iPhoto - Moving photos to mac from PC

[VanMac]

Hi..

Just got my 12" iBook. I have a bunch of photos on my pc that I want to transfer to mac, and use iPhoto.

Any best way to go about this? The machines are networked, so do I just get iPhoto to import? I would like iPhoto to organize for me. On the pc, they are just dumped into some psuedo sorted directories.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[johan_tanying]

Try to rename all your folders on the pc as detailed as possible about what they contain (date, place, names etc) since iPhoto names the imported "rolls" after the imported folders. A good way to find stuff later since the assigned date to new "rolls" are not corresponding to the real shooting dates...

Another thing: I would not recommend using an iBook for any kind of more extensive iPhoto archives. A couple of thousand images may work but after that it will get very slow. I have 17.000 images on a PowerMac 1.8 GHz DP w/ 1.25 GB RAM and iPhoto is both quite slow and unstable - I would never dream of putting that on my 1.2 GHz iBook w/ b1.25 GB RAM (HD space issues aside). I am now in the process of evaluating ShoeBox (should be available on Versiontracker.com) and it may be a better substitute for iPhoto on an iBook.

 

[munkle]

Easiest way might just be to dump all your PC photos into one large folder, transfer that folder over to your Mac and then get iPhoto to import.

For the organisation, you'll have to do that yourself. iPhoto dumps all your photos into one large central library and you sort them from there. You could of course use smart folders and have them sorted by date, rather than selecting each photo to putting them into folders manually. Assigning keywords is a good habit to get into as well and will make smart folders a lot more powerful. UseKeyword Assistant to make the task easier.

If you have lots of photos you might want to create multiple libraries instead of having one huge library, which can cause iPhoto to slow down. For that iPhoto Buddy is indeed your friend.

One rule to keep in mind when using iPhoto is to interact with your photos via iPhoto's interface and NOT the Finder. Unlike iTunes, iPhoto has a wacky of storing your photos in subfolder after subfolder organised by date. It's ugly, don't even look at it lest you be tempted to tinker. Messing with your photos via the Finder can cause iPhoto to go crazy. It's not worth the hassle.

Apart from that you should be good to go!

 

[munkle]

Try to rename all your folders on the pc as detailed as possible about what they contain (date, place, names etc) since iPhoto names the imported "rolls" after the imported folders. A good way to find stuff later since the assigned date to new "rolls" are not corresponding to the real shooting dates...

You can easily change the name of the rolls inside iPhoto. iPhoto is more concerned with the meta information contained within the photos.

Another thing: I would not recommend using an iBook for any kind of more extensive iPhoto archives. A couple of thousand images may work but after that it will get very slow. I have 17.000 images on a PowerMac 1.8 GHz DP w/ 1.25 GB RAM and iPhoto is both quite slow and unstable - I would never dream of putting that on my 1.2 GHz iBook w/ b1.25 GB RAM (HD space issues aside). I am now in the process of evaluating ShoeBox (should be available on Versiontracker.com) and it may be a better substitute for iPhoto on an iBook.

This is where iPhoto Buddy (link given above) comes in. You're right, iPhoto can get a tad sluggish after a few thousand photos. Multiple libraries is the way to go and makes organising your photos easier as well

 

[alex_ant]

iPhoto sucks!!!! Keep them on your PC and use Picasa. iPhoto will make you regret it if you don't.

 

[gekko513]

For the organisation, you'll have to do that yourself.

Uhm ... well, not really. Because the photos are organized by and within iPhoto, but the files don't have to be.

If you use iPhoto, don't care about the files. If you want to open a photo in another application, drag it there directly from iPhoto. If you want to handle it as a file, export it from iPhoto.

 

[VanMac]

Easiest way might just be to dump all your PC photos into one large folder, transfer that folder over to your Mac and then get iPhoto to import.

For the organisation, you'll have to do that yourself. iPhoto dumps all your photos into one large central library and you sort them from there. You could of course use smart folders and have them sorted by date, rather than selecting each photo to putting them into folders manually. Assigning keywords is a good habit to get into as well and will make smart folders a lot more powerful. UseKeyword Assistant to make the task easier.

If you have lots of photos you might want to create multiple libraries instead of having one huge library, which can cause iPhoto to slow down. For that iPhoto Buddy is indeed your friend.

One rule to keep in mind when using iPhoto is to interact with your photos via iPhoto's interface and NOT the Finder. Unlike iTunes, iPhoto has a wacky of storing your photos in subfolder after subfolder organised by date. It's ugly, don't even look at it lest you be tempted to tinker. Messing with your photos via the Finder can cause iPhoto to go crazy. It's not worth the hassle.

Apart from that you should be good to go!

Ok.

So, when iPhoto imports my pics, does it make a copy of the jpg file? Or does it just do some mapping to the file system and organizes with meta data?

I have a 4Mp camera, so each file is about 1.8MB. I have about 3GB of photos.

tx.

 

[munkle]

Ok.

So, when iPhoto imports my pics, does it make a copy of the jpg file? Or does it just do some mapping to the file system and organizes with meta data?

I have a 4Mp camera, so each file is about 1.8MB. I have about 3GB of photos.

tx.

It imports your photos into the iPhoto library. Once imported you can of course delete the original.

Uhm ... well, not really. Because the photos are organized by and within iPhoto, but the files don't have to be.

If you use iPhoto, don't care about the files. If you want to open a photo in another application, drag it there directly from iPhoto. If you want to handle it as a file, export it from iPhoto.

Uhm...if you had read on, isn't that basically what I said?

 

[gekko513]

Ok.

So, when iPhoto imports my pics, does it make a copy of the jpg file? Or does it just do some mapping to the file system and organizes with meta data?

I have a 4Mp camera, so each file is about 1.8MB. I have about 3GB of photos.

tx.

I just tried it. It makes a copy and puts it in the iPhoto Library folder, so you can delete the originals. This also means that if you mount the Windows file system in finder, you should be able to just select the images and drag them to the iPhoto icon and you're done.

 

[gekko513]

Uhm...if you had read on, isn't that basically what I said?

Yes, I'm sorry.