Macworld Guides mwphotobook sample

Macworld t GIT, SUPERGUIDE $12.95 AT T/ How to Buy a Digital Camera 3 Picking the Model That’s Right for You This guide to choosing a digital camera breaks down the differences between digital cameras, and explains which features you really need. How to Get Great Shots 17 Master the Basics To get photos that really stand out, you need to know how—and when—to switch out of Auto mode and take control of the reins. 24 The Secrets of Flash Photography Want to take great portraits or party photos? The secret to these challenges lies in understanding your camera’s flash modes. 29 Learn from Mistakes with Metadata Your camera stores valuable information about each photo you take. We'll show you how to use this information to improve your skills. 31 Create Stunning Panoramas To truly capture the beauty of a sweeping view, shoot multiple pictures and stitch them together. 34 Infrared Photography Your eyes can't see infrared light, but with the right equipment, your camera probably can. The resulting photos are like nothing you've seen. How to Stay Organized 37 Managing Photos in iPhoto 5 Take advantage of iPhoto’s management tools to quickly tag and sort your digital images. 40 iPhoto Tips and Tricks Looking for a way to slim down, speed up, or oth- erwise customize iPhoto? We'll give you the inside scoop. How to Bring Out the Best in Your Photos 46 Calibrate Your System Before you edit, make sure you can trust what you see on screen, by calibrating your monitor. 48 Inside iPhoto 5’s Editing Tools iPhoto 5’s Adjust palette makes it easy to quickly diagnose and fix subtle image problems. 56 When iPhoto Isn’t Enough For truly troubled photos, you'll need to go beyond iPhoto’s basic tools. Thankfully, iPhoto makes it easy to switch to an external editor. 57 Fast Photo Fixes Whether you want to create stunning skies or lessen image noise, Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 have the tools you need to bring out the beauty in your photos. 64 Editing Raw Photos Take advantage of Photoshop CS2’s Camera Raw plug-in to get beautiful results from Raw files. How to Turn Pixels into Prints 72 Choosing a Photo Printer With an ink-jet photo printer, you can turn your Mac into a home printing studio. We'll help you find the right one. 78 Solving Common Printing Problems These troubleshooting tips will help you avoid the most common problems when putting ink to paper. 83 Outsource Your Printing Plenty of online photo services will be happy to print photos for you. We reviewed nine of these services to find the best of the bunch. 88 Create iPhoto Books Turn your favorite images into a beautifully bound photo album. Our tips and tricks will help you sail through the process. 90 Share Your Photos Online To share your photos with far-flung friends and family, skip the paper and post your photos online. How to Protect Your Photos 95 Develop a Backup Plan Back up your photo collection and preserve those digital memories for a lifetime—or more. 99 3 Backup Strategies See how three different types of digital photogra- phers protect their photos. 100 Keep a Catalog of Archived Images Having trouble remembering which photos are on which discs? Create a catalog of your backups. THE MACWORLD DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SUPERGUIDE Maybe you’re just now joining the digital age—you’ve been lured by low camera prices and exciting new options for working with your photos. Or maybe you bought a digital cam- era years ago but are now looking to upgrade to a newer, lighter, or more capable model. Whatever your reason, there’s never been a better—or a more confusing—time to buy a digital cam- era. Store shelves are overflowing with camera options. With so many choices, how do you choose the right camera for you? You might be tempted to base your buy- ing decision on looks alone. Boy, would that be a mistake! Beneath those sleek exteriors are features and capabilities that determine whether you have a camera you love or one that collects dust on a shelf. The trick to finding your perfect match is knowing which features are most important to you before you step foot into the store. I’ll show you what to look for when comparing cameras, and I'll explain which features are truly essential—and which are just hype. THE MACWORLD DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SUPERGUIDE 3 WHICH TYPE OF CAMERA DO YOU N The first step in narrowing the field of camera contenders is to decide which type of camera best suits you. Most digital cameras offer a tradeoff between size and flexibility. By deciding early on what your priorities are, you can quickly eliminate a large number of the models on the market. | typically divide digital cameras into three categories: COMPACT i CAMERAS N If you needa . good camera NR while on-the-go, | . recommend look- . a, a ing at compact — models. These a lightweight cameras fit nicely into a pocket or a purse—so they're likelier to be on hand for unexpected photo opportunities. They’re also relatively easy on the wallet; prices range from $150 to $400. Compact cameras typically have a res- olution of 2 to 5 megapixels—enough for online photo galleries and most standard print sizes. However, they don’t usually offer the array of features and controls that larger models do. For example, you’re often limited to using programmed exposure modes, so you may have trouble with tricky lighting or in situations with lots of action. Most compact cameras also have relatively limited zoom lenses—typically in the neigh- borhood of 3x. \ 4 : ADVANCED AMATEUR CAMERAS Compact cameras are great for