IPhoto and Lightroom

I am trying to switch from Aperture to Lightroom but I still want to use Iphoto - I have a big library there. Importing from IPhoto to Liightroom is ok but when I tried dragging same pictures back from LR to Iphoto, Iphoto said they are in unreadable format, so the only way I could export them was throuhg photo booth. Does anyone know why that is?

Isn't Aperture's library a package like iPhoto's. I think you should be able to just drag it to the external HD and point Aperture to it something like you do with iPhoto. I'm sure they would know over in the Aperture forum how to move the library.
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.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 08 libraries and Leopard. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.

Similar Messages

OK to use both iPhoto and Lightroom?

I have a late-model 27” iMac (Lion) with all of my many thousands of photos stored and organized in iPhoto with the help of iPhoto Library Manager. For editing my digital images I have not used iPhoto but rather Photoshop Elements (currently Elements 10) as an external editor. I have investigated use of Aperture for managing and editing my photos, but my research indicates that Lightroom is a better program. Therefore, I prefer to use Lightroom. So here’s what I’m thinking of doing:
1. Leave all of my existing photos in iPhoto and continue to edit them using Elements as an external editor.
2. Install Lightroom and designate that all new images imported into my iMac go into Lightroom.
3. Edit and manage all new images with Lightroom using Elements as an external editor to perform those editing
functions that Lightroom cannot do.
Is this a workable arrangement? Are you aware of any problems with such a setup? I‘d like to avoid being hit with any big surprises! I would appreciate feedback, especially from anybody who has tried this or a similar method.
Bob

Old Toad,
Thanks for responding.
Please re-read my post. I never said that I intended to use Lightroom to edit photos that are in my iPhoto Library. On the contrary I said that my thought was to continue to use Elements for editing the images in my iPhoto library.
My purpose is to avoid having to move all of my existing photos from iPhoto to Lightroom. I have reviewed some online tutorials on what's required to move photos from iPhoto to Lightroom, and it appears to be a long, involved, and tedious task, particularly if thousands of photos are involved as they are in my case. It's not a job that I would look forward to.
Bob

Can iPhoto and Lightroom share the same master file?

I have loaded all my images into iPhoto. Lightroom cannot see the files until I made alias folders and placed them in Pictures. Now lightroom can see them. Lightroom is non destructive and should not damage the masters. Is that the same for iPhoto? Any problems in sharing the same master file?

I have 20k images that take up 100G. Eighty percent are JPEG and have already been edited. iPhoto seems ideal for this group. Kids and grandkids like to go down memory lane and this seems to be easy to navigate. The remaining 20% are mostly raw files and need editing. I already have Lightroom and had been using it in my old PC. I am new to modern Mac’s having changed over to PC from Mac 10 years ago. I loaded all my photo files to iPhoto not knowing that the master file was hidden.
Lightroom is a great editor. Almost all the advanced photographers in our club use Lightroom for 90% of their images. Ten % require layer capability so they use Photoshop CS5 or Elements. By the way there is now a layer plug in for Lightroom that works pretty well.
The work flow I envision, if possible, would be to enter new raw images into Lightroom and edit. The master raw images could go anywhere. Could they reside in the iPhoto master file? The export would be jpeg to iPhoto. For existing images I would use the iPhoto master list to import the 20% group to Lightroom. You don’t really import the images but borrow the image. The masters are never altered. When you export an edited jpeg, the master stays unaltered in it’s original file. Does iPhoto operate the same way.
I read where Lightroom jpeg images cause a problem for iPhoto. Still a problem?

Importing strategies between iPhoto and Lightroom 5

During the installation process, Lightroom imported the 5,000 or so photos from my iPhoto library into Lightroom's Ircat catalog. Going forward, I'm planned to organize my photos much better with key words, metadata, etc. Also, I just bought a new camera and plan to take both RAW and JPEGs. So does it make sense to create a second catalog for those images from iPhoto, or somehow, segregate them creating two folders within only one catalog? In addition to understanding the best strategy, I need to know how to do this. Finally, although I use Time Capsule to safely back up my computers, I wanted to get some advice regarding to pros & cons for using an external hard drive to store my images when using Lightroom 5 (i.e., does it make sense using a another drive with a library of 5,000-10,000 images, etc.)?? Cheers

