Background Eraser either, but you can get similar effects by selecting the Brush tool, setting the mode to Color Erase, and setting the foreground color to the color you want to erase. The Magic Wand tool can also get the job done if your foreground and background are different enough. 3. Fix Distorted Images Sometimes your photos don’t turn out exactly as you wanted, and to fix distortion, you can just use Photoshop’s Liquify tool . GIMP doesn't have a tool by that name, but you can get a very similar effect by heading to Filters > Distorts > Iwarp. You can try out other distorts as well, but Iwarp should take you wherever you need to go. Remember, it can take a little practice to get good at, so don't get discouraged with this one—it's tough. 2. Change a Specific Color While Photoshop has a one-click color replacement tool, the GIMP doesn't—but that's okay, because doing it manually will probably get you better results (besides, it builds character). Like I said above, you can just use the regular Lasso as a Polygonal Lasso, and all the other tools in the video are available in GIMP right from the menus (as discussed above). The only thing that isn't obvious is how to change the blending mode of a layer. In the GIMP, this is right at the top of the Layers, Channels, Paths, Undo toolbar, under the “Mode” dropdown. 1. Create Instagram-Like Effects Unfortunately, emulating old-school Instagram-type effects in the GIMP is not as easy as in Photoshop. If you’re using Photoshop, you can just download a couple of Photoshop actions , but these won't work in newer versions of the GIMP. However, doing them manually usually isn't hard—our friends at the How-To Geek have already shown us how to make the Nashville and Lord Kelvin effects , and a quick Google search should reveal details on any other effect you want. If you’re lucky, you might be able to find GIMP plugins that simulate them, too, like this Lomo plugin or this vintage plugin , though there don’t seem to be as many that perfectly emulate Instagram’s filters. Doing it manually might take a little longer, but it gives you more control and, ultimately, a better image, so it’s worth the work. Photoshop and the GIMP aren’t exactly equals, but with a bit of ingenuity, you can get pretty far with free software, no matter what you’re trying to do. For more Photoshop tricks, check out our #photoshop tag, and when it comes to finding comparable tools and tricks in GIMP, remember that Google is your friend. If you’re trying to do it, chances are someone else has tried before, and found a solution. Got any of your own image editing tricks that work in the GIMP? Share them with us in the comments.
Probably the best tip we can give you for a happy iPhoto life, is to try and take good pictures in the first place. So we’ll kick off with 20 top tips for better photos. And the great news is you don’t need anything fancy. Even an everyday compact camera can take great shots when you know how to get the most from it. And if your photos still aren’t quite right, iPhoto has the tools to fix them. It might not be as advanced as Photoshop, but what it does, it does quickly and simply, and underneath that simple-looking surface is an impressive image-editor. iCloud: everything you need to know Before long, of course, your photo library will be growing to epic proportions, but luckily this is what iPhoto was designed for – managing and displaying thousands of digital photos in a way that lets you find and organise your pictures as easily as possible. Even here, though, there are tips and secrets that can make your life easier. Finally, photos are meant to be shared, not hoarded away on your hard disk. And iPhoto’s slideshows, web albums, prints and books are the perfect way to do it. We finish off, then, with 20 top tips for things to do with your photos. Some you have to pay for, but there’s plenty of great things you can do without having to fork out a penny, too. iPhoto isn’t just a photo browser. It’s central to getting more out of photography with your Mac, from enhancing them to organising them and sharing them with other people. Let’s get to work! Take better photos 1. Brace yourself! Most blur is caused by camera shake. In bad light, the camera uses a slow shutter speed, and unless the speed is displayed on the LCD, you might not realise it. Brace your camera hand against a wall or rest your camera on a steady surface to take the shot. 2. Check the ISO Cameras have an auto ISO setting that increases the sensitivity in low light, but this also reduces the picture quality. You’ll need this if you’re shooting handheld, but if the camera’s braced you won’t. Instead, manually set the ISO to its minimum value. 