Confused on albums and stacks

Before I upgraded to Snow Leopard and Aperture 2.1.4 I had built three albums with 45 pictures each, and put them in a folder. I used these albums to sync to my iPhone, and looking at my iPhone all 135 pictures are in the right place.
After upgrading SL and Aperture few days ago, I went through my pictures for the last year and created a few dozen stacks.
Today I noticed in the Project Bar that the albums now have 232, 1247 and 1088 pictures.
After a little investigation, it seems, that in any album that had a picture that is now in a stack, the album now includes the whole stack inside the album! I'm able to reproduce the 'feature' by just selecting a picture and 'stacking' it with any other random picture. Unfortunately, if I unstack (i.e. not close) the stack, all the surplus pictures are not removed from the albums.
The stacks of pictures I am referring to are not versions of a master, they are groups of pictures from a single photo event.
Suggestions on eliminating this behavior?

Well, admitting my confusion, here are more details:
I have about 14,000 pictures, 75GB, in Aperture, half are RAW, the rest jpeg. Due to the size of the library all files are referenced.
When I load pictures from the camera into Aperture, they go into a project based on the year (i.e. 2007, 2008, 2009). Years are averaging about 1,500 - 2,500 photos. Inside each Project (year) are a group of Smart Albums based on month, subject or location. All referenced masters for 2008-2009 are on my MBP, all previous Projects (years) have been relocated to an external drive using Aperture's move feature. The stack problem only involves referenced masters on the MBP.
In the Project Pane, underneath the Library I have two folders:
- One folder contains smart albums based on keywords or metadata that crosses Projects (i.e. multiple years)
- The second folder 'Collections' is made up of static albums (and light tables) that I use to sync or export to iPhone, Flickr, websites, etc. These photos also come from various projects.
Recently I got tired of scrolling through hundreds and hundreds of pictures in a project, so if I ran into 30 pictures from a dog show, or party, or vacation, I just selected them and turned them into a stack. I created 20-30 stacks for 2009, another 15-20 for 2008, reducing the browser scrolling time dramatically.
In the simple case, I thought this is what stacks are for.
To my 'confusion' each time I included a picture in a stack (within a single project) the whole stack was added to the static album in my 'Collections' folder [remember Collections is not inside the same project.]
Last month it did not work this way, the evidence is my iPhone that syncs to a static album in 'Collections'. The iPhone shows a photo album of 20 photos that has now grown to 232 on Aperture due to the stacking of images that were included in an album. Four other iPhone sync albums have expanded also. Manually I have not added any images to the albums that expanded.
None of the referenced pictures have been moved, renamed or relocated. After recognizing the problem, I did rebuild the Aperture database, it is about 18GB without the images in it.
While cleaning-up, I did relocate some static albums from the top layer of the Project pane into the Collections folder, but even static albums that were already inside the folder (e.g. 'iPhoneSync2009' have seen increases in the number of images.
I had upgraded to Aperture 2.1.4 and Snow Leopard and synced to iPhone without problem, before I started stacking things.
So, admitting my confusion here:
- Why isn't this what stacks are for? (STACK and UNSTACK should create and delete, expandable and collapsible sets, inside a project or not)
- Apparently no one else see this behavior?
I'm totally open to suggestions of better organization or use of folders and stacks, I've tried to read every Aperture forum and blog I can find.
Thanks for advice,
Flack

Similar Messages

Albums and Stacks - Terrible Design

Having spent hundreds (maybe thousands) of hours editing and organising our collection of more than 20,000 photos with PSE 7, we have created many stacks and version sets (a great feature). Now, trying to create some albums for easy viewing , we find that one cannot include a photo in an album without getting every photo in the stack or version set.
Not believing that this could be an intended feature, we started to look for bug fixes or other information. Amongst other things, I found in this forum the following amazing information:
"Yes, it's an unfortunate design feature of PSE 6 and 7 that if you put one photo from a version set or stack in an album, all of the photos of the set or stack get included as well. Many people have complained about that. Adobe's intended usage of stacks is that all of the photos in a stack are of the same scene or content, and that there is just one "best" photo (the top photo); under that design, it makes sense to include the entire stack in an album"
It makes sense to include the entire stack in an album??
Pardon me. Exactly the opposite. An album is the place where you want to look at your photos and show them to interested friends. Why on earth do you want to include all versions of an edited photo, or all photos of the same scene?
Excuse me if I'am cross, but this must be the worst design feature of any program that I have ever seen. To make it worse, when you remove the unwanted photos from you album (even a slower process than stacking them!), all the photos belonging to the stack are removed. The only way out seems to be to remove the required photos from their stacks or version sets, thus defeating the primary purpose of stacks and version sets. No wonder the PSE organiser gets one star only from many reviewers!