If disk space is the primary you could buy an awful lot of external HD space for the price of Lightroom and run your iPhoto Library from an external disk.
Are you shooting Raw?
For my money - and I realise that it's not - you only get half the value of apps like Aperture and Lightroom (and Aperture is about $100 cheaper btw) if you're shooting jpeg. These apps are designed to make life easier for Raw shooters, and act as large scale digital asset managers. While these apps will still work on jpegs of course, it's a bit like using a Humvee for the school run. It'll do it, but there are more effective uses for a Humvee
IPhoto, Lightroom and Aperture are all designed as Digital Asset Managers - They all work to preserve your original file. While the last two work somewhat differently than iPhoto neither represents a significant space saving in practice.
If you must overwrite your files, then don't use a DAM application. Just use a photo editor like Photoshop or Graphic Coverter. The latter is great value and has some photo management built in, too.
Regards
TD

Work with both: iPhoto and Aperture (or Lightroom)

I have iLife '09 and the newest MacBook pro with Leopard (last edition) and I am New in Apple Scene.
All my photos now are imported in iPhoto. How can I organize lot of photos, when I want to work with Aperture (or Lightroom)? Do I need then iPhoto? Or only organize all photos in Aperture?

Aperture, Lightroom and iPhoto all cover the same ground in different ways.
iPhoto is aimed at the domestic market. It's very user friendly and works very well with Point and Shoot cameras especially.
Both AP and LR are focussed firmly on the Pro Shooter shooting high volumes of RAW. They both have significant learning curves.
That said, there is much to be gained as an Amateur photographer using either app if you are shooting RAW. Much less so if you you're shooting jpeg.
You can download trials of both AP and LR.
AP works in a limited fashion with iPhoto. You can share your Previews with iPhoto, for instance, and there is a facility to easily migrate from iPhoto to Aperture. You can migrate an entire library or just particular photos.
LR is utterly unaware of iPhoto. There is a third party plug-in that facilitates exporting from LR to iPhoto. There is no easy way to migrate from iPhoto to LR.
Subject to the caveats above about shooting RAW: I would use Aperture as the primary organisational and processing app. I choose AP because it's much more powerful that iPhoto and because it has excellent OS integration entirely missing from LR.
Regards
TD

Best Setup, iPhoto 11 & Aperture 3 and Lightroom 3

As I use all three of these apps, as well as Photoshop CS5, I've been thinking hard how I want to set up all these apps. The first obvious issue is storage. It would be insane to keep three copies of my images, so the obvious choice is to store images in subfolders of the Pictures folder in my account hierarchy. Then have all three apps reference the images from there rather than copying the images into their own library structure. Would all agree to this or is there some hidden gotcha to this?
I know iPhoto and Aperture can share info back and forth. Is there a preferred way to set up what app gets images from or to another that you all would recommend? Can one app be the 'master' and the other two be slaves?
What would be the best bet, also, for importing the images to the master. The images are already in folders and subfolders according to how I would like them to be in the master app once the import is done.
Finally, is there a way to support a dual storage system, one where my folder structure is maintained, top level folders within pictures being the project, subfolders being the events, or whatever terminology the app uses, with a second structure using top level by year, sub-levels by month and day? Both systems in use together.

Aperture, Lightroom and iPhoto, to one extent or the other, all do the same job. The best advice is to pick one horse and ride it.
All three apps want to manage the files. Yes, all three can reference the same set of files too, but none can see or work with the processing of the other. So, the Lightroom version of the photo is different that the iPhoto one is different from the Aperture one. And, none can even see the other without some form of exporting.
Best analogy I can think off: Writing your novel in Word, Pages and TextEdit - one paragraph in each. It just makes everything more complicated.
I know iPhoto and Aperture can share info back and forth.
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.
iPhoto has no knowledge of, and knows nothing of how the Aperture Library works. It cannot read the Aperture library.
EDIT: BTW: Lightroom has no knowledge of the other too at all. And Vice Versa.
Really, working with all three makes no sense to me. You'll be doing triple the work. It will unnecessarily complex and that's how you get data loss.
That and a dollar might get you a cup of coffee some places.
Regards
TD

How to get iphoto 09 and lightroom to play nicely together?

