|
As a technical writer myself I am not a huge fan of the current style of most of the "How To." books on the market. If ole Steve Jobs was smart he'd kidnap this guy and put him to work advising the techies responsible for fine tuning future versions of iPhoto.Well done Mr. iPhoto 6 by Derrick Story therefore comes as a breath of fresh air in an arena so full of carbon dioxide as to leave one gasping.Clearly written, entertainingly framed, wonderfully efficient in telling you what you need to know, when you need to know it. Better yet this wonderful manual is tightly organized around the nearly forgotten technique of creating a context for technique rather than simply spewing forth a breathless recitation of "Push this button, tweak this dial, buy this product." This extremely well written inside look at iPhoto 6 is all you will ever need to get up and running. Story and please keep up the good work.And Mr. Pogue, you are forgiven for the mess you made of my life with the Missing Manual for Appleworks6.
As a beginner with digital photography,there is a great deal of iPhoto that is intuitive;however,there are so many options and errors that can be made,at least in my limited experience,that this book is a constant reference guide. I previously purchased "Switching to Mac,The Missing Manual",and found it so valuable that I bought this "Missing Manual".This series of books has been both informative and entertaining.
Photos are meant to be shared, not locked up in your hard drive. After reading that chapter, I looked at my own iPhoto library and understand why I liked certain shots and why others ended up on the digital darkroom floor.After explaining how to buy a camera and create great photos, the authors take you through the steps of using iPhoto in logical order: importing, managing, outputting and of course backing up. The Missing Manual series proves that wrong. The Appendix was definitely the icing on the cake handling practically every iPhoto error and it's solution, as well as walking you through the basics of every iPhoto menu command and its implications.My only complaint was somewhat weak coverage on desktop printing of photos.
In order to make sure you get the great photos you need and minimized the editing needed in iPhoto, Derrick Story and David Pogue make sure you buy the right digital camera for your needs and tells you the basics of lighting and composition. Some say lightening can never strike the same place twice. He went over not just the specifics of all the printing options such as photo books and calendars, but also using iMovie, iWeb, and iDVD to share the photos with the world.The final chapters covered some more advanced options such as AppleScript and Automator. These days, I simply upload it to the drugstore website and print it there. More technical manuals need to do this.
Unlike other Missing Manual books that simply point you to the website to download utilities, Pogue and Story explained some of these programs and how they can help you expand your iPhoto capabilities. Printing to services other than Apple's wasn't really covered either.While iPhoto basics are simple and quick to learn, "iPhoto 6 the Missing Manual" helps you become the hands down master of digital photos on your Mac. David Pogue and the O'Reilly gang constantly hit the mark and spark creativity and knowledge in a variety of programs.IPhoto 6 covers absolutely every aspect of digital photography on your Mac, leaving few stones unturned. I always get confused about the way to feed the photo paper and how to configure settings to get the proper output. Instead of taking you through the features, they take you through the workflow.The writing was typical of the series: clear, understandable with plenty of screen shots to explain the concepts.
While I consider myself an expert on iPhoto, the book was full of subtle tips and tricks to shave hours off my digital photo management.The strength of the book was definitely the extensive chapters on what to with your photos after they are in iPhoto. iPhoto, the printer's software, the printer, and Mac OS X must all be in alignment to print properly. Others will tremble in fear of your massive knowledge after reading this book cover to cover.Pros: Covers every aspect of digital photography and makes everyone an iPhoto wiz.Cons: Needed more coverage of desktop and third party printing of photos.
ANY question you might have, any project you might conjure up.this book has all the answsers in the most easy format. A must have if you have an iMac and a digital camera.
Might not have much for experienced power users - but for me as a Mac newcomer it did the trick. iPhoto is easy to use and most things you can figure out by yourself, but this book is a big timer saver in doing so and has also some tips that you otherwise might not have figured out
|