Yes, you are right. I should have quoted more:
On May 1 2009, you wrote in this forum:
"Yes, it's an unfortunate design feature of PSE 6 and 7 that if you put one photo from a version set or stack in an album, all of the photos of the set or stack get included as well. Many people have complained about that. Adobe's intended usage of stacks is that all of the photos in a stack are of the same scene or content, and that there is just one "best" photo (the top photo); under that design, it makes sense to include the entire stack in an album. But many people use stacks differently (more like tags), and there isn't one best photo in a stack, and they run into problems like that with albums"
I objected against the ridiculous conclusion "under that design, it makes sense to include the entire stack in an album."
On Nov 30 2009, you replied to by post:
Adobe's intended design: A stack has one best photo in it (the top). When you include a stack in an album, the entire stack is included, but only the best photo from each stack will be shown in the Organizer (unless you expand the stacks). When you "share" that album using various mechanisms (Photoshop.com, Online Album, Flickr, etc.), again only the best photo from each stack would be included -- your friends won't see the other photos.
That design is reasonable and consistent, though it's not the way some people want to use stacks. They would prefer that there could be many "best" photos in a stack, but when they use PSE stacks that way, they find that it doesn't interact very well with the rest of the Organizer.
Unfortunately, in PSE 7 Adobe introduced some bugs in the implementation of their design. In particular, some of the sharing mechanisms include all the photos in a stack.
Do you see it now? The first quote says that it " under that design it makes sense to include all photos in a stack in an album". The second quote says adobe introduced bugs in the implementation of their design.
If the second quote is correct, there is some slight hope! If the first is correct - no hope - The designers have no idea. I would suggest that options to include the topmost, any photo in a stack or all in a stack are feasable, with the topmost one being the default.

Stacks lose pick if put in an album and then undone

If you put a stack into an album and then undo the move, the stack loses its pick if it's not the first image in the stack.
I just lost a lot of work by moving a couple dozen stacks into an album and then hitting Command-Z.
Has anyone else experienced this behavior? (Aperture 1.5.2)

If you put a stack into an album and then undo the
move, the stack loses its pick if it's not the first
image in the stack.
I just lost a lot of work by moving a couple dozen
stacks into an album and then hitting Command-Z.
Has anyone else experienced this behavior? (Aperture
1.5.2)
I am a little confused by exactly what happpens when you are doing this - the stack pick is always the first image of the stack.
Are you referring to Album Picks for the album you have moved a stack into? Then it would make more sense to have those picks go away.
I did try changing the master pick in a stack, dragging it into an album, and then undoing the move into album - my stack stayed ordered as I had put it. Can you give an example of how exactly you add stacks to the album and how the picks are being set?

I am trying to copy 3 photos from an album in iPhoto to my iPhone. I have tried to move them to PhotoStream. I "select" the photos in the Album and then click on PhotoStream in the "Share" menu at the bottom of the screen. Nothing happens. I have also tr

I am trying to copy 3 photos from an album in iPhoto to my iPhone. I have tried to move them to PhotoStream. I "select" the photos in the Album and then click on PhotoStream in the "Share" menu at the bottom of the screen. Nothing happens. I have also tried emailing them tyo myself but iPhoto won't send the email. It tells me it doesn't recognize my ID and password. My operating is Lion on an iMac.

Thank you for responding to my question, above, this morning. And thank you for the link about PhotoStream. It was helpful in understanding how Photostream works, but, unfortunately, doesn't really reference my problem since it assumes that the photos were originated on one of my Apple devices. The photos I want to copy to my iPhone are in an album on iPhoto but I had originally downloaded them from my camera to my iMac then moved them to the album. The confusing thing for me is that they are 3 of a dozen photos takern over a period of 12 years on different digital cameras (two were taken on film and later scanned and eventually moved to the album in iPhoto) and all but three of the photos moved to photostream and are on my iPhone. It is those three, which were all taken on digital cameras and moved to the album, which I can't get to move to Photostream.

Complete My Album and older purchases no longer showing as purchased

I have noticed that on many of my older single song purchases, I do not have the option to complete the album (but on others I do so it isnt some account issue).
It seems that for whatever reason, some albums get re encoded and re uploaded. When that happens they delete the old version from the store but leave it on their servers and your previously purchased songs are still attached to the old no longer available for purchase version. They dont migrate your purchases over to their new replaced version (were talking same exact album here, not a newer extended version or something)
You can re download them from the cloud no problem, but when you view the album in the store, it doesnt show any purchased tracks. If you re purchase one of those tracks it now shows in the cloud that you own it twice. (the album are will usually have slightly different coloring from being rescanned) I downloaded them both and the size was a bit different, the newer one even had a slightly higher bitrate.
Just figured id post this here for anyone not able to complete an album and thinking there is an issue. You can test it by deleting the item from the cloud (it just hides it) then going into the itunes store account area and going to the manage your hidden tracks area. If you sort by songs and click the album name, it will either take you to the album page or tell you that this album is not available in the US store (or whatever region you bought it in). If it says the latter, then you purchases are from an older encoding of that album.
I have no idea why they do it like this, its pretty rediculous and leads to a bunch of issues like the endless threads by confused people not knowing why they cant complete an album. Its because the album you bought a song from isnt for sale anymore, even though one with the same name and songs is.

