Black Thumbnails After Importing Scanned Picures

Last week I begun to scan all my analog photos.
The first 24 pictures scanned in RGB, saved as JPEG 8, imported in iPhoto - great!
Second round, nothing changed except the Mac OS X 10.5.2 update, all scanned pictures that I try to import to iPhoto end up with a black thumbnail. All files are displayed correctly in Preview, in Finder and elsewhere.
Please help. What is the Problem?
P.S. Opening and saving these files with Photoshop Elements solves the Problem, but is not an Option for thousands of photos.

HUWU
This sounds exactly like what happens when you import a greyscale image. Check the profile of the pics - you can do this in the Preview -> Tools menu.
Regards
TD

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Black thumbnails when importing scanned photos

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TD:
Sure enough, it worked; (re?)set Image Capture to do 'Color' even though I am scanning black and white, and it works now. Assume it got toggled to black and white somehow (dont remember doing that, but possible, I guess), as all previous black and white photos I checked have the RGB profile. Fun with computers...?
Thanks for your very quick response; great work and much appreciated.
Ken
ps: my son just finished a semester at UCD in Dublin; loved it..!

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Gail:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. The reason you're getting that black thumbnail and full sized image is that iPhoto does not support the grayscale profile Dot Gain 20% that grayscale scanning embeds in those photos. You're best bet is to scan them as color. They will still look the same but have the RGB color mode and sRGB color profile that iPhoto can support.
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After import no thumbnails

Hello!
First of all: sorry for my English! I try my best.
I use 2 cameras. Nikon D80 and Nikon D7000.
After importing pictures from my memory card with D80 pictures there is no problem. The pictures are imported and the thumbnails are there.
If I import D7000 pictures from my memory card (same card as above) the pictures get imported but there are no thumbnails ans no events. If I try to import again a message pops up if I want to replace the alredy imported pictures. Means the import was successful but the thumbnails are missing.
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Right click on a shot and choose Show Event from the resulting menu
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http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1853597&#1853597
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Rob:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Those files are were scanned to a grayscale format with an RBG color profile added. You'll need to strip that color profile from those files so that iPhoto will render them correctly. One way to do that is to export them from iPhoto changing them to tiff in the process. Then import the tiff files. They will be rendered OK. That will increase the size somewhat. If you export them to the desktop as jpgs and then convert to tiff with Preview and 100% quality the increase in file size will be very slight. A 777KB file I tested went to 1.2MB in the process.
Photoshop Elements can do a Save As and not embed the color profile which will make it iPhoto compatible. GraphicConverter can do it by resetting the Color to grayscale (under the Pictures->Colors->Grayscale menu option) and then saving. Or you can batch change with GC.
Do you Twango?
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.

Black thumbnails in iPhoto 6.0.5

I never had any problems with iPhoto (v. 6.0.5), but last week any photo or file imported showed as a black thumbnail. Clicking on the thumbnail brought up the picture just fine. I tried rebuilding the thumbnails and the library database, and this made all my thumbnails black! The only way to fix this was to use a backed up Pictures folder; importing still brought blanks after restoring.
I searched thforum, and tried a few recommended fixes, but nothing has worked. I've even tried setting up a new user account, which had nothing in the Pictures folder, and still got black thumbnails. Thinking the problem might be the app, I moved v. 6.0.5 to my desktop and re-installed v. 6.0. Still a problem, even in the test user folder.
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iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

MRKinLA:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. You're having a totally different problem than xophile. Are the outlined boxes thumbnails or the full sized image when you click on a thumbnail. In either case what you're seeing is a result of the library losing it's link between that file and the library.
If it's the thumbnail image that's the outline I suggest you try the following;
1 - open the iPhoto Library/Data folder and move all the folders inside to the Desktop.
2 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. Select the first three options.
See if that won't get your thumbnails back.
If the outline window is the large image window you have two options:
1 - again launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys depressed and follow the instructions to rebuild the library. Select the first three options.
2 - if that doesn't work you'll have to create a new library from scratch an import the Originals folder from the current library. Here's how:
Creating a new library while preserving the rolls from the original.
Move the existing library folder to the desktop.
Launch iPhoto and, when asked, select the option to create a new library.
Drag the Originals folder from the desktop into the open iPhoto window.
This will create a new library with the same rolls as the original library. However dates on the rolls may be different but can be edited as you would the roll title.
Once this is completed you can delete the Originals folder from the desktop and the iPhoto Llibrary folder. If desired, you can keep the older library folder to try other fixes on it.
In the future I recommend you make a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto file after each import and after doing a lot of editing and organizing in the library. Then if you experience a similar crash all you need to do is replace the damaged database file with the backup copy and you'll be back to the same place in the library as when you make the backup. See the tip at the end of my signature.
Do you Twango?
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 written 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. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
G5 Dual Core 2GHz, 2G RAM, 250G HD; G4 Dual 1Ghz, 1.5G RAM, 80G HD, QT 7.1.3, Mac OS X (10.4.9) 22 LCD, 250G/200G/160G FW HDs, Canon: SD700IS/i850/LIDE 50, Epson R200, 30G iPod

Black Thumbnails After Importing Scanned Picures

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