Lightroom V iPhoto

I am currently evaluating LR and so far I am pretty impressed, I have also pre ordered a copy as its a reduced price so a bit of a deal and will be shipped next Thursday so I need to make my mind up before then.
Probably the wrong forum to ask this but what the heck...
As with most software it takes a while to learn all the tips and tricks and more importantly the full potential of the software.
Therefore I think what I am asking is for your thoughts between the difference between iPhoto which I have been using for years and LR I know one is professional and one is aimed at more the home market.
As I have only just brought my first DSLR am I diving in to soon (in the higher end software)? Will iPhoto more than likely cover my needs for a couple of years? or would it be better to set of with a "full" app like LR that I can build my Lib and Metadata rather than have to go back through it all in a couple of years?
All thoughts and comments appreciated.

After using iPhoto for a while and getting LR at b3, I don't use iPhoto at all.
My advice is to dive into LR and get used to the programme and it's commands/nuances.
I find it much easier to keep it as simple as possible - that works for me.
Enjoy LR!!!

Similar Messages

Using Lightroom and Iphoto Together

Can anyone point me to a tutorial or provide information on the best way to utilize Lightroom with Iphoto? I have read several posts which are contradictory in regards to importing photos into Lightroom from Iphoto. Some say to export files to Finder and then use Lightroom to import. Others say to open Iphoto Package Contents, make alias and use Lightroom to import. I am a new mac user and would like some clarification before I screw it all up. I like the ease of Iphoto for everyday organization, emailing and flickring but would like to import selected photos or events into Lightroom for processing. Thx a bunch.

What are you trying to do, exactly?
Both LR and iPhoto are photo managers. iPhoto is firmly pointed at the home user with a point and shoot camera, LR is a professional grade application aimed squarely at the Raw shooter.
In either case +they both do the same job+, so using both is a bit like writing your Novel in Word and also in Pages at the same time.
Assuming you want to import pics from your camera, store them, process them and then organise them into albums etc, I would use Lightroom. It's just a more powerful app for the job.
Then, if there's something that LR can't do - for instance, Slideshows or books or whatever - then export the pics you want to use from LR to the Finder and import into iPhoto, or use *_this_* LR plug in to automate the process.
I have read several posts which are contradictory in regards to importing photos into Lightroom from Iphoto.
You need to understand something. Both Application are Databases. A photo needs to be imported before they can even see or manipulate it. While Aperture can read the iPhoto database, LR is utterly oblivious to the iPhoto DB and vice versa.
Some say to export files to Finder and then use Lightroom to import.
This is the correct way.
Others say to open Iphoto Package Contents, make alias and use Lightroom to import.
Never, ever do this. Any slight change to the path of the file and your iPhoto Library is toast.
but would like to import selected photos or events into Lightroom for processing.
Frankly, this sounds to me more like a job for Photshop Elements rather than LR.
Regards
TD

Using Lightroom and iPhoto

I use Lightroom and iPhoto. I mainly use Lightroom for everything. If it's personal photos I use iPhoto but mostly Lightroom. If I want to share these and/or sync with other devices like AppleTV, iPhone, MobileMe then I have to export from Lightroom to iPhoto. That doubles up on files and hard drive space. What do others do that use Lightroom and iPhoto? I love being able to share and sync with iPhoto but it's just to much to ask of my Hard Drives.

Few people use both Lightroom and iPhoto - they both do essentially the same thing but are different and in the past iPhoto has found LR processed photos unacceptable - and they can not operate on the same physical photos - you must export photos form LR and import them into iPhoto since they both manage photos
If you want to use both you will have to have photos imported into each
Fortunately external hard drives are cheap -- iPhoto is perfectly happy having its library on an EHD
LN

Optimal Workflow with CS3, Lightroom and iPhoto

I am using Lightroom and CS3 for my initial workflow, adding keyword tags, ratings and flags to my photos in LR. I would like to be able to work with these photos in LR and CS3 and transfer/copy the best of them into a "iPhoto" directory and import them into iPhoto with the CS3 work, meta data and keywords intact so I don't have to go through these changes again in iPhoto. I prefer CS3 for doing the work, but like the emailing, slideshow and iBook capabilities of iPhoto.
Thanks in advance,
Kevin

Few people use both Lightroom and iPhoto - they both do essentially the same thing but are different and in the past iPhoto has found LR processed photos unacceptable - and they can not operate on the same physical photos - you must export photos form LR and import them into iPhoto since they both manage photos
If you want to use both you will have to have photos imported into each
Fortunately external hard drives are cheap -- iPhoto is perfectly happy having its library on an EHD
LN

How do I get my camera downloads to open in Lightroom, not iPhoto?