My purchased items are not available in iTunes (Updated)
TS1408 my purchased movies and tv shows from my apple tv do not appear
why can't i find my apps which i bought (Updated)
HT2519 my songs wouldnt play on my ipod so i deleted the songs on the ipod and went to the purchased section in itunes to recover like i did with another song and my purchase history i blank, how can i get them back?
HT3209 I have purchased some movies in my apple tv, but now its telling me that i have no purchases in my apple tv
HT1391 missing purchased items
TS1702 what happened to all of my purchased books in the iBook library?
Tried to get some of my purchased song off of iTunes on my phone and it says I have no songs!
Purchases Empty?
TS1408 I had to reinstall windows and now my songs are gone. and none of the recomended"things to do" doesnt work. Help?
purchased songs?
HT2519 Why all my previous downloaded apps (free or paid) suddenly not showing up on the iTunes store "purchased" section. Every time I select "purchased", the next screen shows "no purchased app available for downloaded"?? Please help!!
by 12 Metal Wheels
Purchase History gone after iTunes froze! Please HELP
TS1408 Perviously Purchased songs

Lost Albums and Pictures in Library

I recently had a problem with my computer and had to do a
I went to iPhoto where I had my 2,500 photos organized into separate albums and completely organized and all the photos were gone. I dragged the livrary file into iPhot and got back up to 2006?
*I have tried to Add to Library my 2007 photos and it says that the jpeg files that were already in iPhoto won't import with the error message Not the Right File Type.* I am completely confused. Can I fix this? Or do I have to rebuild it all.

My computer wouldn't boot so I had to reinstall the operating system. I guess I left that part out. When i opened iPhoto for the first time nothing was there. I dragged a back up of the iPhoto Library onto iPhoto and only got back part of my Library as well as set-up Albums.
Now when I go to drag the remaining photos that did not show up in iPhoto it says that the photos are not the right format. I hope that I won't lose them. I never touched them and they are jpegs.
Is there a way to reinstall iPhot and get back my Album list and all the photos?

Organizing with Folders vs Projects vs Albums vs Stacked Photos

Question - Longtime Apple user, but relatively new to Aperture. Working on organizing a large collection of photographs, and am debating whether to organize by Project and grouping similar Projects into folders, or whether to use Projects as my major subdivisions, and organizing within projects using Albums or Stacks.
I realize that there's probably no right answer, so I'm hoping that anybody reading this note could take a quick minute to share the philosophy they apply to organization, as well as any concrete advantages or drawbacks to Projects, Folders, Albums, or their own method.
Thanks for sharing!
Mark

