On iPhoto 08 - File Directories, Events and Gallery Support

Question

For sometime now, I have been meaning to better organize my digital photos and share them with my friends and family on the web. I have finally done so, and now I am having a bit of a problem implementing my organization into the new iPhoto, but I am willing to learn about the newest version of iPhoto and figure out ways to make things work. So I have a couple of questions.
One problem I have always had with digital photos is that it is not easy to see when the photo was taken when you are just looking at the photo as a file. I guess my major concern is that the "Date Modified" in the Finder is a little bit misleading on first glance. I want to be able to look at a file and tell when the photo was taken and not when it was uploaded to my computer. So I found an Automator Action that will allow to go back and rename your photos according to the date they were taken. I used the %Y%m%d_%H%M%S date syntax to rename all of my pictures. My thinking was that I would be able to quickly know the date/time the picture was taken in Finder or iPhoto. Someone in the Applescript Discussion gave me a simple script that would further organize the directories my pictures lived in. So now, a photo I have taken today would look something like this on my computer /2008/200809/20080909/20080909_083029.jpg. Now that I have imported my photos in the newest version of iPhoto, I see that Apple has changed the iPhoto directory so that it is not easily viewable.
My first question is what does this mean for me going forward. It looks like my file/directory syntax remained intact inside the iPhoto directory, but how will I continue to add pictures using my current syntax in the future? There are programs/scripts to download pictures from your camera using the same naming conventions I already used for folders and files. Will iPhoto allow me to directly create directories in subdirectories in the iPhoto directory without using iPhoto to download the photos from my computer?
Also, I started using the .Mac galleries right before I started in on my photo reorganizing adventure. Initially I thought it might be a neat idea to have the Albums in the Gallery tied to the syntax of the directories syntax so that my friends and family would have a visual timeline of my kid's growing up. So maybe there would be an album called 200908 where friends and families could see last months pictures, and also see albums of previous months. And when I started using the newest version of iPhoto I realized there is a new element I needed to learn about called "events". I guess because of the syntax of my directories, it has created a new event for every day I have pictures. Is this how iPhoto determines events? I really cannot find much information on this. This is pretty neat, but it does not really follow the exact syntax of my directory system. In other words, there is no way to have events (months) and sub-events (days). Furthermore, I believe there is a limit on the number of Albums you can have in your .Mac gallery, and I am assuming that I would go over this if I created an Album for everyday that I had pictures. I realize that I could probably create Smart Albums in my iPhoto so that I had pictures from a YYYYMM folder, but it seems like a lot of extra work. Should I change my directory syntax to %Y/%Y%m/%Y%m%d_%H%M%S.jpg (i.e. 2008/200809/20080909_083029.jpg) so that events are represented as months and not days? Or is there another way to achieve limiting the number of events and still keep the same organization?
Sorry for the long-winded question, hopefully someone can get me started. Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Redshark
Do you want to organise your Photos?
Or your Files?
If you want to organise your files, use the Finder - it's exactly what it's for. And all your questions relate to organising Files.
If you want to organise your Photos use iPhoto.
The point of iPhoto is that you organise the pics and let iPhoto look after the files. After you import them to iPhoto, forget about them.
With iPhoto 7 (iLife 08) the old iPhoto Library Folder is now a Unix Style Package File. 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. These changes include renaming files.
Will iPhoto allow me to directly create directories in subdirectories in the iPhoto directory without using iPhoto to download the photos from my computer?
No. 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.
The only way to bring photos into the iPhoto Library Folder is via importing them through iPhoto.
Here's the thing: Want to find the photos from a specific date? Use the calendar tool. (Click on the wee magnifying glass in the search window. You can find the pics from a specific day, month, year effortlessly. With Date base Smart Albums you can find all the pics from just about any combination of dates that you might want.
Want to then get to +that pic from 6/5/2003+ Need to email that file? Or want to open it in Photoshop to edit? Or want to upload it to a website?
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto:
For 10.5 users: You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Apple-Click for selecting multiple pics.
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
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. 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. With 10.5 you can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
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.
Or, if you want to access the files with iPhoto not running, then create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use THIS
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.
So, in a nutshell, you need to decide which your are organising... files or photos.
Events are a Download filtered by date. You can set the paramaters in the iPhoto Preferences -> Events.
Events in the iPhoto Window correspond exactly with the Folders in the Originals Folder in the iPhoto Library package file (Right click on it in the Pictures Folder -> Show Package Contents).
You can move photos between Events, you can rename Events, edit them, create them, as long as you do it via the iPhoto Window. Check out the Info Pane (wee 'i', lower left) the name and date fields are editable. Edit a Event Name using the Info Pane, the Event Folder in iPhoto Library/Originals will also have the new name.
Regards
TD