iPhoto - HELP PLEASE

[trlyka]

I am trying to organize photos. I want to create albums and move pictures from my main photos to these selected albums. I also don't want the pics that I move to be in both places. When I delete a photo from the main album, after I move or add it to a different album, it deletes in both places? Can someone please tell me how to do this?

Thanks

 

[DaveTheRave]

I think pictures in albums are just a link back to the main database and are not a true copy taking up twice the space.

 

[Brian33]

Each photo is in one Event and stays there (what you're calling the "main" album, I think). Each photo may also appear in one or more Albums, but the "photos" in Albums are really just links (or pointers, or aliases, or references) to the actual photo in its Event.

So, when you delete a "photo" (actually an alias) from an Album, it just disappears from that Album, but stays in the Event. When you delete a photo from an Event, the photo file is deleted from the iPhoto Library, and all of its aliases disappear from from each Album that it appeared in.

When you "put" a photo into an Album, I'm not sure why you don't want it to also show in the Event list? Perhaps you want to organize all the photos into albums, and you want an easy way to see which photos haven't been organized yet?

If this is the case, I would make a "Smart Album" that shows all photos that are NOT already in an album. When you drag a "photo" from such a Smart Album, it will disappear from the Smart Album and show up in the new Album.

To make one, go to File-->New Smart Album... give it a name like "Unsorted Photos". Match the following condition: "Album" "is not" "Any" and click OK. Now Unsorted Photos will contain all photos (actually aliases of all photos) whose album field is not any of the ones in the dropdown list.

Hope this helps.

 

[trlyka]

Each photo is in one Event and stays there (what you're calling the "main" album, I think). Each photo may also appear in one or more Albums, but the "photos" in Albums are really just links (or pointers, or aliases, or references) to the actual photo in its Event.

So, when you delete a "photo" (actually an alias) from an Album, it just disappears from that Album, but stays in the Event. When you delete a photo from an Event, the photo file is deleted from the iPhoto Library, and all of its aliases disappear from from each Album that it appeared in.

When you "put" a photo into an Album, I'm not sure why you don't want it to also show in the Event list? Perhaps you want to organize all the photos into albums, and you want an easy way to see which photos haven't been organized yet?

If this is the case, I would make a "Smart Album" that shows all photos that are NOT already in an album. When you drag a "photo" from such a Smart Album, it will disappear from the Smart Album and show up in the new Album.

To make one, go to File-->New Smart Album... give it a name like "Unsorted Photos". Match the following condition: "Album" "is not" "Any" and click OK. Now Unsorted Photos will contain all photos (actually aliases of all photos) whose album field is not any of the ones in the dropdown list.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info! Now I'm even more confused lol….

In all seriousness, what I am trying to do, is 'move' certain pics/videos to another location so they don't appear in my main photos album. For example, when I connect my iPhone, all the photos import to the 'Photos' section of iPhoto. I assume those pics are then considered an event? So after they import, I'd like to move certain pics to a folder I create (let's say 'dog pics') and delete the photos I move into that folder from the Photos/Events section and only have them in the folder I created. I would also like to password protect additional folders that I create, but I don't know if that's an option. So like with a Windows computer, you can move photos to a separate folder and erase them from other folders without deleting them from everywhere. Make sense?

 

[Dave Braine]

Just to add to what Brian33 said. When you import into iPhoto, the pictures are indeed grouped and appear as Events. They also appear in the Photos section, arranged in date order of import. This is the main photo storage area. You can't have pictures elsewhere and not in Photos. If you delete a picture from the Photos section, it is deleted from iPhoto completely.

So,

I'd like to move certain pics to a folder I create (let's say 'dog pics')

you can do that,

but,

and delete the photos I move into that folder from the Photos/Events section

you can't do that, because if you do, those pictures will disappear from any Album that you've put them in.

 

[trlyka]

Just to add to what Brian33 said. When you import into iPhoto, the pictures are indeed grouped and appear as Events. They also appear in the Photos section, arranged in date order of import. This is the main photo storage area. You can't have pictures elsewhere and not in Photos. If you delete a picture from the Photos section, it is deleted from iPhoto completely.

So,
Quote:
I'd like to move certain pics to a folder I create (let's say 'dog pics')
you can do that,

but,
Quote:
and delete the photos I move into that folder from the Photos/Events section
you can't do that, because if you do, those pictures will disappear from any Album that you've put them in.

I don't understand why such a sophisticated OS can't do this simple task

I would even be ok with hiding the pics in the main photos section if they would appear in their designated folders, but I can't do that either.

Is there a program out there that can do what I am trying to accomplish?

