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Viewing photos before importing to MBA?

W

woodynorman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 26, 2011
672
311
I took almost 1000 pics at an off road race last week with my new DSLR. I insert the SD card in my MBA but can only see a thumbnail view , not full screen, of each photo without importing it into iPhoto. I have the Nikon Transfer app too but it seems to work the same.

I really don't want to put a 1000 photos on my already maxed out 128gb MBA, i want to just pick out the best ones for importing. Is there an easy way to view the photos full screen without importing?

Thanks!
 
F

flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,242
126
Portland, OR
Have you considered putting your library on an external drive?

IMHO... your core problem is too small of a drive for your intended purpose. You are considering a convoluted work-flow to compensate. The alternate approach is to get an external drive, and preserve a quality workflow.

BTW: The is exactly the reason I choose a large SSD for my MBA. When I am in the field... I like to import everything into my MBA... which is then backed up to the cloud nightly. I shoot RAW+JPEG... so at 30MB/picture... my library grows fast... typically several GB/day.

/Jim
 
W

woodynorman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 26, 2011
672
311
I'm no professional photographer. I dont have a library. I just like to take pics of my hobby. Plus I have no idea how to take a really good picture, so I snapped a lot just to get a few good ones, which I use for screensaver shots or to share with friends (my intended purpose). I dont want to keep them all...just a few, which dont take up much room on my computer.

Thanks for your reply, though.

Now back to my original question...
 
F

flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,242
126
Portland, OR
woodynorman said:
I'm no professional photographer. I dont have a library. I just like to take pics of my hobby. Plus I have no idea how to take a really good picture, so I snapped a lot just to get a few good ones, which I use for screensaver shots or to share with friends (my intended purpose). I dont want to keep them all...just a few, which dont take up much room on my computer.

Thanks for your reply, though.

Now back to my original question...
Click to expand...

In that case... just take the SD card out of your DSLR and put it into your SD Card slot on your MBA. Navigate to the place where your pictures are stored... and double click your pictures one at a time. It should open in a large window using the "preview" application.

If it doesn't open with preview, right click and select "Open with preview". (there are ways to make Preview the default if is already isn't for some reason).

If you would like to quickly scroll through tons of pictures... select them all (Command-A is the fastest way)... then open them all at once in Preview. You can flick through them using the arrow keys.

/Jim
 
W

woodynorman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 26, 2011
672
311
Thanks! Seems so easy now :) I'm not too computer savvy. Exactly the help I needed.

Here's one of my better pics from the race

DSC_0333_zps561cd111.jpg
 
Last edited:
mtngoatjoe

mtngoatjoe

macrumors 6502
Jun 10, 2008
270
56
If you're going to take that many photos on a regular basis, I'm thinking that using an external drive might be a good idea. If you create a new library and save it to the external drive, you could then import and review your pics there. With that many photos, I think it's going to be much easier (and faster) to compare photos and delete the bad ones than using Preview.

You could then export your favorites and import them into the iPhoto library on your internal MBP hard drive. This way, you can have a repository with all your photos on the external drive (that can stay home if you want) and the best ones on your internal drive that you can take with you everywhere. It's something to think about.
 
W

woodynorman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 26, 2011
672
311
Thanks for that info. After yours and the previous poster suggested it I bought an external drive to save pics. Seems like a good idea. I also buy smaller SD cards and fill em and save em in a safe place.

Thanks all!
 
V

vandrv

macrumors 6502
Jan 27, 2008
265
28
woodynorman said:
Thanks for that info. After yours and the previous poster suggested it I bought an external drive to save pics. Seems like a good idea. I also buy smaller SD cards and fill em and save em in a safe place.

Thanks all!
Click to expand...

I wouldn't use SD cards as storage for you photos. That could get expensive quickly and become a nightmare to try and search for photos. I would recommend a second hard drive as backup.
 
