IPhoto 8.1.1 Fixes Facial Recognition Problems

Question

That's what I have observed from my testing on a library of over 15,000 pictures.
It is important to "Detect Missing Faces" as explained in the appended support article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3941
Your computer will work long and hard at this task ... best to leave it alone while you are having Thanksgiving dinner! When done, quit iPhoto and expect it to save a very large file describing all the faces it recognized. In particular, the 'faces' files in the library will be much larger, presumably because they now contain much more information.
The recommended procedure to identify a few faces manually and then let iPhoto find the rest automatically is unchanged, but what a difference in performance! Expect iPhoto to immediately select many pictures that "look like" the faces you found manually. Also, expect to have to confirm or reject many of the selections ... it seems that iPhoto thinks "everyone looks like everyone else" at first, but it gets better as you improve its training. Also, expect the facial recognition process to occur while you are training by accepting or rejecting selections ... don't be surprised if certain selections are suddenly 'withdrawn' from consideration as you accept or reject others.
You should also expect to see the "Is This ...?" pop-up much more frequently. I observed that as soon as I named one picture of a person in multiple photographs they were immediately identified in successive photographs, especially if the photographs were taken at the same event. Of course, the real test will be if iPhoto's facial recognition can recognize a person as they change over time, especially when they are children.
There are still a few problems. If you have a large number of photographs of the same person, iPhoto will select them all ... and more. There needs to be an easier way to confirm or reject the selections rather than laboriously clicking on each. Expect family members to be erroneously suggested as matches, especially children with their parents and grandparents ... what else would you expect? Glasses are still a problem, especially sun glasses, but it is surprising how well iPhoto can "see through" such an obvious problem. Finally, a full face, even in profile is necessary for reliable identification ... putting a hand over the mouth or wearing a hat over the eyes defeats the identification process.
iPhoton

Answer 1

Thank you, Henk ... that's also how it works for me. It seems that the 8.1.1 update shifted more of the work load to the initial search for faces, i.e., "Detect Missing Faces". However, it still takes a little time to match each face, particularly if there are many faces. The big difference is that a little time is a lot better than an seemingly-infinite amount of time, which was how it used to work ... at least it seemed that way.
The library on which I have done most of my testing is mostly "people pictures" ... school classes, family gatherings, birthday parties and sporting events. One of the sporting events is a professional baseball game photographed from behind the first base dugout at the level of the playing field. Pictures of the batters at home plate show hundreds of eager fans behind the third base dugout intently watching from the other side of the field. As the pictures were taken with a telephoto lens, all those faces are not only in the field of view, but also clearly in focus ... iPhoto finds them all! Not that I know them, much less are interested in naming them, but those hundreds of faces take time to be found and there are many pictures like that.
Thanks also for the tip to use the Alt/Option key. I can use that for exactly this situation ... ignoring the faces of people I am not interested in recognizing, much less naming.
iPhoton