iPhoto '11 for a newbie!

[WalCan]

Hi all,

I'm an experienced Windows user and am eagerly awaiting the delivery of my very first Mac, a 17" MacBook Pro that should be delivered next Tue! To bide my time until it gets here, and in an effort to hit the ground running when it does, I have started to do a bit of reading about some of the applications I plan to start using.

On my current Windows machine I don't use any photo management software. I download any photos I take into an 'originals' folder and in sub folders by date taken. If I choose to do any editing, I copy the photo into an 'edited' folder, and dated sub folders. I then keep both the original and often multiple edited copies.

I would like to use iPhoto on my new Mac to organize my photos and take advantage of it's quick and easy integrations, and consequently get to see and use my photos a little more! From what I have read so far iPhoto separates the user from what is going on in the back end, somthing I am going to need to get used to!

So finally to my questions!
1. I know that if you edit a photo iPhoto keeps the original and 1 edited copy. Is there a way to have it store multiple edited copies? I would like to be able to have a similar workflow to my current one. I am also happy to modify my workflow to fit iPhoto if I can get similar results as above.
2. Is it possible to store all the photos that are in iPhoto on an external drive? I have a NAS wth mirrored array that I currently use.

Please feel free to let me know how you use iPhoto!

Sorry for such a long post but i was hoping that providing the background information would help you understand where I am coming from.

Thanks

 

[Weaselboy]

1. I know that if you edit a photo iPhoto keeps the original and 1 edited copy. Is there a way to have it store multiple edited copies? I would like to be able to have a similar workflow to my current one. I am also happy to modify my workflow to fit iPhoto if I can get similar results as above.

2. Is it possible to store all the photos that are in iPhoto on an external drive? I have a NAS wth mirrored array that I currently use.

1. No. It keeps the original and the most recent edited version.

2. Yes. Just follow the instructions here.

Enjoy your new Mac.

 

[roadbloc]

Duplicating the photo within iPhoto before an edit will enable you to keep several versions.

 

[WalCan]

Thank you both for your replies. This info will defiantly come in useful.

I’m interested to find out how others use iPhoto. What does you iPhoto editing workflow look like?

 

[roadbloc]

Not quite sure what you mean, but this is what the editing window looks like in iPhoto. You click on an above tab or a button below the tab in the sidebar to view certain editing controls.

Click for bigger.

 

[WalCan]

Thanks for the screenshot roadbloc, but actually what I meant by "What does you iPhoto editing workflow look like?" was, how do manage multiple edited copies of the same photo in iPhoto?

I am just interested to see how others use iPhoto to organize, edit and manage their photos.

Thanks

 

[roadbloc]

I am afraid I'm no big expert as I've only just started a photo collection myself using iPhoto. I'll show you what I know, I hope it helps.



Photos are organised in 'Events.' These can be changed and renamed as you wish, however, by default, it organises them via date.


This is simply another way of viewing your events.


You can tag faces. Useful if your tagging facebook photos. The facial recognition software tries it's best, and sometimes get's it right. But not always. You may also geotag your photos if you wish.


This is how you duplicate a photo if you wish to make further edits to an already edited photo but still need your last edits saved.


How different edits are displayed (each photo is a duplicate).


The revert to original button. Will appear on all edits and duplicates.


And finally, if iPhoto doesn't cut it as a photo editor, you can select a 3rd party application to do it instead.

I hope I have helped. If iPhoto seems very basic to you, I recommend Aperture, which is a more 'professional' version of iPhoto.

 

[WalCan]

Thanks for your reply and taking the time to take all those screenshots.

Anybody else’s experiences are also welcome.

 

[Pomeroy]

I'll give you an idea how i use iPhoto and maybe save you from doing what so many exwindows users do when they try to use iPhoto like they did on their PC.
First off iPhoto works like a data base, so trying to set it up like Folders and subfolders makes it harder to find photos as time and size increases. You'll find that Keywords and Smart Albums will make finding very easy to find photos with just a few key strokes. We'll get into that later.
Before I even open iPhoto I drag the photos from the Memory card or the camera to a folder I keep on the desk top called, you ready for it??? "New Photos".
Now I'm ready to began working on the NEW Photos by dragging the "New Photos" folder from the desk top to the dock and drop on Finder. Finder will open with all the photos showing and you can look them over and delete any you don't want to save. Next I drag the "New Photos" folder to the dock and drop on "Name Mangler" (use the renaming app of your choice) and rename the photos with a name I can read and remember and not those hard to remember camera names. When that is done it is now time to drag that same folder back to the dock and this time drop it on iPhoto and all the photos will be imported to iPhoto. The will show up in a "Event" and I think that becomes all most useless when you get a few hundred Events showing, just about as bad as trying to remember what folder you placed photos in 5 years ago. You will also see that the photos are on the left sidebar in "Last Import". Once you see all the photos it's time to start organizing them. The first thing I do is give them all at least one "Keyword". Command K will open up the Keyword List and you can make new Keywords you want to use or use some that are already in the list. I also use "Smart Albums" to have quick access to some of my favorite groups of Photos. Lets say I have a photo of Uncle Bob that I took on vacation in 2003 at Blue Lake in Idaho, I would add the Key Words, Blue Lake, Family, Vacation and Idaho (we travel a lot so I have Smart folders for each State).
I can now find that picture several ways and not have to remember what year it was or what folder I placed it in. I can find him by typing Uncle Bob or Family or Idaho or Blue Lake or Vacations into the Search box in iPhoto. I could even sort my whole library by Date and scroll down to about the time I took the picture. That is just some of the ways to find a photo fast. That photo of Uncle Bob would show up in several Smart Albums, but you would still only have two of that Picture of him, the Original and a Modified.
You can make Folders in the sidebar and drag Smart Albums into them, A Holiday folder with different holiday Smart Albums inside maybe or a State Folder with Different City Smart albums inside.
Maybe this will help you get started in iPhoto and give you some ideas how you want to set it up for yourself.

