Should I use iPhoto

[MBP*]

My brother recently had a hard time exporting all this photos and videos from iPhoto back to jpeg and avi files. It crashed on him multiple times and he finally had to use third-party apps. There was 10GB to extract.

I'm a new user to Mac, I would like an app that'll organise my photos and videos, but of course not one that'll probably give me similar problems in future. Are there any alternatives worth investigating?

 

[glenthompson]

My brother recently had a hard time exporting all this photos and videos from iPhoto back to jpeg and avi files. It crashed on him multiple times and he finally had to use third-party apps. There was 10GB to extract.

I'm a new user to Mac, I would like an app that'll organise my photos and videos, but of course not one that'll probably give me similar problems in future. Are there any alternatives worth investigating?

Depends on your time frame. Aperture would have been a good choice until the announcement that it wasn't going to be developed further. The new Photos app won't be available until next year and no one can definitely say what capabilities it will or won't have.

I'm surprised your brother had such a problem. I've exported my Aperture library (same library I used with iPhoto before upgrade) to an external disk and never had a problem. Took forever as it was going to a slow usb 2 drive. It's possible that his library was corrupted and needed fixing or rebuilding.

 

[MBP*]

Depends on your time frame. Aperture would have been a good choice until the announcement that it wasn't going to be developed further. The new Photos app won't be available until next year and no one can definitely say what capabilities it will or won't have.

I'm surprised your brother had such a problem. I've exported my Aperture library (same library I used with iPhoto before upgrade) to an external disk and never had a problem. Took forever as it was going to a slow usb 2 drive. It's possible that his library was corrupted and needed fixing or rebuilding.

Well, I simply need a sort of library app that will store the photos for me. Perhaps Aperture would've been too much. However, it's still possible to get Aperture now? Is it just that there won't be any updates?

I don't mind using the current iPhoto, as long as there will be a seemless migration/upgrade to the new app

 

[glenthompson]

Well, I simply need a sort of library app that will store the photos for me. Perhaps Aperture would've been too much. However, it's still possible to get Aperture now? Is it just that there won't be any updates?

I don't mind using the current iPhoto, as long as there will be a seemless migration/upgrade to the new app

Yes, Aperture is still available but unless you really need its editing capabilities sticking with iPhoto may be the best and most cost effective short term solution. I expect the transition from iPhoto to the new Photos app will be quite easy.

I personally plan to continue with Aperture until I can evaluate the new Photos and see how it does. Even if it doesn't meet my needs I can still continue with Aperture for some time. Why incur the cost of switching to another vendor like Adobe right now when my current tools are more than sufficient for my needs?

 

[MBP*]

Depends on your time frame. Aperture would have been a good choice until the announcement that it wasn't going to be developed further. The new Photos app won't be available until next year and no one can definitely say what capabilities it will or won't have.

I'm surprised your brother had such a problem. I've exported my Aperture library (same library I used with iPhoto before upgrade) to an external disk and never had a problem. Took forever as it was going to a slow usb 2 drive. It's possible that his library was corrupted and needed fixing or rebuilding.

What the lightweight equivalent Adobe has?

 

[glenthompson]

What the lightweight equivalent Adobe has?

They have Photoshop Elements Organizer as part of Elements. Very different from iPhoto. I'm not a fan of the Adobe approach and UI so I stick to other products. They do have some free trials so you can see what you're getting into. There's also Lightroom, the Aperture competitor/vanquisher.

 

[robgendreau]

There are lots of iPhoto and Aperture alternatives.

Here are some:

Lightroom (Adobe; free trial available). Organizes and some editing.

Capture One (Pro or Express; organizing and editing; has a free app to access photos on your Mac; some love it for RAW processing over LR or Aperture)

PhotoMechanic (very oriented to pro photograhers so maybe too much; pricey)

ACDSee Pro (Mac version seems stunted compared to PC version)

AfterShot Pro 2 (Corel; $50 now)

Photos Supreme (in Mac App Store; not great reviews there but some like it)

Lyn (also in MAS, but I think a download available) Sort of an iTunes like interface.

GraphicConverter (Lemke Software). A great old standard. Known mostly for conversions, but it also has a great browser and does all kinds of editing, and is especially strong for metadata manipulation. In MAS or direct; editions are slightly different. $40.

Picasa (Google). Obviously oriented towards Google's Picasa photo sharing, but does much more than that. Has a faces feature that works pretty well. Free. I find it slow and buggy, but YMMV.

And there are also some that really aren't specifically for photos, but can well at finding them as well as a photo organizer, like Leap.

 

[MBP*]

Quite a few of thise apps have more of an editting slant I feel. Not so much geared towards an organizer. Or perhaps i should say not as straight forward to use?

 

[BJMRamage]

stick with iPhoto.
about how many photos do you have in there?

I had (guessing) between 25k - 50k images in mine. once the library gets fairly large iPhoto might run slower. but exporting is all about the size. Does your brother shoot RAW photos or use JPGs?

I know with Aperture it would create a FINAL Quality image until Export. It normally runs the edits on a JPG "thumbnail"

as a photo organizer. I'd stick with iPhoto.

 

[MBP*]

I don't have that many right now, probably about a thousand. But I'm looking for something that'll sort me out for the years to come. Can you upload folders to facebook for example as entire albums?

I might consider Aperture also. What's the organizer like?

 

[BJMRamage]

I don't have that many right now, probably about a thousand. But I'm looking for something that'll sort me out for the years to come. Can you upload folders to facebook for example as entire albums?

I might consider Aperture also. What's the organizer like?

Not sure if you are "up to date" yet but...

iPhoto and Aperture will no longer be updated after next year (other than possible RAW updates but they are to the OSX Core)

Anyway, both iPhoto and Aperture use the same or VERY similar library structure. (they need to since they can share them)

You can organize very easily with iPhoto and it is FREE. Aperture has some better metadata input and is very good for editing since you have more control. But if you are just in the market for Photo Library Organization, iPhoto will do. As far as uploading to Facebook. I think it is very easy and you can upload a full album/event. I use Aperture and haven't used iPhoto in a while.

Next Year there will be a NEW photo app for Apple called Photos that will sync with Photos on the iOS devices and will be a combined iPhoto & Aperture. And Apple says Photos will be able to bring in your existing iPhoto/Aperture libraries.

Hope that helps.