Duplicate files inside and outside of iphoto

Question

Hi there
When I first set up my new mac I had a folder of about 20Gb of photos organised into different folders, transfered from my old PC. I started to import them into iPhoto one folder at a time. After a couple of folders were imported - each with subfolders mainly organised by year, I realised that iPhoto was duplicating the folders into the iPhoto library. I then changed the import setting to keep the photos in their original location for the import and relocated the remaining photos.
I thought all was well but now I have about 8Gb of duplicated photos; one set inside of iPhoto with metadata, faces, events, locations tagged, rotated and cropped, and the other set out in a central photo storage file just as standard files.
My question is how can I now get rid of the duplicates outside of iphoto so that I only have single versions of the photos, the images inside of iphoto being the master file to keep. Are there any clever programs or is the manual method the only way to go?

Answer 1

You need to decide what app you want to use to manage your photos.
IPhoto and Lightroom (and Apple's Aperture) are all variations on a theme. Though they work in different ways they are all Digital Asset Managers. They all want to import your photos, ”own“ or manage them for you, while also giving you some (in the case of iPhoto) or a whole lot (in the case of Lr or Aperture) processing power as well.
The process you're attempting - where Lightroom and iPhoto share the originals - will not work really.
Why?
Edits and processing done in Lr will not be available to iPhoto. It simply will not know about changes you make there. So when you go to use these images elsewhere all you will see are the originals or edits you have made via iPhoto.
The reverse is also the case. No edits made in iPhoto will be available in Lr.
This includes metadata like keywords and so on.
For iPhoto to have access to the Lr processed images you will need to export them from Lr and then import them to iPhoto.
My personal suggestion is that you use the more powerful application to manage your pics.
I don't think there's a migration path from iPhoto to Lr. (There is from iPhoto to Aperture). I would suggest that you start over from scratch and export the originals from iPhoto (File -> Export: Kind - Original) and then import to Lr.
There is at least one plug-in that will facilitate moving selected pics from Lr to iPhoto for sharing etc and it can be found here
http://www.suffix.be/blog/lightroom-iphoto-export
There may be others - Google is your friend
I really dislike the way iPhoto hides all the images making it very difficult to access an image with a different program.
It's not at all difficult. Want to access the images in a Photo Editor?
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.
However this will +not work+ for Lightroom as it is not a Photo Editor, as mentioned above.
Other than that, your iPhoto Library is available in every Open... dialogue in the entire OS.
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto:
*For Users of 10.5 and later*
You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Command-Click for selecting multiple pics.
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
(Note the above illustration is not a Finder Window. It's the dialogue you get when you go File -> Open)
You can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
*For users of 10.4 and later* ...
Many internet sites such as Flickr and SmugMug have plug-ins for accessing the iPhoto Library. If the site you want to use doesn’t then some, one or any of these will also work:
To upload to a site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. However, if you're using Gmail you can use iPhoto2GMail
If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
*If you want to access the files with iPhoto not running*:
For users of 10.6 and later:
You can download a free Services component from MacOSXAutomation which will give you access to the iPhoto Library from your Services Menu. Using the Services Preference Pane you can even create a keyboard shortcut for it.
For Users of 10.4 and later:
Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
Other options include:
1. *Drag and Drop*: Drag a photo from the iPhoto Window to the desktop, there iPhoto will make a full-sized copy of the pic.
2. *File -> Export*: Select the files in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export. The dialogue will give you various options, including altering the format, naming the files and changing the size. Again, producing a copy.
3. *Show File*: Right- (or Control-) Click on a pic and in the resulting dialogue choose 'Show File'. A Finder window will pop open with the file already selected.
Regards
TD