Mac Photos App Structure question

[auslad88]

Hi,

i recently downloaded the 10.10.3 beta, and migrated my 250GB iPhoto library over to the new Photos App. I'm trying to get my head around how the actual structure works. I don't use the iCloud functionality, I'm referring to the usage on the iMac.

My "events" from iPhoto are now shown as "albums", however when I import a new photo, it doesn't go to an "event" like it did with iPhoto? - i can see the imported images in the photos tab (in year/date order) and that's it. I guess that's the start of my confusion. Should there be an album/event for this imported file?

Also, one of the biggest issues I can't figure out is; if I want to "move" this imported image to an existing "event/album" it "copies the photo" there and it doesn't actually move it?, so the photo appears twice. Am i missing something?

Thanks for any advice. Newbie here.

 

[simonsi]

Hi,

i recently downloaded the 10.10.3 beta, and migrated my 250GB iPhoto library over to the new Photos App.

I hope you took 1 or more backups first...sorry can't help with the structure, I went to Capture One Pro instead...

 

[robgendreau]

Hi,

i recently downloaded the 10.10.3 beta, and migrated my 250GB iPhoto library over to the new Photos App. I'm trying to get my head around how the actual structure works. I don't use the iCloud functionality, I'm referring to the usage on the iMac.

My "events" from iPhoto are now shown as "albums", however when I import a new photo, it doesn't go to an "event" like it did with iPhoto? - i can see the imported images in the photos tab (in year/date order) and that's it. I guess that's the start of my confusion. Should there be an album/event for this imported file?

Also, one of the biggest issues I can't figure out is; if I want to "move" this imported image to an existing "event/album" it "copies the photo" there and it doesn't actually move it?, so the photo appears twice. Am i missing something?

Thanks for any advice. Newbie here.

I'm not able to access Photos right now but I think it converts what iPhoto called Events into albums. As you'll recall, a photo could only be in one event. But a photo can be in many albums. So you move to events, copy to albums (although it doesn't really get "copied" but displayed in more than one virtual container).

Now you've got a bunch of what are essentially smart containers for years, collections, moments too. When you import the photos are copied from say your iPhone, and you can still put them into numerous types of virtual containers...but the photo is really only stored once on your Mac.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Hi,

i recently downloaded the 10.10.3 beta, and migrated my 250GB iPhoto library over to the new Photos App. I'm trying to get my head around how the actual structure works. I don't use the iCloud functionality, I'm referring to the usage on the iMac.

My "events" from iPhoto are now shown as "albums", however when I import a new photo, it doesn't go to an "event" like it did with iPhoto? - i can see the imported images in the photos tab (in year/date order) and that's it. I guess that's the start of my confusion. Should there be an album/event for this imported file?

Also, one of the biggest issues I can't figure out is; if I want to "move" this imported image to an existing "event/album" it "copies the photo" there and it doesn't actually move it?, so the photo appears twice. Am i missing something?

Thanks for any advice. Newbie here.

Events in iPhoto were not really a "physical" representation - the idea was to help you find your imports grouped in the way that you imported them ("Where's the stuff I imported last Thursday?"). There were a couple of special rules in place to prevent you from treating Events as if they were just any other iPhoto Album, but Albums they were, nonetheless.

When Apple redesigned Photos (iOS) and iPhoto (Mac), they decided that a unified "Photos" function, which allows you to quickly locate images by year, and then by date and place, would be more useful than having Events, Photos and Places as separate ways of browsing for images (with several different Events to open and search, if you got your dates mixed up).

If you want to keep reading, here's one guy's explanation of how iPhoto and Photos work:

Everything in iPhoto's and Photos' sidebar (left column) - Events, Faces, Places, Photos, Folders, and Albums, are all really the equivalent of web pages. If you know how images are displayed on a web page, same idea.

A web page that displays a photo is actually a text document with HTML code that tells your web browser where to find the image file and how to display it. A regular Album is in essence a document listing the photos to be displayed (the addresses of their actual locations in the Mac OS file system). That's why the same photo can be in multiple albums and not be duplicated.

There are also Smart Albums (Faces and Places are examples of Smart Albums, by the way). Smart Albums are actually search results, for example, "show all photos taken in a particular place, containing a certain person, and tagged with 5 stars."

These concepts carry across to Photos, only the names have been changed and functions tweaked in the name of "improvement." So, when Apple moved the old Events and Photos (all photos) folders into the Albums section, it was to preserve those items so you could still find your old stuff in the old way. Under the hood, they've always been albums.

Also, under the hood, both iPhoto and Photos libraries handle actual photo storage the same way - Master images are kept in folders organized by year, month, day, and a unique import number. The file path in Finder looks like this: User > Pictures > iPhoto Library > Masters > 2014 > 04 > 14 > 20140414-130748 > 23539.jpg You can see this yourself by right-clicking (or CTRL + click) on the iPhoto/Photos Library in Finder, and selecting Show Package Contents.