Another noob questions...where are pictures stored?

This seriously can't be a difficult one. I managed to mount my old hard drive and copy entire directories out of it into iPhoto. Cool! So all my Vacation pictures from 2004, for example, were in a "HK2004" folder. I copy it to iPhoto and its got a new event showing "HK2004". Awesome!

But I can't find any of these pictures when I go into the Mac Hard drive. Huh? I mean, I can see them all in iPhoto and can even add more photos to that event (not easily since it tries to create a new event but within two clicks I can get it in)...but where are the actual photos saved? I'd like to be able to go into a directory and see them.

...or lets say I find a photo online I want to add into this directory, I'm rather unsure where to save it after I've clicked on it. Do I need to create a new folder for downloads?

in your iphoto library. go to Users - pictures - iPhoto library (right click on it, show package contents) then in a folder called originals. don't go changing anything inside this iPhoto Library, your better off importing them through the app itself.

maybe someone has a better technique, but thats how i do it.

That is certainly the easiest way I know of

- Simon

Ah. Cool! I was almost ready to keep a "hard copy" on my old Windows box. Thanks!

Phacade said:

Ah. Cool! I was almost ready to keep a "hard copy" on my old Windows box. Thanks!

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I would keep a backup of them on DVD just in case. You never know what is going to happen, and it would suck to have a crash and loose all the photos you can't replace.

You've discovered why I don't use iPhoto any more I like to know where my images are! And, unless you use iPhoto as your photo store and use software, like Aperture, that links to the iPhoto database, you continually have to save files to other directories that you can manipulate safely. It's a tedious process - so, no iPhoto for me and no Aperture either. I'll stick with programs that let me keep my files where I want 'em.

You can choose to have iPhoto/Aperture not import the photos into the library, but only reference them from a directory structure that you set up elsewhere. Then you can just use iPhoto/Aperture as a front end to access them all in one place, set up albums, etc., while keeping them separate from the library structure.

Really? Can I make that decision now (retroactively) since iPhoto already has them in its own little library? What are the steps to do this? I like the idea of storing them in their own little seperate area.

didymus said:

You've discovered why I don't use iPhoto any more I like to know where my images are! And, unless you use iPhoto as your photo store and use software, like Aperture, that links to the iPhoto database, you continually have to save files to other directories that you can manipulate safely. It's a tedious process - so, no iPhoto for me and no Aperture either. I'll stick with programs that let me keep my files where I want 'em.

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Why bother? Do you really need to know specifically where your images are? I mean, if you've got a dozen different photo apps, I can see where that would be helpful. But if all of your manipulation is done in iPhone, I'd rather iPhoto handles them. iPhoto not only stores the photos, it also stores revisions and the original, so by tending to them and keeping you from manipulating the files, they're actually safer. And of course, if you occasionally need to get them out of iPhoto, it's a simple drag and drop.

I used to obsess over managing my own files my way - until I realized how tedious that was. When I let go of it, it was one less thing to stress over. And I haven't lost a single photo or had any trouble sharing my photos in the way that I want to.

Now, if you're seriously into multiple photo editors, I can see how that can be cumbersome - but if you are, you probably have no use for iPhoto anyway.

Even if you let iPhoto handle your photos, you can still navigate to them when you want to attach or upload them somewhere, and if you want to simply copy all your photos to someplace else, you can just open the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder, as explained above, copy and paste them wherever you like.

But if you really don't want iPhoto handling your pictures, just keep them in the Pictures folder in your Documents.

and if you want to simply copy all your photos to someplace else, you can just open the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder,

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There is simply no need to do that. Just select them from the any iPhoto window and just drag bthem into a Finder window. If you want to resize them then you can go via the Export option.

I would strongly advise against going into the iPhoto file structure via Finder and start messing with your pictures there. It can cause all sorts of problems.

MightyGem has saved me a post.

Everyone I've **EVER** met, online or off, who complained about losing photos in iPhoto eventually admitted that they MUCKED AROUND inside the iPhoto library, and caused their own problems.

You can do *anything you want* in iPhoto, but you have to do it **within iPhoto**, not in the Finder. Unless you enjoy losing pictures, I'd take that to heart.

Importing references to photos

Chef_eam said:

You can choose to have iPhoto/Aperture not import the photos into the library, but only reference them from a directory structure that you set up elsewhere. Then you can just use iPhoto/Aperture as a front end to access them all in one place, set up albums, etc., while keeping them separate from the library structure.