3. Manual white balance The camera’s auto white balance setting will do a good job in most conditions, but not all. When you’re shooting in artificial light, choose the nearest manual white balance preset (‘tungsten’ or ‘fluorescent’) for better colours. 4. Check the histogram You can’t always rely on the camera’s automatic exposure system to get it right. Many cameras display a histogram, though, so use this with the EV compensation control to make sure the shadows and the highlights in your photo aren’t being clipped. 5. Use the focus lock Even now, you will find cameras that still suffer badly from shutter lag. This is caused by the amount of time it takes for the camera to focus when you press the shutter button. However, the trick is to half-press the shutter button to make the camera focus; you should then wait for exactly the right moment to press it the rest of the way and take the picture. 6. Don’t rely on your zoom Zoom lenses can make you lazy, so don’t just stand in one spot and zoom in and out to frame your picture. Walk up to your subject, past it and around it to see a wider range of viewpoints, angles and perspectives. The direction and the quality of the light will change, and have a big effect on the picture. 7. Experiment with viewpoints If you’re photographing kids or pets, get down to their level. Lying on the ground can lend everyday subjects monumental proportions, and finding high viewpoints and shooting downwards will produce unusual perspectives and compositions. It’s easy to get into the habit of shooting every picture at eye level, missing out on lots of interesting pictures. 8. Use natural frames Doorways, windows, overhanging branches and even buildings can make effective ‘natural frames’, and often you only have to move a few paces to find them. This will focus attention on your subject more effectively, and give a sense of place to your picture. 9. Use a tripod Tripods are a cumbersome nuisance, right? But they do three very important things. First, they let you shoot in light that’s too dim for regular handheld photography. Second, they let you frame set-up shots like still-lifes and macros very precisely. Third, they leave your hands free to adjust props, move people around for group shots and get stuff out of your bag such as filters and memory cards. 10. Check the background We’ve all seen those shots where the subject has a telegraph pole sticking out of their head, but backgrounds can clash in subtler ways than that. Inappropriate signs, leering passers-by, graffiti and overflowing wheelie bins can all spoil your shots; a few moments’ thought and a shift in position may be all you need to fix it. 11. Turn off the flash In full auto mode, the camera will fire its flash automatically in dim lighting. Sometimes it’s useful, but it can kill the natural lighting and atmosphere. In theatres or museums, make sure you switch it off, even if it means bracing the camera or using high ISOs. And leave it off for night scenes or indoor stadiums, too. Flash power drops off with distance – there’s no way it could illuminate objects more than a few metres away anyway. When the flash is enabled, the camera won’t make any attempt to extend the exposure to capture any natural lighting. 12. Choose your moment Timing is everything: getting the right expression, waiting for passers-by to get out of the way, even seizing the moment when the sun breaks through the clouds. So grab a shot straight away by all means, but then wait a few moments if you can, to see if an even better one is going to come along. 13. Fill the frame/move in close Try to fill the frame with your subject by zooming in or moving closer. Many pictures lose impact because the subject isn’t prominent enough and there’s too much clutter or empty space around it. 14. Fill-flash for portraits Portrait shots taken in bright sunlight often look harsh or, if you’re shooting into the light, can be lost in shadow completely. This is where the camera’s built-in flash is useful. If you set it to ‘fill flash’ or ’slow flash’ mode, it will light up your subject’s face but the effect will be balanced against the natural lighting. 15. Rule of Thirds It’s tempting to place your subject right in the centre of the frame, but this can produce some rather static-looking shots. Instead, place it a third in from the edge, or a third of the way in from the top or the bottom of the frame. You don’t have to stick to this ‘Rule of Thirds’ for every shot, but it’s worth keeping in mind. 16. Converging verticals When you shoot tall buildings, the tops tend to converge, which gives the picture an amateurish look. It happens because you’re tilting the camera upwards. The solution is (where possible) to move further back so you don’t have to tilt the camera. Also, try and find an interesting subject in the foreground to fill the bottom part of the frame. 