iphoto Q...specified image folder viewing etc

[shiato storm]

right, my question is slightly similar to here but different also. I have imported lots of photos(!) from pc to mac...all good so far.
I usually use lightroom and PS to edit but was wondering about iphoto to swiftly look through everything rather than open up other heft programs just to image scan/browse/surf etc. (not that I havent got the power thanks to MBP and MP). so, can I get iphoto to look at a specified folder, one I may output jpegs or tiffs etc from Raw to, to allow viewing - I don't intend to edit in iphoto - and leave all my photos (from jpegs to tiffs and PSD's) in that folder still to access through PS? basically not import/move/copy my entire photo library over to iphoto but just use it to flip through photos in the nice way it does...

 

[JediMeister]

You can set it in your iPhoto preferences not to copy items to the iPhoto library when adding them. That way when you import the folder(s) to iPhoto, it will create 4 KB aliases for each of the images. A note of caution however; if you rename any of the pictures after adding them to iPhoto, the alias does not automatically re-target itself so double clicking on an image in iPhoto, which generally display the full-size image, will result instead in a black screen with a gray circle and an exclamation mark indicating that its not able to find that file. Also, even though you can import without copying to the iPhoto library, iPhoto will have to generate thumbnails of each image of about 30 KB.

 

[shiato storm]

cool, thanks for that. are those thumbnails stored in an iphoto folder somewhere or where the originals sit?

 

[JediMeister]

Yes, the thumbnails are stored in the iPhoto Library package inside a folder named Data.

 

[skybolt]

Another thing that might work for you is to let iPhoto manage as it usually does, but in iPhoto preferences, set your external editor to lightroom or whatever. Then when you open a photo in iPhoto app to edit, that editor will come up, you can edit to your liking, and when you save the result, the photo will be right back where it should be. No duplication and iPhoto will find the photos just fine.

 

[shiato storm]

Another thing that might work for you is to let iPhoto manage as it usually does, but in iPhoto preferences, set your external editor to lightroom or whatever. Then when you open a photo in iPhoto app to edit, that editor will come up, you can edit to your liking, and when you save the result, the photo will be right back where it should be. No duplication and iPhoto will find the photos just fine.

cheers for that, have set it just as you suggest. if I work on a raw photo and turn that to a tiff/jpeg does iPhoto 'watch' a folder I output that too or do you have to tell it to import each time?