iPhoto/Aperture question

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I got my first Mac yesterday (MBP) and have a few questions regarding pictures.

I imported pictures from an external hard drive to Aperture. Everything seemed to be OK. Then I read that Aperture can import from iPhoto without copying the files. But at that point I had already loaded the pics to Aperture and I don't think iPhoto can import the pics from Aperture without copying them...

To make things more confusing for myself, I loaded a few pics into iPhoto before deciding that I'm going to delete all of my imported pics so far and import all of them to iPhoto and then import all of those to Aperture. So I tried to delete the pics in iPhoto and that's where things got weird. Right now when I open iPhoto there are no actual pictures, but there are blank placeholders all over the place (if I knew how to take a screen shot in OSX, I would).

So I essentially have 2 questions:
1)How do I delete the 'placeholder' thumbnails that are now in iPhoto (and essentially bring it back to the stock configuration)?
2)How do I delete all of the pictures I imported to Aperture.

Thanks in advance for the help...
 
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Well I took a plunge and just deleted the entire iPhoto library.

Then when I started iPhoto again it told me it could not find a library, so I just created a new one. This seems to have fixed the problem.

I still feel lost, though, as to what to do with the pictures. I've been using Windows all my life and I'm very used to the hierarchy approach as opposed to files being linked to specific programs.

Any advice on image storage? Thanks...
 
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I can sympathize with your iPhoto experience. I had my various folders for photos when I used Windows and didn't want to give it up that system when I switched, but I really wanted to use iPhoto since I really liked every other "i" program that came with my Mac.

So not once, but twice, I made a full-scale attempt to make iPhoto my main viewing and organizing program (I backed up my original folders onto an external drive), but both times I ended up reverting to my system of folders, and frankly that's what works best for me still. I view and organize my photos on a third-party program (the one bundled with my digicam) and do my editing with Photoshop.

My point is the main problem I found was not really with how iPhoto displayed or organized photos, but when I wanted to edit a photo in Photoshop. I was always confused about where the edited photo was being saved, if the edited photo was a copy of the original or whether the original was now permanently altered, etc. I also didn't like having to use Spotlight or open sub-folder after sub-folder just to find a photo's actual file, either.

Anyhow, from one switcher to another, IT'S OKAY to not use or like iPhoto - really, you're forgiven. Keep your system of folders and use a third-party program(s) to view, organize, and edit them if you wish. I personally have found this to be much easier than trying to mess around with iPhoto's strange way of doing things. But I suppose this is the viewpoint of someone like me who likes editing with Photoshop instead of with iPhoto's editor. For most everyone else, iPhoto is probably just fine.
 
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Yes, I would have to agree with iWish on this one. iPhoto is more for people who are not going to use something as advanced as Apeture or Photoshop to deal with photos. In addition to changing compression (increasing) thus lowering image quality with multiple saves, its method of organizing takes away a good deal of control over the files, and for even a reasonably knowledgable photographer that is not a Good Thing.

My photos are very carefully controlled from the time they are taken, and need to be controlled manually much like exposures, f-stop, etc. For the guy who has a point-n-click camera iPhoto will be fine. But for the person who takes pride in photography your best off staying away from it.

I do, however, let iPhoto deal with pics taken with my iSight, but they are just silly pics usually.
 
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Thanks for the replies guys - sounds like we were in a similiar boat.

On my PC, I have been using the software that came with my camera - Canon Zoombrowser. I use this mainly for viewing pictures and I use Photoshop to edit them. The pictures are just saved by date under the 'My Pictures' folder. I know where everything was and it was pretty straight forward.

I have boot camp and parallels installed on my new mac, so I can use photoshop to edit the pictures when I want to. But I wanted to store the pictures on my Mac partition as I am hoping to primarily work in OSX - plus, the Windows partition is only 32 gigs due to Fat32 restrictions and I have used about 10 of that with software alone.

So I'm hoping to find a solution with iPhoto or (more likely) with Aperture, which I purchased with the expecation that it would become my primary viewing/editing program.

This is only my second day with the Mac, so I'm hoping I'll get acquainted with everything soon and things will start making more sense...I just have to figure out where to put everything and how these programs organize everything...

Thanks again.
 
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I have a Canon camera as well, and used to use Zoombrowser on my PC as well for getting the pics off the camera.

Image Capture, however will do a fine job of getting the pics off your camera and will let you put them wherever you want. I usually use a card reader to get the pics directly off the CF card.

For managing the pictures themselves, I use Photoshop's file browser after copying the images to my pictures folder, under another folder I call Digicam Pics under which I create folders that are named for the date of when I offload them. This being the OS X version of Photoshop (CS1); I'm sure that Aperture has a similar file browser type thing that will make managing photos a bit easier while giving you more control than iPhoto does.

Once a sufficient number of photos accumulate to fit [what was in the past a CD, but now a DVD] I'll burn them to disc and offload them to make room for more.

Also I admonished my wife not to use iPhoto and stick with using Photoshop to manage her pictures. She's not as technical as I but still does okay using (in this case CS2 with "Bridge") the Adobe file manager.

As another aside, since you've recently switched: Apple and Adobe are like two peas in a pod. My camera is not an SLR so it doesn't do raw format but saves to jpeg. When I have a shot that I deem a Great Photograph once it's loaded into Photoshop any changes are immediately saved to .PSD format, since all Apple programs will handle it (Preview, make it your background, screen savers, etc.) This ensures that you will not get further compression artifacts on anything you might do during post processing.

Unless you want to for saving for web, emailing to people that sort of thing.

If you're using Photoshop with Parallels note that you can drag the pictures on your Parallels VM directly over to your Pictures folder (or for that matter, any folder of your choosing.) I have Photoshop for OS X, but if I were using Photoshop 7 for Windows (which I have) on my Parallels VM I would use drag'n drop to pull them over to where they should be on the OS X side. Since I have Photoshop on my Mac I don't, but it is certainly easy enough to do post processing on the Windows side, and pull them over to the Mac side. Where, once again, the standard Mac photo tools will work with them without having to convert them.
 

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