17. Jog-free shutter release How do you avoid jogging the camera when you press the shutter release for long-exposure night shots, or when you’re shooting close-ups with the camera on a tripod? You could invest in an expensive wireless remote, but it’s much simpler just to use the self-timer on your camera. Most have an adjustable delay, too – typically two seconds or 10 seconds. 18. Shoot panoramas Many cameras these days come with wideangle zooms – however this may still not be enough to capture the full width of the scene. Instead, find out if your camera has a panoramic mode. Some shoot panoramas in a single ’sweep’, others shoot single frames for stitching together later. Don’t go mad, though. Two or three overlapping frames can be enough to produce a great extra-wide shot. 19. Check your settings Digital cameras allow you to change the ISO, white balance, picture style and more besides, but it’s all too easy to forget you’ve done it and carry on shooting with the ‘wrong’ settings next time you use the camera. It’s best to get into the habit of resetting the camera to its default settings either when you’ve finished using it or before you start shooting. 20. Don’t use the digital zoom However much the camera makers try to dress it up, ‘digital zoom’ is just cropping and interpolation carried out inside the camera. If you can’t get close enough to your subject, use the maximum optical zoom instead and then crop the picture in Photoshop or Elements – this means you’ll be able to choose the area you crop in on. Tweak your images in iPhoto 21. Use the Enhance button If you’ve got a problem photo, try iPhoto’s Enhance button. The automatic enhancements are effective, optimising the Levels, adding saturation and tweaking the white balance to produce slightly ‘warmer’ colours. You can then open the Adjust panel to see what it’s done, and tweak or remove the adjustments if they’re not working. 22. Edit highlights with RAW files An advantage of shooting RAW files is that you can extract extra highlight detail from your pictures. When you edit a RAW file in iPhoto, you’ll see that a couple of the controls behave slightly differently. With JPEG images, the Highlights slider simply darkens the existing highlights in the picture; with RAW files, it recovers extra, ‘hidden’ highlight detail. 23. White balance and RAW files When you edit JPEG images, the Temperature and Tint sliders are ‘relative’, so you can make the colours look warmer or cooler. But when you edit a RAW file, the Temperature and Tint values are ‘absolute’ – you have access to the full colour data recorded by the sensor and before any white balance has been applied. 24. Third-party RAW conversions iPhoto can open and edit RAW files from many cameras, but while its RAW conversions are good, you might want to use a different program. If you send files to an external editor, the converted file won’t be added back to your iPhoto library, so it’s best to convert photos before you actually import them. 25. Retouching tips iPhoto’s Retouch tool is basic but effective. First, choose a brush size a little larger than the blemish you want to remove. Second, ‘dab’ rather than ‘brush’ – a brushing action tends to smear the pixels. Third, if the repair doesn’t work first time, hit undo, change the brush size or position slightly and try again. 26. Shadows and Highlights These sliders can be extremely handy for any ‘problem’ photos where ordinary Levels adjustments don’t help. They work by separating out the darker and lighter parts of the picture for adjustment. The Highlights slider darkens over-bright areas, and the Shadows slider lightens dense shadows. Don’t push them too far, though, or you’ll start to see a ‘glow’ effect around objects where the adjustment is being blended in. 27. Edit duplicates iPhoto’s adjustments are non-destructive, so that you can revert to the original version of the picture at any time. However, you can’t easily see which pictures have been adjusted and which haven’t, or what the original looks like. But, if you like, you can duplicate the original before you start (Command+D). The duplicate will have ‘Version 2′ added to the title, and the original will still be there alongside it. 28. Prints and aspect ratios When it comes to printing out your photos you’ll often find that the picture’s aspect ratio doesn’t quite match the aspect ratio of the paper you’re printing on. For example, most compact cameras shoot at a ratio of 4:3, but that’s not the same as the 3:2 ratio of 6″ x 4″ prints. To control just how the picture is cropped to match the paper, check the Crop tool’s ‘Constrain’ box and choose the correct aspect ratio from the list that comes up. 29. Levels adjustments The Levels adjustments in iPhoto work slightly differently to most other photo-editing apps. Here, when you move the black point (left) and white point (right) sliders, the middle slider stays exactly where it is (in other programs, you’ll find it will move proportionally). However, it’s really easy to grasp and means the brightness doesn’t change. To adjust the brightness, move the middle slider left (lighter) or right (darker). 