I spent some time this morning analyzing the Adjust palette in iPhoto ‘08, and Apple has done some nice work here.

At the top of my happy list are real Levels controls complete with a gamma slider — very similar to what you see in Photoshop, and now residing at the top of the Adjust palette. We also have Shadow and Highlight recovery, which is so important when you’re editing images captured in contrasty light. There’s also noise reduction, and the ability to copy and paste corrections to other images.

These improvements will make iPhoto more valuable to serious amateur photographers who can now stay within the application for the bulk of their corrections. I’ve already plunked down my $79 for iLife ‘08.