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For those who hate iPhoto
- Thread starter lardin
- Start date
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i hate iphoto and that i need an iphoto library for anything. that sucks i think (no photos in frontrow for example).
i think this app won't solve this problem, right?
i think this app won't solve this problem, right?
i hate iphoto and that i need an iphoto library for anything. that sucks i think (no photos in frontrow for example).
i think this app won't solve this problem, right?
iPhoto was and is my biggest dissapointment on the mac. I was hoping for great things from it, but I simply can't use it.
I wish they allowed you to view images that you've organised already, I've got 8gb of pictures all organised in folders, but in order to get the in iPhoto I'd have to start from scratch. Not to mention its inability to use nested albums.
Having used vista's photo gallery for a few weeks, this is what iPhoto should be, it has all the functionality of iPhoto with none of the downsides.
I've tried various alternatives, but none has nailed it for me. I tend to just use preview now to save the hassle.
this is exactly why i hate iphoto, why can it just allow u to keep ur own folder/subfolder structure and not making those stupid copies in its own mysterious directory.
preview is good, but u cant really look at more than 1 folder at a time. try the one i recommended, it is really small, fast, simple, and FREE, it is the closest thing to picasa on mac.
preview is good, but u cant really look at more than 1 folder at a time. try the one i recommended, it is really small, fast, simple, and FREE, it is the closest thing to picasa on mac.
Are you sure this is still the case? I think there's a Preference checkbox that allows you to leave your file structure intact. Kinda like the iTunes checkbox to not allow iTunes to organize your music.
I can't say for sure, as I have been using iPhoto from the beginning, so I just leave my photos in the iPhoto structure.
ft
That's right... and you can do nested folders now as well.
Actually, iPhoto is my most used mac app, and the one that's let me convince several others to switch. the convenience of having all of your photos in one place, with an easy way to do simple manipulations, as well as do slideshows, books, cards, calendars, etc. is amazing.
And each version gets better...
Phoenix slides is a great program! I highly recommend it.
And yes, iPhoto does allow you to use your own folder structure, but it's not very user friendly. It does not show and folders or subfolders in the sources section: only the dates of the pictures. Picassa is much friendlier than iPhoto. And it's faster.
Until Apple improves iPhoto or until we get a better alternative, Phoenix slides is my photo viewing program of choice
And yes, iPhoto does allow you to use your own folder structure, but it's not very user friendly. It does not show and folders or subfolders in the sources section: only the dates of the pictures. Picassa is much friendlier than iPhoto. And it's faster.
Until Apple improves iPhoto or until we get a better alternative, Phoenix slides is my photo viewing program of choice
ok, ok, i guess i need to make myself more clearly. after u import ur pic into iphoto, u get two copies under user/pictures/iphoto library. one in the "data" folder and the other one in the "originals". i knew the first one isnt a real copy, it is more like a alias file or sth, but still annoy.
Why...?!? As in: Why the frell do you want to navigate the iPhoto library folder through the Finder in the first place...? That's what iPhoto is there for...
Get over your Windows habits and use the Mac the way it's intended or go back to Windows. Trying to make your Mac work as Windows is counter productive and a major potential source of frustration...
Why...?!? As in: Why the frell do you want to navigate the iPhoto library folder through the Finder in the first place...? That's what iPhoto is there for...
Get over your Windows habits and use the Mac the way it's intended or go back to Windows. Trying to make your Mac work as Windows is counter productive and a major potential source of frustration...
I good program is one that lets the user choose how they want to look at pictures. Sometimes it is easier to look for folders, sometimes not.
Personally I think iPhoto is a pain. I've tried to use it a few times it and it just doesn't work the way I would like it to.
I friend turned me on to iVew Media Pro
http://www.iview-multimedia.com/
and that is the program that I like do to it's cataloging abilities. So I can go through my photos and sort them how I like, referencing the photo many places but only one instance of the photo exists.
I really enjoy the iLife suite, but I would like it more if the built in media browser could pull pictures from folders instead of just what is in iPhoto.
It sounds like Adobe's new Lightbridge is right up your alley. Granted it's a little pricey for the amateur user, but I bought Aperture and love it. Aperture different, I know, and only Lightbridge allows you to keep your existing file structure, but my point is that these pro tools are really nice to use.
