EXIF, metadata and iPhoto 6

Hello,
I am trying to understand how iPhoto 6 deals with EXIF and metadata: namely, what is preserved during import and what is lost (if anything) during export.
I read many posts on similar topics, but I am not totally clear.
I use iPhoto 6 as my photo library and Photoshop Elements for advanced editing. Up until now I have imported the pictures straight from my camera into iPhoto.
1. Do I loose any EXIF data when importing into iPhoto?
2. Are all EXIF data retained when I export from iPhoto?
3. As for metadata (keywords, comments), I believe they are lost if I export photos. Is that correct?
Thanks in advance for your help!
iMac G5 20" 2GHz; 1.5GB RAM; 250 GB HDD Mac OS X (10.4.6) iPod 5G 30GB; 250GB FW HDD; Powershot S3IS; PIXMA iP6000D

Trick question... Here's a link to EXIF Properties for your reading pleasure...
I rarely use iPhoto to download images, I will usually use Image Capture. Family type images downloaded using iPhoto and then exported into an Image Editing software will usually give me this window 'The Exif of the file is corrupted (it contains 2 orientation tags). So only one tag will be used (depending on the prefs).' I have't tried to analyze what that means but I am only working on family stuff...
Downloaded images through Image Capture will contain more info as well as the same info load up ok in my Image Editing software. (Graphic Converter)
Images used between Macs and PC's will not display the same Exif info, at least not using my current Image Editing software (2 apps) on my PC.
I think there's a ton of variables to be considered, my only advise would be to download via Image Capture, this seems to retain more file info and then import into iPhoto after doing any digital optimizing, which is what I do. So essentially, I use iPhoto to store and index finished images but I still retain the orginal in a separate folder. It's a cumbersome method but my only guarantee of retaining as much info as possible as well as the orginal image.
Rick
iMac G5 iSight 20" - 30G iPOD in Slimming Black - Mac OS X (10.4.7) - HP Pav 15" WS and Toshiba Sat 17" WS LP's - Canon 20D & A620

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IPhoto geotags not save in EXIF metadata

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Jim:
How are you checking the metadata? I find that when I edit, like a crop, the modified jpg contains all of the EXIF data that the original has. I've verified that with other applications that read all the metadata.
The only metadata that is not saved for use by other applications are the comments and keywords. Those are kept in the iPhoto database file.
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.
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Terence,
You rock for posting such a quick reply so late at night. Thank you!
I forgot about those checkboxes. Excellent point. Thanks for the description heads up. I'm fine losing the faces info (esp. since LR3 doesn't offer it as you said). It's the keywords and titles that I've spent 100's of hours on
Have you tried importing to LR with exported metadata? Did it work end to end for you? I'll check out iPhoto to Disk in depth.
I would like to keep my originals and the modified versions. Do you know of any way to avoid doubling the item count in my library to nearly a quarter of a million? I am hoping to avoid having an original and modified version of each file. I actually suffered that once through an iPhoto issue a couple of years ago and hope not to repeat.
To add more context to my Aperture and iPhoto '11 comments, the iPhoto '11 comments are purely a reflection of what I've read in hours of forum reading and not my direct experience. On Aperture, my experiences are actually limited -- focusing solely on importing a huge iPhoto library to Aperture. I spent tens of hours over several weeks trying to migrate and simply failed. The memory leaks got me time and again, no matter how I reconfigured the import (for example by splitting 110K photos into approx 50 individual imports). I should've called out that once (partially) imported, everything seemed to be faster and smoother in Aperture than in iPhoto. Thanks for the call out.
Guy

How to synchronise metadata between Lightroom catalogue and exif metadata (e.g. Orientation and rating)?