point-and- shoot photographers who like to carry their camera around with them to immortalize ED? life’s surprises. But they don’t offer a lot of flexibility. If you’d like more control over your photos, or if you want to explore some of the creative possibilities of digital pho- tography, then advanced amateur cameras might be the ticket. Although one of these cameras probably won't fit in your shirt pocket, it won’t put too much of a strain on your shoulder, either. And these cameras often include an impressive array of features that rival those of professional models, such as hot-shoes for external flashes, manual aperture and shutter-speed controls, and faster response times. Some even offer a 10x optical zoom. All of this can make a huge difference in photographing special events (such as weddings and birthdays), wildlife, and sports. Even if you’re not ready to use all of these advanced features right now, they may become handy as your skills improve—which means that you won’t quickly outgrow your camera. One downside to advanced amateur cam- eras (and compact cameras) is that they don’t offer interchange- able lenses, so your optical options are somewhat lim- ited. Although you may be able to adda few accessory lenses over the camera’s existing optics, these add-ons can’t really compete with the range of lenses available for professional cameras—for example, tele- photo or fish-eye lenses. Advanced amateur cameras typically offer resolutions of between 4 and 8 megapixels—plenty for most printing endeavors. Prices range from $300 to $900. THE MACWORLD DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SUPERGUIDE 4 MASTER THE BASICS OF DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEN LONG AND DERRICK STORY Almost all digital cameras provide auto modes that do much of the difficult photographic work for you. But as sophisti- cated as they are, even the best auto modes can’t get it right every time. If you’re constantly struggling to fix images that are too dark, washed out, or just not the shots you were hoping to capture, you're probably not taking advantage of everything your digital camera offers. We'll take an in-depth look at your digital cam- era’s controls and show you how to get great photos—even in some notoriously challenging situations. CHOOSE YOUR FILE FORMAT Before you even raise the camera to your eye, you should know what kind of images you're going to be capturing. This will have a big impact on both how you work with your images when it’s time to import them to your Mac and how many images you can fit on your memory card. JPEG VERSUS RAW Most compact digital cameras capture pic- ture data, process the information right away, and write it to the memory card as a JPEG. Equipment manufacturers have worked hard to perfect in-camera processing, so data is transformed into a pleasing photograph. JPEGs are also compressed, so you can squeeze more of them onto a memory card. Many advanced cameras also let you save image data in a Raw format (you may need to switch to one of your camera’s manual modes to access this option). Unlike JPEGs, Raw images aren’t processed at all. You do that later on your Mac, using additional soft- ware. This process is more like taking a nega- tive into a darkroom and adjusting exposure until you get the perfect image. For example, finding the right white balance can be diffi- cult at the moment of exposure—especially under fluorescent or mixed lighting. When you shoot in JPEG mode, you have to make an immediate decision, and if you’re wrong, you have to figure out how to correct it later. In Raw mode, it doesn’t matter which white- balance setting you have when you shoot the picture. The camera records the raw data and lets you fill in the blanks later. Before iPhoto 5, you had to use Adobe’s Camera Raw software—included with both Photoshop CS2 and Elements 3—or the pro- gram that came with your camera to convert this raw data into a usable photograph. Now iPhoto 5 offers similar tools. And recently, Apple introduced a new pro application, called Aperture ($499; www.apple.com), that organizes, edits, and manages Raw files non- destructively, making it easier than ever to work with raw data. The downside to Raw files is that they are much larger than JPEGs. A high-quality JPEG from a 6-megapixel camera can be as large as 3MB. When saved as raw data, the same image takes up more than 8MB. They also require more work at the editing stage. Do you need this level of quality and con- trol for snapshots of Aunt Susie’s birthday party? Probably not. In most cases, you can continue letting your camera do the photo processing, and focus instead on taking great shots. But when you want the highest quality and most-accurate color balance possible—as well as the flexibility to change your mind later—consider using the Raw format. (For more information about the Raw format, see “Editing Raw Photos” in “How to Bring Out the Best in Your Photos”). THE MACWORLD DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SUPERGUIDE 17 BALANCING ACT Although a high compression setting will let you fit more images on a storage card, it will also degrade your images and increase the number of compression artifacts—square, blotchy patches of color. SQUEEZING THE MOST OUT OF YOUR MEMORY CARD When you're shooting in JPEG mode, most cameras let you specify the image’s resolu- tion and compression. In truth, you probably won't change these settings very often, but since they directly affect the quality of your images and how many shots you can take, it’s important to understand the trade-offs involved with each. Your digital camera’s