Imprting picture folders as albums?

Question

I already have about 6000 photos organized in different folders on my hard drive. Do I have to reorganize all of them again in iphoto or is there a way to import them so that the folder they are in becomes an album? Sure wood save a huge amount of time!
Any thought?

Answer 1

HI djyod,
If you choose to copy the photos into iPhoto while importing them, then follow the suggestions below. You also now have the choice not to copy photos into iPhoto's database when importing them so you might want to consider doing it that way. Old Toad is knowledgeable in that area and hopefully he will pop in to tell you how it works. I might even find his info here at the forums and post it for you.
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.
As for the other method, here is the info from the iPhoto Help menu;
Using advanced options when importing from a hard disk
By default, iPhoto copies photos imported from your hard disk, leaving the originals in their original location and making duplicates for use in the iPhoto library.
However, if you already have an extensive collection of photos saved on your computer and you prefer to leave your photos in their current file structure, you can choose to have iPhoto point to your original photo files instead of copying them in iPhoto. Either way, you can still make full use of iPhoto.
If there is no color profile embedded in a photo viewed in iPhoto (many digital cameras do not include a color profile with an image), iPhoto temporarily assigns a ColorSync profile that helps display the photo properly within the application. If your photo already has a color profile embedded, iPhoto will use that color profile.
To set advanced options for photos imported from your hard disk:
Choose iPhoto > Preferences
Click Advanced.
Select or deselect "Copy files to iPhoto Library folder when adding to library."
Deselecting this option means that iPhoto will not duplicate photos when importing them into the application, but will leave them in their original files on your computer. When you edit these images in iPhoto, however, the edited versions will be saved in the iPhoto library, not your original files. Your original files remain untouched.
If you selected "Copy files," select or deselect "Add ColorSync profile."
The profile assigned will usually be "cameraRGB," an Apple-specific version of the commonly used sRGB, which allows image colors to map more closely to Apple monitors. If your image file settings specify the use of Adobe RGB, iPhoto assigns that profile. If another color profile is already embedded, iPhoto uses the profile provided.
In the Advanced pane, you can also make changes to your RAW-file options, by choosing to save your edited RAW photos in iPhoto as TIFF files or using RAW files with an external editor, such as Adobe Photoshop.