Projects are, imho, badly misnamed. Aperture was designed with the general plan that one shoot would be one Project. Projects have one salient characteristic (which separates them from other ways of grouping images) -- each Master must be in a Project, and can be in only one Project. Because of the above, you should conceive of Projects as the master (small "m") and enduring holding bin of your shots. I think of them as boxes, or as binders ("binders" implying, somehow, something more long-term than "album").
However you end up organizing your collection in Aperture, the one method I recommend against is using Projects as your major subdivisions. They weren't designed to be used this way, they shouldn't have more than a few hundred Masters in them, and you are likely to outgrow that system of organization.
I stick with "one shoot = one Project". If I have three separate shoots on one card, I import the files in three separate sets, each with the Masters specially re-named, into three separate Projects. I then use folders to organize my Projects. I use Albums for sub-sets of Projects with more than 60 or so images -- I do a lot of my processing by Project, and I find 60 images is about the most I can easily handle at once. I use Albums also for actual projects (small "p") -- e.g.: a series of cards for sale, or work for a client.
All images are keyworded (again, a per-Project task). I use color labels to indicate the level of development of an image. I use stars to indicate the value of an image (rejected, not yet rated, best of stack, worth keeping, among the best in Project, worth publishing, excellent).
Keywords, color labels, ratings, and Project names give me enormous specificity in creating Smart Albums, which I do extensively.
Additionally, I do three things which I think are uncommon.
. I move my Projects according to the status of their development, and
. I separate my intake, storage, and processing areas from my output areas, and
. I never use Folders to organize by date.
I do this because for me Aperture's two overall functions are best treated separately. Those two overall functions are, generally, Intake and Output, or to be more specific, "Import, Develop, and Store" and "Gather for export, Prepare for publication, and Export". The top-level folders in my Library are
. Administration Smart Albums
. Raw (inputs)
. Cold Storage
. To Serve
Admin Smarties includes "5-stars", "Managed Masters older than 45 days", "Masters Missing", "Printed 17x22", "Re-take", and the like.
"Raw" is the top-level of a folder tree which includes "Just Imported", "Described not Stacked", "Stacked not Keyworded", "Keyworded not Picked", and "Picked not filed". I move my Projects into the appropriate folder. Note that this works well in Projects view -- one can drill down to any level of the Library tree and see at a glance which Projects are where.
"Cold Storage" is where I put all fully-processed Projects (and remember, for me "Project" just means "Shoot" -- if you ever used a non-digital camera, same as a box of slides or a sleeve of photos). I organize these as I see fit. I try to put Projects where I think I will look for them. Clients have their own folder(s). Other photographers have their own folders. On the personal side, I have folders for Portraits of friends, Family, Events, Trips, Indoors, Urban outdoors, Rural outdoors, Close-ups, Test shots, etc. Each of these is further subdivided. I have an entire folder sub-branch just for fine art still-lifes.
The last of the top-level folders holds a large sub-set of folders for output. None of these folders have Projects in them (Projects, for me, are +storage containers+, not output containers). I create a folder for each output project (small "p"), and use Albums as needed. In theory, every image that shows in the output side of my Aperture structure should already have been selected ("picked") and optimally developed as an image (the rating and label tell me the status of the image). What is left for me to do is final selection, pre-press, and export.
No where in my Library structure is any accommodation made to date (other than the "one shoot = one Project rule). The is no reason to organize an Aperture Library by date -- date organization is hard-coded into Aperture at both the Project and the Image level. Since it is already hard-coded into Aperture, I prefer to use the Library organization tools to create a storage and output structure which gives me a level of utility on top of date organization.
In general, I keep my Projects view (the Viewer, not the Inspector) grouped by Library folders and sorted by date (most recent first). If I want to view all my shoots (Projects) by date, I simply ungroup them in Project view. If I want to view them by year, I click the "Year" grouping icon. I find Project view, and the built-in grouping options, quite useful.
When I need to view all of my photos in date order I simply use "Photos" view. Note the sophisticated filtering options available using the "Date" and "Calendar" rules. In general, I set Photos view to sort by either "Import Session" or "Date -- Descending". I regularly use List view when in Photos view.
I complete my set-up with specific file-naming and Project-naming conventions. The important thing here is consistency -- set it up right from the get-go, and stick to it rigorously, and you won't have to second-guess your searches or filters.
Hope that helps. It's a lot of overhead -- but I have and take a lot of shots, I work in spurts, and I valued a system which would let me start and stop at nearly any time and always let me know +by structure+ the status of any shot or image or Project or project -- while remaining flexible and expandable.
My example should at least give you some ropes to use as you simultaneously shape and climb your Aperture mountain. I strongly recommend setting up a practice Library using, say, 10% of your images, and using to for a couple of weeks, tweaking it as you go, before "casting it in stone" and importing your entire collection. Aperture is broad and powerful -- take the time to know and understand it, and you will find your use of it immensely rewarding.
Good luck.

Albums and projects (quick one please)

just about to set down and spend a full day fixing my database here.
can anyone please remind me the proper way to organize albums versus projects?
i have a series of folders that contain either albums or projects and i need to reorganize this information. recently someone reminded me (a former windows user) that I need to think of my Aperture database as basically a place to store my slides. is there a good way to think about Albums versus Projects in this sense?
can i drag "slides" out of an Album and put them in a Project or take them out of a Project and put them in an Album or is this a bad idea?
also, when organizing slideshows and video should i only put these in a Folder or can they also go in a Project?
thanks for a push on this.
- Jon

Hi Jon -- I see that others are offering excellent advice. I'll address your specific questions, and then read through the rest of the thread, but probably won't post unless you have additional questions.
hotwheels 22 wrote:
Hi Kirby.
Thanks very much. Also thanks for the link. OK. So it appears that I have a lot of Albums that I don't want or need.
1. Can I simply delete these with the assumption that the original images are stored elsewhere?
2. Can you help me a bit with getting rid of folders? I mean, assuming I see a Folder that I don't want to keep - can I delete the ALBUMS in the Folder and then assume that there aren't any original images in the folder because these /have/ to be stored in a Project? I mean, can I just delete the Albums in here and assume that there aren't any original anything assuming I know I don't need the Album - or assuming I have moved the Album to another Folder?
3. Can I basically have an organization as follows:
A. Projects with ORIGINAL IMAGES or VIDEOS
B. Folders with SLIDESHOWS, or ALBUMS
Thanks a ton.
- Jon
1. Yes. Images (which I greatly prefer over "slides" -- for reasons in addition to that that is what they are called by Aperture) must be in a Project and in only one Project. They can be in as many Albums as you want. As someone mentions below -- Albums hold just pointers to the Images in the Projects. If you delete an Image from an Album (Aperture will tell you your are "removing" it from the Album), all you have done is remove it from the Album. That Image must still be in one Project. If you delete an Image from a Project, it goes in Aperture's Trash. If you empty the Trash, it is removed from your Library.
2. Yes. Folders are just ways to group and hierachize (sorry) containers. Again, Images "live" in a Project. They only visit Albums. If the Folder contains Projects, deleting those Projects will "kill" the Images they contain. If the Folder contains Albums, deleting those Albums will only end the visit the Images were making to that Album.
3. Yes. I have written quite a bit about this -- a search might turn up something worthwhile.
Stick with what is simply -- especially as get used to Aperture. Make very shoot a Project. (Again, the mis-naming of "Project" is the single worst interface decision made in Aperture.) Images or Videos -- doesn't matter. You can think of Projects as bins that hold your originals -- just like those sleeves that used to hold your negatives when you got your prints back from the drugstore (if).
I separate my _storage containers_ from my _output containers_. So a shoot -- "CRJ: Mother/Child Portrait" will be imported into a Project of the same name, under a Folder called "Shoots". Then I'll copy to an Album the Images that are being published. In this case, the album would be in my Portraits Folder (and the name would start with the clients initials -- I don't group containers by client).
That's just a sample. The joy -- and part of the labor -- of Aperture is that it _is not_ a turn-key solution. You get to (and must) build a custom structure -- presumably to meet your needs.
The one dictum I strongly suggest following is "One shoot = one Project". The reason for this is that the Library is almost always confined to photographs taken by one person. One person can _only_ shoot sequentially. If you stick to "One shoot = one Project", you will end up with a life-long string of Projects, in sequential order. This can never become confusing -- and that is very useful to a user of Aperture. (But please note well that you don't have to store your Projects (or Images) by _date_. This is hard-wired into Aperture. Any time you want to view this life-long string of Projects, just go to Projects view, ungrouped, and sorted by date.)