Hi there,
i have some third-party tools that also read my original photos that I use in my workflow. That is especially my private synology cloud, from which I can watch my images in the browser and in mobile devices like my iPhone/iPad.
i Ido not want to export a second copy of the pictures from Lightroom to be used by the other tools and still want to be able to synchronise the two most important values between these tools and Lightroom: orientation and rating.
is there any way to store orientation and rating from lightroom in the original photo's exif data? vice versa is there a way to synchronise these values back from the exif metadata to Lightroom? Especially orientation is an issue, because I have older cameras that do not set the orientation tag and I have to orient them in Lightroom.
rationale: I'd like to use web or mobile devices to rate pictures with my friends and family and do not to have everybody gather around my Lightroom PC.
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Hello, i have just bought the new macbook pro and I'm trying to sort all of the photos I have uploaded... I think i understand correctly that all photos are stored as an event...you can then edit these and store them as an album (similar to itunes where you would create a playlist) I would like to sort the photos within events as at the minute they all appear within the same album and I would like them sorted rather than creating new albums that would essentially keep everything as is but duplicate the photo. I'm unsure whether to delete the photos are upload again? Hope someone can help!!

iPhoto works similarly to iTunes. Every photo is in the Library and everything else is a subset of the Library.
There are two ways of viewing the Library: One is Events - this is the Library broken into chunks, based on the date and time of the photos. The other view is called Photos, and that's just your whole Library.
Albums are groupings of photos from the Library. They are different from Events in one major way: Photos in Albums simply reference the photos in the Library. A photo can be in 50 albums and use no extra disk space, as it's the same photo that' been referenced. Events use the actual photos. To have a photo in two Events requires a duplicate file, and hence twice the disk space.
I'm afraid I don't understand your query:
I would like to sort the photos within events as at the minute they all appear within the same album...
Photos within Events cannot all appear with the same Album, the two terms are not interchangeable.
...nd I would like them sorted rather than creating new albums that would essentially keep everything as is but duplicate the photo
As I said above, photos in Albums do not duplicate anything.
Events cannot be manually sorted. They are simple, basic level organisation. The day you want to sort manually is the day you outgrow Events
FWIW: Here's a canned post I use to describe an organising set up in iPhoto. Perhaps it will spark something for you:
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 exensively. 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 30k 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.
Keywording takes time to set up, there's no doubt about it. I use Keyword Manager as it's much more powerful than the inbuilt system, and adds the possibility of nested keywords. So, for instance, if I add John to a photo it also adds 'Family'. Now I can add many keywords to a pic quickly.
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.
By all means post again if I haven't answered your query.
Regards
TD

Problem transferring white balance Exif info from iPhoto to Aperture

I originally posted this question on the Aperture discussions page, but it was suggested to me that maybe I should try asking it on the iPhoto page as well.
I want to transfer my iPhoto library over to Aperture, but am reluctant to do so until I have familiarised myself with the new program. (I have over 23,000 photos in iPhoto.)
As a start, I have imported a few of my recent photos from iPhoto so that I can find my way around Aperture. One thing puzzles me. I can see the white balance information for each photo in iPhoto but the white balance field is greyed out in the Aperture metadata, and there is no 'cloud' or 'sun' picture at the top right of the Info panel, even though the white balance field is ticked in the Metadata Fields panels for Exif Info and Camera Info. I really need to know which camera setting I used for each photo to help me learn how to take better photos, but as far as I can see the information is not available to me anywhere in Aperture.
I have performed Aperture Library First Aid (repaired permissions and database, and rebuilt database) but the problem still exists. At the suggestion of someone on the Aperture page I have also created a new Aperture library and then imported some original photos from iPhoto which I exported to the desktop and then into the new Aperture library. I had the same problem, with no white balance information showing. That's when I was advised to try the iPhoto discussions page as well!
Does anyone have any ideas for me please?

Well, Terence, it duly showed up the white balance data when I shot a Raw photo. But I don't understand why Aperture recognises white balance for Raw but won't show it for Jpegs, whereas iPhoto recognises both.

I burnt CDs thru Finder and IPhoto. Each time the titles failed to transfer. Why?

I burnt CDs thru Finder and IPhoto. Each time the titles failed to transfer. Why?

