Organizing photos in Iphoto is a big pain and

Does anyone have issues with getting IPHOTO organized? I upgraded to the version 11 from the 08 because I thought that there would be some additional features related to the way that photos and events could be handled. I was very dissappointed to find out that there is absolutely no improvements or changes to the way that photos and events could be organized. First of all, who in the heck has time to name, rate, assign keywords etc.. to their photos upon import from camera. It is very difficut to find photos with Iphoto. I have a huge amount of photos. If I view photos instead of view events, how in the heck am I to drag photos from one event to another? I have so many photos that if I leave all of the photos expanded then you have to scroll to much up or down while trying to hang on to the photo long enough to get it where you want it. If you collapse the photos, then you cannot see them.
If you create albums and try to drag photos from existing events to the new albums, it makes no sense to have to go back and delete the photo from the place that you dragged it from. At least I think this is how it is. I may have thought it was like this and the found out that when i did go back to delete the orginal destination location, that it also deleted it in the new album.
I see where a couple of features were added to the photo editing features between the two versions, but not worth upgrading and paying the extra cost.
If it is easier than what I seem to be making it, it is because the Iphoto help has not improved either. It is still very basic and very vague as before.
Any suggestions?
Thank you.

If you create albums and try to drag photos from existing events to the new albums, it makes no sense to have to go back and delete the photo from the place that you dragged it from. At least I think this is how it is.
You'd be wrong. There's only one real imge file in iPhoto and that's located in the Event. All other occurances of that photo, albums, books, calendars, etc. are only virtual links to the actual file in the Event.
Albums let you group photos togeher regardless of when they were taken and what event they are in. Keywords can be applied all photos in an event by bringing fierst opening the event, bringing up the Keyword pane
Click to view full size
selecting the first photo, clicking on the keyword you want to assign, move to the next photo with the right arrow key on the keyboard, clicking on the next keyword, etc. Takes only a minute or so. You first have to create the keywords you want to use, people's names, places, etc.
Then you can just search by keyword, create a Smart album to look for one or more keywords, etc.
iPhoto is a database driven DAM (digital asset management) application so you should learn to use it properly. A little upfront effort can save a lot of time later on. And this is how it's been for most of the version of iPhoto.
OT

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Newbie Question: Importing (from PC) and Organizing Photos in iPhoto

Hi everyone,
I am currently a PC user and am contemplating buying an iMac, and I'm trying to determine if iPhoto will meet my needs for photo importing and organization.
I currently have around 20-30 gigs of digital photos and am using Windows Photo Gallery (for Windows Vista) to view/organize/import them.
The directories are organized by the photo date taken in the format "yyyy-mm-dd" .
Some of these directories are appended with an event name if applicable, i.e. "2011-12-25_Christmas Party" while others will only have the date, i.e. "2011-12-20"
My photos are named according to date/time taken so that a file listing will display the photos in chronologic order. Again, some of these will be appended with an event name or other descriptive label. So, many photos will look like this: "yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss" while others will look like this: "yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss_event name"
A possible complicating factor in all of this is that some of the photos were taken with a camera where the time/date was not set properly, or with cameras whose date/times were set for a different time zone. I adjusted this within Windows Photo Gallery, but I am not sure if it permanently changed the date/time in the photo file's properties... I've seen some evidence that it may not have. I did make sure that the file name was named according to the correct date/time in every case, however.
Now, here are my questions about using iPhoto:
1) When I initially import my photos into iPhoto, will iPhoto recognize (or is there a way to make it recognize) each separate directory as a separate event based on the directory in which it is found?
2) If I copy photos into iPhoto library, will it respect and preserve my directory structure wherein photos are separated by date taken? If not, then is it practical to still use iPhoto without copying the files into its library (by keeping them organized as subdirectories in a directory elsewhere and having iPhoto setup to automatically display photos in that directory)?
3) If I use iPhoto to import pictures from a digital camera, can I control how it sorts those pictures into directories by making it name the directories in yyyy-mm-dd format? This is what Windows does and I find that format very convenient for organizing and viewing photo files, especially those that I have not yet tagged.
4) Again, if I use iPhoto to import pictures from a digital camera, can I control the naming convention so that photos are named according to date&time taken (i.e. yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss ), or at least according to just date taken (i.e. yyyy-mm-dd) as well as appended with event names?
5) Will I be able to edit photo properties, such as date taken, within iPhoto if I discover that a photo is incorrectly organized?
Thanks in advance,
JB

