Photo questions - new to Mac

Hi, all! I just got my wife a new iMac (24", 2.8ghz) and have some questions about working with photos. Forgive me for not being able to find this anywhere else on the internet, but I'm deployed and can't get to a lot of web sites.

She figured out how to do vignettes, and it turns out really well.
However, she also likes to put borders around photos. She said that when she tried to do this in iPhoto, it wanted to charge her $1.99 (I'm guessing this is the professional printing stuff that is on the apple.com/iphoto website.)

Here are my questions:
1) Is there a way to do borders in iPhoto?
2) If not, does Aperture do them?
3) Other suggestions?

Another reason I ask about Aperture is that I'd like to get her a DSLR camera in another few months, and she'd like to start getting more professional (famliy portraits, like in Sears, for example). If Aperture would be worth it for that, too, it would be worth it to just get it now and do this right from the beginning.

Thanks for any input on this.

PS - For those who are wondering, she's LOVING the new iMac!

 

You should try PM'ing ''Sam'' if you don't get any help soon. His user name is just Sam He is the Mac genius around here

 

I don't use iPhoto but with aperture there is apparently a plug-in that will do this

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/aperture/apertureborderfx.html

Be aware that aperture is really more for (a) file management and (b) 'darkroom' type adjustments. It does not do any of the pixel level adjustments that you would expect to be able to do in e.g. photoshop.

I would recommend reading some of the more detailed reviews about what aperture does and doesnt do before investing in it

I use it and it has been a revelation for me. I would only really recommend for people who are interested in editing RAW images though (as you might with a dSLR for example).

IIRC Ars Technica has quite a detailed review of aperture...

 

iPhoto doesn't have a bordering option, I just looked through it.

 

Darn. I'll have to track down 'Sam' and see if he has any ideas. My wife really likes to do borders around pictures. She has a few programs for the PC that will do them. I may end up having to get VMware or Parallels (no bootcamp for her, thanks), but I'd rather not have to do that.

 

http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#iphoto-gifts-11

look at the "print photos" section. I don't know if you can actually export a file with borders, but it makes a lot more sense to do this when printing anyway.

hopefully this is what you were looking for. enjoy that iMac.

 

well not really, there are lots of ways borders can add to the impact of digital images too...





Photoshop elements would do it. IIRC iPhoto does let you open a pic in an external editor like photoshop.

 

yes of course they can, but so can everything else that can be done to a photograph digitally. whether it is good or bad is up to the creator/viewer.

but it isn't necessarily a bad thing to not even have the option to do many of these things, first become a great photographer who takes photos with no need for digital manipulation, then become great with digital manipulation of your great photography.

 

You lost me on that last comment, circa86.

How is it a good thing to have less options, especially something as simple as adding a border? I also don't see how taking good photos and adding a border are in some way linked.

Or maybe I'm just misunderstanding something?

 

ERL - a good starting place for photo manipulation is Adobe Elements. It's about $100, so the price is reasonable. Elements does a lot of what Photoshop does, at a fraction of the price. If your wife has a lot of computer experience, and is considering trying to make money with her photography, Photoshop CS3 is a workhorse, and should be given the $600 pricetag. There is a steep learning curve to PS, but lots of support out there. The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) is a great place to learn, with hundreds of tutorials, and lots of people to ask questions of. It's $99 a year, and includes their magazine, Photoshop User. All it takes is practice, practice, practice! - Roger

 

Yup, as I also mentioned, elements is a very good tool and reasonably priced

 

I like your site "hooly". Nice pics.