If I could just have a minute? Pictures problem on OS X

[rboseley]

This may well fall into one of those “idiot” questions - but so be it. I really need some help with “pictures” on my Macbook Pro. Cominng from DOS - about 4 years ago - the OS X file structure has given me problems. But all others are easy compared to pictures.

On my Mac I have of course iPhoto 11. I have Aperature 3 - and yes I also have Elements 11. Using Finder, my picture structure is like a jungle. Libaries here and there. Folders? I got folders. But I still have no idea where the FILE actually resides. When asked to upload a pic to an internet site - I just give up.

I thought I was making some progress with Aperature, but then very strange things began to happen. Try an action and the rotating glove comes up ands stays up. Force quit is the only way out.

Not an Adobe fan, but Elements 11 looked good - and actually appears to be working - except I stlll don’t know where my raw files are.

Under DOS:
C;/Photos
Nikon
Grandkids 2009, etc.
Cruise, 2012
iPhone
(imports from photostream)

So simple. Anyway, I’m showing about 9,000 pics. Actual would be about 3,000. So I have all these “placeholders”. Any help in getting organized would be appreciated.

Also, if I have Elements - would LR4 do anything Elements doesn’t?

 

[thejadedmonkey]

iPhoto and Aperture use their own libraries. If you want to upload a photo, you need to export it from the program to somewhere (such as your desktop) and upload that file.

Also, I think you mean Windows, not DOS. DOS doesn't have any support for a Nikon camera, among other things

 

[Nermal]

You can drag photos from iPhoto to your desktop or another folder. I think you can also right-click and choose Show in Finder to see the original file (I'm not at my Mac at present so I can't get the exact wording).

 

[hfg]

If you right-click on the photo libraries, and select "show package contents", you can see the underlying directory structure and you will find your original, unmodified photos, and your edits to those. Do not mess around with these files or the structure ... but you can extract (copy) your originals out to another storage if needed.

 

[pgiguere1]

I don't know about other apps but for your iPhoto Library, go to your Pictures Folder, you should see a file simply called "iPhoto Library". Right-click it and select "Show Package Contents". Your photos will then be in the "Masters" folder, organized in sub-folders by date.

 

[dadudeness]

I don't know about other apps but for your iPhoto Library, go to your Pictures Folder, you should see a file simply called "iPhoto Library". Right-click it and select "Show Package Contents". Your photos will then be in the "Masters" folder, organized in sub-folders by date.

Not necessarily the best idea.
Thing is, iPhoto and Aperture use an own library to manage all containing pictures. It's not as simple as iTunes' library which is just folders like 'music/bandname/albumname/tracknumer - songtitle'. iPhoto and Aperture have to deal with a lot more. There are master-files which represent nothing more than the photo out of camera. It's un-edited, may be unrotated to portrait if necessary and could even be the RAW, if that is the format the picture was taken originally. That file is always kept as it is like you would never mess with negatives in the pre-digital-era.
The edited versions of your image are stored elsewhere in the library respectively generated on demand.

If you want your edited image out of iPhoto or Apterture, you can drag&drop or use the export-tool, which I would recommend because how should the application know what size you like? Using the export-tool you can set quality, size, filename and even a watermark precisely and make sure you are exporting the working copy instead of the master-file.