I'm sick of iPhoto.... any other suggestions?

[stcanard]

Because you can't just view all the pictures in a folder, you have to scroll down and look at each one individually. I have all my pictures from a certain event in a folder called, for example, Sam's 5th Birthday - if I open that folder in windows I can see all the pictures immediately in thumbnail view whereas in finder I have to scroll through each one.

Honestly, by the time the system has gone through the effort to render all those previews you could probably have opened iPhoto and looked at the cached thumbnails.

But -- you're on Tiger I gather. Select the photos, right click, slideshow, contact sheet. You'll get a screen full of thumbnails which you can then click. I can't remember if there is a direct to mail option from that though.

 

[SolRayz]

I would recommend iView MediaPro. I can't stand iPhoto and ever since I got iView I haven't looked back - it's got a very good interface for organising and looking through thousands of photos, and when you make any changes to a photo - like renaming it etc - it will change that actual photo, wherever it is on your hard drive, rather than creating a copy of it.

I second iView. Not a bad program. Correct me if I am wrong, but my main problem with iPhoto as a MBP user is the whole concept of restricting your library to one hard drive. I have a large archive of pictures organized from my Windoze days on an external drive. For me to use iPhoto would require me to import the lot and thus create a huge library on my internal drive. I can't understand why Apple did not simply incorporate the best of both worlds. Allow us to organized and view our photos in the current location and eliminating the need for this virtually untouchable iTunes like library. How do other notebook users deal with this?

 

[stcanard]

I can't understand why Apple did not simply incorporate the best of both worlds. Allow us to organized and view our photos in the current location and eliminating the need for this virtually untouchable iTunes like library.

Because that would reduce the incentive to get Aperture!

How do other notebook users deal with this?

Seen answer number 1

 

[smueboy]

I second iView. Not a bad program. Correct me if I am wrong, but my main problem with iPhoto as a MBP user is the whole concept of restricting your library to one hard drive. I have a large archive of pictures organized from my Windoze days on an external drive. For me to use iPhoto would require me to import the lot and thus create a huge library on my internal drive. I can't understand why Apple did not simply incorporate the best of both worlds. Allow us to organized and view our photos in the current location and eliminating the need for this virtually untouchable iTunes like library. How do other notebook users deal with this?

You can choose not to import the files into the iPhoto library (advanced preferences). I have tried this, and you can deselect this when importing pics from an external drive. When the external drive is not connected you will get an error message when trying to open a picture thats asks you to connect the drive (the thumbnails are still there since they are made and stored in the iPhoto library). When you connect the drive though, they can be found.

 

[stcanard]

It seems illogical to me at this point in computing history to have to open a program to browse photos when it is so easily done by the OS. I love apple but this is one thing that windows xp has over it.

My opinion is you're still thinking too small. It is *far* easier for me to browse 10,000 photos in an interface specifically designed for photos and their metadata than it is to try and find them using a folder structure.

That notwithstanding, apparently Leopard is your answer. In the "spatial" view (boy I hope John Siracusa didn't hear me call it spatial) all pictures are rendered with their previews.

 

[snicker71]

Browsing photo's without iPhoto

and what do you do when you need to upload a photo somewhere for a website? include it in an email? send it to a friend in an IM? without being able to browse for the photo in Finder, how do you locate it and do something with it? i take exception to the line of thought that just because you don't need to do it, i shouldn't need to do it either. especially when i can't seem to do what i want to do without having to go into finder to do it.

This problem used to frustrate me to, but I found a really good Automator script, which handles this great. Here's what you do:
Open Automator: from library list select: iPhoto.
From Action list select: "Ask for photo's", and drag it to the right-hand pane.
Then select "File", "Save as plug-in…" "Script menu".
Choose a name and Save.
You'll now have an Apple script icon in the Menu bar.
Whenever you want to access your photo's select that Apple script and an iPhoto browser will appear with all your "iPhoto's" to choose from.
I can't remember what site I found this on, but I hope it helps you.

