Using iPhoto

What am I doing wrong? I am importing a photo from a folder to iPhoto, then clicking on edit, and cropping it. I am then exporting the photo back to the same folder. Why does it not save it as i had cropped it?

i had the same problem, once you crop exit that photo by clicking the "photo" button in the upper left to go back to all your photos then open the cropped version and export that. seems odd but it works

NewTekBuzz said:

i had the same problem, once you crop exit that photo by clicking the "photo" button in the upper left to go back to all your photos then open the cropped version and export that. seems odd but it works

Click to expand...

Thanks....That worked. It is odd though that you have to do it that way.

pokermaniac said:

Thanks....That worked. It is odd though that you have to do it that way.

Click to expand...

I am finding a lot of things to be odd with iPhoto... maybe because im new to mac
glad it worked!

exit that photo by clicking the "photo" button

Click to expand...

Or the "Done" button at the bottom left hand corner.

Thanks...I'll try that.

Working on photos in folders in Finder is not what iPhoto is designed for. iPhoto's main purpose is to organize your photos so you can find them quickly and easily. It has some basic editing tools to use on the photos that are organized inside. But if you want to do something as simple as a Crop that is in a folder in Finder just drag the photo, photos or a whole folder to the dock and drop on Preview. You can do your crop and save back to the folder before iPhoto even opens up. When you learn to use Preview by selecting more that one photo at a time or just dropping the whole folder on it you will find all kinds of things become available that aren't available when you open just a single file. I don't know if you are Cropping just so you can email a smaller photo, but if that is your reason then there is no reason to crop in the first place. If you want to email a photo that is inside iPhoto select the photo or photos then use the Share button on the bottom right. When you select Email from the drop down menu you will be able to select a size for the photos. If you want to Email a photo or photos from a folder in Finder just drag to the dock and drop on the mail icon, mail will open with the photos in it and a button will appear on the bottom right that will let you select the size to send.

Thank you for the info Pomeroy. Is there a simple, free editing program for a Mac that I can use also? Something like IrfanView for a PC.

You need Seashore - Seashore - based on Gimp, which you could use if you want to work at the Photoshop level. I gave up on iPhoto - having to export files to use some other editor is a pain in the butt. So I keep my images in ordinary files that I can access from anywhere and use Photoshop Elements as my main editor.

Thanks, however I don't really want to work at the Photoshop level.....Too confusing for me. I just want to really be able to do simple things, like crop, rotate, erase, draw lines through, etc.

EDIT: After reading up on Seashore, I may give it a whirl.....It does the basic things that I need. Thanks again.

didymus said:

You need Seashore - Seashore - based on Gimp, which you could use if you want to work at the Photoshop level. I gave up on iPhoto - having to export files to use some other editor is a pain in the butt. So I keep my images in ordinary files that I can access from anywhere and use Photoshop Elements as my main editor.

Click to expand...

Maybe you can help me. I downloaded Seashore, and opened and used it from my Download folder, however, it does not show up as an Application. It was a zip file. How do I get it to show up in my Applications folder? Do I just drag it from Downloads to my Applications folder?

EDIT: Dragged it to the Apps folder and now it's installed.

You're getting the hang of it!

There are also at least a dozen other photo editors, ranging in price from free to a modest amount, that you can use to work with photos as well. Also have a look at LiveQuartz, Pixelmator, GraphicConverter and Photoshop Elements.

Thank you chas_m....I think that i'll try to get used to Seashore for now, but keep the others in mind in case I want to change. Thanks also for the vote of confidence!

Acorn is another app you can use FREE or buy the pro version if you need it.

If you used IrfanView in Windows here is a list I did of a comparison between Preview and IrfanView when I first mover to a Mac.

A list of things I copied from the IrfanView web site.