30. Straighten before you crop Some pictures need straightening, and some need cropping too. Make sure you straighten before you crop, though, because the straightening process removes thin wedges at the edges of the picture as you rotate it – if you crop first, you’ll lose even more of the picture when you straighten it. 31. WB eyedropper tips You can adjust the white balance in your pictures by using the eyedropper to click on a neutral tone in the picture. This is not always successful, though, because there’s often nothing in your pictures that will provide a truly neutral tone. You may have to click on several different areas to find one that gives good results. 32. Edits apply everywhere! Remember that when you adjust a photo, you’re adjusting its appearance everywhere it appears. Let’s say you want to create an album of antique-effect pictures – if those pictures appear in any other album, they’re going to have that antique effect there, too. The way round this is to duplicate (Command+D) the photos before you start, and then apply the effect to the duplicates. 33. Using an external editor If you’d rather use an image-editor such as Photoshop or Elements for your more ambitious projects, you can set this up in the Advanced tab of the iPhoto preferences. When you click the Edit button, iPhoto creates a duplicate and sends it to your external editor. When you save the file, it’s returned to iPhoto, replacing the duplicate – but you have to stick to the same file format (JPEG). 34. 100% zoom You can use the Zoom slider to check detail in your photos, but the magnifications aren’t marked, which makes it difficult to judge the sharpness. If you want to see the image at 100% magnification, just hit the 1 key. The 0 key will fit the image to the screen again. 35. Black and white toning You can convert a colour photo to black and white in iPhoto by reducing the saturation to zero in the Adjust panel, but you can do the same thing using the B&W Effect, and introduce some nice toning effects too. Add the Boost effect to create a rich sepia tone (much better than the standard Sepia effect) or the Fade effect to create a cool-toned cyanotype. 36. Exposure adjustments Be careful when using the Exposure slider because it brightens all the tones in the image, shifting the whole histogram to the right (you can see it moving as you drag the slider), and this can clip detail in the highlights. To brighten an image without harming the highlights, drag the middle Levels slider to the left. 37. Before and after comparisons There are two ways to compare your edited photo with the original as you work on it. One is to press and hold Shift, which displays the original image until you release it again. The other is to create a duplicate of the original, and then display both in the Edit mode so that you can see the difference as you work. 38. Copy and paste adjustments You might find a set of adjustments and effects you like for one picture and decide you'd like to apply the same to another one. You can do this using the Edit > Copy Adjustments and Edit > Paste Adjustments commands, but you have to be in the Edit mode and you can only paste adjustments to one photo at a time. 39. Full-screen navigation iPhoto 11’s fullscreen mode is great for editing, but the navigation system is different. You use navigation buttons at the top-left to get back to a ‘home’ screen, where buttons let you choose whether to browse Events, Faces, Places or Projects. 40. Don’t underestimate effects iPhoto’s Effects are more than they seem. They’re not like effects in Photoshop, say, which are applied on top of each other. Instead, they work in parallel; you can apply more than one effect, and you can use Effects and the Adjust tools in tandem. Some of them come in different strengths, too, and you keep clicking to increase the effect. You can add or remove Effects at any time without affecting your other adjustments, and if you get in a mess you can click the None button in the Effects panel to remove them all and start again. Organise your images in iPhoto 41. Use Descriptions Keywords are good for categorising photos and descriptive titles can help you identify pictures quickly, but you might want to add more info about the subject or the ways in which the picture has been modified. Do this using the Description field in the Info panel. 