How iPhoto works and has become more accessible

Hey guys, 

This is my final post for now. Just a couple of cool articles that give some great insight into why iPhoto is so accessible and how it is really not difficult to use at all. 

Anyone can present their personal memories in their own way if they want to. 

New York Times on "ambitious photo tools".

iPhoto is also accessible for people that only own iPad and not a MacBook product, and this form of iPhoto may be even easier to use and shape a different perception of memories and culture with than ever before...

Check out a review of how it works here. 

Paul x

iPhotoing Part 3: Seasons and Time

Hey again everyone!

So I just wanted to share some more edits that are a little more extreme!

To show how you can completely change the season and time period that you are representing through your edited iPhoto photo, through dramatic shifts in the "Adjust" functions and "Effects".

Here I've dramatically adjusted the exposure, contrast, saturation, highlights, shadows, temperature etc of the image to make the colours extremely vibrant. 

Now it looks like it's a hot summer's day, because to be honest it was so cold, I think I would have preferred to go in summer...Now it looks like I am rather silly wearing all those layers, doesn't it look like it's at least 30c? 

So the way this image was edited is a reflection of my direct memories of my freezing (but amazing) holiday and how the seasons have shaped the way I represented it. 

Here I was thinking about New York at the turn of the 20th century...

So I toned down the colour and vibrancy of the image with a series of functions again, and gave the impression of an old camera having taken the photo through the "Vignette" function. 

So what I have tried to show you all through this journey, is that editing isn't just for the sake of pretending to be more aesthetically polished.

iPhoto can truly give strong insights into your personal interests and how you can convey them pictorially. 

Paul 

iPhotoing Part 2: What story are you trying to tell?

Like I said briefly at the end of my last post...I strongly believe everyone is inspired by different time periods and seasons when they are editing their photos. 

iPhoto has a series of in-built editing functions that make it easy to choose the mood, time period or season you want to use to "inspire" your photo and change the memory of the event you are representing. 

For the image above - I simply applied some "Antique" and "Fade Colour" effects and suddenly it looks like I am presenting New York in a film noir context.

Now thinking about it...this choice of editing in my photo, reflects my deep interest in the culture of New York from that 1940s/1950s time period, and how I am attempting to represent that through this photo as a homage to Hollywood films of the time. The history of this photo has been re-written to show how I would have loved to experience the region in a different context. 

So the way photos are edited isn't simply for the purposes of looking more GLAMOUROUS or POLISHED, it reflects people's deeper cultural interests.  

So if you weren't thinking it already, yes I was a little inspired by this famous scene in An Affair To Remember. =P

Found this here, good to know someone else still loves the classics.

Okay so maybe what I was thinking with this second edit using the "Adjust" tool was that I just didn't want people to know how cold and cloudy it was...

It's natural that sometimes image edits can be for vanity purposes, but normally there's a deeper cultural message behind it. 

Paul 

iPhoto-ing Part 1

iPhoto pretty much changed my life...as cheesy as that sounds when it graced my photos with its presence in 2010, as I purchased my first Macbook and crossed over into "Apple lover" territory.

iPhoto is a really simple but special application because it changes the memory of past events, you can make a scene or a moment in time have any mood you would like it to. 

iPhoto is therefore a way of moving past your every day life and context! 

You can transcend the limitations of today, to present a different time period or season. I will show you how through some examples in editing the following photo to create different moods, time periods, and seasons. 

This is the original copy of the photo that will compose the majority of this initial iPhoto journey, and was taken at the top of the Empire State Building in Manhattan, NY, in December 2011 on a freezing and misty winter's day.


And so the journey to re-writing history and memories begins, to make my travel experiences more glossy and exciting. 

The aim of my iPhoto journey is to help other young people understand that they can't always trust the photo they see on their respective social media website. 

Everyone is trying to deliberately tell a unique story through the photos they post. 

:) 

Paul