Hello, I'm new to MAC. I imported all of my photos to iPhone, great program. But when I go to my PICTURES folder under my user name in the finder, the only way to access the pictures is to open iPhoto. Is there a few to also have the files shown individually in my photos folder so I don't have to open iPhoto each time I want to view them???
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Pictures folder and iPhoto...
- Thread starter YoNadz
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I also noticed this and was a little confused, (I still am for that matter), I would also like some advice...
In the Pictures folder you'll see 'iPhoto Library'. Right click on it and select "Show Package Contents" you'll then see all your photos.
Be careful not to change anything in there though else you may corrupt your iPhoto library.
Be careful not to change anything in there though else you may corrupt your iPhoto library.
By disabling the "Copy items to iPhoto library on import" option in iPhoto preferences, you can keep the files wherever you like in Finder ... now, you'll have to manually copy files to the folders in you pictures folder, THEN import them to iPhoto.
just for a bit of info:
iPhoto (by default) acts much like iTunes in the way it operates. It created a Library file which it controls. Inside that file contains all the photos, settings, and everything else iPhoto uses.
You can access the pictures manually by right clicking (or control+click) and selecting "Show Package Contents".
Do not delete, re-name, move, or edit files inside the library manually
Every time photos are imported, iPhoto organizes it automatically within it's own file structure. iPhoto lets you create albums and events in order to view, organize, and store your images.
If you do not like iPhoto controlling the file structure, you must go into iPhoto preferences and select "do not copy photos to iPhoto Library". iPhoto will then link to the photos in whatever folder you decide to place them in .
Note: If you imported them already, make sure there is a backup of them, and delete everything from the iPhoto window to start over. Make sure it isn't set to copy files, and re-drag your photos. This way you can control the file structure and have access to the photos outside the library.
Personally, I hate iPhoto. I organize my photos manually, and use various apps for editing or viewing. Mainly these 3:
Just looking - for viewing images
Preview - for cropping images
Paintbrush - for cheap ms-paint-like editing
iPhoto (by default) acts much like iTunes in the way it operates. It created a Library file which it controls. Inside that file contains all the photos, settings, and everything else iPhoto uses.
You can access the pictures manually by right clicking (or control+click) and selecting "Show Package Contents".
Do not delete, re-name, move, or edit files inside the library manually
Every time photos are imported, iPhoto organizes it automatically within it's own file structure. iPhoto lets you create albums and events in order to view, organize, and store your images.
If you do not like iPhoto controlling the file structure, you must go into iPhoto preferences and select "do not copy photos to iPhoto Library". iPhoto will then link to the photos in whatever folder you decide to place them in .
Note: If you imported them already, make sure there is a backup of them, and delete everything from the iPhoto window to start over. Make sure it isn't set to copy files, and re-drag your photos. This way you can control the file structure and have access to the photos outside the library.
Personally, I hate iPhoto. I organize my photos manually, and use various apps for editing or viewing. Mainly these 3:
Just looking - for viewing images
Preview - for cropping images
Paintbrush - for cheap ms-paint-like editing
great info. but that brings me to my next problem. The only back-up I have of the photos is on a external hard drive. I used TIME MACHINE to back them up. Is there a way to get them out of TIME MACHINE??
How did time machine back them up? Were they organized in folders at some point? Maybe you can go back and pull out that backup, preserving the folder structure you manually created.
If it just backed up the iPhoto library, then your best bet is to go to Pictures, and right click the "iPhoto Library". Find your pictures in there, and drag them out. Organize them yourself in folders, then delete what remains of the iPhoto library file as it is not corrupted.
Once all your photos are organized the way you want, open iPhoto (it will create a new library), set it to not copy files when adding to the library, and drag the photos folder in.
It should then re-add everything, but not copy anything to the library. You have full manual control over the photos/folders. You would have to manually import things into iPhoto by dragging.
All this work is what makes me hate iPhoto. That and the fact that it completely disregards my organization and throws everything together. Sure it has cool thumbnail views but I found a way around that. Go into finder, select block or icon view, right click and select "view options"
I do these settings:
All Windows
Icon Size = 128 x 128 (the largest it will go in OS X 10.4 Tiger)
text size =12 point
Label Position: Bottom (so the thumbnails will organize properly)
Show item info enabled
show icon preview enabled (Icon preview is important to view photo thumbnails)
Keep arranged by: Name
Background: Black (but you can choose any color or photo.)