Where are you looking for the Titles? You're not confusing titles - which are an entry in the Exif metadata of the file - with Filename?
Regards
TD

I am having macbook air recently my iphotos did not open and was showing report apple and reopen but i came to know that by pressing alt and iphotos i open an new photo library and stored the pics but now how can i get the pics which i had in the earlier

i am having macbook air recently my iphotos did not open and was showing report apple and reopen but i came to know that by pressing alt and iphotos i open an new photo library and stored the pics but now how can i get the pics which i had in the earlier photo please help me to recover my photos

Well I'll guess you're using iPhoto 11:
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Repair Database. If that doesn't help, then try again, this time using Rebuild Database.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In early versions of Library Manager it's the File -> Rebuild command. In later versions it's under the Library menu.)
This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
Regards
TD

New to mac and iphoto, questions about photo structure & organization

I bought a new Macbook Pro a couple of days ago and am still figuring things out. I wasn't displeased with windows...I just decided to try a mac anyway, So far, I adore it except for one thing, the pictures.
I spent hours researching whether to download and use picasa 3 for mac or iphoto. I decided on picasa....and now I've changed my mind. (Mostly because I tried to take pictures of the moon tonight, and they looked great in camera, but Picasa could only pick up a black screen whearas iphoto actually saw and defined the moon- and with the editing software on the two, the picasa auto-edit looked like a picture that was created in microsoft paint, and iphoto came out with a beautifully contrasted photo).
Now that I decided to use iphoto, I have been researching how to switch and still seem to have a lot of questions. (I've poked around numerous forums but have found conflicting answers on different sites).
1) I organize my pictures by folders with the month and year. I know iphoto organizes events, which it seems to determine based on photo similarity. Will my photo structure still appear in finder -> pictures?
2) Is it possible to stop iphoto from organizing my pictures and just trust me on what I want?
3) All of my friends and family use PCs, and there is a chance that due to financial concerns, when I eventually replace my macbook pro (far in the future) I could switch to a pc. Does iphoto make transferring pictures more difficult? (If I understand correctly, it does not change the photo file, a jpeg is still a jpeg but I want to be sure)
4) I do not want iphoto to duplicate all of the pictures already in my library....if I import from finder-users-pictures, will it simply use those, or duplicate all 150gb worth of pictures?
5) Any other tips for someone completely new to macs and iphoto?
6) This is very silly, but how do I uninstall picasa (I know how to uninstall on a windows but want to make sure I do things correctly on my mac!)
Also, just a "bonus"- regarding events vs. files I create, will iphoto create events within the program but leave my file structure in the library it imports from alone? If I use finder to go to where I store my photos, will I still see my file structure regardless of what iphoto does?(Does that make sense? I'm having a hard time trying to describe it)
I apologize if this question is foolish or misplaced- I did read many other posts but didn't see the answers I was looking for.