Another thing I like about iView Media Pro is that it is made for both Macs and PC's. So your not locked into a particular system; the catalogs I make can be read by either system.
A good program does it's thing with the least possible hassle for the user... if you're more concerned about how your images are stored on the computer than what you can actually do with them then by all means...
Then don't use it, and find another application that suits you better (like this thread is all about). Nothing wrong in that.
But, iPhoto works very well for thousands of people just the way it is, and to change that to every (switcher's) whim is just not frelling feasible. And would probably turn away lots of more users than it could bring in. So find alternatives, but stop complaining about iPhoto not being able to accomodate your "Windows" ways. That is highly annoying.
im using phoenix slides too. altho it has an ugly icon (u can change it by yourself tho), its at least 3X faster than iphoto.
thousands of bucks can't give us a chance to complain? Aren't we the users too?
and ur using of your guessing to argue ur opinion as if they are facts are really un-reasonable and not trustworthy.
thousands of bucks can't give us a chance to complain? Aren't we the users too?
and ur using of your guessing to argue ur opinion as if they are facts are really un-reasonable and not trustworthy.
A good program does it's thing with the least possible hassle for the user... if you're more concerned about how your images are stored on the computer than what you can actually do with them then by all means...
Then don't use it, and find another application that suits you better (like this thread is all about). Nothing wrong in that.
But, iPhoto works very well for thousands of people just the way it is, and to change that to every (switcher's) whim is just not frelling feasible. And would probably turn away lots of more users than it could bring in. So find alternatives, but stop complaining about iPhoto not being able to accomodate your "Windows" ways. That is highly annoying.
You had better get used to use "switchers" because half of Apples computer sales are to switchers. I switched because I like OSX a lot better. I just dont' like iPhoto. Get over it, not everything Apple does is perfect.
Also, I did find a better program; as I stated, it is called iView Media Pro. It has a lot of features I expect a media cataloging program to have. iView is not heavily folders based, it is based on creating references which is definately not a "Windows way". So get off you ignorant high horse.
It would be nice to see Apple include some of those features into iPhoto because Apple would probably make them easier to use.
The best photo browsing program that I found after almost 3 months of searching and trying different things is "Xee":
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19978
Having used IrfanView on Windows and being an advanced hobby photographer myself, I really hated the way iPhoto forces me to work. First of all, when I browse my pictures, I dont want to start a program whatsoever that can do fancy things with pictures. I want a preview-like thing, but Apple preview cant browse a whole folder by pressing the right arrow key (a completely incomprehensible limitation).
I tried PhoenixSlides, ViewIt, GraphicConverter and a couple of others, but Xee is almost what I want. However it's still missing a good EXIF data integration. I'd like to be able to display selected EXIF tags directly in the photo window, the way it can be done in IrfanView. I dont need an ugly big extra window giving me ALL 200 EXIF tags, I just want aperture, ISO and shutter speed, and displayed right on my image.
I'm really surprised that it's so hard to get a decent, lightweight, configurable photo browser for advanced photographers on the Mac. I thought there are so many graphics and photo professionals working on macs...
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19978
Having used IrfanView on Windows and being an advanced hobby photographer myself, I really hated the way iPhoto forces me to work. First of all, when I browse my pictures, I dont want to start a program whatsoever that can do fancy things with pictures. I want a preview-like thing, but Apple preview cant browse a whole folder by pressing the right arrow key (a completely incomprehensible limitation).
I tried PhoenixSlides, ViewIt, GraphicConverter and a couple of others, but Xee is almost what I want. However it's still missing a good EXIF data integration. I'd like to be able to display selected EXIF tags directly in the photo window, the way it can be done in IrfanView. I dont need an ugly big extra window giving me ALL 200 EXIF tags, I just want aperture, ISO and shutter speed, and displayed right on my image.
I'm really surprised that it's so hard to get a decent, lightweight, configurable photo browser for advanced photographers on the Mac. I thought there are so many graphics and photo professionals working on macs...
Im sure I tried that one. back when i was searching all the freewares of pic viewer, for some reason, I prefer phoenix slides (maybe because its slow, but not sure)
IMO, one of the biggest complaints from switchers is how iPhoto makes another copy of an image, once it's been edited.
I prefer this, as it lets me roll back to the original image at any time.
It drives others crazy, especially people that insist on using the file system, because they never know if their picture is in the Modified folder or the regular folder.