Now whenever I enter a photo folder, I select the icon view in finder, and I am shown a bunch of thumbnails which helps me preview images quickly without having to even open them.
Of course Leopard has coverflow which probably works better, but this method is the best I can do without having a third party app handle my photos.
edit: here's an example:
How did time machine back them up? Were they organized in folders at some point? Maybe you can go back and pull out that backup, preserving the folder structure you manually created.
If it just backed up the iPhoto library, then your best bet is to go to Pictures, and right click the "iPhoto Library". Find your pictures in there, and drag them out. Organize them yourself in folders, then delete what remains of the iPhoto library file as it is not corrupted.
Once all your photos are organized the way you want, open iPhoto (it will create a new library), set it to not copy files when adding to the library, and drag the photos folder in.
It should then re-add everything, but not copy anything to the library. You have full manual control over the photos/folders. You would have to manually import things into iPhoto by dragging.
All this work is what makes me hate iPhoto. That and the fact that it completely disregards my organization and throws everything together. Sure it has cool thumbnail views but I found a way around that. Go into finder, select block or icon view, right click and select "view options"
I do these settings:
All Windows
Icon Size = 128 x 128 (the largest it will go in OS X 10.4 Tiger)
text size =12 point
Label Position: Bottom (so the thumbnails will organize properly)
Show item info enabled
show icon preview enabled (Icon preview is important to view photo thumbnails)
Keep arranged by: Name
Background: Black (but you can choose any color or photo.)
Now whenever I enter a photo folder, I select the icon view in finder, and I am shown a bunch of thumbnails which helps me preview images quickly without having to even open them.
Of course Leopard has coverflow which probably works better, but this method is the best I can do without having a third party app handle my photos.
edit: here's an example:
Shaun....I thank u
When changing the ICON SIZE in the folders, is there a way to make it apply to ALL folders?? I kinda like the larger view.
Don't mean to hijack this thread, but I'm in the same boat. I imported the pictures using iPhoto, and then when I want to select them to upload to say Photobucket or just include random shots in an email I'm not sure how to find them. Are there multiple "Pictures" folders?
You have to do the same thing I did. Make new folders (i.e. WEDDING PICTURES) in the "PICTURES" folder in Finder, then drag your photos from iPhoto. Then you will be able to individually access your pictures without the 'help' of iPhoto. I am new to Mac, and I must say, iPhoto is a JOKE!
At the top of the little window in the "view settings" there are 2 buttons: This Folder & All Folders.
Apply it to all folders, and whenever you click Icon view, it should be the same for every folder. I use Grid View to navigate, then once I'm in a folder, I click Icon View, and my folder is displayed as the above image shows.
Hmm iPhoto is great at what it does. It is a really nice way to keep photos organised, easily viewable, searchable and editable. The fact that the file system is hidden away is what seems to drive most people crazy, but it's hidden away according to the Apple mantra of "keep things simple so nobody ballses it up". You don't necessarily have to move all your photos into separate files and reimport them anyway.
In Finder right click iPhoto Library > Show Package Contents and then Events. From there you can easily browse the photos in your Events/upload them. But if you move them/edit them in Finder then you'll cause problems when iPhoto next opens.
All you Mac newbies are just resisting what is a much better way to work. Learn to work within iPhoto as your photo browser and your life will be much better.
Take this from a windows convert who thought the same things you do at one point.
2 tips for you: (1) tag photos while importing, this makes searching a more valuable tool. (2) When you need photos for uploading/doing other work on/etc... drag them out of iPhoto to your desktop or a folder on your desktop for a traditional file access to them.
Quit trying to organize them yourself! You are not using windows anymore. You don't need to babysit your computer.
Take this from a windows convert who thought the same things you do at one point.
2 tips for you: (1) tag photos while importing, this makes searching a more valuable tool. (2) When you need photos for uploading/doing other work on/etc... drag them out of iPhoto to your desktop or a folder on your desktop for a traditional file access to them.
Quit trying to organize them yourself! You are not using windows anymore. You don't need to babysit your computer.
Absolutely correct!!! iPhoto is an organizational tool and it does its job brilliantly! Apple apps are created to do most of the heavy lifting for the users, and iPhoto is no exception. Those that stick with their windows ways are making entirely too much work for themselves. Let the software do it for you! You can do anything from within the app that you would formerly have gone to a file to do.
well how do you pro's use iPhoto? I tried it out a couple times and I just don't like it.
