Enhance your photos quickly and easily with the versatile effects in iPhoto

I previously wrote about using the tools in iPhoto to edit your images. In this article, I’ll explore the special effects that are available in iPhoto which let you make changes to your photos in just a few clicks.

So, let’s see what cool things we can do with an ordinary image.

In iPhoto, select an image, however ordinary… Actually, I quite like this photo. You can see where the sun hits the tree branches at odd angles.

Click the Edit button and select Effects.

The Effects box

The Effects box gives you thumbnail previews of what your image will look like with each special effect. Simply click an effect to see an immediate change on your image. If you aren’t happy with the changes you’ve made click the center icon to restore the image to its original colors.

Looking at the thumbnail icons for this image I am instantly drawn to the Sepia option. The tree takes on a sunburnt aspect and the sunny background looks as though there could be a fire looming.

That makes a difference to the image…but it’s still not quite right.

Mix and match the special effects

The sepia tones look great and the sun bouncing off the branches really stands out. But let’s try mixing and matching the options to achieve a better result.

A color boost with the sepia tones might just do the trick.

Intensify the special effects

It might be too small to see in the image above but on the Boost Color thumbnail the number three is visible. I clicked the color boost option three times; it can be clicked up to nine times. Check out the image below, now the sepia combined with the color boost (at number nine) looks like a sunset…or a very fierce fire.

Choose effects that are right for your image

With a little experimentation you can really make a difference to your photos using the iPhoto special effects.

The Antique option combined with an Edge Blur brings a lovely nostalgic feel to this photo (below).

This combination of Matte and Vignette (below) enhances the view out of an aeroplane window.

Experiment and admire your new images

So, back to the tree. I’ve settled on the sepia tones with a color boost of four. Click the image to see a larger version in Flickr.

We’ll explore more iPhoto wonders in future articles.

Enjoy the power of iPhoto without buying expensive imaging software

The more I use iPhoto the more I love it. There are so many useful tools in this image editing program and I have realised I rarely use other photo editing software for these enhancements. It has been a personal mission, recently, to get the most out of iPhoto and online image editing tools to see just what can be accomplished without having to resort to the more expensive imaging software (I still use PhotoShop to learn the more intricate post-production techniques) and iPhoto has a lot to offer.

Of course, in a perfect world all the photos we snapped wouldn’t need any retouching at all…

In this article, I’ll focus on some of the tools you can use in iPhoto to improve your photos in just a few simple steps.

First, get a Mac!

Mac users are lucky: iPhoto is powerful without being difficult to learn. As with most of these things it simply requires a bit of exploration and experimentation. I won’t talk here about the ease of importing your photos to your computer, sorting them into albums, creating smart albums or making slideshows. I want to focus on editing your images with iPhoto, especially retouching, cropping and straightening.

Second, get an image

Take this image, for example. While it might not be the most creative of images, it happens to be a photo of one of my most favourite houses that I walk past quite regularly. There’s an intriguing mix of spookiness and tranquility.

So while the subject of the photo is interesting, the image itself could do with some improvement. Look at those telephone wires! And the corner of that car. And…isn’t the house a bit crooked?

Third, use the iPhoto tools

Retouch

Double-click the image and hit the Edit button. Select the Retouch tool. You’ll see a new option appear on the image that says Click or drag over blemish to remove and a Size slider.

The size of the retouch tool depends on the area you wish to retouch. As I am removing telephone wires here I chose a relatively small size. Once you are happy with the selected size you can click and drag it over the area to be retouched. This worked really well with the telephone wires. In the image below you can see that the click and drag effect seems to white out the blue background.

But as soon as you release the mouse button the background appears as desired. Below you can see the start of the disappearance of the telephone lines.

Straighten

What else? The house is crooked, isn’t it? Once again in Edit mode click on the Straighten tool. Grid lines appear over the photo making it nice and easy to straighten the subject. I lined up the front eaves of the house with one of the grid lines.

