iPhoto file system/PC guy needs help making decisions!

Geardaddys · Mar 24, 2008

Folks,

Have some questions for you all about iPhoto.. I have been a long time windows user, and have had a macbook for about a year now.. Just recently bought a iMac and need to move ALL my digital pictures from the PC to the mac.. I have all my pictures set up in my PC in folders by year, subfolders by month, and then from each "event" inside the month there are folders for RAW and JPG files.. I know it is a big overkill, but I shoot everythingin RAW because I like the control that I get with exposure compensation and white balance adjustments..
I like some of the features that iPhoto has, but frankly don't understand how it works as far as it's file system.. I would love to hear some of your opinons on how to go about setting up my pics on the iMac... I have copied them all to an external drive... I'm leaning towards recreating my "file" system on the mac, and importing the JPG files into iphoto.. Is this stupid? Also if I do this will I wind up using twice the hard drive space, or does iPhoto just reference your files? Also, I have photoshop CS3 on the iMac so I can use bridge as well for browsing photos.. The last piece of info is that my wife is a snapfish junky.. She loves uploading pics and having them delivered.. That is why I'd like to preserve a file system, so I know where they are so she can upload..
Anyway I'm open to all suggestions.. I think I have a case of "analysis paralasis".. Sorry for the longwinded question and thanks in advance!!

John..

skybolt · Mar 24, 2008

To start -- sinceyou have your photos set up in folders, etc., import them one folder at a time into iPhoto. That will preserve your organization and create one event for each. Make sure you have the box checked to import into your iPhoto library.

Now, with macs, users should let the software to the hard part of organizing for you -- unlike Windows where the user has to micromanage everything. Users are not meant to muck about in the library in finder -- doing so will create havoc! Don't worry about what is in there -- do your organizing from within the app itself. There is never a need to go into the library in finder!

In the iPhoto app, rename the events to something meaningful to you. Create folders -- for instance "Vacations", and then albums or smart albums under that -- say, "Spring 2006", "Hawaii", etc. Photos will be easy to find -- easier still if you apply keywords as you import.

For snapfish, etc., just drag the photo from iPhoto app to the desktop and upload from there. Or use the export button to export to your desktop -- this method will allow you to choose the size you want to export.

Email from within the app as well, using the email button at the bottom right.

Just let go of the Windows ways and let the apps work for you. Don't try to make the apps work the way Windows apps do. You and your photos will be happy you did! Enjoy! And welcome to the wonderful, easy world of macs!

louishen · Mar 24, 2008

But, if you are serious about photography then Apeture or Adobe Lightroom

aeRo.nz · Mar 27, 2008

louishen said:
But, if you are serious about photography then Apeture or Adobe Lightroom

Why do you say that? What advantages do lightroom and apeture have over iPhoto? Also which is better and why? Ive just moved to a macbook and am SOOOOO Confused about what to do about file organisation :Confused:

I will probably not transfer my photos over but I take about 300 photos a week, and end up with raw and jpeg files, as well as some tiffs or psd's.

I know I will want CS3 for doing editing, but what should I use for organising?

Thanks heaps for any help or advice you guys can lend me

AJB · Mar 27, 2008

I have recently moved my photo library to a new iMac, so I have been through your experience with about 7,000 photos.

I did not find iPhoto in Tiger especially helpful for doing the things that you want, but in Leopard on a fast Mac it is excellent.

You will not end up duplicating your files on the Mac as everything is databased once in the library.

You can review the photos as events, as described above, and also create as many albums as you want. If you drag a photo from one album to another it will appear in both albums (but not duplicate in the library). You can of course cut and paste in the usual way too.

All photograph data is available and you can use smart albums to, for example, locate files originated on a particular camera, or format or whatever. Good labeling when you import in the first place (as suggested above), and good label management subsequently, will help.

I have not found that Aperture, loaded on another Mac in my office, is any better than iPhoto in Leopard for organizing several thousand photos. However, I suspect it may well be advantageous if you mainly handle RAW files (I don't).

Peakoverload · Mar 27, 2008

aeRo.nz said:
Why do you say that? What advantages do lightroom and apeture have over iPhoto? Also which is better and why? Ive just moved to a macbook and am SOOOOO Confused about what to do about file organisation I will probably not transfer my photos over but I take about 300 photos a week, and end up with raw and jpeg files, as well as some tiffs or psd's.

I know I will want CS3 for doing editing, but what should I use for organising?

Thanks heaps for any help or advice you guys can lend me

iPhoto is a fantastic program considering that it's basically free when you buy a Mac but it is aimed at Mr & Mrs Average who just want an easy to use program to make their photos look 'better' and easier to find. In other words it's not aimed at someone who takes photography seriously.

What advantages do Lightroom and Aperture have over iPhoto? Wow, where do you start? Lightroom and Aperture have far more powerful cataloguing tools, photo editing tools, RAW processing tools, export tools, metadata tools etc etc etc.

You said "I know I will want CS3 for doing editing but what should I use for organising?".

Okay, why do you "Know" that you will want CS3? I bet that in actual fact you DON'T need CS3. That is to say you DON'T need CS3 if you have Lightroom or Aperture. Why? Because you can do a lot of editing in these programs which negate the need for CS3 in a lot of situations. You are right that you will need an editing program to work with Lightroom or Aperture because there are some things that Aperture or Lightroom can't do like dodging, burning, working with layer masks but all of those are possible with Elements at a fraction of the cost of CS3.