resolution setting (expressed in width and height) determines the number of pixels the camera uses to cap- ture an image. Images with higher resolutions show more detail, but they also consume more space—so your camera's storage card can’t hold as many of them. The compression setting affects the overall quality of your image. Low compression rates result in larger files and better-looking images. The more you compress an image, the more its quality degrades. (Confusingly, some cameras express compression in terms of image quali- ty—for example, good, better, and best. In these cases, higher settings actually result in lower compression rates.) Unless storage space is a concern, | recom- mend saving images at the highest quality and lowest compression rates. This will give you the most options for how you use your THE MACWORLD DIGITAL images. But when you’re running out of room and want to squeeze in a few more images, here are some strategies for adjusting your camera’s file settings: If you plan on printing your images, set the resolution as high as possible and increase the compression. This may introduce some compression artifacts, but these won’t degrade print quality as much as a low reso- lution will (see “Balancing Act”). If your destination is e-mail, video, or the Web, image size isn’t much of a concern. In this case, set the compression to the best quality (lowest amount of compression) and decrease the resolution. In most cases, you can set the resolution as low as 640 by 480. LEARN TO SEE YOUR LIGHT Developing a keen eye for light quality is an essential part of getting great shots. Each time you prepare to shoot in a new location, you need to make some quick decisions about the available light. How bright is it? What’s the source? The answers will help you choose the correct ISO (light sensitivity) and white-balance settings for your images. Iso Different types of film have different charac- teristics. Some film is formulated for indoor shooting while some is for outdoor use; other film, due to its increased sensitivity to light, is best suited to shooting in low light. You can also adjust your digital camera for different types of light. But unlike film cameras, which carry only one type of film at a time, digital cameras can be adjusted on a shot-by-shot basis, so you don’t have to commit to a par- ticular light sensitivity for all your shots. Why It Matters Light sensitivity is meas- ured using a scale called ISO. Many digital cameras provide a choice of ISO values— usually 100, 200, and 400. Some advanced cameras offer ISO values of 800 or higher. As the ISO value increases, the digital camera becomes more light-sensitive—which PHOTOGRAPHY SUPERGUIDE 18 brighten colors sharpen delete crop w fix backlighting a delete HOW TO BRING OUT [HE BEST IN YOUR PHOTOS Simple Editing Tricks That Give Photos Professional Polish Almost all images can benefit from some tweaking, whether it’s with a simple sharpening filter or by full- TABLE OF CONTENTS fledged color correction. These minor nips and tucks can Calibrate Your System pace 46 mean the difference between just another humdrum vacation Inside iPhoto 5’s Editing photo and a frame-worthy work of art. Tools PAGE 48 If you're not sure where to start, begin with your monitor— —_ when iPhoto Isn’t Enough making sure you can trust the colors you see onscreen. Then PAGE 56 we'll show you how to take on some of the most common image problems, using three of the most powerful and most widely used editing programs on the Mac—Apple’s iPhoto 5, Adobe Photoshop Elements 3, and Adobe Photoshop CS2. You'll be surprised by just how easy it is to turn a bland photo into something you can be proud of. Fast Photo Fixes Pace 57 Advanced Editing With Layer Masks PAGE 64 Editing Raw Photos PAGE 65 THE MACWORLD DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SUPERGUIDE 45 OW TO BR OUT-OF-FOCUS IMAGES Most digital images benefit from a little sharpening. You can drag the Sharpness slider @ slightly to the right make details appear crisper. But don’t go too far or you'll add too much contrast to the image and create unsightly artifacts. Keep in mind that no amount of sharpening will bring a truly blurred image back into focus. DULL OR OVERLY BRIGHT COLORS Want colors that real- ly pop? Dragging the Saturation slider @ to the right will make your photo's colors more intense. If you drag the slider all the way to left, on the other hand, you'll remove all of the color—turning it into a black-and-white photo. La) PhtJbeJloisin) a INCORRECT COLOR If you shoot without a flash while in the shade, your photos will likely take on a bluish tone. Shooting indoors next to a lamp can produce yellowish images. If your photo suf- fers from a color cast such as this, you can use the Temperature and Tint sliders (G} to bring the photo’s hues back in line. For example, you’d move the Temperature slider to the right to add warmth to a bluish photo. Finding the correct settings for your image’s temperature and tint can take some experi- mentation. For best results, you can use the histogram at the bottom of the Adjust panel to help line up your tones (see “Learning to Read a Histogram”). Aah ot 17h ene IMAGE IS TOO DARK iPhoto actually offers a couple of tools that will adjust your image’s tones. The first two are the Brightness and Contrast sliders @. The Brightness slider lightens or darkens the entire image, while the Contrast slider cre- ates stronger or weaker contrast between the image's highlights and shadows. However, | recommend avoiding both of these sliders. Because Brightness and Contrast affect the images highlights and