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iPhoto Hurting My Photos?

I

imfrog2002

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 20, 2007
316
0
I recently did some looking in my iPhoto library, and I saw that all of my photos look like crap! They are ALL really small quality, and look pixelated when full-screen. They weren't like that a month ago. They were amazing at fullscreen, and I even got a book (before they went bad), and they are crystal-clear! One of the photos is at http://tinyurl.com/3d5skg and that's cut to half-resolution. That one of Flickr looks better than the ones in iPhoto. Any help on this, as a lot of great photos and memories are turning into pixelated crap. I'm just glad that I ordered a book when I did, with the best of the best.

Here's some links to pictures that are comparing the two, side-by side. The one on the right is from iPhoto, the one on the left is from Flickr.

"Actual Size" As reported by Preview:
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/8061/picture1ab6.png

Zoomed to equal size:
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/1425/picture2ye4.png
 
Where did you get the iPhoto files from?

~/Users/<YourUserName>/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/<Year>/<Event Name>/<File>? Or somewhere else?
 
The question is, what resolution are they in iPhoto? It sounds like you found the thumbnails of them and not the originals.
 
They are 360x270. They are in the originals folder, and I can't find the other photos anywhere, so I doubt that they're the thumbnails. They are also showing up like that in iPhoto, and my screensaver, everything.
 
I had this EXACT same problem one day when I opened iPhoto and I posted a thread here as well about it.


Can't explain what the cause was other than I woke up one day and all my photos were buggered and resized to the same size you have.

I had to re-import from a backup I had luckily.

I haven't' had this problem on Leopard though so far with the latest patch for iPhoto.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was some weird db quirk.
 
TheStu said:
Where did you get the iPhoto files from?

~/Users/<YourUserName>/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/<Year>/<Event Name>/<File>? Or somewhere else?
Click to expand...


Ugh.

Don't use the iPhoto database that way unless you want to lose your data.

export your images out of iPhoto.
 
Yeah, I'd love to re-import them from a backup. The only ones I have are in iPhoto, or Flickr, which doesn't hold all of them, just most of them. Oh well. I guess that I'm not going to use iPhoto as much anymore.
 
TheStu said:
I wasn't exporting out of the database, I was simply accessing the files directly that way. No harm, no foul.
Click to expand...


That is apparently asking for trouble.. When you go to iPhoto Library you are actually opening the db, not just 'accessing the files' on the hard disk.
 
Mindflux said:
That is apparently asking for trouble.. When you go to iPhoto Library you are actually opening the db, not just 'accessing the files' on the hard disk.
Click to expand...

What the deuce does it matter? iPhoto wasn't open, I simply opened the iPhoto Library Package, navigated to the image, and hit command+o to bring it up in Preview (also hit spacebar just cuz I like QuickLook). I then, without editing anything, quit out of preview after having it open for 10 seconds, and then hit spacebar again to de-quicklook it. So, until you can tell me why simply looking at a file on my hard drive will damage iPhoto, I will not feel bad about doing that, or telling people that is where there photos are.
 
I also have a question about iPhoto, which I think goes along with the OP's question, in an indirect way.

I've just moved from windows to my first mac (yay!) and I'm used to being able to find photos (to view, copy, move around, etc) by navigating to "my documents" and into the appropriate folder. But in my macbook, when I go through finder, my home directory has a folder called "pictures", and all new photos I've put in the mac from my camera are in "iPhoto library", but the only way to view the photos is by double clicking, which opens iPhoto. Is there any other way to access the photos, for example if I just wanted to drag and drop one into a usb key?
 
Yes, but you'll have to keep a second copy of all your photos, but that's not a bad thing, I've found out... (You can go in through the database, but it's possibly a bad thing, so here's to playing it safe.)

In iPhoto, go File>>Export... and export either individual events (to keep things organized. You can move them into a central folder, if you want) or all of the photos into a new folder. You can then browse them in the Finder, along with iPhoto. :)
 
If the photos are in iPhoto, you can also just drag the photos you want out of the iPhoto window onto your pen drive. No need to use export.
 
GadgetNeil said:
I also have a question about iPhoto, which I think goes along with the OP's question, in an indirect way.

I've just moved from windows to my first mac (yay!) and I'm used to being able to find photos (to view, copy, move around, etc) by navigating to "my documents" and into the appropriate folder. But in my macbook, when I go through finder, my home directory has a folder called "pictures", and all new photos I've put in the mac from my camera are in "iPhoto library", but the only way to view the photos is by double clicking, which opens iPhoto. Is there any other way to access the photos, for example if I just wanted to drag and drop one into a usb key?
Click to expand...

You can control+click and select "Open with" then select Preview. Or if you have Leopard you could just use Quick Look.
 