42. Keyword shortcuts There’s a quick way to add keywords you use often. First, open the Keywords window (Command+k), then drag the keyword(s) you want from the bottom to the top area – iPhoto will assign a single-letter shortcut. To apply this keyword, select an image thumbnail and type the shortcut letter (the Keywords window must be open for this to work). 43. Keyword searches You can search for keywords just by typing them straight into the Search field, but this is pretty indiscriminate and only lets you search for one keyword at a time. But if you choose Keywords from the Search field’s pop-up menu, it displays a full list, and each extra keyword you click on narrows the search down further still. 44. Adding Places The Places feature is really useful even if you don’t have a GPS-enabled camera. It means you don’t need to use Keywords for place information, and it lets you browse photo locations on the Places map. To speed things up, you can select multiple photos or even entire Events and assign a Place to many photos at once. 45. Set key photos for Events You can ’skim’ through all the pictures in an Event by moving the pointer across the Event’s thumbnail from left to right, and once you’ve found the one that sums up the Event the best, right-click and choose ‘Make Key Photo’. This now becomes the thumbnail image for the Event. 46. Faces or photos If you use your mouse to double-click a face on the corkboard to view that person’s photos, you’ll notice at the top-right is a switch to display Photos or Faces. By default, it just shows faces, cropping off the rest of the picture, but selecting Photos will display the whole picture, and this can be useful when you’re trying to identify people in group shots. 47. Merging Events You can merge Events simply by dragging one Event thumbnail onto another. Or, if you simply want to move photos from one Event to another, select both Events and then double-click either. Both Events are opened and their pictures displayed, and you can now drag photos between these Events. 48. Autosplit Events When you import photos from your camera they'll be stored as a single Event. Manually splitting them would be tiresome and slow, so select the Event and use the Events > Autosplit Selected Events command instead. The photos will be split up automatically, with one Event for each day you took pictures. 49. Sorting photos into Events Photos can exist in various albums at the same time, but they can only ever be in one Event. Use this when organising your photos. For example, you can separate personal and work photos in different Events or, if you take pictures for a living, separate photos by client. 50. Hide poor photos Not every photograph you take will be a masterpiece, yet at the same time you don't necessarily want to throw away pictures with some historical or sentimental value. The solution is to use the Hide Photo command (Command+L). Your substandard photos are now hidden from view unless you use the View > Hidden Photos command. 51. Use ratings and smart albums The bigger your library gets, the harder it is to sort the wheat from the chaff, which is where ratings come in handy. You can sort photos by rating so that the best ones are at the top, and you can create smart albums that display only your best photos. 52. Multiple iPhoto libraries You don’t have to restrict yourself to one iPhoto library. If you hold down Option as you start iPhoto, you’re prompted to choose which library you want to open or where to save a new one. 53. Referencing versus importing By default, iPhoto imports copies of your photos into its own internal library, but this duplication means you’ve now got two lots of pictures taking up twice the disk space. But you can set iPhoto up to behave like professional image-cataloguing programs, which ‘reference’ photos in their existing locations – open the iPhoto preferences, select the Advanced tab and deselect the ‘Copy Items to the iPhoto Library’ box. 54. Show photos in the Finder The iPhoto library is displayed as a single file but you can right-click the library icon in the Finder and choose Show Package Contents to see how the files are organised. 55. Use folders for organising Albums are easy to create and useful for keeping photos together, but you can quickly end up with a lot of them. Organise them into folders (File > New > Folder). These work like the folders in the Finder, and you can also 'nest' folders within folders. 56. Filenames and titles When you import pictures, the filenames are displayed below the thumbnails. However, what you’re seeing is just a photo ‘Title’. iPhoto uses the filename initially, but you can type in any titles you like and they don’t have to be unique. The photos retain their original filenames in the Finder, though. 