shadows equally, they tend to create more problems than they solve. A much better approach is to use the Adjust panel’s Exposure Controls 0. The Exposure slider and the Levels histogram let you control an image’s highlights and shad- ows independently—giving you much more control over the image’s tones. THE MACWORLD DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SUPERGUIDE 49 OW TO BRING DUT 7 ADVANCED EDITING WITH LAYER MASKS BY JIM HEID Sometimes you don’t want to apply the same degree of editing to every part of an image. For example, when removing image noise, parts of the photo with fine details often require lower settings than areas with less detail where the noise tends to be more obvious. So how do you accom- modate both? With the help of layer masks, you can get the best of both worlds. Layer masks let you selectively blend a filtered layer with the orig- inal layer beneath it. Not only does this give you greater control over which part of the image is affected by changes, it also allows more freedom to experiment without worry- ing about permanently altering your image. IN PHOTOSHOP CS2 Step 1 In the Layers palette, select the layer that contains your image. Then dupli- cate the layer by pressing #-J. Step 2 With the duplicated layer selected, edit the image as you’d like. For example, you might apply the Remove Noise filter or sharpen the image. Step 3 To apply the layer mask, make sure the duplicate layer is still selected in the Layers palette, and then click on the Add Layer Mask button @ at the bottom of the Layers palette (see “Behind the Mask”). Click on the new layer mask (B) to select it (it’s the empty rectangle next to the layer’s name). Step 4 Select the Brush tool from the Tools palette and choose an appropriate brush size from the Tool Options bar. Step 5 With your brush color set to black, paint over the areas where important detail was lost. As you paint, you'll reveal the details in the underlying layer. If you go too far, switch the brush color to white (press the X key to do this quickly) and paint back over the area. This will return the pixels in the fil- tered layer to full opacity. Alternate between painting with black and white until you find the best blend of the two layers. ELEMENTS’ SECRET LAYER MASK Photoshop Elements doesn’t have a layer- mask feature, but you can simulate one by using a fill layer. Step 1 Go to Layer: New Fill Layer: Solid Color. Choose any color in the dialog box that appears. Then click on OK. Step 2 In the Layers palette, drag the new fill layer below the layer you want to mask (in this case, the duplicate layer with the image editing applied). Step 3 Select that duplicate layer and press %#-G; this groups it with the fill layer. At this point, the fill layer will act as a layer mask. As with layer masks in Photoshop CS2, paint on it with black to reveal the underlying layer, or paint with white to hide it. == ole OlSial9 BEHIND THE MASK Clicking on the Add Layer Mask button (A) attaches a layer mask (B) to your filtered layer. Painting on this layer with black reveals the underlying image THE MACWORLD DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SUPERGUIDE 64 CHOOSING A PHOTO PRINT BY JAMES GALBRAITH As digital photo libraries begin to overflow with sanpshots, more and more people are trying their hands at printing photos at home. If you’re one of those people, you'll be happy to know that modern ink-jet printers make the process of getting prints easier than ever. In some cases, you may not even need to turn on your computer for the job. With high resolutions, fast print speeds, and improved inks that resist fading, today’s ink-jet printers make for great home photo labs. But to find the right one, you'll need to spend some time thinking about what type of prints you want and which features are most important to you. TYPES OF PRINTERS Are you looking for a quick way to print 4-by-6-inch photos to send off to relatives? Or do you need something that can also print out Web pages and e-mails? Most photo printers fit into one of a few cate- gories—each specializing in a different type and range of output. GENERAL-PURPOSE INK-JETS If you'd like the option to occasionally print photos but spend most of your time printing less graphically intensive items—such as Web articles, e-mail, party invitations, directions, and so on—you’ll be best served by a general purpose ink-jet. These jack-of-all-trades ten to focus on speed over quality—though many still produce nice-looking photos. They also tend to print sharper, more legible text than what you'll get from a dedicated photo print- er. However, since most come with just three or four ink colors, they often can’t produce | the range of tones and smooth gradations that you would get from a photo printer. They also happen to be the least expensive models; prices for a general purpose ink-jet printer typically range from $50 to $90. However, if a vast majority of your printing doesn’t require color, you may be best served by buying a laser printer—its consumables are much less expensive than an ink-jet’s— and then sending your photos to an online photo service for printing (see “Should You Bother?”). LETTER-SIZE PHOTO PRINTERS If getting great-looking photos is your main goal, look for a dedicated photo printer. These often feature additional ink colors, which help improve image quality, and photo- specific features such as media-card readers and ports for plugging in your camera. THE MACWORLD DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SUPERGUIDE 72 Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 5440 Canon Pixma iP6600D