I used to use Photoshop CS2 for all my editing and just catalogued my photos with Bridge. I then upgraded to CS3 but at the same time bought Aperture. I now use Aperture for everything and edit less than 1% of my photos in CS3, in fact I can't even remember the last time I even launched CS3. I seriously wish that I hadn't upgraded to CS3 and had either stuck with CS2 or just bought Elements as the combination of Elements and Aperture or Elements and Lightroom is nigh on perfect. Really CS2/3 is now only needed if you do graphical work or don't have either Lightroom or Aperture.

aeRo.nz · Mar 27, 2008

Peakoverload said:
iPhoto is a fantastic program considering that it's basically free when you buy a Mac but it is aimed at Mr & Mrs Average who just want an easy to use program to make their photos look 'better' and easier to find. In other words it's not aimed at someone who takes photography seriously.

What advantages do Lightroom and Aperture have over iPhoto? Wow, where do you start? Lightroom and Aperture have far more powerful cataloguing tools, photo editing tools, RAW processing tools, export tools, metadata tools etc etc etc.

You said "I know I will want CS3 for doing editing but what should I use for organising?".

Okay, why do you "Know" that you will want CS3? I bet that in actual fact you DON'T need CS3. That is to say you DON'T need CS3 if you have Lightroom or Aperture. Why? Because you can do a lot of editing in these programs which negate the need for CS3 in a lot of situations. You are right that you will need an editing program to work with Lightroom or Aperture because there are some things that Aperture or Lightroom can't do like dodging, burning, working with layer masks but all of those are possible with Elements at a fraction of the cost of CS3.

I used to use Photoshop CS2 for all my editing and just catalogued my photos with Bridge. I then upgraded to CS3 but at the same time bought Aperture. I now use Aperture for everything and edit less than 1% of my photos in CS3, in fact I can't even remember the last time I even launched CS3. I seriously wish that I hadn't upgraded to CS3 and had either stuck with CS2 or just bought Elements as the combination of Elements and Aperture or Elements and Lightroom is nigh on perfect. Really CS2/3 is now only needed if you do graphical work or don't have either Lightroom or Aperture.

Hey cool, thanks all for your input, I will be downloading the trials of apeture and lightroom and see what they are like. Your comment about 99% being fone in apeture/lightroom seems pretty common. Thanks again

Even mac forums are more useful than Windoze....

TLB · Apr 1, 2008

Importing to iPhoto library

I have similar situation with large number of photos already transferred from windows pc to external hard drive attached to iMac.

My question is, what actually happens when one imports photos into iPhoto (08)? Is a copy made of the original on the external hard drive and then placed on the iMac hard drive? Or, is a pointer created, pointing from the iMac hard drive iPhoto library to the image in the external hard drive?

Thanks.

skybolt · Apr 2, 2008

Only one copy is imported, and will be imported to whichever library was last opened. So, if you always work off the external, the import will go to the external, and vice versa.

TLB · Apr 2, 2008

I hope I'm not being dense, but I'm not sure I understand.

If I run iPhoto 08 and then import a photo from the external hard drive, iPhoto is not going to actually put a copy of the photo in a library on the iMac internal hard drive? There is only going to be one copy of the photo (on the external hard drive), correct?

The reason I ask is, the first time I tried iPhoto, just test driving it, it seemed to me it was importing the photo from the external hard drive to the iMac internal hard drive. I guess I should have checked both drives to see if there was a photo on each one, but I didn't and I don't have access to the iMac until next week. Just trying to get the new concepts right in my mind.

Thanks.

skybolt · Apr 2, 2008

TLB said:
I hope I'm not being dense, but I'm not sure I understand.

If I run iPhoto 08 and then import a photo from the external hard drive, iPhoto is not going to actually put a copy of the photo in a library on the iMac internal hard drive? There is only going to be one copy of the photo (on the external hard drive), correct?

The reason I ask is, the first time I tried iPhoto, just test driving it, it seemed to me it was importing the photo from the external hard drive to the iMac internal hard drive. I guess I should have checked both drives to see if there was a photo on each one, but I didn't and I don't have access to the iMac until next week. Just trying to get the new concepts right in my mind.

Thanks.

O.K., if you have not changed the location of the library that iPhoto points to (the default is your internal drive), then when you use the import function, and point to the external for the source of your photos, then, yes, iPhoto will import the real picture, not make an alias to it. You will then have the photos on both your internal and external drive. You can then delete the ones on your external and all will be on your internal.

Does that answer what you asked?

TLB · Apr 7, 2008

Mary,
Yes it does. In fact, I'd like to keep the photos on the external drive. I set it up so it would be the repository for video, photos and music. Now, I think I can figure out a work around.

How does iPhoto '06 handle this? The same way as '08?

skybolt · Apr 7, 2008

Yes, I believe so. Until and unless you manually change the active library (by holding down the option key while opening iPhoto), everything will default to the last used library.

quantity · May 16, 2008

I have a related question. Ours is a mixed household with a variety of computers. I used to keep all our photos on one of the macs and shared the volume where they lived so windows machines could grab any photo file as needed. Since I upgraded to iphoto '08 this is no longer possible due to the new library format. I don't want to export all the photos, just have them browseable from the windows boxes. Can anyone suggest a solution? A pc-based viewer that understands the iphoto 08 library?

Thanks for any help,
The Quantity