I'm looking at upgrading my personal Mac laptop and the deliberations on it are bringing to a head some data management issues that I've been avoiding.
Basically, it is a combination of a probably-bad-for-me workflow, along with an increasingly huge iPhoto library size.
The workflow issue is that I have different projects underway on different physical machines. The dilemma that I've been avoiding is how to recombine the two libraries that have now become forked.
The size issue is that my current "Master" (complete) of my iPhoto library is around 400GB, which makes it difficult to physically install on a standard Mac laptop (500GB disk) if I were to simply address my forked library issue through better file discipline.
In an ideal world....
What I'd like to do is to be able to break down my iPhoto library into smaller chunks (call these "sub-libraries"), so that I can work on various projects on different machines, and then be able to "synch" a "sub-library" back into the original "Master Library" that's kept safely at home.
I realize that this probably sounds more like the workflow permitted by Lightroom ... got a copy of LR, but I haven't really fallen in love with it, particularly as I have with iPhoto's "Make a Photo Album Book" bit, which is really my main application when I'm away from the home desktop.
Suggestions? Recommended 3rd Party tools for iPhoto management? etc.
-hh
Basically, it is a combination of a probably-bad-for-me workflow, along with an increasingly huge iPhoto library size.
The workflow issue is that I have different projects underway on different physical machines. The dilemma that I've been avoiding is how to recombine the two libraries that have now become forked.
The size issue is that my current "Master" (complete) of my iPhoto library is around 400GB, which makes it difficult to physically install on a standard Mac laptop (500GB disk) if I were to simply address my forked library issue through better file discipline.
In an ideal world....
What I'd like to do is to be able to break down my iPhoto library into smaller chunks (call these "sub-libraries"), so that I can work on various projects on different machines, and then be able to "synch" a "sub-library" back into the original "Master Library" that's kept safely at home.
I realize that this probably sounds more like the workflow permitted by Lightroom ... got a copy of LR, but I haven't really fallen in love with it, particularly as I have with iPhoto's "Make a Photo Album Book" bit, which is really my main application when I'm away from the home desktop.
Suggestions? Recommended 3rd Party tools for iPhoto management? etc.
-hh