Photos and Folders Organization

I recently purchased a macbook and am in the process of moving all of my photographs over from my pc. What is the best way to organize all of these files? On the pc i just have layers and layers of folders.

I don't really understand iPhoto, when i drop the files into iphoto from my external hard drive, where do they go? Can i find the file somewhere in a folder on my mac HD or do i have to always go through iphoto.

If i make folders on my hard drive for my photographs that are also in iphoto, am i taking up twice as much space as i need to?


THanks in advance,
Stephanie

Your photos are stored in your home folder, under Pictures, then iPhoto library. This contains all the photos that iPhoto will use. If you are going to use iPhoto, do NOT do anything to/with your photos in the library in finder (don't rename, move, edit, rotate or anything else -- corruption and lost photos will ensue). Forget that this folder exists!

Open iPhoto, use the import function to import your photos folder by folder (or else you will lose your organization). Name your photos whatever you want (if they are not already named) using the info pane on the lower left. You can batch change them if desired by selecting the photos you want to change, then clicking "Photos" on the menubar, the "Batch Change" and entering the changes you want. Then, within iPhoto, you can create folders (for example "Vacations" and within that, create albums (for example, "Summer 2007", "Winter 2005"). Use keywords for even more organization and you will be able to find anything quickly.

If you want to upload photos to MySpace or anywhere else, drag the photo to the desktop, or again, use the export function (that will give you options as to size) to put your photo on the desktop, and then upload from there.

There is NEVER a need to go into the library in finder. iPhoto is a good and strong organizational tool that will take an enormous amount of work off your shoulders. The editing functions are fine for regular photos, but if you need more, there are several additional programs (Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, etc.) that can help. You can set these to be your external editor from within the iPhoto preferences, and then when you click to edit, the external probram will open, you can edit, and then it will save the photo back to where it came from. Simple!

And, yes, if you create folders on your hard drive with your photos, and then import them into iPhoto, you will take up twice the space. They only need to be in iPhoto. iPhoto will always keep the original of you photo in case you ever want to revert back (after editing) to the original. So you will have a folder with originals and a folder with "modified" photos, but that is the only duplication.

Good luck, enjoy iPhoto and its strong capabilities! Come over to the easy mac way!

I presume you are using iPhoto 6 if so don't go messing in your iPhoto folder it will only confuse iPhoto .If you are using IPhoto08 you wont find anything but a folder in your Pictures folder (Thats so you don't play with the contents.)
Use iPhoto for your shots and basic editing. and everything will be just fine.
If you want to have your photo library on your extern you can import all your shots to iPhoto then drag your iPhoto library folder to your Hard disk and launch iPhoto holding the ⌥ key down you can then point to your libraries new location from there (Or you can just launch iPhoto and it will ask what in the world you have done with it and you can then point to it)
Good Luck

Ps. after which your Originals you can then use as a back up or just delete them

iPhoto confuses dates?

Ok, quick question on the iPhoto subject. Why does it separate the photos by year? And when it does that, why does it take half of my roll I just added and put it in 2005 and half in 2006, but the current year is 2007? No, my camera is not out of date. Thanks in advance!


I heart macs.

I can't think of a reason it does this . Is it iPhoto 6 ? or 08 ?
I had a few shots doing this when I went over to 08 but fixed it with the change date and time function in 08.
My mates camera reset it's date to a default so that was what had caused that problem I since found out. Were the half rolls mentioned at the beginning of the year ? December/January?

Thanks everyone, thats exactly what i was looking for...Now i just have to play around it with it and get everything looking the way i like it! Thanks