Users of iPhone photo sync, Aperture, and stacks

For those who use Aperture and the stack feature, do you have the same problem as me when syncing to your iPhone?
Here is the thing:
Stacks in Aperture are used to group related pictures (usually variants of the same picture). In a stack, you then choose the best picture of the stack and identify it as such. This picture is then the only one that is shown in an album once the stack is closed.
Now if you sync such an album, containing stacks, to your iPhone, the problem is that all pictures in the stack, and not only the best one, is displayed in your iPhone album.
(Note that I also posted this under the category "iPhone" in this forum.)

More info:
This problem exist not with sync of albums on iPhone/iPad, but when syncing SMART ALBUMS.
If you sync a smart album that contains a stack of pictures, all pictures are put on the iPhone (not only the best picture of the stack as it should).
Please let me know if you have this problem (or not...)

Organization - Project, Album and Folder

I am looking for suggestions or recommendations on how to organize my photos in Aperture. I am photo hobbyist taking pictures of family and events.
I currently create a new project for each shoot. As a result, I have a lot of projects.
Does anyone have suggestions on a good way to organize the photos in Aperture for somebody who takes occasional pictures?

A very short version of one method. Adapt to suit:
Read this first.
Stick to "One Project = One shoot".
Organize your Projects using Folders.
- Don't organize them by date. Use Projects View to see your Projects by date (as well as by whatever Folders you set up).
Set up a top-level Folder called something like "Output".
Create Albums for every output set (I'd like to call these "projects" but that gets confusing) you need to make.
Drag Images into those Albums (or create them populated by selected Images). Remove the Images you don't want to publish (removing from an Album does nothing to the Image in other Albums and its Project). Publish ("output") the Images you select. Save your Output Albums for re-use.
Organize your Output Folder using sub-folders.
Think ahead about naming conventions for Masters, Projects, and Albums. Use names that will always let you find what you look for. Stick to them.
Keyword your Images. Keywords are to help _you_ find things. Apply Keywords _you_ will use when you want to find the Image.
Use Faces for family members and friends. It works well and can be a fantastic aid.
Use Places as needed, or if you have a camera that stamps the GPS coordinates.
You end up with three top-level Folders:
- Smart Albums (customized to help you find things and make Albums)
- Input & Storage (your Shoots)
- Output
Aperture is (brilliantly) mode-less. You can adjust any Image from any container. Adjust them whenever you want. Use a color label to indicate "Adjusted & ready to publish".
That should get your started .

Albums and places tab

Hi everyone,
i am just a bit confused as to why my photo app is empty from the bottom.. It does not show the tab bar with albums and places, although the software has been fully updated.
Could someone please help me out?
Thank you

Force quit the app and/or reboot the phone.

Ratings and Stacks

I have read many of the past messages on stacks and the inability to apply changes/ratings to all images within a stack at the same time. Let me explain what I'm doing and why this is frustrating.
In many of my shoots I'm bracketing every shot. I take the images into LR and stack my brackets. I may end up with 100 or more stacks, each with (3) images. I now want to do a quick rating and go through the stacks giving a 1-star to those I want to process further. I do a 1-star filter and now want to go into the stacks to pick the best of the three. Can't do it because LR won't apply the rating to all the images in the stack so the filter leaves behind the hidden stacked images. What a pain. Please give me the option to apply the rating to all the images in a stack something like holding the option key when applying the rating.

