Taming iPhoto

[peanutismint]

Macs are GREAT for people who've never owned a computer before, because everything 'just works' but only if you do things the way your Mac wants.

Par Exemple:

I love using iPhoto to view, edit and export all my photos. I especially love the way it automatically detects and imports photographs when i attach a device (although I'd love an option to only import new photos, but that's another matter...).

The only problem I have with it is its file placement conventions. All my photographs from my 10 or so years of digital photography are stored in the following manner:

Media Drive\Photos\Christmas 2004 (for example)

Let's say I edit 30 out of 50 photos in iPhoto. Great! They look much better than they originally did. But now I have my photo albums split over two separate folders:

Media Drive\Photos\Original\Christmas 2004
Media Drive\Photos\Modified\Christmas 2004

Obviously, if I only browse photos IN iPhoto, there'll be no problem as they all display together. But when I want to back them up or look at them on another computer, or WORSE find a SINGLE picture, I don't want to have to look through two separate folders to find what I'm looking for.

So my question: Is there any way to get iPhoto to merge all my photos, modified and original, into one folder? Even if it's creating an automator script so that, once I've edited all the pictures I want to, it exports them all to a new folder and deletes the original/modified folders?

I'm still fairly new to Macs, and things like Smart Folders and automator scripts seem to sound like they can help me, but I'm not sure. Anybody got any ideas?

 

[Cameront9]

Macs are GREAT for people who've never owned a computer before, because everything 'just works' but only if you do things the way your Mac wants.

Par Exemple:

I love using iPhoto to view, edit and export all my photos. I especially love the way it automatically detects and imports photographs when i attach a device (although I'd love an option to only import new photos, but that's another matter...).

The only problem I have with it is its file placement conventions. All my photographs from my 10 or so years of digital photography are stored in the following manner:

Media Drive\Photos\Christmas 2004 (for example)

Let's say I edit 30 out of 50 photos in iPhoto. Great! They look much better than they originally did. But now I have my photo albums split over two separate folders:

Media Drive\Photos\Original\Christmas 2004
Media Drive\Photos\Modified\Christmas 2004

Obviously, if I only browse photos IN iPhoto, there'll be no problem as they all display together. But when I want to back them up or look at them on another computer, or WORSE find a SINGLE picture, I don't want to have to look through two separate folders to find what I'm looking for.

So my question: Is there any way to get iPhoto to merge all my photos, modified and original, into one folder? Even if it's creating an automator script so that, once I've edited all the pictures I want to, it exports them all to a new folder and deletes the original/modified folders?

I'm still fairly new to Macs, and things like Smart Folders and automator scripts seem to sound like they can help me, but I'm not sure. Anybody got any ideas?

RE: only importing new photos. You should be able to do this. when I import something that has photos already imported on the disks, it asks me if I want to import the old ones, too.

Second, you're missing the point with iPhoto. Assuming you have "manage my iPhoto Library" checked in the preferences, it copies ALL photos you import into iPhoto into the iPhoto folder. The Modified folder is for exactly that, modified pics. This way, you can right click on a modified picture in iPhoto and revert to the original, unmodified pic if you want.

The point is, just like iTunes manages your music, iPhoto should manage your photos. You should NEVER muck about with the actual folder where the pics are stored. If you want to back something up, just drag the photo from within iPhoto to whereever. It will create a copy. Or you can just use iPhoto's "Export" under the file menu. Or you can (This would be the easiest and best) just back up the entire iPhoto library folder.

Hope that helps...Personally, once you start letting iPhoto be the manager of your photos, it's a whole lot easier to find things.

 

[peanutismint]

Thanks for the input.

Firstly, I know there's an option to only import new photos, I'd just like to be able to set it to do this EVERY time, without my say so.

Secondly, I know iPhoto splits up my images for a reason, what I'm saying is this: If I modify a photo, change its contrast or colouration to make it look better, I'm never going to want to 'revert' to the original, crappy quality copy. In a similar vein of thought, I probably don't have the disk space for keeping thousands of multiple copies of the same picture; one modified, the other unmodified. With this in mind, surely there's a way to tell iPhoto how I want it to manage my photos instead of the other way around?

Also, where is this 'Let iPhoto manage my pictures' setting, as I'd gladly enable it, if i could find it!

 

[Cameront9]

Thanks for the input.

Firstly, I know there's an option to only import new photos, I'd just like to be able to set it to do this EVERY time, without my say so.

Secondly, I know iPhoto splits up my images for a reason, what I'm saying is this: If I modify a photo, change its contrast or colouration to make it look better, I'm never going to want to 'revert' to the original, crappy quality copy. In a similar vein of thought, I probably don't have the disk space for keeping thousands of multiple copies of the same picture; one modified, the other unmodified. With this in mind, surely there's a way to tell iPhoto how I want it to manage my photos instead of the other way around?

Also, where is this 'Let iPhoto manage my pictures' setting, as I'd gladly enable it, if i could find it!

Ahh, I see what you are saying. Unfortunately, I don't think there is any way to delete the original and not the modified....I'm not positive, though.

In preferences (CMD+,) in iPhoto version 6, there should be an option like iTunes' that is something like "manaully manage iPhoto library" or "copy imported images to iPhoto library...." (I'm not on a mac right now..can't remember off the top of my head.). if you uncheck (or check..whatever is not set right now...), when you import a file into iPhoto, it just adds that to the library. it does NOT copy that file into the iPhoto folder. Make sense?

 

[peanutismint]

Ah yes, I found the 'copy imported images...' property. Sounds like it might be better for me, as I like to keep all of my media on an external drive anyway... but it'd be interesting to see what happened, therefore, if I didnt copy the files to my iPhoto directory but DID edit them...

 

[Cameront9]

Ah yes, I found the 'copy imported images...' property. Sounds like it might be better for me, as I like to keep all of my media on an external drive anyway... but it'd be interesting to see what happened, therefore, if I didnt copy the files to my iPhoto directory but DID edit them...

Yes, I'm not sure what iPhoto's behavior is in that case....You'll just have to try it and see...

 

[skybolt]

You can use a software, like iPhoto Diet, to remove the modified originals. That is, once you have modified, and are sure you will never want to go back, using iPhoto Diet will allow you to remove the originals for the modified photo. Just be sure to read the options you are presented and understand exactly what they mean before you click "OK". It is a really useful utility, in my opinion (and no, I'm not connected in any way to the software -- just a happy user).