iPhoto® ’09 For Dummies®

Chapter 3. Importing Your Images into iPhoto

In This Chapter

• Hardware methods for bringing photos into your computer

• Troubleshooting the import process

• Understanding all your import options

Simply defined, importing photos is the process of downloading your photos from your camera (or other storage device) to your computer. Lately, the photographic software industry has begun calling the process of importing photos into the computer ingesting. For me, that conjures up scenes from old science fiction thrillers where monsters satisfied their needs at the expense of the local inhabitants. I assure you that isn't an accurate description of what happens at import time, and I'm going to continue to use the term import in this book.

Those of you who already have your photos imported to your computer are likely wondering what all the fuss is about. Case closed, right? No, this idea of importing is more than just physically bringing the photographic file onto your hard drive. It's about safety, backup, and nondestructive editing.

Take a look at this chapter and the import process, and you'll see what I mean.

Importing Your Photos from Your Camera

You can use any of several ways to import your digital photos from your camera to your computer. They all work, but some are preferable — depending on the source of the photos and how you like to work with them — and I want you to understand why. The possibilities ...