There seems to be a glitch with Stacks and Smart
Albums. If I base a smart album on a set of
parameters and the photo is not the select of a stack
it does not get selected for the smart album. For
example if I make a select based on a client then
choose later to make a 5 star rating out of the stack
that is not the select it will not appear in the 5
star library smart folder until I break the stack.
So I have to go back to the original stack and break
it to allow the search to work. Does anyone know
how to fix this?
In the parameters for the smart album you need to check "Ignore Stack Groupings".
Be aware of an interesting issue you may run into later around this. If you drag a set of images out of a smart album that ignores groupings into a "normal" album that holds images, you will only see images that are also stack picks show up in the destination album. I have lobbied via feedback for Aperture to always make an image drug into an album from a smart album the "Album Pick" for that album to eliminate that exact problem.
Another odd behavior of smart albums you may find useful is that whatever level you define a smart album at is the level it always searches, no matter where you move it after. So you can make a top-level smart album doing a search across many folders and projects, and keep it neatly stored under a different top level folder where if you had tried to put the smart album to start with it would not see images.

Please explain the difference, data file wise, between an album and folder

First day with iPhoto. I've just finished reading most of the help files. However, I'm still confused between the differences of an album and a folder.
Specifically; I see the iPhoto Library data tree in Finder. I get that iPhoto imports pictures to the Library. But we take pictures randomly. There's a 100% certaintly that after I import the most recent images, they'll all need to be individually moved to an appropriate sub-category area. I'll make all the areas (House, Family & Friends, Skiing ,etc..).
What I don't want to have happen is to duplicate actual photo images. I'd like to move them out of the library and into their permanent home. Otherwise, the library will turn into a 3,000 photo mish mash of pictures and be unusable.
So.. do I create my new areas as albums, or as folders? My hunch is folders. Then again, it's also possible that I'm not fully understanding the libraries functions.
Many thanks
- Rowan