So maybe Apple could make this an option in iPhoto 7.
Or be clever, like Vista. Vista will put overwrite the original picture with the modified picture (so you don't have to worry about if your picture is in the Modified folder or not), and store the original picture in another location. You can tell Vista "how many days" to keep originals around that have been modified, so it more or less cleans up after itself.
Add me to the iPhoto-is-much-worse-than-it-should-be list.
Try sharing it between accounts - it's horrible. It can be used that way, but it's not intuitive to most users as to how to do so. And sharing photos should be trivially easy, esp. as Apple points to multi-user use of Macs as easier than on PCs.
I agree that the original/modified handling is also bogus. At least rename one of them so they don't show up in Spotlight, etc. under the same name.
Merging libraries? Painful.
Organizing photos? More painful than it should be.
Editing? Not intuitive or as easy as it should be.
Yeah, yeah, I know it's all included in iLife, and iLife has a decent price, but I'd just as soon pay separately, get the few pieces I use, and have them upgraded to be better. I hope iLife '07 makes some major strides.
Try sharing it between accounts - it's horrible. It can be used that way, but it's not intuitive to most users as to how to do so. And sharing photos should be trivially easy, esp. as Apple points to multi-user use of Macs as easier than on PCs.
I agree that the original/modified handling is also bogus. At least rename one of them so they don't show up in Spotlight, etc. under the same name.
Merging libraries? Painful.
Organizing photos? More painful than it should be.
Editing? Not intuitive or as easy as it should be.
Yeah, yeah, I know it's all included in iLife, and iLife has a decent price, but I'd just as soon pay separately, get the few pieces I use, and have them upgraded to be better. I hope iLife '07 makes some major strides.
A couple of other lightweight viewer-type apps-
Viewit (shareware)- http://www.hexcat.com/viewit/
PicturePopPro (freeware/donationware)- http://www.setnan.org/mac/picturepoppro/
ViewIt is a nice little app that works really well with other apps such as Photoshop or even iPhoto.
PicturePopPro lets you right-click on a file or folder, to instantly preview pics. It actually has a lot of great functionality in terms of browsing, searching, viewing EXIF data, opening a pic in another app, etc. I think it will do nested folders just fine.
Both apps have nice-looking UI's, which tends to affect me more than it probably should. But they're also easy to get around in, once you acclimate yourself to them.
There are actually quite a bit of nice Mac apps available, the trick is to find the one that best suits your needs.
On the PC I really liked BreezeBrowser, but am happy with what I can do on the Mac side. I might end up moving my collection to iPhoto, now that you can organize photos however you wish, and performance with large collections is much better than before. I don't do photo-editing in iPhoto, but for creating rolls (slideshows), exporting to web, etc. I think it's a nice app.
It's definitely not geared for prosumer and above, I think you have to keep that in mind (and choose your own app accordingly.) It's for the non-computer-oriented people, and for them I think it does its job very well. It's very easy to email photos, order prints, etc. These are tasks that would otherwise be too difficult for many people.
Viewit (shareware)- http://www.hexcat.com/viewit/
PicturePopPro (freeware/donationware)- http://www.setnan.org/mac/picturepoppro/
ViewIt is a nice little app that works really well with other apps such as Photoshop or even iPhoto.
PicturePopPro lets you right-click on a file or folder, to instantly preview pics. It actually has a lot of great functionality in terms of browsing, searching, viewing EXIF data, opening a pic in another app, etc. I think it will do nested folders just fine.
Both apps have nice-looking UI's, which tends to affect me more than it probably should. But they're also easy to get around in, once you acclimate yourself to them.
There are actually quite a bit of nice Mac apps available, the trick is to find the one that best suits your needs.
On the PC I really liked BreezeBrowser, but am happy with what I can do on the Mac side. I might end up moving my collection to iPhoto, now that you can organize photos however you wish, and performance with large collections is much better than before. I don't do photo-editing in iPhoto, but for creating rolls (slideshows), exporting to web, etc. I think it's a nice app.
It's definitely not geared for prosumer and above, I think you have to keep that in mind (and choose your own app accordingly.) It's for the non-computer-oriented people, and for them I think it does its job very well. It's very easy to email photos, order prints, etc. These are tasks that would otherwise be too difficult for many people.