MWSF: iPhoto 5

iPhoto 5 is a major refresh of everyone's favorite digital shoebox for storing photos that will be available with the rest of iLife '05 on Jan. 22nd. However, iPhoto it is not just for photos anymore. You know those little movies you like to take with your digital camera? That's right,
iPhoto 5 will import them without batting an eye (and you can tell if something is an image or a movie easily, movies will have a small video camera icon on them). RAW images are not left out in the cold either, and now can be imported into iPhoto.

Here is a screenshot:

The import process has been improved as well. Before importing anything iPhoto allows you to name the Roll and enter a description, which will come in handy thanks to the new integrated search that lets you find photos in no time (assuming you have been good about entering your metadata;
you have, haven't you?).

Enhancing photos with iPhoto has gotten much better. You can change any number of settings: make things black and white, crop photos, and retouch them. New to iPhoto 5 is the advanced photo editing palette which allows you to increase or decrease exposure, change tint and color saturation amongst other things, all in real time. This image shows what the pallette looks like, courtesy of Apple's website.

Sharing your photos is easier than ever thanks to the completely rewritten
slide show function. Not only are there new transitions, but there is a nifty little check box that calculates how long to stay on each slide so that the show lasts as long as the song you are playing with it. The new slide show editor allows you to change the order of photos without effecting the order in your album (very cool indeed). Slideshows can now be saved for later viewing, so you can tweak

The most exciting feature of iPhoto 5 has to be
hierarchical folders! Finally we can have sub-albums in iPhoto. Steve, were you reading my mind again? Here is a shot of the wonder that are sub-albums:

There is also a new Calendar View that is sure to come in handy for looking for those pictures you took at your nephew's birthday party on the 5th. As an added bonus if you hold down the shift button and click on a day on the calendar iPhoto will show you all the pictures taken on that date, regardless of the year.

Overall, a fine improvement over iPhoto 4, and I can't wait to get my hands on it.