W

woodynorman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 26, 2011
672
311
I did get an external drive. Just stating that when I fill up a card, I don't erase it and re-use it. Rather I will stash it away in a safe place as a backup of my backup. SD cards aren't all that expensive.
 
V

vandrv

macrumors 6502
Jan 27, 2008
265
28
woodynorman said:
I did get an external drive. Just stating that when I fill up a card, I don't erase it and re-use it. Rather I will stash it away in a safe place as a backup of my backup. SD cards aren't all that expensive.
Click to expand...

Compared to hard drives, they are.
 
M

MrGIS

macrumors regular
Jul 30, 2010
193
60
Ontario Canada
woodynorman said:
I did get an external drive. Just stating that when I fill up a card, I don't erase it and re-use it. Rather I will stash it away in a safe place as a backup of my backup. SD cards aren't all that expensive.
Click to expand...

SD cards are very expensive relative to hard drives, and they are not a viable backup of your backup. You should be considering something like Time Machine and/or Carbonite, but don't continue down the SD card path. I forbid you!
 
V

vandrv

macrumors 6502
Jan 27, 2008
265
28
MrGIS said:
SD cards are very expensive relative to hard drives, and they are not a viable backup of your backup. You should be considering something like Time Machine and/or Carbonite, but don't continue down the SD card path. I forbid you!
Click to expand...

My guess is he will quickly see the error of his ways.
 
W

woodynorman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 26, 2011
672
311
I appreciate all the replies. I really don't take many pics though.

I paid like 6 bucks for the 8gb card that I shot like almost 1000 pics with at the KOH race. There's still some room left on it. That is a rare occurrence for me to take that many pics. The 32gb card that came with my camera is maybe 1/4 full, if that. I bought it like 3 months ago and took a lot of test pics with it. On average I would guess that I will take maybe 50 pics a month at the most. At that rate it will be a very long time before I fill a 32gb card.

Sure it may cost me a few bucks to stash away that 8gb card Rather than reuse it, but I like knowing that I have a backup of my backup in case something bad happens.

I just picked up an Apple time machine for backup of my MB air. Can I store my photos on there too?
 
M

MrGIS

macrumors regular
Jul 30, 2010
193
60
Ontario Canada
woodynorman said:
I appreciate all the replies. I really don't take many pics though.

I paid like 6 bucks for the 8gb card that I shot like almost 1000 pics with at the KOH race. There's still some room left on it. That is a rare occurrence for me to take that many pics. The 32gb card that came with my camera is maybe 1/4 full, if that. I bought it like 3 months ago and took a lot of test pics with it. On average I would guess that I will take maybe 50 pics a month at the most. At that rate it will be a very long time before I fill a 32gb card.

Sure it may cost me a few bucks to stash away that 8gb card Rather than reuse it, but I like knowing that I have a backup of my backup in case something bad happens.

I just picked up an Apple time machine for backup of my MB air. Can I store my photos on there too?
Click to expand...

Yes... Time Machine will backup all your files..
 
Apple fanboy

Apple fanboy

macrumors Ivy Bridge
Feb 21, 2012
55,216
52,869
Behind the Lens, UK
woodynorman said:
I appreciate all the replies. I really don't take many pics though.

I paid like 6 bucks for the 8gb card that I shot like almost 1000 pics with at the KOH race. There's still some room left on it. That is a rare occurrence for me to take that many pics. The 32gb card that came with my camera is maybe 1/4 full, if that. I bought it like 3 months ago and took a lot of test pics with it. On average I would guess that I will take maybe 50 pics a month at the most. At that rate it will be a very long time before I fill a 32gb card.

Sure it may cost me a few bucks to stash away that 8gb card Rather than reuse it, but I like knowing that I have a backup of my backup in case something bad happens.

I just picked up an Apple time machine for backup of my MB air. Can I store my photos on there too?
Click to expand...
Having a back up of your back up can never hurt. For digital media to be safe you should have at least three copies, in two different locations (cloud or physical location of one of your copies).
 
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