my current workflow is this: drop originals onto iphoto and edit in external editor from within iphito. the current external editor is photoshop elements 8. When I'm done with the edit, I save and the edited photo shows up in iphoto and the original is saved behind the scenes. Lightroom, as well as Aperature doesn't have a save function, they boyh have an export function which is not the same as save. My edited and exported photo never makes it to the edit folder which has to be created by iphoto the first time you edit a photo in an event. Anybody have an idea how I can get lightroom to play nicely with iphoto?
thanks
JAW

You can't. You're confusing Lightroom and Aperture with an image editor.
Lightroom, as well as Aperature doesn't have a save function, they boyh have an export function which is not the same as save.
They work very differently from iPhoto. Where iPhoto saves your edits in a new file, these apps don't. Instead they record your decisions in their database and when you view a photo these are applied live on top of the original. So, your edits are saved, just in an totally lossless way.
You cannot use either Lightroom or Aperture as an external editor with iPhoto for the very simple reason that neither of them is an "editor". They, like iPhoto, are Digitial Asset Managers. Like iPhoto they have powerful abilities to post-process a photo, but that's not the same as "editing". You can't add things to a photo - like text or layers, and your ability to remove things is quite limited - though not as limited as iPhoto. Both are specifically optimised for working with Raw formats rather than Jpeg.
To use something as an external editor it will need to be a: an editor and b: have no database or image management ambitions.
In order of price here are some suggestions:
Seashore (free)
_[The Gimp|http://www.gimp.org/macintosh>_ also free
Graphic Coverter ($45 approx)
Acorn ($50 approx)
[Pixelmator|http://www.pixelmator.com> ($60 approx.)
Photoshop Elements ($75 approx)
There are many, many other options. Search on MacUpdate.
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.
Regards
TD

Can I get photos from iPhoto into Lightroom 3 (or/and 4)?

I have PSElements 10 and iPhoto (iLife) 9. I am looking into purchasing LR-3 or the trial on LR-4. I have 10,000 photos in iPhoto. Can I bring them into LR? Individually? By folder? If they are brought into LR and also are in iPhoto, are they really on my computer twice? Thank you!

I'm a newbie to LR and have downloaded the LR4 demo hoping to use it with iPhoto 09. I'm basically OK with the Mac but not an expert and would like to point out a couple of problems I had which might make others think twice about 'experimenting'.
To access your iPhoto files, go to the finder, locate your iPhoto library, right click on the library icon and scroll down to 'Show Package Contents. A new window will open with various files and folders including Modified and Originals. I'm shooting Canon RAW and all my CR2 files are stored in the Originals folder in dated folders. From here on in I'm a little out of my depth but I believe the Modified folder holds .jpg files which are copies of the CR2 files which iPhoto uses when showing photos in Events and editing. They may also have some auto corrections applied so they look brighter and more saturated than the original CR2s.
The easy way to allow LR to 'see' these folders and files is to create an alias of the iPhoto library or the Originals folder and ask LR to import from the alias and this does work *but* I did something wrong and this is where you can start to screw things up in a big way. First, I didnt find it easy to understand the way that LR stores (or links) photos in Folders and Collections, second I found the import options slightly ambiguous so I tried to import just a few photos from 2012 / March (in the Originals folder) which worked fine. Then I did the same for Feb which worked fine. Then I imported the whole Originals folder and I was impressed, LR imported all the folders from iPhoto with identical dates and each dated folder had all the photos.
All well and good but when I next opened iPhoto my February and March photos were missing so I guess I must have used the wrong import option but I thought, probably mistakenly, that LR didnt touch the original files it only created links. Perhaps someone could help on that one.
Next, I tried a Time Machine restore on iPhoto which took ages and didnt salvage the missing photos so I copied the missing photos from a Time Machine backup using the finder to another folder and reimported them into iPhoto which worked. Great. And then Time Machine encountered an error (not enough space on backup disk), all backups were lost and I had to reformat my external drive to get Time Machine functioning properly again.
My apologies for this long winded summary but I really wanted to explain that it looks like LR4 can import from iPhoto (and do it really well) if done correctly and it would be really good to have someone (at Adobe?) with more experience than myself to write up a list of instructions for Dummies.
One final point, LR4 is using different basic adjustments to photos with a 2012 process which differs from the 2010 process in ACR which confuses things more and there's a beta version of ACR using the same 2012 process which I've downloaded. Took me ages to understand what was going on (and why exif wasnt showing / saving correctly) ... And very finally, there's other things I found out only by trial and error that are far too long winded to explain here!
LR4 looks really good but is sadly missing some very important instructions when it comes to importing from iPhoto 09.

