How can I change my iphoto library?

[silvrbullet]

I'm a new Mac user, and I didn't realize that the "copy file to iphoto library folder" option is a default. I have 30GB of images, so naturally I don't want iphoto to copy and store them an additional folder.

Is there a way I can wipe out iphoto and start over?

 

[akadmon]

Holding the Option key while opening iPhoto will present you with a dialog where you can chose an existing library to open (you can have more than one on your computer and any attached external drives, but only one can be open at any time) or create a new library.


Why not let an iPhoto library be the only "folder" containing your photos? You can still easily access the photos from the Finder by revealing the package contents.

 

[silvrbullet]

I thought looking through the package contents in finder was a big no-no? I have read that the package can be easily corrupted.

I would rather manage all my locations myself. I have a ton of pictures that are organized a certain way, and its easy for me to find the file and e-mail in needed.

I might just go into the library and manually delete all the photo's I dont have uploaded to Flickr, and just uncheck the box. Then I will start to build my library back up. Will this work?

 

[akadmon]

I thought looking through the package contents in finder was a big no-no? I have read that the package can be easily corrupted.

I would rather manage all my locations myself. I have a ton of pictures that are organized a certain way, and its easy for me to find the file and e-mail in needed.

I doubt "looking" through the iPhoto libarary package can do any harm, so long as you don't delete/add/move files. Just copy the files you need and paste them in another location.

If your really serious about managing thousands of photos efficiently you should move up to Lightroom. iPhoto saves every edit as a separate jpg (or tiff, if you're starting with RAW), which quickly results in a lot of bloat. Lightroom does nondestructive editing, meaning your original remains intact and no duplicates are created. All the eidts are kept in a catalogue file that is less than a tenth the size of an en equivalent iPhoto library containing full size duplicates for each saved edit.

Since I started using Lightroom, I use iPhoto primarily as a Flickr uploader.

 

[silvrbullet]

I doubt "looking" through the iPhoto libarary package can do any harm, so long as you don't delete/add/move files. Just copy the files you need and paste them in another location.

If your really serious about managing thousands of photos efficiently you should move up to Lightroom. iPhoto saves every edit as a separate jpg (or tiff, if you're starting with RAW), which quickly results in a lot of bloat. Lightroom does nondestructive editing, meaning your original remains intact and no duplicates are created. All the eidts are kept in a catalogue file that is less than a tenth the size of an en equivalent iPhoto library containing full size duplicates for each saved edit.

Since I started using Lightroom, I use iPhoto primarily as a Flickr uploader.

That is exactly what I started doing. I just wanted to clean out iphoto and reserve it only for my best shots to upload to Flickr.

 

[monokakata]

Can anybody point to a general discussion of Lightroom vs. Aperture?

I understand that Aperture offers management tools -- are they very different from Lightroom's?

I have Photoshop, so I don't need a tool for manipulating my images, but I wouldn't mind using something other than iPhoto to organize them.

 

[akadmon]

Can anybody point to a general discussion of Lightroom vs. Aperture?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/596884/

I understand that Aperture offers management tools -- are they very different from Lightroom's?

I have Photoshop, so I don't need a tool for manipulating my images, but I wouldn't mind using something other than iPhoto to organize them.

You should not discount Lightroom's editing capabilities. For 99% of typical photo adjustments, Lightroom is more convenient and much faster than Photoshop. Plus it is totally integrated with Photoshop, so you can still use the latter for those trickier edits and get your edit into your Lightroom catalogue with just a single click afterwards. Another thing to consider is Apple's commitment (or lack thereof) to Aperture. Adobe has pretty much sown up the market for pro level photo management software, and there just isn't enough left there for Apple to devote a lot of resources into keeping Aperture at the bleeding edge.

 

[monokakata]

Thanks, Akadmon.

In truth I didn't search the forums, on the assumption that I wouldn't find anything really general, and I didn't want to waste too much time reading arguments.

I do like to follow the occasional flamefest, just for entertainment, though.

Looks as though a couple of trial downloads are in my future.

 

[devburke]

I thought looking through the package contents in finder was a big no-no? I have read that the package can be easily corrupted.

I would rather manage all my locations myself. I have a ton of pictures that are organized a certain way, and its easy for me to find the file and e-mail in needed.

I might just go into the library and manually delete all the photo's I dont have uploaded to Flickr, and just uncheck the box. Then I will start to build my library back up. Will this work?

You can probably safely look at package contents, but doing so is kind of a mess. The better way to get to your iPhoto photos if they’re stored in a library file is to either a) drag them out of iPhoto, or b) better yet, “open” dialogs contain a little “Media” subsection in the sidebar. Sometimes this will have movies, music and photos, sometimes only some of them, depending on what app you’re in. But it does provide a very convenient way for you to access all of your photos exactly as they’re organized in iPhoto (all of your events, albums, etc will be viewable).

 

[silvrbullet]

I went through and deleted all my old junk out of iphoto, and re-imported all my good photo's I want to upload to Flickr. I gained massive amounts of hard drive space back!

Here's another iphoto question- I have a folder to keep all my favorite shots in. After my initial import, how can I tell iphoto I added more pictures in the folder? I have tried to use the import, but it just creats a new folder within iphoto.

 

[silvrbullet]

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/596884/




You should not discount Lightroom's editing capabilities. For 99% of typical photo adjustments, Lightroom is more convenient and much faster than Photoshop. Plus it is totally integrated with Photoshop, so you can still use the latter for those trickier edits and get your edit into your Lightroom catalogue with just a single click afterwards. Another thing to consider is Apple's commitment (or lack thereof) to Aperture. Adobe has pretty much sown up the market for pro level photo management software, and there just isn't enough left there for Apple to devote a lot of resources into keeping Aperture at the bleeding edge.

I have never tried aperature because lightroom has always treated me well. I really like the capabilities of the program- in fact, I have photoshop CS3 and never use it....

 

[Sonicjay]

I went through and deleted all my old junk out of iphoto, and re-imported all my good photo's I want to upload to Flickr. I gained massive amounts of hard drive space back!

Here's another iphoto question- I have a folder to keep all my favorite shots in. After my initial import, how can I tell iphoto I added more pictures in the folder? I have tried to use the import, but it just creats a new folder within iphoto.

What do you mean by creates a new folder in iPhoto? Do you mean a new event? If so, you can merge the events just by drag and drop. Also, it should prompt you if you are importing a file/photo that is already in the library to prevent duplicates as well.