 

[WalCan]

Thanks Pomeroy, that is a really useful insight to how you work with iPhoto.

Anyone else have any different, (or similar), ways they work with their photos in iPhoto?

 

[WalCan]

Another question I have is, does anyone use iPhoto to directly import photos from their camera? The reason I ask is because I have a Canon camera that that stores orientation information for each photo in the picture, so that when they are downloaded to the computer by Canon’s software, (or the built-in import software in Windows 7), they are automatically rotated to the correct orientation.

I have read that iPhoto will use this orientation information to correctly orientate a photo but it creates an edited version of the photo that it applies it to. Is this correct? If this is the case I guess the work around would be to use the Canon software to download the photos from the camera and orientate them correctly, then manually import them into iPhoto. I think this would work ok but it is a little more cumbersome.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Alonzo84]

I usually import RAW photos from a Nikon directly to iPhoto. Photos shot in landscape will rotate when imported but as the original RAW photo. It doesn't edit anything as far as I know.

 

[jusacruiser]

I'll give you an idea how i use iPhoto and maybe save you from doing what so many exwindows users do when they try to use iPhoto like they did on their PC.
First off iPhoto works like a data base, so trying to set it up like Folders and subfolders makes it harder to find photos as time and size increases. You'll find that Keywords and Smart Albums will make finding very easy to find photos with just a few key strokes. We'll get into that later.
Before I even open iPhoto I drag the photos from the Memory card or the camera to a folder I keep on the desk top called, you ready for it??? "New Photos".
Now I'm ready to began working on the NEW Photos by dragging the "New Photos" folder from the desk top to the dock and drop on Finder. Finder will open with all the photos showing and you can look them over and delete any you don't want to save. Next I drag the "New Photos" folder to the dock and drop on "Name Mangler" (use the renaming app of your choice) and rename the photos with a name I can read and remember and not those hard to remember camera names. When that is done it is now time to drag that same folder back to the dock and this time drop it on iPhoto and all the photos will be imported to iPhoto. The will show up in a "Event" and I think that becomes all most useless when you get a few hundred Events showing, just about as bad as trying to remember what folder you placed photos in 5 years ago. You will also see that the photos are on the left sidebar in "Last Import". Once you see all the photos it's time to start organizing them. The first thing I do is give them all at least one "Keyword". Command K will open up the Keyword List and you can make new Keywords you want to use or use some that are already in the list. I also use "Smart Albums" to have quick access to some of my favorite groups of Photos. Lets say I have a photo of Uncle Bob that I took on vacation in 2003 at Blue Lake in Idaho, I would add the Key Words, Blue Lake, Family, Vacation and Idaho (we travel a lot so I have Smart folders for each State).
I can now find that picture several ways and not have to remember what year it was or what folder I placed it in. I can find him by typing Uncle Bob or Family or Idaho or Blue Lake or Vacations into the Search box in iPhoto. I could even sort my whole library by Date and scroll down to about the time I took the picture. That is just some of the ways to find a photo fast. That photo of Uncle Bob would show up in several Smart Albums, but you would still only have two of that Picture of him, the Original and a Modified.
You can make Folders in the sidebar and drag Smart Albums into them, A Holiday folder with different holiday Smart Albums inside maybe or a State Folder with Different City Smart albums inside.
Maybe this will help you get started in iPhoto and give you some ideas how you want to set it up for yourself.

Wow, this was a very detailed response. My takeaway is how great the "Smart Albums" are. Also how the use of keywords, makes searching for photos quick. Your input was very helpful and gives me an idea of how to get started organizing my photos.

One question though.....can you talk about "duplicate photos" a little more? It seems like duplicates keep cropping up randomly in my iphoto. The first time this happened, I had to cherrypick through thousands of photos to find duplicates. Now duplicates seem to be magically popping up. How do I manage this duplicate problem?

Thanks!