57. Batch change titles Typing in titles and descriptions for every photo in your collection could become a real bore, but there's a much quicker solution. First, select the photos you want to modify, then use the Photos > Batch Change command. You can set the titles to any text you like, even adding an index number to make them unique. And you can also set the description for all the selected photos, replacing the existing Descriptions or adding (appending) new text to the existing ones. 58. Quickly compare photos Digital photos cost nothing to take, so it’s tempting to shoot half a dozen variants of the same picture to be sure of getting a good one. As good as it is to have this option, it can give you a headache later because you need to work out which to keep and which to delete. But you can compare them directly by selecting them and clicking the Edit button – you can zoom in to check the fine detail, too. 59. Resetting dates and times iPhoto retrieves its date and time information from the EXIF data embedded in each image by the camera. However, if you haven't set the camera's clock correctly, the pictures will be wrongly dated. You can fix this easily by selected the problem photos and using the Photos > Adjust Date and Time command. And if you wish, you also have the option to apply the changes to the master files themselves. 60. Smart albums really are smart! Do you want to see all the photos taken with a particular camera, or at a particular ISO, shutter speed or lens aperture? You can do this by creating a smart album and then choosing shooting settings from the drop-down menu. You can add ‘conditions’, so you could look for all shots taken at ISO 1600 on a Canon EOS 5D, for example. Other ‘conditions’ include album names, faces, dates, keywords, descriptions, edited/unedited files and more. Smart Albums really are an incredibly powerful tool for finding, organising and displaying your photos. Share your photos in iPhoto 61. Email your photos If you don’t want to set up an online album you can always email a photo gallery. iPhoto ‘11 has some terrific email templates that are simple to use, and display in any HTML-compatible email program. It only takes a few moments, and because the email capability is built in, you don’t need to use Apple Mail. 62. iCloud galleries There are many free ways to get your photos online, so why pay for Apple’s MobileMe service? Well, it’s going free with iCloud , and there’s plenty of image features there. 63. Picasa Web Albums iPhoto doesn’t support Picasa Web Albums directly, but you can download a Google plug-in , which adds a Picasa Web Albums tab to iPhoto's File > Export dialog. You can create a web album from an existing iPhoto album or create a new one. 64. Export to iWeb If you have your own web host, you can send photos to iWeb to produce a Photo Page using one of iWeb’s built-in design themes. The latest version of iWeb also supports FTP uploads to any web host, so you can then publish your web album directly. 65. Facebook albums Simply put, iPhoto’s Facebook integration is brilliant. Upload photos as albums via the Share menu, and the Description you add in iPhoto will become the captions displayed in Facebook. iPhoto will even display your friend’s comments. 66. Set slideshows to music iPhoto slideshows look great, but they can sound great too when you add a soundtrack from your iTunes library. However, what you really want is for the slideshow to last for the same time as the track – click the Settings button and check ‘Fit slideshow to music’. 67. Animated Places slideshows iPhoto ‘11 has new animated slideshows, including a Places theme that uses the Places information you add to your photos to present an animated map, with push-pins identifying the places you’ve visited. It comes with its own soundtrack, but you can add one of your own from your iTunes library. 68. QuickTime movies There's an even quicker way to turn your photos into a slideshow. Select the ones you want, then use the File > Export command and select the QuickTime tab. Choose the movie dimensions, select a background colour and you're done. Your photos will be exported as a QuickTime movie, with a subtle fade between each picture. 69. iPhone slideshows Once you've created a slideshow, use the File > Export command and select Slideshow. Choose a size, and check 'Automatically send slideshow to iTunes'. When you sync in iTunes, make sure 'Include videos' is checked in the Photos tab. Press the Videos button on your iPhone to see your slideshows. 