Your questions are neither foolish nor misplaced.
The first thing I strongly suggest is that you make a trial iPhoto Library. Import 100 or 200 pics and explore. Iphoto isn't right for everybody, and if you're going to use it you will need to rethink things a little.
1) I organize my pictures by folders with the month and year. I know iphoto organizes events, which it seems to determine based on photo similarity. Will my photo structure still appear in finder -> pictures?
A: Events are based entirely on Date and Time not on 'photo similarity' You can set the interval for what makes an Event in the iPhoto Preferences: iPhoto Menu -> Preferences -> General Pane: Autosplit into Events... And select from the drop down menu.
Will my photo structure still appear in finder -> pictures?
Yes or no, depending... iPhoto can run as a Referenced or Managed Library. In the former case, yes you files will be visible in the Finder, in the latter case they won't.
Note that Referenced or Managed refers +only to file storage+ It offers no extra functionality, it does nothing at all. App like iPhoto are your go-to app for your photos. If you use it, then you never access the photos via the Finder. Ever. It's always via iPhoto or the many, many hooks into the OS that it has.
I'll detail more on Referenced v Managed below.
2) Is it possible to stop iphoto from organizing my pictures and just trust me on what I want?
I'm not sure what you mean by this. Iphoto does basic date and time organisation by default. You can change it, you can change the location of the photos in Events, merge them and then using the other tools available - Albums, Smart Albums, Faces, Places etc you can organise your photos whatever way you want.
But what do you mean by pictures. There is a distinction between Photos - the image of your child holding his dog - and files: A Jpeg is just a file. Iphoto is designed for you to +forget about the jpeg+ and get on with the interesting bit: the pics of your younger and his pet.
3) All of my friends and family use PCs, and there is a chance that due to financial concerns, when I eventually replace my macbook pro (far in the future) I could switch to a pc. Does iphoto make transferring pictures more difficult? (If I understand correctly, it does not change the photo file, a jpeg is still a jpeg but I want to be sure)
A Jpeg is a Jpeg is a Jpeg. If you migrate to another app or an entire OS you can export the photos plus any and all metadata you've added to the Finder and move it on. (Caveat: You cannot export Faces. There is no agreed standard on any system for exchanging this info.)
4) I do not want iphoto to duplicate all of the pictures already in my library....if I import from finder-users-pictures, will it simply use those, or duplicate all 150gb worth of pictures?
It can do either. And this brings me back to the Referenced v Managed discussion above. By default, iPhoto will Manage the files, that is, it will copy them into the Library. You can choose not to, but I strongly recommend that you don't:
*How to do it:*
Simply go to iPhoto Menu -> Preferences -> Advanced and uncheck 'Copy Files to the iPhoto Library on Import'.
*What Happens:*
Now iPhoto will not copy the files, but rather simply reference them on your HD. To do this it will create an alias in the Originals Folder that points to your file. It will still create a thumbnail and, if you modify the pics, a Modified version within the iPhoto Library Folder.
*Some things to consider:*
1. Importing and deleting pics are more complex procedures. You have to to put the files where they will be stored before importing them. When you delete them you'll need to remove the files from the HD yourself.
2. You cannot move or rename the files on your system or iPhoto will lose track of them on systems prior to 10.5 and iPhoto 08. Even with the later versions issues can still arise if you move the referenced files to new volumes or between volumes.
3. Most importantly, migrating to a new disk or computer can be much more complex.
4. Because iPhoto has no tools for managing Referenced Files, if, for some reason, the path to the photos changes then you could find yourself resolving aliases for +each photo in the Library+ one by one.
My own opinion:
I've yet to see a good reason to run iPhoto in referenced mode unless you're using two photo organisers
If disk space is an issue, you can run an entire iPhoto Library from an external disk:
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library as an entity from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
If you're concerned about accessing the files, 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!
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.
*If you want to edit the photo in another application:*
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.
5) Any other tips for someone completely new to macs and iphoto?
*To Push Home a point*
For someone inexperienced with Macs and inexperienced with iPhoto I cannot stress enough that Managed Library is the way to go. I understand there is comfort in seeing all those folders. But inside the Library that's all there is: all those folders, stored so that an inexperienced user can't grub things up!
The iPhoto Library Folder is a Package File. This is simply a folder that looks like a file in the Finder. The change was made to the format of the iPhoto library because many users were inadvertently corrupting their library by browsing through it with other software or making changes in it themselves. Want to see inside?
Go to your Pictures Folder and find the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.
Standard Warning: Don't change anything in the iPhoto Library Folder via the Finder or any other application. iPhoto depends on the structure as well as the contents of this folder. Moving things, renaming things or otherwise making changes will prevent iPhoto from working and could even cause you to damage or lose your photos.
Now close that window and forget about it.
So, once you've imported your photos to iPhoto in a Managed Library, the surplus duplicates are +your folders+. Of course, in time, trash them to get back the wasted disk space. But don't do it today or tomorrow. There's no hurry. When you feel confident that you understand how iPhoto is working and that's it's working for you, theat's the time to reclaim the space.
I organize my pictures by folders with the month and year.
If you want to duplicate your Folder Tree in iPhoto:
Start at the bottom of the hierarchy and drag a folder of images to the Album Heading in iPhoto. The pics will be imported and an Album of the same name created.
You can then create the Enclosing Folders in the iPhoto Window (File -> New Folder) and drag the Album to it. Folders can contain other Folders (Nested Folders) and Albums.
However, is your folder system date based? Then this form of organisation is a bit pointless in iPhoto when Smart Albums or the Calendar tool (Click on the wee magnifying glass in the Search Box) mean you can find the photos taken on any day, month or year at a click. With Smart Albums it's easy to find photos from specific range - say, June 3 to August 25, 2009 etc.
If your folder system is theme based - Xmas pics, Birthday pics etc, then you'll find Keywords are much more flexible, and can be used in conjunction with other criteria for making Smart Albums and searches.
6) This is very silly, but how do I uninstall picasa (I know how to uninstall on a windows but want to make sure I do things correctly on my mac!)
Drag the app to the trash and empty it.
Regards
TD
v