 

[lugesm]

As a relatively new convert from PC to Mac my philosophy is somewhat different. If one of the OSX applications is close to satisfying all my needs in a given category, iCal, for example; I just use the Apple app. Seems to me that the risk of conflict with the OS or other Apple apps is lower; and it is free.

Now . . . . I'll wait for the shots over to bow to tell me how dumb I am. ;-)

 

[stcanard]

This problem used to frustrate me to, ...

You don't need an automator script to upload to a site, there's a way that's even easier.

In Safari, firefox, or whatever you use get to that point where you have the "Open" dialog.

From iPhoto drag the photo into that dialog.

This is the biggest problem people have when switching from Windows or Linux (it drove me crazy for months) -- Assuming that you have to go through gyrations to find the file that a program is representing. In OSX if you have a draggable object you have the file.

Try this for an example:

Open a terminal window and type "ls " (note the space)

Go to iPhoto and drag the photo into your terminal window.

You'll see it get replaced with the full path to the file.

You can even do this with an open file -- pick something like TextEdit, Word, whatever. Open a file. Look at the title bar, to the left of the filename you will see a little icon. Click and drag it -- you now have a reference to the file location.

You never have to look for a file -- if you want it, there is a reference you can grab.

Once you get used to working with this paradigm you'll start to find things get much more obvious and simple. You'll sit down in front of your Windows PC and start getting frustrated when you drag things around and it doesn't do the right thing.

At least that's what happened to me. But before that I spent a month frustrated always looking for import menus, export menus, file locations. Once you grok the drag-and-drop it all goes away (and, incidentally that's a good reason for using as much OSX native software as possible; X11 applications don't d-n-d nearly as nicely)

 

[czachorski]

My opinion is you're still thinking too small. It is *far* easier for me to browse 10,000 photos in an interface specifically designed for photos and their metadata than it is to try and find them using a folder structure.

I gotta say I agree with this. I have 16,000 photos, and there is no way I want to be burdened with managing those files manually in folders like it was 1993. I think of iPhoto as an amazingly advanced Finder just for photos. And please tell me what the difference is between opening the Finder or opening iPhoto to access your photos again? You still have to open something.

But hey, I can understand the resistance to wanting to hold on to the manual organization - heck, I just have to look at my parents who prefer to take 35 mm photos and organize the prints in boxes to remember that everyone finds a way that works for them, and want to be able to roll with it.

 

[isleofjib]

omg, some people are absolutely amazing. i can only assume you didn't bother to read this entire thread. try that and you'll see that this discussion, for the most part, hasn't been about opening finder.

if it works for you, great. i think leopard is the answer everyone wants because it allows people to use both methods. what's wrong with that? nothing.

 

[czachorski]

omg, some people are absolutely amazing. i can only assume you didn't bother to read this entire thread.

For the most part - except for the parts that it was. Did you read the thread?

 

[goodtimes5]

Perhaps the thread starter recognizes things better with words than images. This thread has gone in loops reiterating the same points over and over. OP, use whatever works best for you. As you can see, different people have different needs; some need the photo gallery style of iPhoto to browse quickly, and some need the folder directory to organize. I assume you've already messed with iPhoto very diligently and hated it, and by the looks of this thread, you still hate it.

Rock on Coverflow in Finder then!

 

[mackchi]

That is EXACTLY what iPhoto (app) does! Organize your photos into folders and albums "however suits you"! Nothing could be easier! You decide the folders and albums! I have over 3,000 photos in iPhoto, and all are at my fingertips whenever I want them. Easy to find, easy to edit when I want to, easy to mail, export, etc. Whatever I want to do! All organized by date and subject -- and I haven't even gotten into smart albums (which I need to do -- just been lazy)! Photos are still so much easier to find than in windows!

