photo storage software

[penyrolewen]

Hi all,

I'm new to mac and I'm loving it, but I am not really getting on with iphoto. I don't want any powerful editing tools but I do want to organise my 3000 or so photos. iphoto imported them all in the wrong folders or events and I can't find an easy way to sort this out. I know I can cut and paste but sometimes it doesn't paste and i have so many pics to move i would really like to just drag and drop them where I want them. Can I do this in iphoto? If I am in an event, there is no display of the other events ( you know, a tree display of my events) and i can't find a way to see this information.
If I can't, is there any good free software to do this? As I say, editing isn't the problem, it's just organising.
thanks all,
Jon

 

[Padraic]

I had the same problem as you, I'm not sure if I did it this way or just spent hours organizing, but this might work for you...

If you can clear out your library (only if you still have all your originals somewhere), go into preferences and under events uncheck the 'imported items from finder'. This should put all your pictures into one event when you import them next time. Then, to create events for a set of pictures, select the pictures you want and select Events -> Create Event from the toolbar...

 

[penyrolewen]

Thanks for that idea. I may try it, but as iphoto brings them in chronologically (i think?) then that could be just as cumbersome. I can see that iphoto works well if you organise photos by date but not if by subject, as I want to. Any ideas on any good free software for this? Thanks again,
Jon

 

[skybolt]

You can create folders for your albums and organize that way. For instance, a folder called "Vacations", then under that maybe an album for "San Francisco", " Atlanta", etc. You can also use keywords and smart albums. For instance, every time you go to "Atlanta", give the photo the keyword "Atlanta". Then create a smart album using that keyword. Then all Atlanta photos will automatically be added to the album. A bit of work in the beginning, but down the road so easy!

If you still have your folder structure on your PC, you can start over by deleting all photos from iPhoto, then reimport from the PC folder by folder. That will keep your previous structure.

Will any of thishelp you? iPhoto is really a great organizer once you get started using it. That is what the app is really for -- organizing.

 

[penyrolewen]

Thanks for the advice. I actually did import folder by folder and iphoto still put them in seemingly random places - most seem ok, but lots of folders have been combined and then lots of random photos are in the wrong places. I would guess 70% is ok, but that's still a lot to put right - 900 or so pics. As I say, what i would really like is to be in an event, say vacation, then select all the photos in there that should be somewhere else and drag them to the right place. Again, I can see how it will work if you import as you go and want to organise by date, but i want folders called 'landscapes', for example, which are not date related. I am no pro, and my camera may well have a big stack of pics on before I import, so some need to go to 'motorbike', some to 'surf', some to 'landscapes' etc. There seems no easy way to do this without naming all the pics etc - or am I being dense?
Cheers folks,

Jon