The CD/playlist analogy is good!
Another way:
- Events are how you decide to ORGANIZE your photos (dates, occasions, etc). Each picture belongs to just one Event. When you edit this photo, it edits the photos in albums, if I recall correctly....
- Yes. That is a good description too.
[*]Albums are how you want to PRESENT your photos (themes)...
Also good.
Each picture may exist in multiple albums. If you edit a photo in an album, it does not change in other albums or in its Event (if I recall). Albums are "slave" folders.
But this part is not quite right. Events aren't "Master Folders" in this sense, with albums as slaves. A photo that is edited - regardless of its location - will show those edits where ever it appears, Events or Albums. You can however Duplicate the photo to create an independent version.
What I'd like, and I don't see any way to do this, is the ability to organize photos in a hierarchy (much like the Mac's, or any other modern, file system).
You can create Folders in the side panel, and put multiple Albums into a Folder. I believe (but haven't tried it) that you can put Folders into Folders as well. But... you may not need a hierarchical system. You are thinking of your images as each being'unique'. But iPhoto uses a database and the Albums are merely 'virtual'. A photo can appear in as many Albums as you want. Better yet is to use the Keywords and Smart Albums. Keyword the photos on import with the names of the people in the photo. If you have set up Smart Albums using those names then as you import your photos the Smart Albums are automagically updated. That is to say... if you Keyword the photos on import, you're done. There is no 2nd step. You don't have to drag each photo, one-by-one into each appropriate Album. Plus, now you can create a new Smart Album to combine photos from different albums, based on Keywords. All the photos of Steve between these dates. All the photos of their daughter
with Steve. All the photos of the daughter
with Steve, between these dates. Smart Albums will pick up images that can appear in any number of other Albums (or Events), so you aren't forced to choose which Album (or Albums) any particular photo resides. It can reside in all the Smart Albums that match the search terms. A Smart Album is a Saved Search, essentially.
This is possible in lightroom although the layout of "events" is not as visual so it might not be as aesthetic an appearance.
I'm not sure I understand. Lightroom doesn't have anything that corresponds to "Events"...
Lightroom's Collections are iPhoto's Albums (Smart and plain). Its Collection Sets are iPhoto's Folders. Lightroom does let you play with the actual physical location of the image on the disk. But the recommendation is to leave this alone, except to fix importing errors.
It is true that Lightroom's Collections/Collection Sets tree is more compact. But I think Adobe does that because you can then fit a lot more 'stuff' into the sidebar without needing to scroll. The trees nicely collapse and expand though, so it's easy to browse through the Collections if you are looking for a particular one.
