Retouching Photo - Need Help

There is a hidden feature:

How to Change the Size of the Retouch and Red-Eye Removal Tool

* Type Caps lock Control9

* Undo caps lock

* Click on Retouch or the Red-Eye Removal tool.

* The tab key will toggle between cursor types, a cross ➕ or a circle for Red-Eye removal tool and between darken and lighten in the Retouch tool.

* The "[" and "]" keys decrease or increase the size accordingly.


NOTE: Using the "{" "}" keys will will change the value next to the circle and that represents the degree of change or intensity that the Retouch tool imparts on each pass.

Thanks to Old Toad for the above information.

You can give it a try. However, the iPhoto Retouch tool is not known for being very good. [iPhoto is a fabulous photo organizer, but not a great editor. The editing features are more for convenience.] It mostly smudges the photo, and probably isn't capable of cleaning up faces. For that, I highly recommend PhotoShop Elements 4. It has a spot healing brush that makes this task a breeze. It is a very powerful image editor, works well with iPhoto, and well worth the price IMO. You can read about it here: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelmac/

It makes perfect sense.

To use PSE with iPhoto, in iPhoto Preferences set PSE as your external editor. Then you select the photo in iPhoto, double-click and it opens in PSE. Edit, then Save (not Save As) and the edited version will write back to your library and be linked to the Original. Note that with Save, the filename and location must stay the same. If you change them and Save As into your iPhoto Library folder, the database will not have a link to the file and it won't appear in your library. This is why you can't find your previous edits. Or if you opened the file directly from PSE, iPhoto has no way of knowing.

You can still edit using iPhoto by clicking the Full-Screen Edit mode icon, or by right-clicking (Control-clicking) a selected photo and choosing the editor of your choice.

One caveat is that if your edits create a .psd layered file, you have 2 choices. Either flatten the file and force PSE to save the file as a jpeg. Or, to keep your layers, do a Save As to your desktop, then import from there into your iPhoto library. With the second method there is no link between the layered file and the Original.

I agree with you about the PSE red-eye correction. I often find that using the trick to change the curser in iPhoto gives me better red-eye correction than PSE. One thing I didn't say above is that with the iPhoto red-eye tool (in the secret mode) you can Shift-Click to get a lighter colored pupil.

Apart from the red-eye, PSE is miles ahead of iPhoto in editing capability. I have used every version of PSE, and I can tell you that the difference between version 2 and 4 is well worth the upgrade. (If your system meets the requirements, of course.) I don't remember version 2 having the healing brush. It's icon in the tool palette looks like a band-aid. It is a sort of modified clone tool that is super-easy to use. I use it to erase blemishes, dirt on the floor, stains on clothing, etc. You can do these things with one click. Very cool.

If you can locate those lost edited files inside your iPhoto Library Folder (from the Finder) drag them out of that folder to your desktop. Only then can you import them into iPhoto. iPhoto always gives you that error message when you try to import files that are already in the library folder. Just be careful not to tamper with any other files and folders inside your iPhoto Library folder from the Finder, because any changes you make there will damage your library.

isign31:

When using PSE with iPhoto when you start the save process make sure the extension remains as jpg. If the extension has been changed to .psd you will need to doone of two things:

1 - return to the edit mode and flatten the image and then save. That will let it save as a jpg and let iPhoto handle it as it should.

2 - do a Save As to the Desktop and import as a new file.

Do you Twango?

TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've written an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.