Converting from Photoshop Elements 8 on PC to iPhoto on Mac

Question

Just coverted(converting?) to an iMac and was hoping I could get some help.
I basically used 'Element's as a photo album with some edit. Is this what iPhoto is? Is it bettter?
In PS Elements I have a multitude of directories, tagged photod and I guess an overall catalog. Can I import all this into iPhoto?
Thank you very much in advance for your help. :-)

Answer 1

Similar but not the same. It's a different paradigm - a database - than you're used to with Elements.
iPhoto is a photo manager and is intended to replace the file manager entirely. Everything you need to do with your photos can be done with iPhoto or with another app, accessed via iPhoto. That's what being the Manager is about. So, import your files from your camera and then fterwards all your work is done in the iPhoto window.
For instance:
For help accessing your photos in iPhoto see this user tip:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4491
iPhoto is not an editor like Elements, it's has no compositing, for instance. It's more a digital darkroom. Take in your photos, process them to improve the over all look and feel. If you want to remove a telegraph pole from the background, then you use another app - accessed via iPhoto. So:   You can set Photoshop (or any image editor) as an external editor in iPhoto. (Preferences -> General -> Edit Photo: Choose from the Drop Down Menu.) This way, when you double click a pic to edit in iPhoto it will open automatically in Photoshop or your Image Editor, and when you save it it's sent back to iPhoto automatically. This is the only way that edits made in another application will be displayed in iPhoto.
All processing in iPhoto is virtual and non-destructive. Your original file is never touched and edits are never finalised until you export a version.
The managing abilities of iPhoto are rather greater than Elements: For instance a canned answer I sometimes use:
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 50k 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.
Best advice: Create a library, import 100 shots and explore. It's a good app, but not for everyone.