HI Rowan,
iPhoto imports each of your camera imports or folder imports as a roll within iPhoto (set your view to View>film rolls to see them) and the Finder (under Originals/Year/roll name)
The organization within iPhoto of making albums and folders to put albums and other folders in, is only seen within iPhoto as they are actually info contained in data files. You will not see the folders and albums or even books, slideshows, calendars, etc in the finder. all the info for those is contained in data files.
The library contains all the images you have imported.
When you make Albums containing the images, you are not duplicating those images. the albums actually just reference the images that are in it.
therefor if you delete photos from an album, they will still be in your library.
If you delete photos from the library and then empty iPhoto's trash, you are deleting them from iPhoto and your hard drive.
Folders are used to organize even further within iPhoto.
Folders cannot contain loose images. You have to put images in an album first, then you can put albums in a folder.
You can also put slideshows and books etc into a folder. You can also put a folder into another folder.
There are different ways to view your iPhoto Library within iPhoto.
You can view by date, film rolls, keywords, ratings. Go to View in the menu bar and click on it and scroll to your choice.
I personally view by film rolls (imports) and keep the film rolls closed (option click on the disclosure triangle of an open roll to close all rolls)
So now I will offer you more info just in case you might need it:
--First thing to know and remember is this...Do not drag any images, folder of images into the iPhoto Library in the Finder. Images have to be imported into iPhoto within the application. Do not scan images and save them into the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder. Save them to another location such as the Pictures folder or even the desktop. You can then import them into iPhoto.
If you have already put files/folders in the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder then you will also find out that if you try to import them into iPhoto you will get an error message. No worry, just drag them to the desktop and import from there.
--All images that you import are shown in the library view. You can choose how you want to view, by rolls, by date, by rating, etc. When you put images in an Album, slideshow, book, etc, you are actually just putting pointers to those images in the library. You are not adding more images. If you delete an image from the Album it will still be in the library. If you delete an image from the library it is deleted from iPhoto's database and your hard drive (unless you have it backed up somewhere else)
--You have a folder of images on your hard drive and want to import them into iPhoto. Drag the folder of images into an open iPhoto Library window and the folder of photos will be copied into the library, resulting in a new roll with the name of the folder. You now have two copies of those photos, the ones in iPhoto's database and the ones on your desktop. You can keep the ones on your desktop that you just imported as backup or you can delete that folder.
-- you scan a picture/pictures and save it in a folder. You cannot scan directly into iPhoto or the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder.
You want all your photos in iPhoto so you import them into iPhoto.
Now you have two copies of that picture/pictures, so you can delete the originals that were in the scanned folder and keep the one/ones that were imported into iPhoto.
-- You download pictures from your camera into iPhoto.
There is now one copy of each of the pictures. (DO NOT HAVE IPHOTO DELETE THE IMAGES FROM YOUR CAMERA! DELETE THEM MANUALLY WITH THE CAMERA-if something goes wrong with the import and they are never imported and then they are deleted from the camera you might end up losing those images)
You want to change something about a picture you imported, such as
cropping it or changing the size, or changing the orientation.
Once you do that to a picture, you now have two copies of the picture
in iPhoto, the original and the edited one. The edited one will be in the library organize view. The original is packed away in an Original folder in your iPhoto Library folder under the date of the roll. You can always revert to the original by control clicking on the photo and choose "revert to orginal" You will not have this choice if you used iPhoto Diet to get rid of the Originals.
(a quick note on cropping within iPhoto...when you are in edit mode, you automatically will be in the crop mode with cross hairs to highlight the crop area. To finish cropping you must click the crop button and then go back to library view and your cropped picture will be there.
3.You want to use Photoshop or another graphic program to edit a picture in your iPhoto library.
You can open up prefs for iPhoto and choose "when double clicking on
photo ..do" choose "other" and select Photoshop. Now you can edit all
pictures in your iPhoto library in PhotoShop by double clicking. If you save the photo with the same name and as a flattened file it will be saved right into iPhoto and you will see the changes. If you don't want to save it into iPhoto then do a "save as" and save to the desktop. You will then have the original photo still in iPhoto and your new edited photo on the desktop.
Or, with iPhoto open, you can drag a picture from the library window
to your desktop (you see a + sign on the pic you are dragging). You now
have two of the same picture, one in the iPhoto library and one on your desktop. You can open up the one on your desktop in any graphic program and work on it. The one in iPhoto stays the same. You can also share/export the picture/pictures to your desktop or folder to work on them or do batch processing, etc. You will still have the originals in your iPhoto Library.
Or, you can open up the ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/folders and option drag any
picture out of the folder to your desktop. Notice that you will see a plus sign while dragging the photo. This is copying the file to your desktop
I would advise anyone not to do this as they might forget to use the option key and drag the photo out. Next time you open iPhoto the photo will be missing.
Two Apple kbs for you to read
Don't tamper with files in the iPhoto library folder
About the iPhoto Library folder
Don't forget that in Library view you can Control click on any picture and get a contextual menu with many options. One is to revert to original.
Backing up your iPhoto Library
1. Burn the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder to a CD or DVD
This method will give you a burned iPhoto Library folder that can be copied back to your computer to replace a damaged library. You can also use this method to backup an old library when you want to create a new Library to use as your current library.
insert a blank CD into your internal or external CD-RW drive and copy the iPhoto library to the CD icon on your desktop. When you drag the CD icon to the Trash/Eject button in the Dock, you are given the option to burn the CD. Click Burn and the CD is created. To burn a DVD backup of your digital images, use a DVD and a SuperDrive-equipped Mac
The easiest way to burn an iPhoto Library folder in the Finder that is larger than 4.7 gig to fit on one DVD is to burn sections of the folder.
Drag the iPhoto Library folder to the desktop
Double click the folder to open it.
Drag each Year folder to the desktop.
You should be left with the iPhoto Library folder containing all the data files, and the Year folders.
Combine whatever year folders that amount closest to a DVD burn size on one DVD. Make sure that you have burned all the Year folders, then the iPhoto Library folder with all the data files.
If you ever need to use this backup, insert the DVDs into your computer and copy the folders to the desktop. Put all the Year folders back into the iPhoto Library folder. Then put the iPhoto Library folder back into the Pictures folder.
You can also check out applications for disc spanning:
Disc-spanning software
DropDMG
Toast
Dragon Burn 4
Retrospect Express-comes with some external drives
Retrospect for Macintosh Desktop Edition
2. Copy the ENTIRE iPhoto Library to an external drive formated for a Mac. Do not use this as your only back up as the external can also go bad.
3. Copy the ENTIRE iPhoto Library to your iPod in disk mode
4.Creating your own CDs and DVDs for viewing in iPhoto
This method is a great way to back up Albums of older photos or even your entire library if it is small enough to fit on a DVD. This method will give you a library that will mount within iPhoto in the source column to be viewed. To import any images from this library they need to be dragged into your library in the source column.
If you just want to backup the images in your library:
1) Within iPhoto select the images, albums or rolls you want to backup. Go to Share>Export and export them to a newly created folder on the desktop. Follow the directions in the next link.
Creating a CD or DVD to be viewed in Windows or by a photo processing company
1.. If you backed up the entire iPhoto Library by burning within iPhoto or burning the folder in the Finder, make sure the burned copy is a good working copy before you delete the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder. You delete the iPhoto Library in the finder by dragging it to the trash when iPhoto is closed. When you next launch iPhoto it will create a new empty library for you to start anew.
2. If you burned just the images, be aware that that is all you are archiving. No metadata will travel with the images such as comments, keywords, etc.
You can then delete those images within iPhoto by highlighting them and hitting the delete key, then empty iPhoto's trash. Do this often and in groups so iPhoto will not choke on too many images.
Importing Images from the hard drive, CD, or DVD
To import a folder with subfolders of images maintaining the same organizational structure (or close to it):
Drag the folder into iPhotos viewing area.
A film roll will be created with each sub folders name. To view the rolls in the Library you need to first go to the menu bar and choose View>by film rolls.
To make each roll into an Album, highlight the tile of the roll
Go to File>new album from selection.
You will now have an Album in the source column with the images from that roll. Do this for each roll if you want them to be an Album. This is your choice.
Next, go to the menu bar and hit File>new folder
Name this new folder with the year or whatever the name was of the Parent folder containing the subfolders that you had dragged into iPhotos viewing area.
Next drag all the Albums into the respective new Parent folder you just made.
Albums- collection of images from one roll or many rolls. The Albums will be listed in your source column when you make them. The albums only contain placeholders for the images that are still in the library. They are not duplicates.
Rolls- rolls are created when you import folder of images. It will be given the name of the folder you are importing.
Rolls are also created from each import from your camera. You are given the option to name the roll at import.
Folder-a folder you create manually using the File>new folder command
Folders can hold Albums, slideshows, books, another folder, etc.
One other way you can import a folder of images and have an Album created for it as the same time it is imported as a roll in the Library view:
Drag each folder of images into the source column of iPhoto. When you see the plus sign, drop it in the source column.
An album will be created in the source column, and the roll that the album was created from will be in the library view window.
Hope this helps!
iMac 800 512, iBook 700 640 Mac OS X (10.4.6) AE, Canon i9900, Canon LIDE30, Canon S2, iPod 3gen, shuffle
iMac 800 512, iBook 700 640 Mac OS X (10.4.6) AE, Canon i9900, Canon LIDE30, Canon S2, iPod 3gen, shuffle