I have installed Lightroom 2.7. How do I set the Mac so that Lightroom opens when I download photos, instead of iPhoto?

In the iPhoto preferences set the action when camera is connected to launch Lightroom if it is available - to do nothing and manually launch Lightroom - I have no idea how Lightroon works but that is whey you turn off launching iPhoto and set other available actions
LN

Copying files into lightroom from iPhoto

I wanted to get my photos from iPhoto into Lightroom and so copied them all to a folder on the desktop
but it seems I have to keep them on the desktop otherwise Lightroom does not recognise them. Can somebody advise as to where they
should be placed or how I should have done it? thanks

LightRoom support is not done here - as to iPhoto select the photos you want to move to LR and export (usually as Kind is original) to a desktop folder - Exporting From iPhoto
From there on you need LR support
LN

Lightroom to iPhoto

Hi everyone;
I've been using Lightroom for sometime, however I love the new functionality in iPhoto '09. I'd like to import my library of 65,000+ photos into iPhoto from their current location (as to not mess up my Lightroom cataloguing).
I appreciate there are plugins for this, however that involves duplicating the images which I don't want to do.
I'd appreciate any suggestions you may have...
Thanks,
- Dan

Dan
You have to duplicate and here’s why:
If you’ve imported and processed pics with Lightroom, then there is +no file to point at for the processed image+. What Lightroom has is your original file plus a sidecar file with your edits noted. When you view the file in Lightroom the app applies these edits live. As iPhoto can’t read these sidecars, there’s nothing for it to work with.
Aperture works in the very same way.
Alternatively, you can import your Originals to iPhoto using Referenced Mode. This means they will be the unedited versions of your pics.
Simply go to iPhoto Menu -> Preferences -> Advanced and uncheck 'Copy Files to the iPhoto Library on Import'.
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.
However, you need to be aware of a number of potential pitfalls using this system.
1. Import and deleting pics are more complex procedures
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.
I gernerally advise against using iPhoto’s referenced mode. It’s too easy to bung things up. That said, as you’re using Lightroom as your primary app just be aware of those possible gotchas.
Regards
TD

Greyed out import button lightroom with iphoto plugin

Hi,
import button not working. I am new to lightroom 5.7.1 and I am running on Mac with iphoto and 10.9.5 mavericks. I tried to use the iphoto plugin to create my new lightroom catalog but the import button is greyed out. my iphoto library is about 240gb, i am attaching the screenshot.
Please help.

I've got the same issue. Seems to be quite common.
Did you find a solution?

Can't import iphoto library into Lightroom

Lightroom does not appear to recognise my pics in the Mac iphoto library. I can import from other folders/files but not directory from iphoto. Likewise I can't export a photo back into iphoto once it has been "developed" in Lightroom.
Do I have to change some preferences or something?

I recently changed my pc for a mac and all my old photo files were transferred across into iphoto and any new photos from my camera were imported straight into iphoto. I have since started a course where we use Lightroom but find I can't import any photos stored in iphoto into Lightroom. iphoto is always "shaded out" in the list when I try to import into Lightroom.
What do you suggest I do in order to import these photos into Lightroom?

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

Lightroom cannot identify my photo data in the iPhoto Library

I am the new user of Lightroom 4, after installing the program I then tried to import (add) pictures from my iPhoto Library to the Lightroom, the iPhoto Library folder did not show on the source column. My iPhoto Library is under the Pictures folder and which is under the User folder on my Apple's hard drive, both User and Pictures phoders did appear on the saurce column except for iPhoto Library. What should I do to allow Lightroom to identidy the iPhoto Library so that I can import the data to start using the ptogram?