Any way to restore iTunes and iPhoto libraries from failed Time Machine backup?

Is there a way to restore iTunes and iPhoto libraries from an unmountable Time Machine backup?
Background: I received an update alert on my iMac (mid-2010, 1TB) from Time Machine (wirelessly connected to a Time Capsule, 2TB 2013) that it required an update and required rebooting, of course, it happened when I was in the middle of a project and I postponed the restart for later. That evening I turned off the computer and coincidentally the next morning, the iMac would not start; it loaded to the Apple logo and about an 1/8 of the progress bar would load before the iMac would turn off.
The iMac had been fine to that day (OS upgrades and all since 2010) so I was assuming something misfired when I declined the Time Machine update. I tried the PRAM and SMC resets mentioned in the forums but no dice. I then went into Disk Utility to try repairs and there were errors on the hard drive that could not be fixed. My next step was to erase the drive and restore from my Time Machine backup. Before doing that I checked Disk Utility and to my horror, it told me that my Time Machine backups were unmountable so of course my first thought was that all my files were gone.
The TC was under warranty so I called support and they referred me to the local Genius Bar. The Genius was great and showed me that my files weren't lost even though the Time Machine backup was unmountable. They recommended I erase the partitions, starting from scratch and I would have to transfer the Time Machine backup files manually by directly connecting an ethernet cable from the TC to the computer. If that didn't work, the hard drive was bad and needed replacement which they could take care of.
I followed their recommendation and the hard drive is fine. I was so relieved to hear that my files were safe that I forgot to ask about all of the metadata that was lost in iTunes (de-selected songs, playlists, rankings, play counts) and iPhoto (geotags, names, etc). Any ideas / help? I sank considerable time into my music and photos and would love to have that time back.
FWIW, I'm in the process of buying an external hard drive as a secondary backup to the TC as my confidence is a little shaken on the product line - the first time I ever actually need a backup and the backup is unmountable. My whole point of spending a little more and buying into the Apple ecosystem for a backup solution was to streamline the backup process and avoid these types of issues.

Thank you for the reply. I tried the Disk Utility to repair my TC's Time Machine backup disk with no luck, it stopped with the message:
Disk utility stopped repairing "iMac"
Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
It took a night but I was able to copy all the TC Time Machine files to the external hard drive as a backup to a backup just in case. I'm still pretty bummed the TC's backup didn't allow for Disk Utility's restore functionality. Fortunately, the iPhoto library backup I dragged to the iMac from the Time Capsule backup worked without a hitch. On the downside, the "iTunes Library.itl" backup I dragged over is locked so now I'm checking out the forums for any ways to fix that. I temporarily created a new iTunes library with all my apps and music but plan on reverting to the old iTunes library if possible so I can start syncing my iOS devices again.