Difference between ALBUM and EVENT?

Can someone please tell me what the difference is between an ALBUM and an EVENT?
I am a little confused as to what the actual differences are.

An Event is a folder of images with a fancy icon in the iPhoto Window. The contents of the particular Event are decided by the date and time of the Photos. Events are a view of the Library. So, every photo is in an Event because every photo is in the Library. That means if you want to have the same photo in two Events it uses twice the disk space.
An Album is an arbitrary collection of Photos - My Favourites, Pics of My Dog from various dates and so on. Photos in an Album simply reference the pics in the Library - so a Photo can be in any number of Albums and use no extra disk space at all.
One way to look at it: Events are basic, automatic, crude organisation. It's all date and time.
Albums allow you to select, to group on other bases - like the content, the quality, the importance of the photo. So, go to a wedding, shoot 300 photos. They all go into the Event. Then pick the best 50 and make an Album from them. Be nice to your friends. Only show them the Album
FWIW:
I use Events simply as big buckets of Photos: Spring 08, July - Nov 06 are typical Events in my Library. I use keywords and Smart Albums extensively. I title the pics broadly.
I keyword on a
Who
What
Where basis (The When is in the photos's Exif metadata). I also rate the pics on a 1 - 5 star basis.
Using this system I can find pretty much find any pic in my 40k library in a couple of seconds.
So, for example, I have a batch of pics titled 'Seattle 08' and a typical keywording might include: John, Anne, Landscape, mountain, trees, snow. With a rating included it's so very easy to find the best pics we took at Mount Rainier.
File -> New Smart Album
set it to 'All"
title contains Seattle
keyword is mountain
keyword is snow
rating is 5 stars
Or, want a chronological album of John from birth to today?
New Smart Album
Keyword is John
Set the View options to Sort By Date Ascending
Want only the best pics?
add Rating is greater than 4 stars
The best thing about this system is that it's dynamic. If I add 50 more pics of John to the Library tomorrow, as I keyword and rate them they are added to the Smart Album.
In the end, organisation is about finding the pics. The point is to make locating that pic or batch of pics findable fast. This system works for me.

Heap and Stack

Dear;
I have a bit confusion in memory Heap and Stack.
I have a class:
class A {
   String A;
   static String B;
   void methodOne() {
      String C;
}Now on initialization, I know the static variable B will goto Heap, C will goto Stack
But where will A goes to Heap or Stack ?

muhammadowais wrote:
Dear;
I have a bit confusion in memory Heap and Stack.
I have a class:
class MyClass {
String A;
static String B;
void methodOne() {
String C;
Now on initialization, I know the static variable B will goto Heap, C will goto Stack
But where will A goes to Heap or Stack ?Let's be more precise. (I renamed the class in the above to make the discusion easier.)
A is a reference variable.
B is a reference variable.
C is a reference variable.
Notice in the above that NONE of the variables point to anything.
A is a member of MyClass. It doesn't exist if an instance of MyClass doesn't exist. The instance of MyClass goes on the heap, thus indirectly A goes there.
B is a member of the "class" instance of MyClass. One of those exists when you load MyClass. The instance of the "class" of MyClass goes on the heap, thus indirectly B goes on the heap.
C is a local variable and thus becomes a stack reference. (If you wish to quibble since it isn't used it is possible that either the compiler or the hotspot compiler could remove it completly thus it would not exist at all.)
Again note that the above pertains to the variables and not what those variables reference.

Confused on albums and stacks

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