macbook + iphoto problem... :(

[expergo]

hey...i just bought the base model macbook a few days ago.

i imported 5000 pictures into iphoto. then when i tried to view them it would lag a LOT. so when i scrolll up or down... you could see the "film roll name" appear...but the pictures were a few seconds behind. do you think this is because of the video card? or do i just need more ram?

are there any other photo managing programs that are like picasa. i love how picasa organizes photos. iphoto is horrible.

 

[gauchogolfer]

My guess is that it's a RAM issue. Loading 5000 pictures, especially if each of them is large, is a taxing thing for a computer.

What part of the organization don't you like? I had issues with the organization until I started the habit of organizing everything by film roll, and using the search tools to find specific photos. I find it to be pretty powerful. Plus, using iPhoto helps with the integration with all of the other iLife apps and iWork.

 

[expergo]

hey thanks. the importing took a long time but it wasn't that. it was viewing the pictures after they've been imported.

i love picasa because i can put my photos in folders like, "summer vacation 2003"...and "retreat 2004". all under a "Pictures" folder. then when picasa scans it...it'll scan the folder title as well the date of the pictures. So it'll organize everything by date, and then add the folder title to each section. Eg. it'll scan my "pcitures" folder. and on the left pane in the program..under 2003....it'll say "summer vacation 2003". like this

when iphoto imports, it just scans the date. it puts the folder title as the "film roll" name which si useless when i want to see ALL my albums together. picasa lists them all on the left. that way i don't have to scroll up and down just to see a specific album.

iview media pro works more like picasa...but it's a little ugly. i like how iphoto is integrated...i just really wish it organized things better.

 

[expergo]

i'm gonna reply to my own post.

anyways...i just wanted input if anyone who has +5000pics in iphoto on a base model macbook...if it runs smoothly or not. thanks!

 

[reh]

That Picasa screenshot looks very similar to iPhoto's albums.

 

[gauchogolfer]

hey thanks. the importing took a long time but it wasn't that. it was viewing the pictures after they've been imported.

i love picasa because i can put my photos in folders like, "summer vacation 2003"...and "retreat 2004". all under a "Pictures" folder. then when picasa scans it...it'll scan the folder title as well the date of the pictures. So it'll organize everything by date, and then add the folder title to each section. Eg. it'll scan my "pcitures" folder. and on the left pane in the program..under 2003....it'll say "summer vacation 2003".

I think I knew you meant viewing pictures, I was saying that loading up all of the thumbnails as you scroll through can be taxing on RAM.

As for your second part, you can actually use folders like this to organize different albums and film rolls. I also highly recommend using keywords. You could make a keyword for your 'summer vacation 2003' and apply it all at once to all the pictures that you like. Then, if you like, you can just display different keywords. It can make navigating through thousands of photos much easier.

Give it a look.

 

[expergo]

That Picasa screenshot looks very similar to iPhoto's albums.

iphoto doesn't scan your folders and automatically title each album. that's why i don't like it. imagine importing like a 100 albums...i don't want create 100 albums in iphoto and create it. picasa does it automatically. also, in teh screenshot, you see the albums are sorted by date. in iphoto, it doesn't sort the albums by date.

and keywords? i love the idea...but going through 5000+ photos and typing some keywords for each one...seems like a lot of work for nothing. if i want a certain pic i'll just go to that album.

hah..i know it seems like i hate iphoto...i don't...i just wish it organized things better.

anyways...this is offtopic.. haha...i want to know if i just upgrade the ram, will tehre be no lag?

 

[sulhaq]

Okay I just rolled thru close to 4000 pics with absolutely no lag. I've got 2.0ghz with 1gig of RAM. My guess is pretty much you need more RAM, 512 MB really is cake, I mean even my 1 gig has problems when I run parallels plus a couple of apps like Azureus that need a lot of juice.

 

[gauchogolfer]

iphoto doesn't scan your folders and automatically title each album. that's why i don't like it. imagine importing like a 100 albums...i don't want create 100 albums in iphoto and create it. picasa does it automatically. also, in teh screenshot, you see the albums are sorted by date. in iphoto, it doesn't sort the albums by date.

and keywords? i love the idea...but going through 5000+ photos and typing some keywords for each one...seems like a lot of work for nothing. if i want a certain pic i'll just go to that album.

hah..i know it seems like i hate iphoto...i don't...i just wish it organized things better.

anyways...this is offtopic.. haha...i want to know if i just upgrade the ram, will tehre be no lag?

iPhoto will in fact title the film roll name the same as the folder name when you import, and you can choose to 'organize by date', in which case they are organized in either ascending or descending order.

As to keywords, I see you've not used them yet. Here's how it goes. Go into preferences for iPhoto. The keywords tab is the last one on the right. You can add new ones here. For instance, make a new one titled 'summer vacation 2003'. It will be added to your list. Exit preferences. On the bottom left of iPhoto you'll see a 'key' icon. click on that to bring up the keyword list. Now, select all of the photos that you'd like to have this keyword. Just drag them all onto the keyword at bottom left. Presto, you've applied this keynote to all of the pictures at once. It's very easy.

This is what my iPhoto setup looks like. You'll notice all of the film rolls are sorted by date. Keywords are at lower left.


Cheers.

 

[expergo]

thanks...i'll grab some more ram.


gauchogolfer,

i know it puts it in the film roll but it's really annoying to keep opening and closng film rolls just to look at an album. if i have one film roll open i can't see the rest of the rolls. it would be much easier to have them in albums on the left that i can easily see all the time. also, having the filmrolls text being twice the size of the "album" font sure doesn't help when i want to see all the rolls.

it's kind of like i'm in itunes...and i'm not using the "browse" feature. lets say i have 100 albums. and there's like 15 tracks in each. then i have to open and close each album to look at others, otherwise it'll take me forever to scan through all the albums.

i don't think i'm being that nitpicky...it's just an inconvenience to do all these things when it can all be solved by how picasa categorizes it. but i see that this topic has been discussed before....so....yeah.. :/