Sara
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
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.
Look there for a Folder called 'Import' or 'Importing'.
Drag it to the Desktop. *Make no other changes*.
Start iPhoto. Does that help?
Regards
TD

How do I move from iPhoto 11' to Lightroom 4

Hello there,
I am looking to start using Lightroom 4 as my primary photo editing/management software and I was hoping someone can give me a good idea on how to transfer all my images and import them in to Lightroom from iPhoto 2011 (I have about 8,000). My biggest concern is not duplicating my files. I do not have an external hard drive so these will remain on my internal. I have not really made any edits of my images with iPhoto, so I am not really concerned about losing those edits. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have searched all over the net and have not really found any good solutions or tips. Thanks!

First thing I would do is to back up your images. To do this, you will have to go to File>Export. There, the best option to do is chose the "Kind" to be "original." This allows everything you export to be in its original format. When you click Export, a new window will display to let you chose your destination. As I said before, this will let you pick a folder that iPhoto will dump all your images in to without maintaining your current orginzation as far as events etc. That is fine because this back up is just in case something seriously goes wrong. I prefer using a external HD. You could make a folder on the internal drive, but this will create a duplicate of your images.
Once your backup is complete. The second step is to actually get all the images out of the iPhoto Library while trying to keep everything in its current state. The easiest and most simple way to do this is to use Aperture 3. If you do not own it now, you can download the 30 day trial just to be able to do this. Its the safest method I have found and well worth using the trial just for this purpose. Even if you decide to purchase it later or even delete the trial version, the pictures will be where you move them and Aperture can always reference them. The first step to this Aperture technique is to import your iPhoto Library into Aperture. You have several options of how to do this as well. Thankfully, Aperture will mirror your iPhoto Library in its structure (events etc.) Whe Aperture is open, click on File>Import> and then select iPhoto Library. A dialogue box will open and the iPhoto Library will be highlighted. In this box, you have the option to select where you want to store the files. By default, "In their cuurent location" is selected. By leaving this selected, Aperture will leave them in iPhoto's Library and simply reference them. What you should select is "In the Aperture Library." This might take some time, but eventually all your iPhoto events will be transfered in to Aperture, and you will see them in the side bar appear under the Projects & Albums inside a folder called events, that is inside a folder called iPhoto Library. Each "event" from iPhoto will now become "Projects" in Aperture 3 and will have a yellow icon next to the name of each event/project. (At this point, I am not sure if the iPhoto library is deleted and moved, or if this makes a copy of it. If it makes a copy and iPhoto Library is still there, you can simply delete the iPhoto Library and it will delete your photos which would now be duplicates any way)
The next step is to relocate masters in Aperture. What this does is actually lets you move your events out of the Aperture packaged file, but keeping every event/project in its own folder so you do not have to reorganize thousands of images. In the inspector pane on the left, you will see that you can open the iPhoto Library folder and see the Events folder. Open the events Folder and you will see a list of all the events/projects. This process is a bit time consuming. Start off by selecting your first event, and click on File>Relocate Masters For Project. When the dialogue box opens up, you will be given the option of selecting where the folder will be moved. What you can do is select your user name under favorites, select Pictures, and put them in there (or make a new folder within pictures). After you select your destination, you want to chose the Subfolder Format and select Project Name. What this does is create a folder named after your Project/Event and put all the pictures in that Event in that new folder. You will see a File name example listed at the bottom for you. Once you have that all set up, you can select Relocate Masters. Aperture will move those pictures where you selected, keeping them in their Event/Folder and maintain a clean organization. You will notice as the move takes place, a little tag icon appears in each image as its moved in the bottom right, indicating that the images are now Referenced in Aperture and not a managed master any longer.
You have to keep doing this for each project/event, one at a time. Once you are done, you are done. The files will all be organized in their respective folders in the location that you chose. The beauty of it is that they are already referenced in Aperture, and if you wanted to keep using it, you dont have to do any thing else. You can leave them there and just keep adding to Aperture as you take more pics. Secondly, you can now import them into LR by selecting them where they are, and clicking ADD in the import menu of LR. That leaves them where they are and references them as well.
If you'd like to add the IPTC data to the images as well, go in to Aperture and at the top bar menu select Metadata > Write IPTC Metadata to Master. You can do this before or after you relocate the masters. But I would do it before you import to LR.
This is the method I have used and it was the most successful without losing any of my organization in iPhoto and not duplicating any of the images. It seems a little complicating, but considering Apple gives you no choice from within iPhoto, this is the safest method to free yourself from their crap. The important thing to remember when referencing these images in Aperture or iPhoto is to never move any file once its in a folder in your pictures location and already referenced by the program. Later on, if you wanted to use iPhoto again, you can simply import this stuff again, leaving it in their location and referencing them in Aperture. That has its limitations as well, but such is life in Apples world. You really have no other choice.
The other two options are to use these two programs: iPhoto2Disk (http://www.iphototodisk.com/index.html) or PhotoShare (http://code.google.com/p/phoshare/). The first, iPhoto2Disk does cost 12.99 and is supposed to be able to let you export everything from iPhoto in its current state. PhotoShare is free, but I personally have not used it. I felt more save going the Aperture route just because I knew Aperture communicated well with iPhoto and I can easily get Aperture to do what iPhoto should have been able to do in export.
I hope this all helps!