TheStu said:
What the deuce does it matter? iPhoto wasn't open, I simply opened the iPhoto Library Package, navigated to the image, and hit command+o to bring it up in Preview (also hit spacebar just cuz I like QuickLook). I then, without editing anything, quit out of preview after having it open for 10 seconds, and then hit spacebar again to de-quicklook it. So, until you can tell me why simply looking at a file on my hard drive will damage iPhoto, I will not feel bad about doing that, or telling people that is where there photos are.
Click to expand...


IU don't *KNOW* what's the matter with it. I just have been told and have read that opening the iPhoto DB (which is what you are doing when you browse to your files via finder) is asking for trouble. I'll remember this conversation so when you post "ZOMG I LOST MY PRON IN IPHOTO HOW!?" I can remind you.
 
Mindflux said:
IU don't *KNOW* what's the matter with it. I just have been told and have read that opening the iPhoto DB (which is what you are doing when you browse to your files via finder) is asking for trouble. I'll remember this conversation so when you post "ZOMG I LOST MY PRON IN IPHOTO HOW!?" I can remind you.
Click to expand...

In general, one should leave the iPhoto package alone, that's true, but browsing it and reading files won't damage anything. Trying to manage it manually or "fix things" however is asking for trouble.
 
GadgetNeil said:
I also have a question about iPhoto, which I think goes along with the OP's question, in an indirect way.

I've just moved from windows to my first mac (yay!) and I'm used to being able to find photos (to view, copy, move around, etc) by navigating to "my documents" and into the appropriate folder. But in my macbook, when I go through finder, my home directory has a folder called "pictures", and all new photos I've put in the mac from my camera are in "iPhoto library", but the only way to view the photos is by double clicking, which opens iPhoto. Is there any other way to access the photos, for example if I just wanted to drag and drop one into a usb key?
Click to expand...

The transition to iphoto from windows is a little more than I was expecting too when I switched. Basically whereas in windows you are VERY used to controlling the ACTUAL photo file DO NOT DO THIS ON A MAC!!!! I have talked to many people and unless you are using aperture, do not mess around with the iphoto package file because it is very well integrated with leopard and time machine and can mess stuff up (no personal experience though). I thought that this was a little strange and was "hooked" onto manipulating photos the old windows way but have actually found it much more intuitive and simpler to just let iphoto do everything. The only real downside is that it takes up double the HD space because each photo is saved as an original and an iphoto version, but whatever, with the size of hard drives now it's not a big deal. In terms of managing the photos, just drag it to wherever you want or in Leopard you can get to your photos from the sidebar (which is super convenient for me). It is a leap of faith, but it works well once you've taken the jump...

chameleon81 said:
now i m scared about my photos :)
picasa never did sth like that.
Click to expand...

Don't be, as long as you have time machine you will be fine and people on macrumors exagerate problems incessantly. Apple wouldn't have the highest customer satisfaction rating among its users in every poll if families were losing their entire photo albums due to glitches like this being common in the least!
 
Does anyone have suggestion for good alternative to iPhoto. I don't like it, or trust it, and reading this has made me even more wary. I've got several thousand pics filed in iPhoto, most of them not backed up out of iPhoto, so it's now a priority to save as independent jpegs. I've always found iPhoto/Tunes to be grossly overhyped as to ease of use, they aren't intuitive and need some fairly serious study to utilise properly, I've never had the time to learn them in depth, so stupid programming decisions by the designers like working on an original photo file and then it being replaced by the modified one are just plain dumb. I know you can create a copy to work on etc, but that is not intuitive or straightforward and there is no warning that you're losing your original!
 
patrickq said:
Does anyone have suggestion for good alternative to iPhoto. I don't like it, or trust it, and reading this has made me even more wary. I've got several thousand pics filed in iPhoto, most of them not backed up out of iPhoto, so it's now a priority to save as independent jpegs. I've always found iPhoto/Tunes to be grossly overhyped as to ease of use, they aren't intuitive and need some fairly serious study to utilise properly, I've never had the time to learn them in depth, so stupid programming decisions by the designers like working on an original photo file and then it being replaced by the modified one are just plain dumb. I know you can create a copy to work on etc, but that is not intuitive or straightforward and there is no warning that you're losing your original!
Click to expand...

You don't lose the original. When you edit a photo in iPhoto, the original is kept in the Originals subfolder of the iPhoto Library package. In fact, even before you edit it, that is where it is stored. It only appears that you have lost the original since all that is left in the iPhoto app is the edited photo.

I'm not sure what you mean by it not being intuitive... but whatever...

I think there is another thread on here somewhere, perhaps in the OS X section, pertaining to iPhoto alternatives.
 
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