I can easily access my photos from finder with as few clicks as it would take in iPhoto, and I don't require an application to be running. I can even use Justlooking.app to scroll through all images in a folder, click a button to show in finder and even set it as my desktop.
The fact that I access photos at random means (to me) that I don't require an application running constantly just to see them. I can organize my photos myself easier than in iPhoto (from my experience).
For instance, if I put all my pictures into iPhoto, I get random events that will have wallpapers for the desktop, and pictures of my cat all mixed together. This isn't very useful to me, I don't like the events setup.
The default albums in iPhoto are by date "2009" "2008" etc. . and It tries to put photos together from those dates, but that doesn't help me. I don't want random photos thrown together because of their creation dates. 90% of my photos are just pictures saved off the internet anyway, so their creation dates are all off.
If I make albums for organization, and import a new photo, I'd have to not only import, but drag it into the proper album(s). If I use my own folder organization, I drop it into the folder, and I'm done.
I prefer the manual method of organization. I put photos where I want, and have no problem finding them. Of course I could re-name some a little better as internet names are not too descriptive, but I'll get around to that later. If I need to edit them I just open them in 1 of 3 main programs I use to do basic stuff.
Out of all the standard OS X apps:
iTunes - I love it.
iPhoto - I hate it.
iWeb - not bad, I made a custom home page with it
iDVD - takes too long to burn, I prefer Visual Hub for it's quality, and output of ISO disk images.
Mail - use it all the time
iMovie - Never figured it out. I think when it wouldn't accept any movie files I kinda gave up. It also doesn't seem to be able to do the simple task of using a single photo as the video for an entire song. What happened to simple timelines, and dragging the photo to take up the same length of time as the song?
Garageband - used it a couple times, I guess it's not too bad, but I don't have too much use for it myself.
Quicktime Pro - Use it all the time.
I can easily access my photos from finder with as few clicks as it would take in iPhoto, and I don't require an application to be running. I can even use Justlooking.app to scroll through all images in a folder, click a button to show in finder and even set it as my desktop.
The fact that I access photos at random means (to me) that I don't require an application running constantly just to see them. I can organize my photos myself easier than in iPhoto (from my experience).
For instance, if I put all my pictures into iPhoto, I get random events that will have wallpapers for the desktop, and pictures of my cat all mixed together. This isn't very useful to me, I don't like the events setup.
The default albums in iPhoto are by date "2009" "2008" etc. . and It tries to put photos together from those dates, but that doesn't help me. I don't want random photos thrown together because of their creation dates. 90% of my photos are just pictures saved off the internet anyway, so their creation dates are all off.
If I make albums for organization, and import a new photo, I'd have to not only import, but drag it into the proper album(s). If I use my own folder organization, I drop it into the folder, and I'm done.
I prefer the manual method of organization. I put photos where I want, and have no problem finding them. Of course I could re-name some a little better as internet names are not too descriptive, but I'll get around to that later. If I need to edit them I just open them in 1 of 3 main programs I use to do basic stuff.
Out of all the standard OS X apps:
iTunes - I love it.
iPhoto - I hate it.
iWeb - not bad, I made a custom home page with it
iDVD - takes too long to burn, I prefer Visual Hub for it's quality, and output of ISO disk images.
Mail - use it all the time
iMovie - Never figured it out. I think when it wouldn't accept any movie files I kinda gave up. It also doesn't seem to be able to do the simple task of using a single photo as the video for an entire song. What happened to simple timelines, and dragging the photo to take up the same length of time as the song?
Garageband - used it a couple times, I guess it's not too bad, but I don't have too much use for it myself.
Quicktime Pro - Use it all the time.
Shaun, here's where I think your workflow could improve. First, don't think of having an application running as a bad thing. OS X does a great job of managing system resources. You will take such a negligible performance hit in having it open it really doesn't matter.
But my main concern is with your folders philosophy. Its only true if you know in exactly which folder you are looking. Otherwise, you're clicking around to open two, three, maybe 10 or 15 different folders searching for that one photo you want.
There's no doubt you can make for yourself an organization system that will work well for you in 70, 80, maybe even 90% of cases. But the larger your photo library gets, the more exceptions you're going to find.
