iPhoto Questions

[Shaun.P]

Hello everyone,

I use iPhoto to import and store all of my photographs.

I like to keep my photos organised into albums.

What's confusing me is that when I delete a photograph from an album I expect it to be deleted entirely from my library - however this isn't the case.

When I click on "Photos" on the top left corner, it has all photographs I've imported and still has the ones I deleted from my albums. For some reason I find this highly confusing (despite this being the way iTunes works). Shouldn't the idea be for all of our photos to belong to an album?

I hate how there is a huge discrepancy between the photos in my albums compared to the ones in my library. There now seems to be no way of identifying which one belongs to a album and which ones don't.

Am I over complicating this? I want my iPhoto library to be a current and up-to-date. I don't want photos that don't belong to an album as it means I've deleted it from an album. Make sense?

Also, what's the point of "Events". Can I use albums interchangeably with events? If I delete a photograph from an event does it delete it from the main library?

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/839/screenshot20120409at212.png/

 

[BaldiMac]

Hello everyone,

I use iPhoto to import and store all of my photographs.

I like to keep my photos organised into albums.

What's confusing me is that when I delete a photograph from an album I expect it to be deleted entirely from my library - however this isn't the case.

When I click on "Photos" on the top left corner, it has all photographs I've imported and still has the ones I deleted from my albums. For some reason I find this highly confusing (despite this being the way iTunes works). Shouldn't the idea be for all of our photos to belong to an album?

I hate how there is a huge discrepancy between the photos in my albums compared to the ones in my library. There now seems to be no way of identifying which one belongs to a album and which ones don't.

Am I over complicating this? I want my iPhoto library to be a current and up-to-date. I don't want photos that don't belong to an album as it means I've deleted it from an album. Make sense?

Also, what's the point of "Events". Can I use albums interchangeably with events? If I delete a photograph from an event does it delete it from the main library?

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/839/screenshot20120409at212.png/

Events are what you are trying to use Albums to do. Each photo is in exactly one event. Kind of like a film roll, only you can combine multiple events together or separate a single event into multiple events. If you delete a photo from an Event, it is moved to iPhoto's trash.

Albums are for more ad hoc organization. A photo can be in as many different albums as you want. Like a playlist in iTunes. If you delete a photo from an album, it will still be in your photo library and may be in other albums.

 

[aross99]

Events are kind of like named folders for your images.

Albums are more like playlists in iTunes. They are a list of photos, and deleting something from an album, just removes it from the list.

The only way to delete the actual photo is to remote it from an event or the master list of photos...

I use events like it sounds - to organize a group of pictures that were taken at a single event, like a birthday party, or a trip, or a dance recital, etc. For me, many events represent a single load of photos from my camera, others may have several loads for a larger event like a trip.

When I sync my photos to my iPhone or iPad, I use the option to sync the last 6 months or last year of events, and that gets me the most recent photos, and maintains the event grouping that I have setup in iPhoto.

I don't really use albums, except as a way to form larger collections of photos. I do use "Smart Albums" to automatically group photos of my kids, or photos from my iPhone, or Movies, etc. Don't really do much with them.

One thing I have learned though, is that everyone organizes their photos a little differently, and this may not work for you.

To each their own!

 

[Shaun.P]

Thanks for your help guys.

What's the best way to go from here?

Export all the photographs I have in albums to folders on my Mac, delete my iPhoto library in its entirety, then import the previously exported photos and make them events?


Seems as if I'm making something so simple so complicated. Sorry!

 

[Mal]

Thanks for your help guys.

What's the best way to go from here?

Export all the photographs I have in albums to folders on my Mac, delete my iPhoto library in its entirety, then import the previously exported photos and make them events?


Seems as if I'm making something so simple so complicated. Sorry!

No, your photos are already in events (organized by the date they were taken by default). Just use what's there, and split/merge events if necessary. Exporting the photos and then creating a new library will cost you some other types of information (Faces, for instance, and descriptions), and won't really achieve much.

jW

 

[Shaun.P]

No, your photos are already in events (organized by the date they were taken by default). Just use what's there, and split/merge events if necessary. Exporting the photos and then creating a new library will cost you some other types of information (Faces, for instance, and descriptions), and won't really achieve much.

jW

But my events will have extra photographs compared to my albums. For example: Say after a wedding I imported 800 photos. iPhone creates an event for this containing the 800 photos. I made an album with the 800 photos and ended up with 138 photos. Huge discrepancy.

 

[BaldiMac]

But my events will have extra photographs compared to my albums. For example: Say after a wedding I imported 800 photos. iPhone creates an event for this containing the 800 photos. I made an album with the 800 photos and ended up with 138 photos. Huge discrepancy.

There are multiple ways to deal with this.

Starting with your wedding Event with 800 photos. You can:

1) Delete the extra 662 photos.
2) Hide the extra 662 photo.
3) Create an album with the 138 photos.
4) Split the wedding Event into two events (Wedding Good, Wedding Bad).

There are other techniques using tags or ratings that you could also use to differentiate between the 138 photos and the rest. You just have to find what makes sense for you.

 

[Shaun.P]

There are multiple ways to deal with this.

Starting with your wedding Event with 800 photos. You can:

1) Delete the extra 662 photos.
2) Hide the extra 662 photo.
3) Create an album with the 138 photos.
4) Split the wedding Event into two events (Wedding Good, Wedding Bad).

There are other techniques using tags or ratings that you could also use to differentiate between the 138 photos and the rest. You just have to find what makes sense for you.

Will what I mentioned in post #4 work?

Thanks again!

 

[BaldiMac]

Will what I mentioned in post #4 work?

Thanks again!

I'm not sure what the point of that process is. If what you are trying to do is delete all photos that are not in an album, the you can just create a smart album that contains all photos that are not in one of your existing albums. Then you can just move all of those photos to the trash.

No need to start from scratch, especially if you have spent any time tagging your photos, rating them, or identifying faces or locations.

 

[Shaun.P]

I'm not sure what the point of that process is. If what you are trying to do is delete all photos that are not in an album, the you can just create a smart album that contains all photos that are not in one of your existing albums. Then you can just move all of those photos to the trash.

No need to start from scratch, especially if you have spent any time tagging your photos, rating them, or identifying faces or locations.

Thanks for your help! How do I make a smart album with photos that do not belong to other albums?

You say I can then delete them? If I delete photos from an album - surely this has no affect on the photos stored in my library?

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My ultimate goal is to be using Events as opposed to albums now.