70. Take your photos with you Wouldn’t you like to carry round your photo library with you on your iPhone or iPad? it couldn’t be easier – plug it in, then select the Photos tab. You can now choose to synchronise all your photos or selected albums only. Worried about the amount of space that will take up? Don’t be, because your photos will be optimised for the smaller display and won’t take up anywhere near the space they do on your Mac. 71. Print your own books? iPhoto books don’t match standard printer paper sizes, so there’s no easy way to print photo books yourself, unless you pick smaller sizes and trim the sheets manually (though you can still print pages for proofing purposes). But you could produce a PDF version – most printers let you set up custom paper sizes, and you can then use the PDF option in the Print dialog. 72. Custom calendars iPhoto’s Calendars have to be ordered from Apple, and they’re pretty pricey (£14.39 when we checked), but there’s more to them than you might imagine. They’re populated automatically using the photos you choose, but they can also include public holidays for different territories, events in your iCal calendars and birthdays in your Address Book. Once you get one, you’ll never look back. 73. Frame your photos Print photos directly from iPhoto using a variety of preset layouts and templates, including ‘digital mats’, which can look quite convincing when combined with a real-life photo frame. ‘Mats’ are the cardboard inner frames with bevelled edges that professional framers use, but the iPhoto versions look convincing enough to pass casual inspection, especially when framed under glass. 74. Printed contact sheets If you ever need to print off the contents of an album or Event to look at on one sheet, select all the photos, hit Command+p and choose the Contact Sheet print theme. You can change the number of columns to get more pictures on a sheet, change the background colour (white will use less ink!) and even the font used for the titles. 75. Print multiple photos It looks like iPhoto can only print one picture on a sheet, but that’s not the case. If you pick the Simple Border theme and hit the Customize button, you can open the Layout menu and choose 1, 2, 3 or 4 pictures. You also get a choice of how the pictures are arranged on the sheet and whether or not you want a caption. 76. Media browser Use your photos in your iWork documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Pages, Numbers and Keynote have a Media button on the toolbar that displays a panel containing the contents of your iPhoto library, complete with all your Events and albums and a search box. To use a picture, drag it across. 77. Beautiful books Why print photos when you can print books, using the superb book-creation tools in iPhoto ‘11? You can even print full-bleed spreads – perfect for panoramic photos. Keep an eye on the page count though as you will get charged extra for going over. 78. Desktops and screensavers Select a photo as a screensaver in the Share menu then select Set Desktop. Or create your own – go to File > Export to save copies of your photos to a new folder. Then open the Mac's Desktop & Screensaver panel, click the '+' button and add your folder of images. 79. Make your photos a movie The Photo Browser in iMovie lists the contents of iPhoto albums so you can drag photos into your movie projects, either mixing video and stills or making a movie out of stills alone. 80. Saving slideshows There are two ways to create slideshows in iPhoto, with two slightly different outcomes. If you select an album and click the Slideshow button at the bottom, you’ll be able to choose a theme and settings, but they won’t be saved. You can opt to have your settings saved as the defaults for future slideshows, but that's not the same thing. To create a slideshow, use the File > New > Slideshow command. The new slideshow will be added to the Slideshow section at the bottom of the panel, and each slideshow created in this way retains its own unique settings. Related Stories In Depth: Office 2012: What we’re expecting to see Facebook Messenger app to offer video conferencing?
Stereoscopic GIFs alternate between the left and right images of a stereogram, capturing the same image from two different vantage points positioned inches apart. Instead of layering the resulting images on top of one another to create a 3D effect, the artist turns them into animated GIFs, twitching ever so slightly from the minuscule difference in perspective. The resulting effect creates images that have a sense of depth and three dimensional quality to them, without the need for those annoying glasses. WARNING: Staring at the following images for more than a coffee break or two might cause serious damage to your workflow. The next two are from Portland-based art director Matt Moore. You can check out his Tumblr here .