Events makes it so easy to pick a photo and see what's in the folder. Come on, get rid of the hard windows way and come over to the easy side of mac!

how do you resolve duplicate photos? when I imported from my PC I got lots of duplicates. Any suggestions on a quick and efficient way to remove duplicates?

 

[haze]

I have to agree with the OP

Why do I have to open a separate program, drag and drop and clutter my desktop, just to work with photos? Everybody says just hit the email button to send. What if I am not using Apple Mail? What if I apple MAil is one account, but I am using Web Mail for another? I don't know how it is more efficient to open and additional program, drag and drop (make and additional copy of file), just to do something. What if I do something different than you? Oh no can't have that. What about the "Think Different campaign?" No think like a lemming. Do everything like we do it. That is the vibe I am getting from those replying to the OP. Hopefully an OPEN SOURCE choice will come along soon. Not opne source, but I like Picasa even though I haven't used Windows since long before it ever came out. Just seeing it on other's machines.

At least iPhoto is better than iTunes. iTunes blows. Such a beast of a resource hog. I want to play FLAC files, APE, whatever. Not just what Apple tells me I should play. But that is a rant for another time. Foobar 2k would be nice, but at least Amarok will be coming to OS X soon with the new Qt/Mac.

 

[crazycap]

Why do I have to open a separate program, drag and drop and clutter my desktop, just to work with photos? Everybody says just hit the email button to send. W.........

Just want to let you know in Leopard, iphoto is well integrated into the open dialog box. On the right side panel, other than those normal folders you can see media -> photos ; then you can just browse like your in iphoto with events and such

 

[Topher15]

I've gotta agree with jbg232 here.

The problem I have with iPhoto that I don't have with iTunes is I don't have the opportunity to set the folder location (that said, I do let iTunes just manage things since I don't need access to the audio files like I do with the image files, but at least the choice is there).

I personally prefer to manage my images within Finder. This is easier. iPhoto on the other hand creates duplicates of the images it imports - twice (!) - then it creates an additional thumbnail image. I would like to be able to choose my own folder location and folder organization, and then choose which photos I drag into iPhoto since I don't actually want everything automatically loaded into iPhoto. Most photo events are fine, but I don't want random photos, downloaded images, images I've create in Photoshop, or my library of thousands of reference images, all of which don't fit into the iPhoto 'year'/event way of doing things.

I find Leopards Finder is a better photo viewer... thumbnails, coverflow and quicklook. This is perfect for me... I can browse and manage my images instantly without having iPhoto doing stupid things in the background. And if I want to edit an image, I drag it into Photoshop.

I'd consider iPhoto as a serious app if it simply acted as a viewer of my images from the location I set, instead of the useless methods it has know.

 

[crazycap]

I've gotta agree with jbg232 here.

The problem I have with iPhoto that I don't have with iTunes is I don't have the opportunity to set the folder l......

a quick note, there's a way to disable iphoto duplicating your pictures.. just do it in iphoto ->Perference -> advance

 

[haze]

Just want to let you know in Leopard, iphoto is well integrated into the open dialog box. On the right side panel, other than those normal folders you can see media -> photos ; then you can just browse like your in iphoto with events and such

Cool, I will have to check it. I just imaged my lab with Leopard and installed on my Macbook Pro. I haven't had much time to mess with it, yet.

 

[Topher15]

a quick note, there's a way to disable iphoto duplicating your pictures.. just do it in iphoto ->Perference -> advance

Thanks. I tried this before and it didn't work (although I think this was because the images can directly from my camera). It seems to work now. Works now. Great. I can have the best of both worlds... being able to view my images in iPhoto while still being to control where they actually are.

 

[thenewguy]

Thanks. I tried this before and it didn't work (although I think this was because the images can directly from my camera). It seems to work now. Works now. Great. I can have the best of both worlds... being able to view my images in iPhoto while still being to control where they actually are.

wait, does this mean that Iphot doesn't duplicate it into its library, but just uses the image directly from the folder it creates? what happens when you import images into IPhoto?