Hard drive recently failed and iPhoto brings a -36 error when copying need help accessing image files

I recently updated my computer to mountain lion and after doing so my computer would no longer boot up. I took it to the apple store and they told me that the hard drive was damaged and needed to be replaced. They were booting my computer with an external drive and in doing so could access my computers HDD. Upon starting to drag and drop files to a new hard drive I started to get a lot of -36 errors. I proceeded to go go,e and create my own bootable thumb drive and try doing the same process with more time to look through it. I have up till now been able to copy most of my files but have run into a problem with iPhoto.
I have been searching around for a while now and have yet to find a method that helps me in my particular situation so I am now asking for help myself. I will explain what my current system of file recovery is and see if anyone can help me out.
I have since then replaced the HDD in my computer and purchased a SATA external HDD enclosure for the original drive. This allows me to still access all files and folders from the original drive. I have managed to recover a majority of the files but have recently run into a problem with the iPhoto library. Every time I try to drag and drop the iPhoto library to my new HDD it fails after "transferring" 2.02GB and tells me it has encountered a -36 error because some files cannot be read or written. I believe I am using iPhoto '09, I will check and confirm that later.
I am looking for a way to open iPhoto's library and access the image files it seems to be hiding from me. Please understand that I cannot open the iPhoto library either, I have lost access to the library entirely and want to see if there are any image files that I can save. I dont have the computer backed up recently and want to save my photos. Thanks for looking and I'm hoping someone can help.

Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. (In Library Manager it's the FIle -> Rebuild command). Rebuild it to the Pictures Folder. This might overcome the -36 issue.
(This will create an entirely new library. It will then copy (or try to) your photos and all the associated metadata and versions to this new Library, and arrange it as close as it can to what you had in the damaged Library. It does this based on information it finds in the iPhoto sharing mechanism - but that means that things not shared won't be there, so no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your events, albums and keywords, faces and places back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.)
Failing that you're into recovering your Originals from the damaged Library and creating a new Library and starting over from scratch.
Regards
TD

Using Aperture 3 and iPhoto '11 together

I was wondering how to use them together. I spent a lot of time on Aperture 3 for geotagging every photos + faces and, trying to import them back to iPhoto '11, means losing all those info and start back again.
I was wondering if there's a way for keeping the main library on Aperture 3 but being able to work on it through iPhoto '11.

Aperture and iPhoto are entirely different applications that work in very different ways.
The only communication between the two is as follows:
Aperture is able to parse the iPhoto Library to allow it to import the contents while stacking the Originals and Modified versions, preserving metadata and so forth.
Aperture can share its Previews with the iLife apps, including iPhoto.
That's it.
So, specifically, what interaction there is between the two is designed to facilitate migration from iPhoto to the more powerful app. After that, iPhoto has exactly the same relationship to the Aperture Library as, say, Pages or iMovie.
for geotagging every photos + faces and, trying to import them back to iPhoto '11, means losing all those info
use an Export preset in Aperture that includes location information. There is no way to share Faces, but you can use it as the basis for keywording.
Regards
TD

Another Aperture and iPhoto problem i am having

I today imported 5 photos into aperture, i done keywords and other metadata pictures are all jpeg large 12 MP images. I then go-to the new iphoto 09 and again select show Aperture library find the pictures and drag them into a album on iphoto for easy uploading to facebook etc 3 of the pictures in iphoto when clicked are good clear images the other two when clicked are poor quality scaled down images why?. I thought the masters were left within aperture, and iphoto just loads them from AP. Can somebody explain ?

For most folks using the Previews is pefectly good. And bearing in mind what Facebook will do to the shots there’s no doubt that the Previews will be perfectly adequate.
You can set the quality of the Previews in the Aperture Preferences -> Preview Pane.
If you want to use full size pics then you’ll need to export from Aperture and then import to iPhoto. However, if Facebook is the destination then that’s utterly pointless. From what I’ve seen no matter what you upload they compress the cr*p out of it, strip the metadata and colour management.
Regards
TD

EXIF, metadata and iPhoto 6

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