How do I move the photos in iPhoto to Lightroom ?

How do I move the photos in iPhoto to Lightroom? Thanks, I am a novice to Lightroom.

To access your Mac iPhoto images for use in Photoshop and Lightroom
1. In the Finder, navigate to Users > [user name] > Pictures > iPhoto Library.
2. Control-click (Right-click) the iPhoto Library file and choose Show Package Contents.
3. A Finder window opens that shows the contents. The Masters folder (or called Originals folder) contains all of the photographs that are in iPhoto.
Photoshop cannot access this folder, but if you make a duplicate of the folder, the dupe will be accessible -- so:
4. Control-click (Right-click) the folder named Masters (or Originals) and choose Duplicate.
5. Drag the duplicate folder which is named "Masters copy" or “Originals copy” from the iPhoto Library Finder window to the Desktop.
6. Open images in Photoshop or Lightroom from the file on the desktop.
or
7. Rename the folder and move it elsewhere (probably to the Pictures folder), if desired.
Then access the files in the folder via Lightroom and Photoshop

Can anyone help with workflow problem between iPhoto and Photoshop CS4?

I am very new to CS4 Extended, having upgraded from Elements 6 recently. I use iPhoto '08 to do all my photo organization and really enjoy it, have a LOT of work invested in it and don't really want to switch to anything else if I can help it. One aspect I like about it is that it tucks away my original in case I ever need to revert. With Elements, I could set my iPhoto preferences to allow all my editing to be done externally using Elements 6, but it would only allow 4 photos to be sent over to Elements at a time. Then I would have to go back to iPhoto and "get" more. I thought that when I upgraded to CS4, I would at least be allowed four at a time to be sent from iPhoto to Photoshop for editing. Whenever I do this, it sends only one, maybe two, but never four. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. I'm annoyed at having to constantly go back for one or two photos at a time to edit and wondered if anyone knew of a workaround for this problem. The reason I have done it this way all along is that the two programs would work together and update my iPhoto pics and thumbnails automatically. Since then, I have just opened the iPhoto files from within CS4, but the edit doesn't update the thumbnails, only the enlarged versions within iPhoto. Neither Apple nor Adobe has been able to offer any solutions. I am not looking to create multiple copies of my files. I download straight from my camera to iPhoto. I could always just download them to a folder, edit them in CS4 and then import them into iPhoto, but that would necessitate making a copy of the photos to keep the originals safe and I'm not sure I want to have to organize all my originals elsewhere on top of my iPhoto library. I am very open to suggestions!
Thanks!

I appreciate your response. I recently did a reinstall, hoping it might help. It didn't seem to make any difference. Don't know if I need to just switch to a different program like Lightroom or just do all my editing outside of iPhoto and then import the results, but that defeats the purpose of letting iPhoto handle my originals so easily. I really like iPhoto and what it does, and have spent a lot of time getting my library compiled just the way I like with keywords, ratings and so on, and I'm afraid that switching to a new product will lose a lot of that work and either cause me to split my library into two places or to create unnecessary duplicates.

I'm new to Lightroom. Struggling with downloading from iPhoto to Lightroom. Pls help??

I have installed Lightroom@ on my mac. Trying to import photos which are saved in iPhoto. Have found your link which says I need to create a master copy and copy to my desktop, which I'm in the process of doing, but: (1) it says it will take 11 hours! (2) do I have to do this every time I want to access recently added photos to iPhoto?? Basically, I'm trying to find the quickest and most efficient way to transfer my photos from iPhoto to lightroom. Pls advise. Thanks. Heidi

No, you do this one time only
By the way, if you're going to use Lightroom, you wouldn't add new photos to iPhoto, you import them into Lightroom.