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How is this done. I already have my photos in Elements but the slideshow feature doesn't work in the Mac version so I just want iphoto to reference my images without importing them and duplicating hard drive space.

Okay, lets take this from another angle. Suppose one was willing to waste the time. Could I go through iPhoto and delete all my photos (I have them backed up anyway), and then save them all (in seperate folders of course depending on cars/family/vacation/etc) inside a new pictures folder I'd create somewhere else under my user account.

Could I then "import" these pictures from the new folder I created? (thinking outloud here) Would I be able to add photos to this directory? Or is all this more trouble than its worth?

End result: I want to be able to add new photos to each event at will and be able to edit them occasionally (probably in Pixelmator) or email them out or post one occasionally online.

Suppose one was willing to waste the time. Could I go through iPhoto and delete all my photos

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Yes. It would take about 30 seconds. Main iPhoto window, Select All, delete.

then save them all (in seperate folders of course depending on cars/family/vacation/etc) inside a new pictures folder I'd create somewhere else under my user account.

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Yes, just drag them from your backup.

Could I then "import" these pictures from the new folder I created?

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Import into iPhoto? Of course.

I want to be able to add new photos to each event at will

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You can't add photos to an Event in iPhoto, but you can merge two Events to make one.

edit them occasionally (probably in Pixelmator)

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To edit a photo in iPhoto, you double click it. In iPhoto Preferences, you can choose which Application that photo opens in for editing.

or email them out or post one occasionally online.

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You can email direct from iPhoto and post online direct to Facebook and the like.

Sounds like what you want to be doing is adding all your photos into your Pictures folder first, then adding them to iPhoto for editing and emailing.

Why would you want a separate program for editing photos when iPhoto will let you crop, remove red eye, adjust the color, touch up blemishes, etc?

I guess I'm not too sure what your hesitation with iPhoto is. You'll still be able to email them, upload them, attach them and edit them with iPhoto.

I don't use iPhoto anymore because I have switched to Aperture, but when I did I liked its ease of use and capabilities.
To someone just getting started with iPhoto I would reccomend 3 things:

1) Play with it. As Chas_m said its hard to really mess up as long as you do your experimenting within iPhoto (obviously have a backup)
2) Buy and read 'iPhoto the Missing Manual' a well written and valuable resource
3) Download iPhotoLibrayManager

I probably could have said this more simply. Suppose I'm on Facebook and I want to upload a picture. Facebook asks me to select an image file on my computer. I click "browse". It brings up a location. I assume I click on my username under places and go to pictures. This brings up iPhoto Library and...I'm stuck. No individual pictures listed.

What am I missing? There are lots of sites I'd like to be able to browse my disk for photos for, but if I can't physically find them in file upload, I'm lost.

Edit: Well I did find a way to do it. All my pictures were in iPhoto under "Events", but I didn't have any albums. So I basically created an album for each of my events and I was able to navigate to each individual picture a lot easier. My only concern is that I've basically saved the same picture twice over on my hard drive; basically taking double the space for my pictures.

Phacade said:

I probably could have said this more simply. Suppose I'm on Facebook and I want to upload a picture. Facebook asks me to select an image file on my computer. I click "browse". It brings up a location. I assume I click on my username under places and go to pictures. This brings up iPhoto Library and...I'm stuck. No individual pictures listed.

What am I missing? There are lots of sites I'd like to be able to browse my disk for photos for, but if I can't physically find them in file upload, I'm lost.

Edit: Well I did find a way to do it. All my pictures were in iPhoto under "Events", but I didn't have any albums. So I basically created an album for each of my events and I was able to navigate to each individual picture a lot easier. My only concern is that I've basically saved the same picture twice over on my hard drive; basically taking double the space for my pictures.

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I don't think Albums or Smart Albums creates a copy of the image, it only adds a tag for indexing.
And, as you have probably seen you can upload directly from within an event by clicking on the photo, you have a Facebook upload icon at the bottom of the window.

I knew about the Facebook upload icon, but say I wanted to upload to Focaljet or ClassicBattletech or Xanga? I needed another option, hense the query. And thanks for the 411 on indexing. I was concerned I was duplicating or tripling the space needed to store my pictures.