iPhoto 6: The Missing Manual

B.4. Photos Menu

This menu's commands come in handy when you're working with one or more photos. Most of the time, you need to select the photos, using any of the methods described in Section 5.3.1, before choosing from this menu.

B.4.1. Get Info

This command (or -I) opens the Photo Info window. Click the Photo tab in the Photo Info window to see information about a selected photo, such as its creation date and the camera model used to create it. Switch to the Exposure panel for details about the specific camera settings that were used to take the picture. (iPhoto gathers all this information by reading EXIF tagssnippets of data invisibly embedded in the photo files created by most of today's digital cameras .)

You can open the Photo Info window even when no photos are selected, but it won't have any info filled in. The data pops into the window as soon as you select a photo.

B.4.2. Batch Change

Opens a dialog box where you can apply a new title, date, or comment to any number of selected photos. See Section 5.10.1 for full details.

B.4.3. Rotate

You can use the two Rotate commands in the submenuCounter Clockwise or Clockwiseto rotate selected photos in 90-degree increments , switching them from landscape to portrait orientation as needed.

However, the Rotate menu command is by far the least convenient way to rotate your photos. Here are some alternatives:

• Click the Rotate button below the main iPhoto window.

• Option-click the Rotate button to reverse the direction of the rotation. (You specify the "main" rotation direction by choosing iPhoto Preferences.)

• Press -R to rotate selected photos counterclockwise, or Shift- -R to rotate them clockwise.

• Control-click a photo or a thumbnail; choose Rotate from the shortcut menu.

B.4.4. My Rating

Lets you apply a rating of one through five stars to selected photos. See Section 5.15 for the full story on this feature.

B.4.5. Duplicate

Just as in the Finder, this command creates a duplicate of whichever photo is selected and adds it to the Library. And just as in the Finder, the keyboard shortcut is -D. If you select multiple photos, iPhoto duplicates all of them.

If an album is selected (and no photos are), this command duplicates the album itself. The copy appears at the bottom of the Source list, named Album-1 (or whatever number it's up to).

B.4.6. Move to Trash

Moves selected photos to iPhoto's private Trash, a holding bin for files you plan to permanently delete from your Photo Library. Instead of choosing this command, you can just drag thumbnails onto the Trash icon in the Source list; Control-click selected photos and choose Move to Trash from the shortcut menu; or press -Delete. (They're not actually deleted until you choose Empty Trash.)

B.4.7. Revert to Original

The Revert to Original command restores edited photos to the condition they were in when you first imported them into iPhoto, reversing all the cropping, rotating, brightening, or anything else you've done (although it leaves titles, comments, and keywords undisturbed). This command is active only if you've edited the selected photo at least once.

If the Revert to Original command is dimmed out, one of these conditions is probably true:

• You don't have a photo selected.

• The photo you've selected hasn't been edited, so there's nothing to revert to.

• You edited the photo outside of iPhoto in an unauthorized way (by dragging the thumbnail to the Photoshop icon in the Dock, for example). iPhoto never had the chance to make a backup of the original version, which it needs to revert the file.

  On the other hand, it's totally OK to edit photos outside of iPhoto thereby activating the Revert to Original featureif you do it by double-clicking the photo's thumbnail rather than dragging it, or by Control-clicking it and choosing "Edit in external editor" from the shortcut menu.

B.4.8. Restore to Photo Library

The Move to Trash command morphs into this command when you're viewing the contents of iPhoto's Trash and have at least one thumbnail selected. It moves the selected photos out of the Trash and back into your Photo Library. The shortcut is the same as the one for Move to Trash -Delete.