iphoto and lots of photos

I have a 27 Imac and use iphoto for saving and viewing my photos , so far i haven't had any problems with it .. Now I have 9200+ pictures (47.6 gb) in the
library and I believe there will come a point where it will run slow .. I would like to move the (or some) pictures to an external HD but if I want to edit pics I would have to import them right..?.. I have edited some pics for my brother importing from a thumbdrive and it's a pain in the BUTT .. Is there a way to view and edit from a HD without importing ..
If possible I would also like to view and edit using my laptop I also have a MBP

Sure, you can move your iPhoto library to an external. But in order to edit images, the photo must be imported (you can easily export by dragging and dropping onto the desktop or a flash drive).

http://basics4mac.com/article.php/move_iphoto_lib

Honestly though, if I were looking at a growing photo library that big, I might consider moving up to Aperture.

Apple - Aperture - Pro performance with iPhoto simplicity.

I tried the 30 day trial Aperture 3 ,, it was ok but I found it hard to use and didn't find where it was that much better than iphoto for the price (about $300) ... I have an HP desktop with PH Elements and an HP laptop with Photoshop 6 .. I'm switching to Mac and find the iphoto adjustments just as good for my needs ..

Not sure where you saw that pricing, but Aperture 3 is $79 currently on the Mac App Store.

Would switching to Aperture solve the OP's original question of space?

My mistake .. I believe the full version is $199 (I thought it was $299) ... Isn't $79 the upgrade ..

dmunroe said:

My mistake .. I believe the full version is $199 (I thought it was $299) ... Isn't $79 the upgrade ..

Click to expand...

Near as I can tell, it's the full version. Check it out in the App Store:

Aperture on the Mac App Store

Both of you are correct. The retail boxed version of Aperture was (and still is, I believe) $199.

The Mac App Store version is lower-priced but is the same product, just without the box and printed materials. Apple lowered the price of the App Store version to encourage people to get used to buying software this way (and also because it's much closer to pure profit for them to do it that way).

corrupted iphoto library

hi! i need help re my iphoto library... i think it was corrupted and i want to delete this app as i am now using aperture... i am having problem creating album on Facebook and snappish as i accidentally clicked on the iphoto when i was choosing photos for the album... what should i do?... pls help... thanks!

To dmunroe (and cwa107): the answer to the problem of a iPhoto (or Aperture, or Lightroom) library that's grown to large is to split the library into separate smaller libraries.

For iPhoto, I recommend a program called iPhoto Library Manager ($20) to do this. You can easily start new libraries for free without using a third-party program; ILM is just handy when you already have one library and need to split it safely, preserving albums and ratings and smart albums and so forth.

Anyway, the trick to making a new iPhoto Library is to launch iPhoto holding the option key; it will ask if you want to create a new library or open a different one. This is how you can have some assets on one drive and some on another!

Just remember that the last library iPhoto opened will be the one it opens by default until you change it (or if the volume isn't available, you'll just get a notice to pick a different library.

Though probably using a different procedure, I'm sure Aperture and Lightroom have the same basic concept for different "vaults."

I tried to make a second library like you outlined using option key and it doesn't work ..?..

I used an external hd to backup , when I go to user , pictures they are listed same as my iphoto under events but all the pics aren't there , the pics I haven't sorted are listed under 100canon (approx. 10 of them now) but on the hd after I backup there are only 3 called 100canon .. I have a lot of pictures not on the external hd why didn't they backup ..

You launched the iPhoto application holding the OPTION key and you didn't get a dialogue box asking if you'd like to either make or open a new library? Are you sure?