Amateur and professional iPhotographers have a little-known tool in their mobile belt. The iPhone 4 offers “HDR” functionality that can help you get the most out of the phone’s built-in camera. Here we take an in-depth look at the feature and offer advice for when it’s best to use it and — just as importantly — when it’s not. Have a look through these tips and let us know in the comments how you put your photography talents to use. What is HDR? “High Dynamic Range” (HDR) Imaging is the practice of using “exposure bracketing” to create an image with a better representation of light and dark areas than the camera could capture on standard settings. Used correctly it will create an image that’s more akin to what your eye — which more efficiently processes extremes of light — would see, rather than what the camera’s sensor can photograph. Typically this is done by capturing three images — a standard exposure, a shot that is one exposure stop too light and a shot that’s one exposure stop too dark — and then combining all three. HDR on the iPhone In its HDR mode, the iPhone 4 automatically recreates this process by taking three photos at different exposure levels, then layering the shots together to create one image with (theoretically) the best elements of each. You can turn on the HDR functionality of your iPhone when in the camera by tapping the HDR icon at the top of the screen. With HDR set to “on,” your iPhone will capture the original image and an HDR version, both of which you’ll find saved in your Camera Roll. You can change your iPhone’s settings to discard the original image but we find it useful for comparisons. If it’s not obvious to you which is the HDR image, look for the HDR icon at the top of the screen above the photo. DO Use HDR… Here are three scenarios for when hitting up that HDR button would be a good idea. … When There’s Strong Backlight In the non-HDR image above you can see very little detail in the shadow as the camera has not coped well with the bright light coming from the doorway. The HDR pic has much more even lighting overall and shows significantly more detail. This will also be the case if you’re photographing a light object against a dark background. …For Landscapes Here you can see the HDR functionality has handled the contrasts of sunlight and shadow much better than the non-HDR image above. The foreground is severely bleached out in the original image and the areas of shadow much darker. The HDR setting has fixed these issues. You will also find that HDR adds detail to the sky where the standard camera would struggle with the contrast between the sky and the land. … For Portraits in Strong Sunlight Strong sunlight is not great for portraits as it can create harsh shadows and unflattering glare. In this self-portrait you can see that the skin tone has been evened out, the glare on the cheeks improved and the shadow cast by the hat made softer. DON’T Use HDR… There are some situations in which HDR is actually a hindrance rather than a help. Here are three to be aware of. …If There’s a Risk Your Subject Will Move Because the iPhone snaps three pics consecutively, if anything in the frame moves (or if you’re not holding the iPhone steady enough) you’re likely to end up with a blur or ghosting in your image. In our example images you can see that even though the three HDR images are taken milliseconds apart, just a slight breeze moving the buttercups was enough to spoil the shot. …If You Want Strong Contrast HDR takes extremes of light and creates a middle ground. This can be great in many scenarios but not if you want to capture striking contrasts. Here we wanted to capture the vibrant green leaves against the lighter foliage in the background and the brightness of the sky. The non-HDR image (above) has achieved this much better than the HDR snap below, in which the light has been toned down and the background detail filled in for an overall muddier final shot. …If You Want Vivid or Accurate Colors The iPhone’s camera generally deals well with color, giving nicely saturated results. Add in HDR however, and the colors you see in the final image aren’t likely to be true-to-life, or particularly vivid. In these images you can see the non-HDR photo above has bolder colors while the HDR shot below has darkened some tones and dulled the effect. In Summary The iPhone 4′s HDR functionality is a handy tool to have on board. It can be useful in certain situations but the key is to know when — and why — to activate it. We hope this article has helped, but with almost all photography the best way to get familar with the tech is to shoot as much as you can — so grab your iPhone, get out there and get snapping! More About: apple , hdr , how to , iphone , iphone 4 , iphonography , iphotography , Mobile 2.0 , photography , Photos , trending For more Mobile coverage: Follow Mashable Mobile on Twitter Become a Fan on Facebook Subscribe to the Mobile channel Download our free apps for Android , Mac , iPhone and iPad