Iphoto 6 ruins my pictures

Question

When I import jpegs into iphoto 6 the color rendition is terrible when viewed. It gives them this awful purple tinge.
Actually, it only does this with one out of three photos that are imported. Most look fine. In fact before I import any photos into iphoto they look fine in preview.
I've set the preferences not to add any color profile. That does not help. It also does not help if I do add a color profile.
However, if I save the jpeg as a TIFF there are no problems, but this seems like less than an elegant solution as if someone emails me pictures, I want to just be able to easily import them into iphoto without having to first convert the image to a TIFF. This is sort of ridiculous.
How can I fix this?
Also, as much as I dislike windows, does anybody know of a similar picture viewer, for the mac, that's is for the most part pretty reliable and easy to use?
Thanks!

Answer 1

I've set the preferences not to add any color profile. That does not help. It also does not help if I do add a color profile.
That only comes into play if the photo being imported does not have a color profile assigned. What is the color profile assigned to those photos that are giving you problems. You can find out by exporting to the desktop, opening with Preview and typing Command-i. In the info window the color profile will be given.
If the photos look OK in iPhoto in another account like Terence suggested it might be a preference file other than iPhoto's that is causing the conflict. Here's how to determine if that's the case:
Trouble Shooting Preferences
Go to HD/Users/Your_name/Library. Move the Preferences folder (in its entirety) to the Desktop and make a second copy of it so you have Copy A and B. Now try the the process again and determine if problem is fixed.
If the problem IS fixed, then go to the new Prefs folder that the OS will have created and open it up.
Open Copy B on the Desktop and select all of the items inside. Drag them into the open new library folder. When the Copy window comes up check the Apply to All check box and then click on the Don't Replace button as seen here. That will keep the new files created and bring back all of the others.
If the problem is NOT fixed, trash the new Prefs folder and move the intact Copy A folder back to the Library folder .
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.