 

[BlunderToo]

What you want to do is - as far as I can tell - not possible in iPhoto or Aperture. You would need something like Photoshop or the free Gimp software. This will require that you store the images in folders in the filesystem.

I never passwordprotected any folders myself, but I do believe it's possible and quite easy.

Best of luck
John

 

[glenthompson]

I don't understand why such a sophisticated OS can't do this simple task

I would even be ok with hiding the pics in the main photos section if they would appear in their designated folders, but I can't do that either.

Is there a program out there that can do what I am trying to accomplish?

It has nothing to do with how sophisticated the OS is. The problem is that you're trying to do something contrary to the design of the application. It's like complaining that your car can't cross a lake like a boat. It's just not designed for that mode.

Are your pictures stored in discrete events? In the iPhoto sidebar, under Library, how many events are shown? In my library I have over 300 events that store my pictures. Those events are where the pictures are stored. They are not stored anywhere else. They cannot be stored in albums as albums are not a storage container. The Photos entry under Library is a mashup of all the events. Your pictures are not stored in the Photos section, it just accesses all the events to show what you have.

An analogy to other media would have iTunes removing a song from your music library when you added it to a playlist. Multiple playlists couldn't have the same song unless there were separate copies. If a picture only exists in one album, you couldn't have the same picture in different albums.

I highly recommend getting an iPhoto reference like "iPhoto - The Missing Manual" and earning how and why the app manages photos. You're not getting the full benefit of the app by trying to work contrary to its design.

 

[Consultant]

iPhoto guide here:
http://help.apple.com/iphoto/mac/9.5/
Go read: "View and Organize"

If you don't understand how tagging works, Apple Store offers free iPhoto workshops: https://www.apple.com/retail/learn/

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Do you want to hide individual images that appear in and Event or the Photos folder? Right-click on the image, and you'll find the Hide option. However, if you want to see what's been hidden, it's just a matter of going to the View menu - it's not a feature meant for privacy, but just to conveniently avoid displaying an image.

iPhoto does not allow for the password-protection of individual Events, Folders, etc. So if your goal is to hide images from others who use the computer, you have an all-or-nothing proposition. If you place the iPhoto Library in the Pictures folder of your password-protected Home account, you'll have total privacy. If you leave it in the Root account's Pictures folder, all will be able to see it.

iPhoto is not an OS - if you want to physically shuffle files around from one folder to another, use Finder, and forget about iPhoto entirely. Finder is optimized for managing the generic contents of hard drives, network storage, and the like. iPhoto is a program specifically for organizing and editing photos in ways that are helpful to photographers. Each is optimized to a different purpose.

iPhoto imports photos to folders inside the iPhoto Library "package" (a group of folders and files that's meant to be left untouched by the casual user). Anything else you do - create new Albums, Events, etc. does not affect the original photo files, nor in which folders the original images reside within the package.

iPhoto and Aperture are also non-destructive image editors. When you make changes (whether it's cropping or placing the photo in an album), those changes are saved in data files. Nothing at all happens to the original image file. When you Export photos, whatever edits may have been made are applied on the way out the door.

The point of iPhoto's organizing system is to allow you to find the same image in as many ways as you wish, use the same image as often as you wish, without making multiple copies of the image file. Say you take a picture of your child playing soccer. Say you're also the unofficial team photographer. You create a folder dedicated to soccer photos, and you have another folder dedicated to photos of your child. Where do you put the file?

In Windows File Manager or OS X Finder, that photo could only be in one of those two folders unless you make a copy or an alias. In iPhoto, there's one copy of the image file, no matter how many albums, etc. have that same image. You can edit an image in iPhoto, no matter where you find it - and those edits will be seen in every other place the image can be found.

 

[mtngoatjoe]

I am trying to organize photos. I want to create albums and move pictures from my main photos to these selected albums. I also don't want the pics that I move to be in both places. When I delete a photo from the main album, after I move or add it to a different album, it deletes in both places? Can someone please tell me how to do this?

Thanks

You're making it too difficult. You can drag a photo from an event to as many albums as you want, but iPhoto only keeps one copy of the photo. If you go back to the event the photo is in and edit the photo, the change will appear in EVERY album the photo has been added to.

I will also add that there are some instances where creating albums doesn't make sense. For example, there's no point in creating an album for Bill's birthday. Just manage the photos in the event. You can split and merge events however you want, so there's no reason to create an album for a single event. However, if you tag the birthday with a "Birthday" keyword, you might have cause for creating a smart album that shows all birthday photos (or maybe all birthday photos of a person). The point is, use albums and smart albums to manage groups of photos that span multiple events.