Need help with iPhoto Aperture Lightroom migration

Would really appreciate some advice on this last stage of the move from iPhoto to Lightroom, as Im sure getting my files into the right place is crucial.
Here is where I'm at right now:
I had an old iphoto (v8.3 or something) library with about 30,000 images on a macbook pro (late 2008) which I moved over to my newer iMac, to merge with an existing library of about 8,000 photos which I was managing with Aperture.
Per some advice I got on how to consolidate iPhoto libraries, I opened the old iPhoto library on my newer iMac running the latest iPhoto version, and then I honestly can't remember exactly what I did after that... but I got both libraries into one, and now I have all my photos merged and sorted into folders and projects, and all looks great. Except for one thing: its still showing up as an iphoto library in finder. There is no Aperture library file or folder anywhere. I guess I needed to "import" at some point, rather than simply opening the library?
My original plan was to get everything into an Aperture library before moving to Lightroom. Maybe it doesn't matter. My main concern before I make the move to Lightroom is keeping my newly organized folder hierarchy (with all projects and albums in tact). And I understand I need to change from managed to referenced library for this. So is it just as simple as "relocating the originals"?

Sorry, maybe I can rephrase my question:
My photos are already sorted into this structure, in Aperture, as a managed library:
PHOTOGRAPHY (main folder)
- PROCESSED
        GROUP A
        GROUP B
        GROUP C
        PROJECTS
             PROJECT 1
             PROJECT 2
             PROJECT 3
- WORK IN PROGRESS
        GROUP D
        GROUP E
        GROUP F
How can I make this into a referenced library?
I understand I need to select all my photos and then choose the "relocate originals" option.
What comes next?

Recently I downloaded photos from an sd card. When the download was complete all photos were loaded in a random fashion completely out of order.This is the first time it has ever happened this way. downloaded same card to iPhoto and all photos were in ord

Recently I downloaded photos from an sd card. When the download was complete all photos were loaded in a random fashion completely out of order.This is the first time it has ever happened this way. downloaded same card to iPhoto and all photos were in order. Help needed. Am working on a job that needs immediate attention and HDR images out of order are impossible to deal with.

Thanks for your help. The out of numerical order comes before the actual import begins. It happens when first uploaded to Lightroom and prior selection of of photos to imported to the catalog.

Aperture 2 and Lightroom 2

Hello everyone.
I know this question has been asked before, and I have read some previous threads about these two products. However, I was hoping to have a few things clarified for me that I was not to sure about.
I just recently started to really become involved with Digital Photograph. Purchased my first SLR (Nikon D80) and love it. I really found a hobby I enjoy.
With all the pictures I am taking and will be taking, I obviously need to find post processing software that suits my needs. Here is where Aperture 2 and Lightroom (and to a degree, CS3) come into play.
Let me ask some obvious questions first.
1.) Lightroom 2 is a organizing piece as well as editing software piece correct? lets you get into the photo, make adjustments. Pretty good editing from what I can tell.
Can it be said that LR2 and A2 do the same thing, just differently? A2 lets you organize your photos and edit them as well. They just do it differently correct? For example, A2 lets you edit in full mode.
I guess that is one of my main questions.
2.) Fundamentally, what are the main differences between L2 and A2?
Down the road, I am planning on using CS3 (or CS4) to take advantage of layers and do the really cool fun stuff. But that is down the road when I am more experienced.
I downloaded both LR2 and A2 and installed the trials and plan to use them over the next 30 days to 'test them out.'
A2 seems to 'plugin' better to the iMac, which I expected.
With LR2, from what I can see, I could use LR2 instead of iPhoto for my organizing/cataloging, and if I wanted to move photos from LR2 to iPhoto (to make books, calenders, etc. etc.), I would need to export it out of LR2 and import it into iphoto. That correct? Where as Aperture 'co-exists' easier with iPhoto?
Is there really anything that stands out and separates the two?
The other thing I need to consider is when I bring in CS3 down the road. What is the easier way to integrate everything.
Appreciate the help.
Cheers,
Jason

