So confused about photo management...

At first I couldn't figure out why photos from my iPhone weren't showing up after syncing... then I figured out that I have to use iPhoto to import those pics.

Now it gets trickier. I'm trying to attach some of said pics to an e-mail, but I'm not sure where to find them! If I search in the Finder for all images, the photos are there, and the file tree at the bottom shows them in various sub-folders of home>pictures>iPhoto library>...

From Mail, when I click on the iPhoto library icon under photos... it tries to attach the whole library! I don't seem to have the option to choose from sub-folders?

What the heck am I missing here? I feel like I'm making a mistake trying to do this in a Windows-like fashion...

I saw that I could mail them from iPhoto, but I want to attach them to a reply to a message already in my inbox.

TIA.

From Mail, when I click on the iPhoto library icon under photos... it tries to attach the whole library! I don't seem to have the option to choose from sub-folders?

Click to expand...

Yeah, since the iPhoto library is a "Bundle" mail cannot look into it and see what it's contents are so it tries to attach the whole thing. (You shouldn't go messing around in there either, iPhoto may get confused if you do)

When making a email with pics you can,

Drag the photos out of iPhoto to the desktop and from there drag them into the email body.

Or in the new message window right click on the toolbar (Where the send button is) and drag the "Photo Browser" button to the toolbar. Click done and now when you want to attach photos, simply click the button and drag your photos into the email.

McYukon said:

Or in the new message window right click on the toolbar (Where the send button is) and drag the "Photo Browser" button to the toolbar. Click done and now when you want to attach photos, simply click the button and drag your photos into the email.

Click to expand...

THIS.

Awesome, thanks!

I'm not sure what you're trying to do, so let me go over the steps for you.

To upload or attach a photo:
1. Click Attach, Upload or Browse. A Finder dialogue comes up.
2. In the Finder dialogue sidebar, scroll down till you see Media. Click on the triangle next to the word Media to reveal more choices.
3. Click iPhoto to make your iPhoto library appear on the right. Click on the triangle next to the word iPhoto to reveal your entire library (Events, Albums, etc).
4. Choose the photos you'd like to attach and click Choose File.

To attach a photo in Mail:
1. Open a new blank message.
2. Click Photo Browser in the top right of the message window.
3. Click the triangle next to iPhoto to reveal complete photo library.
4. Drag and drop photos into the body of the email.

Where are you getting stuck exactly? Are you following these steps precisely?

LOL... nope, I wasn't following those steps at all.

I completely overlooked the Photo Browser button. Forest-for-the-trees type thing.

What I did in Mail was:

Open existing message in inbox;
Click Attach (Finder window opens)
Double click my home folder
Double click pictures
Double click iPhoto library... this is where Mail attached the whole library.

Interestingly, with this workflow, there is no triangle to the left of iPhoto library in the finder window. Is that odd? Also, I see that I was habitually double-clicking each folder to dig down deeper; I didn't know the triangle displayed sub-folders and files below.

Not really, that attach window is used if you want to attach files/documents/zips .etc

It's a bit foreign to me to treat a photo differently from any other file format... the Mac learning curve I suppose.

It's not really that OS X treats photos different than other files, if your photos were just stored in plain folders you could do it the way you wanted to do it.

But since your photos are stored in the iPhoto Library "Package", it is a bit different.
A package is just a fancy name for a folder that masquerades as a single file in the Finder, and thus you cannot attach anything that is inside them. You could also call it a Database file if you wanted to.

And there is a good reason Apple was eventually forced to go to such a solution. It's called "stupid people messing about inside the iPhoto Library with NO IDEA how much damage they were doing, then blaming Apple for losing their precious pictures."

Pictures ARE different from most other files we make on a Mac, in that they are usually more precious (and surprisingly, usually not backed up!). So Apple took the step of making it HARDER for people to grab the photos via the Finder because it was messing iPhoto's database up and causing lost data.

Two rules when using iPhoto:

1. You can do pretty much anything you want to the photos, but you really have to do it from INSIDE IPHOTO.

2. If the (other) program you are using has a Media Browser, THAT is the proper way to pull photos from iPhoto without opening iPhoto. If the program you're using doesn't have a media browser, switch to one that does ... or open iPhoto, drag a copy of the photo out to the desktop, switch back to your other program and then trash the desktop copy when you're done.

Does dragging a file to the desktop always make a copy rather than moving the original, or is that only true when dragging from iPhoto?

