Best way to organize photos in OSx?

[Steviejobz]

I have many many folders in my pictures folder and was going to use iPhoto to organize but realized that when I import, it creates a second photo in the library. So I don't think this is optimal. Is it best to import and then delete original? Or is keeping my current file system better? It's just harder I browse and manage without some software. Ultimately I want it to be easy to sync with my iOS devices so everything is kept up to date, backed up, etc.

Can anyone please share some best practices?

 

[sonicrobby]

I cant share the best practices, but I can share my practices. I am a photophyle, and very picky about how my photos are organized. I use iPhoto. I import everything into iPhoto and then delete the old file. (though for this first time, I would recommend moving those files to a storage device like an external hardrive or flashdrive instead of deleting them - just in case. Though i never needed to go back to those.)

Pros:

-It breaks down and shows all the metadata which I love! (i.e. it shows where the picture was taken, when, you can add faces to it - which ive done to all 13000 of my pictures).
-Easily syncs everything to your iPhone through iTunes
-Great organization, "folders" are spit up as "events" and you can easily browse through the pictures by passing your mouse over it without opening the event folder itself.
-Its just got cool features like slideshows and the ability to order custom picture books to be made within the program.
-All my photos are in one place "iPhoto library" file, so its easy to back up all my photos at once. So if you get a new mac, all you need to do is move over the iPhoto library file and you'll have your entire iPhoto library just as you left it.

Cons:
-With that last pro comment, the iPhoto file itself can become quite huge, and the backup will take a long while! (for about 13000-15000 pictures, mine is 40GB large)
-If you want to attach/upload a picture to a 3rd party site, you will have to drag and drop that picture onto your desktop first (makes a copy) and then you can use that one to attach to websites and stuff, then delete that picture from your desktop once youre done using it.

 

[Bruno09]

the iPhoto file itself can become quite huge, and the backup will take a long while! (

But it is good to know that you can have as many iPhoto Libraries as you want.

So you can have several "small" libraries instead of a huge one.

 

[Steviejobz]

Thanks, this was helpful.

 

[ostrykolesz]

I cant share the best practices, but I can share my practices. I am a photophyle, and very picky about how my photos are organized. I use iPhoto. I import everything into iPhoto and then delete the old file. (though for this first time, I would recommend moving those files to a storage device like an external hardrive or flashdrive instead of deleting them - just in case. Though i never needed to go back to those.)

Pros:

-It breaks down and shows all the metadata which I love! (i.e. it shows where the picture was taken, when, you can add faces to it - which ive done to all 13000 of my pictures).
-Easily syncs everything to your iPhone through iTunes
-Great organization, "folders" are spit up as "events" and you can easily browse through the pictures by passing your mouse over it without opening the event folder itself.
-Its just got cool features like slideshows and the ability to order custom picture books to be made within the program.
-All my photos are in one place "iPhoto library" file, so its easy to back up all my photos at once. So if you get a new mac, all you need to do is move over the iPhoto library file and you'll have your entire iPhoto library just as you left it.

Cons:
-With that last pro comment, the iPhoto file itself can become quite huge, and the backup will take a long while! (for about 13000-15000 pictures, mine is 40GB large)
-If you want to attach/upload a picture to a 3rd party site, you will have to drag and drop that picture onto your desktop first (makes a copy) and then you can use that one to attach to websites and stuff, then delete that picture from your desktop once youre done using it.

Flickr is integrated in to iPhoto and they give you a terabyte of storage space for free. This gives you the ability to share photo's easily.

As far as backing up 14000 files, well it will be slow if you have a slow hard drive. I back up my 40 GB library on to an external SSD that I pulled from my old notebook - it only takes 3 minutes to back-up the whole library.

I am starting to like iPhoto more and more...

 

[Zenton]

I'm not by my computer so I can't post a screenshot, but there is an option in iPhoto, something like "don't copy to library". Enable that and importing pictures to iPhoto does not create a duplicate of the original photos. Then you can use iPhoto to browse photos etc. but it won't take unnecessary space from the hard drive by creating a duplicate of every single photo. There is similar setting in Final Cut Pro X at least.

I have enabled that setting. When I import photos to my computer, I import them to a certain folder (let's say "trip to Spain"). Then I import that folder to iPhoto. iPhoto creates an event. I rename that event accordingly. Job done and iPhoto library doesn't get unnecessarily huge. I like iPhoto for browsing, but I find it clumsy for managing photos (copying to USB etc...). I like to have my photos neatly in folders. However even when using this method the iPhoto library will take same space, don't know why. I have maybe 65GB of photos and the iPhoto library is something like 5GB if I remember correctly.

Hope this helps.

 

[ostrykolesz]

I'm not by my computer so I can't post a screenshot, but there is an option in iPhoto, something like "don't copy to library". Enable that and importing pictures to iPhoto does not create a duplicate of the original photos. Then you can use iPhoto to browse photos etc. but it won't take unnecessary space from the hard drive by creating a duplicate of every single photo. There is similar setting in Final Cut Pro X at least.

I have enabled that setting. When I import photos to my computer, I import them to a certain folder (let's say "trip to Spain"). Then I import that folder to iPhoto. iPhoto creates an event. I rename that event accordingly. Job done and iPhoto library doesn't get unnecessarily huge. I like iPhoto for browsing, but I find it clumsy for managing photos (copying to USB etc...). I like to have my photos neatly in folders. However even when using this method the iPhoto library will take same space, don't know why. I have maybe 65GB of photos and the iPhoto library is something like 5GB if I remember correctly.

Hope this helps.

Oh wow, that would have been perfect. I just started using iPhoto and this would have been the solution for me. I already have spent so much time tagging photo's and organising them...