iPhoto weakest Apple application

[R.Youden]

I think that for what it does iPhoto is good there are a number of areas where it falls down and I hope Apple can address them. I don't know if these are recognised bugs or anyone has seen them, anyway:

• DVD burning: I tried to burn a DVD. iPhoto said it required 2.5GB and took the right length of time to burn it only burnt the thumb nails and the orginal folders on the DVD was empty
• Red Eye Reduction: In full screen edit I zoomed in to remove the red eye and it looked great, then when I zoomed out half of the face was a big blank splodge, somethign not right there
• Creating Film Rolls: I suppose this isnt a big thing but if you have two film rolls collapsed (so you cant see any of the pictures) you can't combine the rolls into one big roll. This can only be done when the rolls are expanded. Is this a feature or bug?

I think iPhoto has huge potential to be an even better app but I am very tempted to upgrade to Aperture on the next revision if I can afford it. Has anyone else seen any of these issues or is it just me complaining?

 

[TBi]

I have a PC and Macbook so i use Picasa and iPhoto. I find Picasa much easier to work with that iPhoto. Plus iPhoto seems a lot slower than picassa even though it is running on an older slower PC.

 

[furcalchick]

the red eye feature is bad yes, i don't even use it. i compared the red eye fix to one i did in photoshop, no comparison at all, photoshop won while iphotos version looked very terrible, especially if the eyes are not really big at all.

the dvd feature i haven't tried yet, but i hope i don't run into those problems when i burn one.

i also have another complaint, when i start up iphoto, it always starts at the end of the last roll, which is just stupid, as i have to scroll all the way up just to get to the ones i like. if anything, it should start at the beginning of the library.

and also the enhance photos doesn't always work the way i want it to, it ruins some of the photos.

but when it comes down to it, it's a pretty good app for basic organization and editing for photos. i got alot more than i expected, as i was on a windows machine before and didn't have one to work with, and the ms software when i finally got it was very clunky with it's interface that it was nearly impossible to work with. some improvements can be made, but apple has done a good job with iphoto for the most part.

 

[R.Youden]

but when it comes down to it, it's a pretty good app for basic organization and editing for photos. i got alot more than i expected, as i was on a windows machine before and didn't have one to work with, and the ms software when i finally got it was very clunky with it's interface that it was nearly impossible to work with. some improvements can be made, but apple has done a good job with iphoto for the most part.

I agree with what you are saying, BUT, if they include a feature at least make it work properly, especially by the .0.5 version! I hope iPhoto 7 is a good upgrade. I suppose for me iLife isn't really worth it as I only use iPhoto and iWeb, I may as well stick with iPhoto 6 and save-up for Aperture...

 

[miloblithe]

I'd vote for iWeb (and its iMac interface) though. The lack of being able to set up a real blog is pretty weak.

I'm looking forward to seeing iLife '07 though. I imagine some of our complaints will be addressed and some cool new features added.

 

[R.Youden]

I'd vote for iWeb (and its iMac interface) though. The lack of being able to set up a real blog is pretty weak.

I'm looking forward to seeing iLife '07 though. I imagine some of our complaints will be addressed and some cool new features added.

For me iWeb comes a close second. I would like to see the ability to have 3rd party plug-ins like Rapid Weaver but I suppose that is not the way apple works!

 

[wordmunger]

I get what you're saying. But minor bugs like that don't make a program the "worst ever." IPhoto does what I need -- it's a pretty good program.

That said, I'm a little unhappy with the overall integration between the iApps. What I find annoying is that way each app requires another one in order to function properly. For example, if I create a podcast in Garageband, it won't just export it in MP3 format. I have to load it into iTunes in order to convert it to an MP3. Then later, if i want to import a CD in iTunes, I have to change my settings back if I don't want my CD imported as a mono MP3.

I've had similar sorts of problems exporting slideshows in iPhoto, requiring me to use iMovie and QuickTime to get the settings to look right. The iApps always assume I want to use another iApp to get a job done, instead of just doing what I ask.

 

[R.Youden]

I didnt say iPhoto was the worst ever, Just the weakest. On the whole the iLife apps (what most people use) are good and relatively bug free. But for me iPhoto just fails to deliver. I agree with what you are saying about the way that iApps integrate could be improved, hopefully this will be iLife '07 but I suppose we say that every year.

 

[ziwi]

iPhoto is good for what it does and it really does ease organization of the photo's. I wouldn't rely on it for the perfect photo correction program - fix it in Raw then convert or use photoshop or Apeture. My issue is that the app gets increasingly slower with growth in the library. Makes sense but still under 5k photos and about 13 seconds to open (I am on 5 - hoping to go to 7 if there is speed improvement).

As far as Apeture - is that seen as a replacement for iPhoto, like iPhoto's big brother? I always thought of it as a different purpose for workflow of photos to enhance them...

 

[mrgreen4242]

Old thread, but I was thinking about iPhoto the other day and remembered that we are STILL waiting of iLife '07, so here's some of the things I'm hoping for in iPhoto '07:

• Improved red-eye tool, as mentioned
• In image tagging, similar to Flickr, where you can box off an area and give it some metadata
• Similar to above, I'd like to take an original image, crop it in 2, 3, 4 or more ways (so cropped once for improved composition, once for aspect ratio, once to get a close-up portrait of someone/thing, etc) and when I look at that photo I see the whole original, and can toggle on/off a layer that shows all the different crops plus metadata associated with them and can choose one to export/view/print/whatever without actually changing the photo.
• Some high quality recognition software that will identify locations in photos and automatically tag them (MS demo'd something similar - actually more advanced - late last year)
• Same as above, but for faces... automatically tag all photos that Aunt Millie is in, etc.
• Faster all around (thumbnailing, saving, opened, etc)
• More intuitive interface; there's lots of little bugs with the current main selection screen that make it hard to find a particular shot, or to reorder them... something like the dock's magnify effect as you hover over a picture would be helpful
• A built in feature to create, manage, upload, update, etc web photo galleries. You create an "album" and flag it as a shared/web album. Input the FTP credentials, and path it should upload to, and pick a style/theme and it automatically keeps your photo gallery online up to date - add to that the tagging features and multiple crop features for online pics and it'd be a really cool feature. I know iWeb does this, kinda-sorta, but it would be something much better/more easily managed right in your photo management application.

These features would make iPhoto one of the best iLife apps, as well as one of the best photo apps around and easily be worth the complete price of iLife '07 on it's own. Here's to hoping!

Oh, and iDVD needs to get anamorphic widescreen support in '07 too!