Filing system in iPhoto and iMovies

[mattymaky]

I have just transferred from PC to iMac.
I have my own way of filing my photos and home movies. I just kept them in their own folders and sub folders. I never used any software in pc land which would try to file them.
I have read around iPhotos and am baffled by how it files things especially downloaded older photos. Even iMovies tutorial videos only make comments about importing from a connected camcorder.
Anyway I have decided to continue to just use folders with subfolders which I have assigned for my photos and movies. I also back up on an external hard drive.
My question is if I do not import my photos and movies into iPhoto and iMovies will I not be able to use these two applications?
I already encountered a problem this evening when working on my first project. I wanted to add a photo into iMovies but it only gave me the option of importing photos from iPhoto. I tried browsing in iPhotos as it had automatically imported some of my photos but in no order that I could understand and couldn't find it.

Okay next question, if I can not use iPhoto or iMovies then what application would you recommend to edit photos and make movies? I use to use photoshop elements and Ulead video studios in my pc.

Thanks in advance.

 

[forcefieldkid]

To clear up one point, in iMovie, you can just drag a photo from anywhere into the iMovie window and use it, it doesn't need to be in iPhoto. Or go to File>Import.

 

[mattymaky]

Thanks for that. In the end I just selected the photos I wanted and imported it into iPhotos. But will try your way later.
Just finally had a go at my first project with iMovies.....really disappointed. I had been using Ulead Video studies to make my movies on the pc and iMovies are lacking in SO Many things. I was not able to do much on it. May need to look at more advance software. But I actually thought that I was a beginner in video editing. The problem with iMovies is that it does so many things for you in the background that you can not make adjustments your self. For example the sound/music added, you can only fade beginning and end but not allowed to make adjustments in the middle to hide the actually video recorded comments at certain points.
Sorry to sound so negative. I actually love my iMac, I bought the Apple TV, iMac, Airport Extreme all within one week and really looked forward to changing to this system as it is suppose to be more for creative types but have found it a little lacking. Maybe I need time......