Crop

Lastly a crop to get rid of the car and to remove any unnecessary distractions from the house and we’re done!

Fourth, admire your new image

Here’s the final image.

So as you can see with a few simple steps you can really make a difference to your photos.

iPhoto has much more to offer and we’ll explore other tools in future articles.

Flickr just got a whole lot better with a new in-browser photo editing option

What a welcome addition this is! I never thought Flickr was really lacking anything until this new option was introduced. All of a sudden it has become an integral part of the Flickr upload process.

The in-browser editing option is powered by Picnik, Flickr’s new partner, and has a friendly, intuitive interface. If you are already familiar with photo editing software you will find this one a breeze. A huge array of options makes it a very powerful tool.

Edit your images on the fly

Do you ever feel that you could have tweaked your image slightly better after you had already loaded it to Flickr. A bigger crop, or a color enhancement, but you don’t bother because it would mean re-opening that photo editing program, making the changes and then re-loading the image back into Flickr. Now you can do it all within your Flickr account.

Picnik is quick and easy

I changed a relative plain image into a brighter and more interesting photo in just a few minutes.

Using the Picnik software, I cropped the version above to remove the buildings in the background and tighten the focus more on the statue. I slightly saturated the colour and also used the advanced Exposure settings to bump up the highlights and shadows. Then I chose to save over the original version.

The ‘Edit Photo’ option is available on the Flickr toolbar. The bonus is that Picnik is free. You can also purchase a Picnik account for more post-processing options.

This wonderful addition has not only made Flickr more fun – if that’s possible – it’s now more time-absorbing than ever. Thanks Flickr, I think …

» For more information check out the Flickr blog

Related posts:

• Flickr is the key to my social photography
• Have any of your Flickr photos been Schmapped?
• My Flickr collection is now organised
• Give your photos a retro feel with the GIMP

Find your creative streak and turn your photos into comic strips!

I recently read a very detailed, comprehensive tutorial about enhancing your photos with a retro comic book effect. The tutorial is an excellent example of one of the many and varied post-production techniques you can apply to your own photos. I was inspired to try out this comic book effect on some of my own photos.

Again, one of my cats has the starring role.

The original images

As a proud cat owner, you would be right in assuming that I have amassed gazillions of photos of my cats. I took these shots a while ago, and although they were sadly overexposed, I thought they were quite expressive and decided to hold onto them until I found a use for them. And then I found this tutorial.

Adding the comic book effect

The tutorial over at the Photoshop Roadmap is easy to follow. There is also cartoon-type fonts for you to download. It’s fun and you’ll be pleased with the results. I’d love to know how you go in the comments.

I only took one deviation from the steps which was to use iPhoto to make the initial adjustments to the levels, saturation and color. Click the images below for the higher resolution versions.

So there you have it – my first comic strip!

A couple of years ago I came across a website which has an excellent article called How to make a Life Poster using Photoshop. The post includes comprehensive step-by-step instructions on how to turn your photographic collection into a wall-hanging masterpiece. Inspired by the results, I decided to create a poster for my mother for her 60th birthday.

I gathered together (with a 95% contribution from one sister) the 98 photos necessary to carry out this project. The photos included my mother at various ages, her wedding, my father, her kids, flowers, bushland, workmates, all sorts of things that were related to or sentimental to her … after all, who has 98 photos of their own mother? Then I set to making my Life Poster.

Living in Australia, I couldn’t follow Step 7 (order a print of your poster online), so I simply burned the file to disk and took it to my local camera store. It was the first Life Poster the shop had printed up and I think we were all a bit nervous about the outcome! The result was beautiful, colorful and detailed. A huge 20×30 inch poster (I also got it framed) that she pored over with a grin here and a surprised gasp there. It now lives on a wall in her office.

Making a Life Poster was my first serious foray into the wonderful world of post-production software and techniques. It was a fun, creative photographic project and I look forward to making the next one.