Usually when you drag a file to the desktop, it is moved there.

Oneironaut said:

Usually when you drag a file to the desktop, it is moved there.

Click to expand...

Note the 'Usually' here. If dragging from an external disk it is copied.

So another somewhat related question: when I choose Save As to save a file from the web or an email, the window which pops up has a drop down menu labelled "Where", but again I can't root deeper into my home folder or other folder to place the file exactly where I want it...

Am I missing something here?

Clicking on the folder(s) presented will open them to the next level down.

Silverado said:

So another somewhat related question: when I choose Save As to save a file from the web or an email, the window which pops up has a drop down menu labelled "Where", but again I can't root deeper into my home folder or other folder to place the file exactly where I want it...

Am I missing something here?

Click to expand...

Yes you are, and here it is (click each pic for larger view):

Silverado said:

At first I couldn't figure out why photos from my iPhone weren't showing up after syncing... then I figured out that I have to use iPhoto to import those pics.

Now it gets trickier. I'm trying to attach some of said pics to an e-mail, but I'm not sure where to find them! If I search in the Finder for all images, the photos are there, and the file tree at the bottom shows them in various sub-folders of home>pictures>iPhoto library>...

From Mail, when I click on the iPhoto library icon under photos... it tries to attach the whole library! I don't seem to have the option to choose from sub-folders?

What the heck am I missing here? I feel like I'm making a mistake trying to do this in a Windows-like fashion...

I saw that I could mail them from iPhoto, but I want to attach them to a reply to a message already in my inbox.

TIA.

Click to expand...

Where to find your Photos file from iPhoto...

1.) Open Finder and go to your Pictures Folder.

2.) There you will find your iPhoto Library Icon.

3.) Obviously if you simply open it, it would just open your iPhoto app. But if you right click on it, you can find Show Package Contents from the menu and click on it. This will bring you to iPhoto's main directories.

4.) Inside you will find a folder titled Master. In here you will find all the copies of your photos you had integrated with your iPhoto.

Hope this helps... Cheers!!!

With respect, this is very bad advice and will probably result in Silverado coming back here very shortly with a report that iPhoto has lost data.

DO NOT muck about in the package contents of the iPhoto Library!

If you want to attach a picture to an email that is stored in iPhoto (latest version), there are three SIMPLE and SAFE ways to do it. Whichever one you like best.

1. Open iPhoto, select picture, drag to email icon on Dock. New message will open with photo already embedded in it. Done.

2. Open iPhoto, select picture, click on "Share," choose email, choose template, write message and address it, hit send. Done.

In older versions of iPhoto, method #2 would replace "click on share" with "click on Mail icon."

3. Open Mail, choose new message, click on "Photo Browser," choose picture. Done.

chas_m said:

With respect, this is very bad advice and will probably result in Silverado coming back here very shortly with a report that iPhoto has lost data.

DO NOT muck about in the package contents of the iPhoto Library!

If you want to attach a picture to an email that is stored in iPhoto (latest version), there are three SIMPLE and SAFE ways to do it. Whichever one you like best.

1. Open iPhoto, select picture, drag to email icon on Dock. New message will open with photo already embedded in it. Done.

2. Open iPhoto, select picture, click on "Share," choose email, choose template, write message and address it, hit send. Done.

In older versions of iPhoto, method #2 would replace "click on share" with "click on Mail icon."

3. Open Mail, choose new message, click on "Photo Browser," choose picture. Done.

Click to expand...

I'm not suggesting for him to mess anything up with his iPhoto Library Master by adjusting or tampering anything from it. Just a friendly advice where he find his photos if he is having hard time tracking it on finder. thanks for pointing it so it's clarified with every body.

cheers!!

johndope83 said:

I'm not suggesting for him to mess anything up with his iPhoto Library Master by adjusting or tampering anything from it. Just a friendly advice where he find his photos if he is having hard time tracking it on finder. thanks for pointing it so it's clarified with every body.

cheers!!

Click to expand...

And we can tell you from experience here in the forums, advising someone to work directly in the database of iPhoto rather than working from within iPhoto can/will lead to problems. Have to go with chas on this one.

DO NOT muck about in the package contents of the iPhoto Library!

Click to expand...

chas_m said:

Yes you are, and here it is (click each pic for larger view):

View attachment 14576


View attachment 14577

Click to expand...

Indeed. Thanks a million chas.

These new ways to navigate the OS are coming to me, slowly.