PSE 10 Organizer vs. Lightroom 4 vs. iPhoto vs. Aperture vs. King Kong

Sorry about the King Kong deal. Got carried away.
1. How does the new PSE 10 Organizer compare to Lightroom 4? I have had issues in the past with the PSE Organizer, so much so that I have always abandoned it. On the other hand, I have never been disappointed by the PSE Editor. It is by far my pixel editor of choice.
With that in mind, I plan to continue to use PSE10 as my primary editor. How well does it integrate into Lightroom?
2. Versions/Stacks - (Still waiting for the download of the trial...) Do I understand correctly that PSE10 creates new files and stacks them automatically as version when editing? The way it makes it sound, every time I press Ctrl-s (Cmd-s), PSE saves the file as a version in a stack. I love this idea. Do I understand this correctly?
3. Reference 2 above -- what does this mean when I use PSE as an external editor in Lightroom or iPhoto? (Do these programs that fire up PSE understand these version?)
4. Those databases. Does PSE keep any edit info in databases? I'd rather have 10 versions of one image, than 1 version and the other 9 stored in a database of adjustments. (I've lost too many databases. Lose one file, lose a million edits/adjustments.)
5. Cross-platform support. I know PSE comes in Mac/Win versions. But can I now have one set of data on a server and access it from both the PC and Mac?
Thanks in advance,
-Jack

1. Lightroom integrates well with the PSE editor. In fact it will be automatically recognized as an external editor if you install Lightroom. It’s much more stable and powerful than organizer and you can search virtually any metadata field. The main benefits of LR4 derive from its CS6 raw engine although it will also process jpegs and other formats on a non destructive basis.
2. Cmd+S normally overwrites the file. Use Save As if you want to add to a set.
3. Lightroom let’s you make virtual copies so you only have one file on the hard drive, except when you do further editing in Elements, when Lightroom makes an export copy and a thumbnail in its library.
4. Elements does not keep any edit information in it‘s database.
5. You can keep image files on external storage, but the application needs to be on the main machine. Be aware that Windows and MacOSX will use different file paths so it will take some effort to keep things synchronized. Many people use a laptop when traveling but then import their work to a main catalog.

I need to export LIGHTROOM photos into IPhoto; how do i do it?

I am making an iPhoto book and need to grab photos out of LIGHTROOM; How do i export out of LIGHTROOM into iPHOTO?
thanks for any tips!
Louann

Have you tried to open your pdf-scans in Preview?
When you open a pdf in Preview, you can use the command "File > Export" to save it as jpeg to a folder. Than drag that folder to the iPhoto icon in the Dock to import the converted photo to iPhoto.

Lightroom V iPhoto

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