 

[czachorski]

Why do I have to open a separate program, drag and drop and clutter my desktop, just to work with photos? Everybody says just hit the email button to send. What if I am not using Apple Mail? What if I apple MAil is one account, but I am using Web Mail for another? I don't know how it is more efficient to open and additional program, drag and drop (make and additional copy of file), just to do something. What if I do something different than you? Oh no can't have that. What about the "Think Different campaign?" No think like a lemming. Do everything like we do it. That is the vibe I am getting from those replying to the OP. Hopefully an OPEN SOURCE choice will come along soon. Not opne source, but I like Picasa even though I haven't used Windows since long before it ever came out. Just seeing it on other's machines.

If you don't want to do it the iPhoto way, you have the finder, and 3rd party apps. No one is forcing you to do it "their way". Do it however you want. No need to spread FUD about iPhoto and iTunes.

 

[crazycap]

wait, does this mean that Iphot doesn't duplicate it into its library, but just uses the image directly from the folder it creates? what happens when you import images into IPhoto?

That's the tricky part, if you have this option checked ( as iphoto do NOT duplicate photos), in order to import directly from camera you have to first copy the photos to your harddrive. Then you use iphoto to import them (iphoto creates a database of your files but not duplicate them).

Advantage by doing this is you can name your folder to whatever you like for the sake of easy organization. And create events inside iphoto base on the folders .

the con is you have to do this for every import, sort of like a two step procedure.

so if you ONLY import from digital camera, i say let iphoto duplicates the photos and delete them off your camera manually. And use events inside iphoto to handle the picture organizing.

THIRD option is to abandon iphoto at all for the simplicity sake and just use a program called "just looking" (search google). it's a picture browser like the one in windows that let you move forward/back to view pictures within the same folder or use finder if you have Leopard....

I personally can't live without Iphotos

 

[haze]

If you don't want to do it the iPhoto way, you have the finder, and 3rd party apps. No one is forcing you to do it "their way". Do it however you want. No need to spread FUD about iPhoto and iTunes.

FUD? lol

Ok Elmer. Still doesn't explain why I can't browse the iPhoto library in Finder. So much for FUD. Luckily there is a Media Browser in Leopard like in iWork '08. This should solve the problem.

 

[radiantm3]

FUD? lol

Ok Elmer. Still doesn't explain why I can't browse the iPhoto library in Finder. So much for FUD. Luckily there is a Media Browser in Leopard like in iWork '08. This should solve the problem.

You can browse the iPhoto library in the finder:

- Right click on iPhoto Library
- Click on Show Package Contents
- Drag the "Modified" or "Originals" folder to your finder sidebar
- Instant access to the photos in iPhoto FROM THE FINDER.
- Bonus points: Use Cover flow or Quick Look to find your photo faster.

I guess it doesn't matter that you can actually sort through photos much faster in iPhoto than in the finder. Some windows converts are like old people. They are just unable to learn new and better ways of doing things. iPhoto is very powerful and CAN BE the fastest way to find an image if you know how to use it.

Try tagging your photos with keywords, then creating smart albums based on keywords. Also, adding keywords makes the search very useful.

Final advice: Stop thinking like a Windows user. It makes for a horrible mac experience. You beat level 1 by purchasing a mac. To get past level 2, you must be willing to learn new ways of thinking about how computers work. Mac OSX is much smarter than you think it is.

 

[OdduWon]

iPhoto library on a Xpbox

I have backed up my iphoto library to an external drive and am trying to find a pic in XP. AM I the only one who thinks that the way iPhoto files your photos is very un productive for finding files? They are all stored by dates and you have to click through every day to find the picture you need. Perhaps if i had vista i could search for them, but in xp the search function can't even find "paint" . I guess next time i will create albums and drag them to folders on the dt.