iPhoto and our camera

[Howard Brazee]

My wife has an iMac replacing her Windows desktop machine. She used to press the button on her camera dock, and it would download photos in a subdirectory named with today's date. Every once in a while, I would connect from my machine, copy that subdirectory to my computer and move that subdirectory inside of the 2007 directory.

I figured now I would press Enter and open iPhoto and copy the photos to my computer - working from her computer now instead of from mine. After copying it, I would rename the roll to a meaningful name - which would indicate to me that I had copied it.

So I pressed Enter on the camera dock and opened iPhoto. I did not see these pictures anywhere. I went to finder and found it in the root pictures directory. I'm guessing I need to explicitely name the directory and the roll name each time I download photos from the camera - but then how come I keep reading about Roll 1, Roll 2, etc?

I don't want the photos where they are. Where should I move them, how do I tell iPhoto to look for them there, and what do I do next time I download photos?

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Welcome to iPhoto and the Mac. It's a little different with this program.

I would recommend you plug your camera in and let iPhoto do the importing instead of using this 'enter' button and camera dock. When you let iPhoto import then your photos end up in Pictures>iPhoto Library as Rolls.

Also, what camera and Mac is it you have?

 

[Howard Brazee]

Welcome to iPhoto and the Mac. It's a little different with this program.

I would recommend you plug your camera in and let iPhoto do the importing instead of using this 'enter' button and camera dock. When you let iPhoto import then your photos end up in Pictures>iPhoto Library as Rolls.

Also, what camera and Mac is it you have?

It's a 24" iMac and a Kodak EasyShare DX6490. The docking station recharges the camera. There's a button on the docking station that downloads the pictures from the camera. When we go on vacation next week, my wife will bring her old Windows laptop and connect her docking station to it (and also recharge my iPod from it). When we get back, we will want to transfer photos from her laptop to her iMac.

But we have to figure out how to do this properly without messing up the iPhoto database.

 

[swiftaw]

You've got 2 choices. Let iPhoto manage the file structure for your photos or manage the file structure yourself. The default is for iTunes to import all phones into the iPhoto folder and manage the file structure automatically.

If you would rather manage the file/folder structure of your photos manually then you need to specify this in iPhoto preferences.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

So when you put your camera on its dock iPhoto doesn't automatically startup? cause that is typically how that works with iPhoto. If not, then you will have to import the photos into iPhoto by opening it and then dragging the photos into the Library (a folder of pictures can be imported). When this is done then iPhoto will copy the pictures into its own database and once this is completed the original folder you dragged into the iPhoto library can be deleted.

 

[aristobrat]

It's a 24" iMac and a Kodak EasyShare DX6490. The docking station recharges the camera. There's a button on the docking station that downloads the pictures from the camera.

I have an older Kodak EasyShare w/ a dock like yours.

If the camera is on the dock and I press the button, my Mac automatically opens iPhoto and it brings me straight to the iPhoto import window. You should have to type the name of the roll into iPhoto, a description if you want, and then click Import.

If nothing happens on your iMac when you press the dock button, I'd suggest you open the "Image Capture" application and look at its preferences. It tells your iMac what to do when a camera is connected (or in your case, what to do when the dock button is pushed). I attached a screen shot of how mine is setup to automatically open iPhoto.

As for how to get the pictures from Windows into iPhoto, it's pretty easy. Just get them over the iMac somehow (network, burn to a CD, whatever). Then highlight all of the pictures on the iMac and drag 'n drop them onto the iPhoto icon on the dock. iPhoto will import them into a new roll automatically. For some reason, when you drag 'n drop pictures into iPhoto, it won't let you name the roll (or give a description) first, but you can easily got back and do that when it's done.

 

[Howard Brazee]

Testing. I have more information. I took a test photo and my wife pressed the download button. Two Mac windows opened - iTunes wanted to download photos and so did an application which came with the camera. She ignored the iTunes application before.

