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Any downside to using iPhoto + Lightroom?

G

GrantMeThePower

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 12, 2011
114
0
Last night I received my new iMac. I copied a lot of my images over to the hard drive but i didn't want to create an iPhoto library yet because I will be adding Lightroom in a couple weeks and I plan on using that.

Is there a reason i shouldn't use iPhoto in the mean time?

I'm concerned with: multiple copies/too much hard drive usage, creating a "messy" import later for LR3, or some other unseen media management issues.

Thanks for any help.
 
Sorry for bumping my own thread, but I was hoping to get some insight on this.

I am worried about making too many copies of teh same image.

I.e. Original + iPhoto dupe + lightroom dupe times all of my images.

Is that how those programs work?
 
I don't think there is a downside since you'll always be able to use an external drive to put the files you don't want permanently stored on your iMac hard drive. Personally, I use LR (and CS4) to edit/manipulate my pics and I send all of my finalized pic's to iPhoto. I tried using LR for everything, but since I keep everything I shoot (raw and all), my hard drive soon filled up and I had to go the external(s) route. Hope this helps and happy shooting.
 
If you are going to buy LR in the next days, wait. No need to go thru the hassle of changing from iPhoto to LR.

You shoot RAW or JPEG?

Also, have you considered using Aperture?

-------

The reason for which I would wait is that, you are going to have to organize your photos again. Also, iPhoto is a mess of a program when editing. I always ended up with several version of each photo, even more so when the images I edited were RAW.

But, only you can decide. How urgent or important is for you to have access to your photos?
 
i would agree- avoid iPhoto and just get LR as soon as possible- iphoto is awful for editing and organizing cause it wants to have more control that I'm personally comfortable with (even when I change import settings and such). LR is the best just cause you still have full control over your file hierarchy and like above- non destructive and great RAW support (and photoshop integration if you get it down the road)
 
Right now the majority of my photos are jpegs. I have some raw, but I'm concerned about two things:

1. Existing photos: Organizing only
2. New photos: Processing raw, editing, organizing.

I will be shooting RAW only once i get LR.

Am i understanding that you guys are saying to use LR and not use iPhoto at all, or to only use iPhoto after processing a file in LR?
 
stay away from iphoto entirely. LR is great for organizing and like i said- gives you more control over your own file hierarchy and allows you to simply click on your photos folder and sync any changes with the LR catalog file and what is seen in LR if you do make changes. iphoto requires an import every time you make changes to your files. Download the 30 day trial of LR if you want to play with it, but since getting LR3 I haven't even opened iPhoto.
 
GrantMeThePower said:
Am i understanding that you guys are saying to use LR and not use iPhoto at all, or to only use iPhoto after processing a file in LR?
Click to expand...

The only benefit of iPhoto is if you need the images to import into iLife products.

Not too sure if it's a worldwide offer, but in the UK Adobe are offering Lightroom 3 at 40% discount. (using code K2ET if you call them)
 
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