Say you want quick access to 50 of your best photos from 2005-2008. In iPhoto, since I rate 4 or 5 stars on my good photos, I can have these accessed in less than 30 seconds. You're looking through folders for who knows how long.
With Faces, I can find my favorite photos with both me and my mom in seconds. You're clicking away through folders.
Need to edit a photo in photoshop? I right-click and choose "Edit in external editor." iPhoto makes a copy and lets me edit the copy, keeping the original in place should I need to revert.
That's a couple of examples. We could come up with many more. I've got almost 11,000 photos in iPhoto. I'm sure there are people around MR that have way more than me. I just know that managing a folder structure for a library that large is going to get ridiculous. And when you have that many photos, the ability to search and refine and sort in different ways across all photos gets more and more valuable all the time.
I've had my MAC for less than one week so I am sure there is much more to learn and love....but my concern with your suggestion is...that's fine if you have already rated, tagged and face named all of your photos...but I have over 10,000 images form the past 25 years and they are NOT rated, tagged or named as I relied on finding them (fairly quickly) by dates and descriptive names that I assigned to each folder.
So now I am faced with keeping my old folder structure OR going through all the folders and naming, tagging etc. Neither is very appealing at this moment.
I hope others continue contributing to this thread as it apears many MAC noobies are in the same boat.
I don't understand why keeping your old folder structure is unappealing given you like it. You can keep that structure and still use iPhoto to sort them in terms of events , names, places, and view them, without it changing the underlying file structure at all.
The thing that frustrates me about iPhoto is that there isn't a simple way to sort through new photos off an SD card to select the ones I want to import into iPhoto 'proper', without actually importing them anyway, and all that implies, such as creating a bunch of files that get added and deleted almost straight away, added to time machine, then deleted, etc.
In iPhoto, have it sort by date. Then you will have your photos organized so that you can find them. While tagging, naming faces, etc. is good, it does not have to be done before you use the program effectively. Do the keywording, etc. as you import new photos, and then whittle away on the older ones as you can. Events can be created by date or by what is imported from the camera at one time. You can move photos from one event to another if you want -- say all your cat photos in one event regardless of date taken. Lots of flexibility in iPhoto, you just need to give it a chance. It truly is brilliant at what it does -- no need to manhandle your photos like Windows requires you to do.
Ok, here is a follow-up question (actually 2)...hoping someone here can help..or perhaps I need to start a new thread?
1- I recently scanned lots of old slides...the date of those photos is the scan date, not the actual photo date. Is there any way to add a "date taken"?
2- I want to create a "birth through graduation" slideshow in date order, but i can't seem to re sort (or remove) any photos once I create the slideshow.
Any advice?
Thanks in advance.
Ooohhh...just found "Adjust date and time" so now I know how to "date correct" my scanned slides.
But still need advice on how to re-sort or remove a photo from a slideshow....
But still need advice on how to re-sort or remove a photo from a slideshow....
You are probably doing' instant slideshow' which is where you just click the 'slideshow' button within an event or similar in which case you need Slideshow Project. If you follow the links within help for slideshow you'll find it, but here's an excerpt (and probably all you need).
Select an Event, Faces or Places group, an album, or a group of photos that you want in your slideshow.
Click the Add (+) button in the bottom-left corner of the iPhoto window, and then click Slideshow in the dialog that appears.
Type a name for your slideshow.
If you want, deselect the Use selected items in new slideshow checkbox.
Click Create.
Drag photos into the order you want in the photo browser at the top of the viewing area.
If that is what you are doing and you cant reorder them, then I'm stumped.
Right Click & photos disappearing
Hope I don't frustrate ye as newbie here. Two questions - all this right clicking (which was v helpful on last windows comp), mouse doesn't have a right click?
Secondly & more importantly, all the photos I've uploaded onto iPhoto over the past few months, I can't view some of them, it seems to be random but they appear on the page just blackened out with a broken line as a border. This is happening in my photos & slideshows?
Hope I don't frustrate ye as newbie here. Two questions - all this right clicking (which was v helpful on last windows comp), mouse doesn't have a right click?
Secondly & more importantly, all the photos I've uploaded onto iPhoto over the past few months, I can't view some of them, it seems to be random but they appear on the page just blackened out with a broken line as a border. This is happening in my photos & slideshows?