This time she put in a name and downloaded the photo and iTunes got it. The other application deletes it from the camera after downloading it.

We're getting closer.

My goals are:
1. Download photos into iPhoto and delete them from the camera - without downloading once for each application.
2. Copy the photos to a shared directory so I have a copy on my computer. I expect if I use the default roll name, I can rename it after copying the roll to the shared directory - am I correct here?
3. Copy new pictures from her laptop (and from her photos directory) in the proper manner so that iPhoto doesn't get confused.

 

[swiftaw]

Testing. I have more information. I took a test photo and my wife pressed the download button. Two Mac windows opened - iTunes wanted to download photos and so did an application which came with the camera. She ignored the iTunes application before.

This time she put in a name and downloaded the photo and iTunes got it. The other application deletes it from the camera after downloading it.

We're getting closer.

My goals are:
1. Download photos into iPhoto and delete them from the camera - without downloading once for each application.
2. Copy the photos to a shared directory so I have a copy on my computer. I expect if I use the default roll name, I can rename it after copying the roll to the shared directory - am I correct here?
3. Copy new pictures from her laptop (and from her photos directory) in the proper manner so that iPhoto doesn't get confused.

I think you need to be aware that the way iPhoto stores files on your HD and the way they appear inside of iPhoto is different. Rolls only appear inside of iPhoto, they are not separate folders of photos on your HD. Consider Rolls to be the iPhoto equivalent of iTunes' Playlists.

To add photo's to iPhoto, you can just select File->Add To Library and then point to the folder that contains the Photo's. This will add the photos to iPhoto.

If you want to manually manage the folder structure of your photos on your HD then you need to disable the "Copy files to iPhoto Library folder" option in iPhoto preferences

 

[aristobrat]

1. Download photos into iPhoto and delete them from the camera - without downloading once for each application.

On the iPhoto "import window" (where you type the roll name and description), there should be a checkbox to delete the files after they've been imported.

 

[Howard Brazee]

I think you need to be aware that the way iPhoto stores files on your HD and the way they appear inside of iPhoto is different. Rolls only appear inside of iPhoto, they are not separate folders of photos on your HD. Consider Rolls to be the iPhoto equivalent of iTunes' Playlists.

That's why I am asking for advice here - I want iPhoto to not get confused - it will be running photos on her machine.

To add photo's to iPhoto, you can just select File->Add To Library and then point to the folder that contains the Photo's. This will add the photos to iPhoto.

Then any photos that come from other computers then should be placed in similar place to where they were first copied - then manually imported into iPhoto. Is this correct?

If you want to manually manage the folder structure of your photos on your HD then you need to disable the "Copy files to iPhoto Library folder" option in iPhoto preferences

Hmmm. Interesting - if I fail to get the more "Apple" method to work, I will consider this.

 

[swiftaw]

Ok, let me see if I have everything correct.

1) You want to be able to import photo's from your camera to your iMac

2) You want to be able to copy photo's from your wife's PC to your iMac

3) You want tobe able to export photos from iPhoto to another computer

Am I missing anything?

For 1) Just connect your camera, and the photo's should import into iPhoto.

For 2) Copy the photos from the PC to the iMac (you can put them anywhere, usually I would put them on the desktop). Then in iPhoto, select Add to Library. This will add the photos to iPhoto, while also copying the files into the iPhoto folder on your HD. You can then delete the files from your desktop.

For 3) You can select the photos you want to export in iTunes, then use File->Export.

 

[aristobrat]

Hmmm. Interesting - if I fail to get the more "Apple" method to work, I will consider this.

This might help the "Apple" method make a little more sense:
http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/iphoto/index.html

Each "step" has a pretty cool video that goes along with.

Also if you haven't stumbled across it yet, the Help feature built in to the iLife applications are pretty cool. iPhoto has step-by-step instructions for how to import pictures from devices other than your camera.