iUseApple

Edit and Correct Images in iPhoto

I want to get the most out of my photographs! Scrapbooking family memories with an Apple is a piece of cake, but how do I make the photos look their best? When my pictures reach iPhoto they can be tilted, blurred, overexposed, afflicted with red eye, the list goes on… Well, there are things we can do inside the camera to reduce the amount of problems with our photos. Here is a basic tutorial about good photo composition.

First, let’s review the basics of editing photos in iPhoto. To edit any photo, double click the photo in Library view. A window like the one below will appear.

If I make a change to the photograph I do not like just Undo or hit Cmd+Z. I can not undo the changes once I click Done or move to another photo. iPhoto keeps the original image stored on my Mac. When I make a change, iPhoto creates a whole new image in the Modified folder in the Pictures folder of my user account. iPhoto then links to the edited image in the Library. Making a whole new file for the image is the smart way to go, so I can always reimport the original to the Library if I really do mess up while making alterations. This does hog up disk space though, so I make smart edits and when I am satisfied with them delete the originals on my Hard Drive. Remember to Undo changes immediately if I do not like them! The arrows in the bottom right of the iPhoto window allow me to scroll through my iPhoto Library.

Full Screen Editing is a Must!

Editing in full screen view provides a distraction free environment for me to edit photos in. To edit in full screen, click the full screen icon at the bottom of the iPhoto window.

All the editing tools are still available at the bottom of the screen, with an added bonus! A zoom tool! Slide the zoom slider and a small navigation window will appear. I can zoom into the specific part of the photo I want to retouch.

There are a set of tools available to us at the bottom of the iPhoto window. I am going to explain the problem each tool addresses.

The photo is turned 90 degrees

If I click the Rotate button, the photo will turn 90 degrees. It will keep turning 90 degrees if I click again. Click Rotate until the image is right side up.

I want my photo to be sized for an 8 1/2 x 11

The constrain tool will allow me to crop the image to the specific dimensions needed to print the following proportions:

Select the appropriate size for my photo in the Constrain menu. I can even select a custom size, if I need something specific for a collage or a scrapbook. A clear box will appear above the photo, with greyed out regions that represent the part fo the photo we will crop off when resizing. Fine tune the crop marks by dragging the clear square around the photo with the mouse. Click Crop.

I need to cut off part of the photo

The crop tool will allow me to select a region of the photo I want to keep and throw away the rest. Click and hold the left mouse button to drag a rectangle around the section of the photo I want to keep. Fine tune the selection by hovering the mouse over the edge of the rectangle and moving the edges to and fro. Click the Crop Icon.

There is red eye in my photo

Red eye is easily eliminated in iPhoto. Click the Red Eye icon and then click the centers of the eyes that need to be corrected.

There is an undesirable word in my photo

In the iPhoto window example above, I had to retouch the man’s name tag so it wouldn’t display his name. I did this with the Retouch tool. This tool masks undesirable parts of the image by magically painting the pixels around your brush to fill in the bad part. This is only good for small swipes, but does not really compare to the Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop. Click the Retouch Tool and paint over the bad part of the photograph.

How do I add photo studio effects?

Click the Effects Tools and a window with nine thumbnails will appear.

Click on a thumbnail of the desired effect. Click again to see the effect happen even more. Click multiple effects to see who they work together. For instance, click B+W, Black Vignette, and Boost Color. Click Original to return to the original image.

My photo is too light or too dark

Even professional photographers can battle with over or underexposed photos. There may be a little fine tuning necessary for the photo to have brilliant colors. iPhoto has a very basic tool called Enhance for this very problem. More in depth Adjustment tools are available in the Adjust tool. Usually iPhoto gets it right the first time, so Click the Magic Wand Enhance Tool to see your photo brighten up and the colors become more distinct. This only works to a certain point however. If my image is well balanced, meaning the darker values have as much representation as the lighter ones, then iPhoto will easily correct it. That is to say, there are as many blacks as midtones as whites in the photo. The Enhance tool works correctly only if the entire image is overexposed or underexposed. If the image is extremely contrasty, then we may need to resort to some manual fine tuning of the exposure.

Enhance Didn’t Work, So What Do I Do Now?

Immediately Undo (Cmd + Z) the enhancement to return to the original photo. Click the Adjust tool and a set of tools will appear. I suggest tweaking all of these settings to see what they do. Just Undo anything undesirable or Click the Reset Sliders Button. In terms of Exposure, there are a few sliders here that will be useful to us.

Color correcting requires a keen eye when looking at the photograph. Ask these questions: Are the blacks truly black in the photo? Are the whites really white? If what is supposed to be white appears grey, this means the photo is underexposed. If everything casted a certain color? Does everything appear shifted toward blue, for instance?

How to read the graph

The Graph labeled Levels at the bottom of the Adjust Tools is a representation of the amount of Red, Green, and Blue from dark to light values. Exposure is represented in the height of the graph. The most ideal graph would be a bell shaped curve that spikes suddenly on each end. If the histogram is short, this means the photo is entirely underexposed. When the histogram is too tall and busting out the top of the graph, this means the photograph is entirely overexposed. If there is a lot of dark blue in my photo, the blue histogram will spike on the left side of the graph. If there is a significant amount of light red in my photo, this will be represented by a spike on the right side of the graph in the red histogram.

How to correct the photo using Exposure and Levels

The Exposure slider will adjust the overall exposure for the photo. Slide the Exposure slider so that the histogram fills about 3/4 of the graph vertically. I can adjust what iPhoto thinks is white and black manually. If the histogram already reaches the ends of the graph horizontally, then the photo is probably overcontrasted. But, if the graph doesn’t reach the edges there is still hope! The idea here is to tighten the graph horizontally. Slide the right slider beneath the graph left to adjust the whites. Slide the left slider beneath the graph left to adjust the blacks. Keep an eye on the photo, making sure all the midtones do not get lost in the adjustment.

That’s it! Those are the basics to editing photos in iPhoto. Search in the right sidebar to find more articles on iUseApple concerning how to use iPhoto. There will be more blog posts to come soon: including how to impress friends with a slideshow and how to submit a photo album to be printed by Apple.