Need help with pictures

[rboseley]

I go back to pre IBM which PC’s. Spent until 2010 with DOS/Windows, and finally jumped to Mac. The “problem” I can’t seem to solve is with pictures. I am just an everyday photographer - but damned it I know where they go when imported from my D5100. That is not completely true - I can follow the path to my individual folders and there find the file. But when I use iPhoto - gave that up and went to Aperture - and now I have Elements 11. So I open Elements and there are some of my pictures - organized exactly the way Elements wants them. Not being entirely an idiot, I assume I must “import” those files 6 levels down in my Pictures Folder.

After a trip last Spring, I managed to produce a pretty good slide-show of about 500 pics in Aperture. Now here is where I worry. Does that slideshow or any of the “files” in my Aperture library actually contain files or just pointers or placeholders? If I went down to the physical home of those original files and deleted them - would Aperture still have a copy - or (as I suspect) would they be gone? Same with Elements.

As I look up top at my Pictures Folder - it is crammed with various libraries. Again,are these physical files? When I touch up a pic in an editor, is the original maintained. (probably in preferences).

It seemed so much simpler with Windows - and I in fact hate Windows. But I could always drop to the command line and go wherever. Move files, make new subfolders, etc.

I am preparing for a very long trip and will return with perhaps 5000 pics - probably raw. I will plug the cards in and I want to direct them exactly where I want them.

IN SIMPLE TERMS - WHERE ARE THE FILES, AND IS THERE ALWAYS JUST ONE COPY?

 

[switon]

RE: those photos...

Hi rboseley,

Allow me to attempt to help with your queries.

Being an irascible curmudgeon from pre-PC days myself --- well, these new apps (they no longer call them programs or executables), are always somewhat of a mystery. But let me inform you, it is all just dressing on the window (pun intended). The underlying "guts" are still the same as they were back in DOS, VMS, unix, Solaris, and (what was the Cray OS called again?) days.

So, when you import photos/videos into iPhoto/Aperature/iMovie you are typically asked if you want to copy or move the originals (e.g., in iPhoto there is a box that you can check in order to copy images to the iPhoto Library). If you answer copy, then a copy of said photos/videos is made in the corresponding iPhoto Library (read directory)/iMovie Events (read directory). If you answer move, then the original photo/video is moved (renamed) to the corresponding Library (directory). Indeed, you can use the Finder, or the Terminal window (commandline), to pick apart the corresponding Library (directory) to actually see where those photos/videos actually ended up (which directory actually contains the originals, in other words). As an example, let's take a photo that you imported into your iPhoto library, say the one named "iPhoto-trip-to-Antarctica.photolibrary". Let's say the imported photo was called IMG_9428.CR2, a Canon DSLR raw format. And let's say that the photo was taken on November 20, 2012. And let's say you import this photo on December 1, 2012. You can then find the original photo in the directory

/Users/yourlogin/Pictures/iPhoto-trip-to-Antarctica.photolibray/Masters/2012/12/01/20121201-190707/IMG_9428.CR2

where 190707 is the time of the day you imported the photo. In iPhoto, you will find that a new event, entitled "Nov 20, 2012" has been created with your imported photo in it. You may then merge this event with any other events in your iPhoto Library, but the original photo stays where it was initially imported: the above indicated directory -- it will never change its location unless you delete it and re-import it again.

Let's say that you want to do the "Windows thing, with commandline commands". Then instead of just importing the photos off of your camera, you could insert the camera's SDXC card into the SDXC slot of your computer and open the card's directories after it mounts. You could then maneuver to the appropriate camera directory and either copy the images directly to a directory on your computer, say with:

cp /Volumes/CanonCard01/DCIM/100CANON/IMG_9428.CR2 ~/Pictures/Temp/20121201/

assuming that the directory ~/Pictures/Temp/20121201/ exists, then this would make a copy of the IMG_9428.CR2 raw image in this directory. You could then unmount the SDXC card by Ejecting it. You could then import this photo into your iPhoto Library by using the 'Import to Library..." command and specifying the appropriate image: ~/Pictures/Temp/20121201/IMG_9428.CR2. If you checked the "Copy items to the iPhoto Library" in the Advanced tab of the iPhoto Preferences, then a copy of this raw image file will be added to your iPhoto Library, along similar lines as that stated above (in a directory determined by the present time, in other words). You would then end up with two copies of this image, one in the initial ~/Pictures/Temp/20121201/ directory where you copied it from your camera SDXC card, and one in the iPhoto Library directory named according to the time you imported the image.

Hope this helps some... You see, the Apple GUI, including the iPhoto/Aperature/iMovie apps, are nothing more than an attempt to hide the underlying structure from users to make it appear simpler to them. The same old filesystem is still there, but now a directory, named "iPhoto-trip-to-Antarctica.photolibrary", is called an iPhoto Library by the iPhoto app, and its subdirectories are arranged into Events in the iPhoto app.

Regards,
Switon