▪ Multi language support -Preview does
▪ Thumbnail/preview option -Preview does
▪ Paint option - to draw lines, circles, arrows, straighten image etc. -Preview Annotates with arrows, boxes, circles and text
▪ Toolbar skins option No
▪ Slideshow (save slideshow as EXE/SCR or burn it to CD) -Preview does slide shows, but to save or burn use iPhoto or iMovie
▪ Show EXIF/IPTC/Comment text in Slideshow/Fulloes etc. -Preview No, iPhoto yes
▪ Support for Adobe Photoshop Filters No
▪ Fast directory view (moving through directory) -Preview does
▪ Batch conversion (with image processing) -Preview does somethings like resize or rotate
▪ Multipage TIF editing Don't know
▪ File search -Preview does
▪ Email option -Preview does
▪ Multimedia player -Preview No, Quicklook yes
▪ Print option -Preview does
▪ Support for embedded color profiles in JPG/TIF -Preview does
▪ Change color depth -Don't kmow
▪ Scan (batch scan) support -Preview does
▪ Cut/crop -Preview does
▪ IPTC editing -Preview does
▪ Effects (Sharpen, Blur, Adobe 8BF, Filter Factory, Filters Unlimited, etc.) -Preview does Sharpen and Color Correction but no Adobe filters
▪ Screen Capturing -Preview does
▪ Extract icons from EXE/DLL/ICLs -No EXE, DLL's or ICL's on a Mac
▪ Lossless JPG rotation -Preview does
▪ Unicode support -Preview ?
▪ Many hotkeys -Preview does
▪ Many command line options -No
▪ Many PlugIns -No
▪ Only one EXE-File, no DLLs, no Shareware messages like "I Agree" or "Evaluation expired" -Preview is only one file, there are no DLLs on a Mac and of course no Nag screens
▪ No registry changes without user action/permission! -No registry on a Mac
▪ and much much more -Preview does PDF's as well

Thank you very much for the comparison and all of the info. I guess I'll still keep Seashore, and see if Preview can take care of my needs. I didn't know that Preview did all of those things.

Can't get my cropped version out of iPhoto

I scanned a photo, used iPhoto to clean it ("touchup") and crop. When i export it, it just exports the original scan, i.e. the photo plus the large white area of the scanning bed, not the cropped/cleaned version. I know the App-ologists use the "it's not really meant to be an editing program" excuse, but why have editing tools, if you can't 'save' the changes...?
Also, when I try to edit the same scan with Preview, I drag the crop box around it, click on 'crop' and the photo disappears! I have Lion 10.7.2 and scanned it as a bitmap.

I don't use iPhoto for quick editing, I now use Preview. The fact that your photo disappears when you crop it in Preview is very strange. I am running 10.7.3, and do not have that problem. This kind of thing is hard to determine the problem without being there and seeing how you are doing it. Hopefully someone will respond with a more detailed explanation of what may be happening.

Lot of misconceptions in this thread. Nobody said you can't edit in iPhoto -- it's a great editor that's more than powerful enough for 90 percent of users.

You do HAVE to click the "done" button, however, once you've made edits. iPhoto is (correctly) super-cautious about saving edits unless you really mean to.

In my earlier message I was suggesting some options for editors that are more advanced in one way or another than iPhoto, but frankly if all you want to do is crop, rotate, improve, touch up and manage photos, iPhoto is still the best tool for that I've found on the consumer level. When you move to RAW shooting you may want something more powerful, but for P&S type photos iPhoto is perfectly fine for most people.

Once the editing process is COMPLETE, you can export, or just drag, photos out of iPhoto to use elsewhere if you want to. But until you've committed the changes, iPhoto assumes you want the original when you export.

Thanks for clearing that up. It's been a while since I've looked at this thread, and have tried a few Apps during that time. I find that for me, Preview works the best, for I do very simple editing.

Good point, I forgot to mention Preview. I find it too limiting as an editor but it would certainly work for some and it is overall a fantastic little tool for a lot of different purposes. I use it a lot to make PDFs and for annotating screenshots.