Hi,
I migrated to the iMac from PC around a month ago and was evaluating my photo options both before and after the migration. The difference with me is, I guess, that I haven't previously been much of a user or any version of Photoshop, so had no Adobe-centric preconceptions to colour my own evaluation of Lightroom and Aperture.
I guess I qualify as an enthusiastic amateur who finally migrated from film to digital 5 years ago, after 25 years of film. On the PC, my photo management comprised folders on the hard disk plus Picasa to provide some basic abstraction layer and album facility. Editing was very basic and relied on The Gimp if no addressed by Picaca's built-in adjustments. Then I started taking photos in RAW rather than jpeg, and it all went to custard as they say.
Picasa didn't cut it any more, RAW opened up a lot more options and my collection was becoming unmanageable. Tried ViewNX - limited manageability. Tried Lightroom 2 on the PC - wow, this is more like it. Didn't like ACDSee, iview. Migrated to Mac, and started comparing all over again.
Lightroom - given my previous try-out I was expecting Good Things, so left the start of this trial until after using Aperture for 2 weeks. Suddenly Lightroom felt clunky - very modal and constraining.
Aperture - didn't really know what to expect. Imported all of my photos as referenced and found my folder structure replicated by albums. Kind of disconcerting initially as I couldn't work out where the Masters were, nor the true behaviour of albums, projects and folders in Aperture. Then it clicked - great version control and cataloguing, non-destructive edits etc etc, logical collections of photos. It worked more like my thought processes, rather than my thought processes having to adjust to how the software worked.
For my uses, Lightroom's closer integration with Photoshop is a bit of a non-event as I don't chop up photos - just develop them. Anyhow, Photoshop Elements is there if I REALLY need it (so far not at all after a month).
I can see how previous experience with Photoshop or Lightroom would create a preference for continuing with Lightroom. For me, there's no business reason, emotional attachment or previous experience to consider, so Aperture won. Lightroom was uninstalled after 2 weeks.
Regards,
Calx
PS - I think from an interface design perspective, Aperture is an amazing piece of software, leaving aside other comparison aspects.
Message was edited by: CalxOddity

Deleting Photos in iPhoto and Finder

I just bought a MacBook Pro that will arrive Monday and I'm getting everything organized on my iMac so it will be easy to transfer everything, including my photo library. I'm using Adobe Bridge CS3 to look through photos and then using Finder to delete photos, which moved them to the trash on the dock. I have a lot of duplicates (I have a pretty happy shooting finger that has only slightly improved since I got my first dSLR 4 years ago). Today I opened up iPhoto and saw a whole folder/roll that I had previously deleted and trashed. The weird thing was I was able to open the photos in my external editor (Photoshop CS3)....I was expecting some kind of error that said it couldn't find the file, since I had deleted it, but that didn't happen. So, why am I still able to open deleted photos? It's like everything is saved twice, once within iPhoto and once within Finder, but that makes no sense. I've been deleting photos within the iPhoto/Pictures 'Originals' folder of Finder. Isn't that the 'master copy?' How/why are deleted photos still showing up in iPhoto?
At this point, I'm thinking it would be easier to manually move the folders I want to my new MBP, rather than dropping my whole iPhoto library at once. I really don't want to search through the iPhoto rolls and delete duplicates AGAIN. I guess the bigger question I have is, what is the most efficient way to organize photos? I'm not using keywords or anything at this point. A 'Roll' in iPhoto consists of a folder in Finder, and each import is its own roll. I'm debating iPhoto '09/Aperture 3/Lightroom for my new MBP. I guess I'm a little lost, and maybe once I get to use iPhoto '09 for a while, that will help me make a decision. I have somewhere on the order of 12,000 photos if that matters.
Any advice would be appreciated!

I'm using Adobe Bridge CS3 to look through photos and then using Finder to delete photos, which moved them to the trash on the dock.
If you have done this you have destroyed your iPhoto library and will have to start over - you must NEVER make any changes of any sort to the content or structure of the iPhoto library using the finder or any program other than iPhoto - iPhoto is a relational database and making changes to its files from external sources will corrupt the library and case you to have to start over
It's like everything is saved twice, once within iPhoto and once within Finder,
Not unless you have changed the default setting for the advanced preference to "copy imported items to the iPhoto library" - which is strongly not recommended
Based on what you have done that is your only choice.
A 'Roll' in iPhoto consists of a folder in Finder, and each import is its own roll
This is not the case - iPhoto is a database program and the folders do not necessarily correspond to events (rolls went away with iPhoto '08)
you must chose one program and use it - if you mix bridge and iPhoto (or any other two programs) you will continually have a mess on your hands as you do now
If you shoot RAW you may find Aperture a better choice than iPhoto
LN

IPhoto and Lightroom

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