Here's the thing: You've put a lot of time developing a system of managing files. iPhoto is all about Photos. So, frankly. forget your current system and use iPhoto. it has more powerful and more varied tools for managing your snaps.
There's a conceptual leap to be made with apps like iPhoto. The illustration I use is as follows: In my iTunes Library I have a file called 'Let_it_Be_The_Beatles.mp3'. So what is that, exactly? It's not the song. The Beatles never wrote an mp3. They wrote a tune and lyrics. They recorded it and a copy of that recording is stored in the mp3 file. So the file is just a container for the recording. That container is designed in a specific way attuned to the characteristics and requirements of the data. Hence, mp3.
Similarly, that Jpeg is not your photo, it's a container designed to hold that kind of data. iPhoto is all about the data and not about the container. So, regardless of where you choose to store the file, iPhoto will manage the photo, edit the photo, add metadata to the Photo but never touch the file. If you choose to export - unless you specifically choose to export the original - iPhoto will export the Photo into a new container - a new file containing the photo.
All of your queries are about files and filenames and file storage. They're all pretty much moot if you use iPhoto. If you use iPhoto it becomes the "go-to" app for all your photos. Everything you need to do with the photos can be done via iPhoto or with iPhoto.
When I initially import my photos into iPhoto, will iPhoto recognize (or is there a way to make it recognize) each separate directory as a separate event based on the directory in which it is found?
Yes, but... Events are organisation for those who can't really be bothered. They are automatic - based entirely on Date and Time the camera records the photos as taken. You can move photos between Events, you can Merge Events, you can Rename them and sort them in various ways except one: You cannot manually sort in an Event as Events are all automated.
Albums are a much more varied and powerful organising tool.
2) If I copy photos into iPhoto library, will it respect and preserve my directory structure wherein photos are separated by date taken?
Well forget about "directories", you're talking Events, Album and Folders now. But yes, you can define Events (or Albums) based on date. However, given that iPhoto can sort on date, can search on date and date ranges and can generate Smart Albums based on date (say, All the Photos from 2010, only the photos from June 2010 or just the photos fron June 10, 2010, or even the photos from May 12 2009 to July 11 2010) how the fies are organised on the disk is of little concern. You never access them via the HD anyway.
If not, then is it practical to still use iPhoto without copying the files into its library (by keeping them organized as subdirectories in a directory elsewhere and having iPhoto setup to automatically display photos in that directory)?
Yes you can do this. It's called a Referenced Library. I don't recommend it - especially for a new Mac user - and it adds nothing except complexity to the process. It has no extra capability. It's just dumb file storage. For more on this:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3062728?tstart=0
3) If I use iPhoto to import pictures from a digital camera, can I control how it sorts those pictures into directories by making it name the directories in yyyy-mm-dd format?
No.
This is what Windows does and I find that format very convenient for organizing and viewing photo files, especially those that I have not yet tagged.
There are various tools in iPhoto that will allow you to find photos that you have not yet tagged or organised.
Again, if I use iPhoto to import pictures from a digital camera, can I control the naming convention so that photos are named according to date&time taken (i.e. yyyy-mm-dd_hh-mm-ss ), or at least according to just date taken (i.e. yyyy-mm-dd) as well as appended with event names?
You can add titles to photos, yes. But as the date and time of the photo are already in the Exif, using those in the name of the photo is a bit redundant.
Will I be able to edit photo properties, such as date taken, within iPhoto if I discover that a photo is incorrectly organized?
Yes.
It's a bit to take in I know, and I always suggest to people that the best thing is to create a library on their Mac, import a couple of hndred pics and explore what it does (and doesn't), and see if it works for you.
iPhoto uses a lot of virtualisation. Photos are stored in the Library. (Events are just one of two possible views of the Library). Albums reference photos in the Library. So a shot can be in any number of albums and use no extra disk space. Keywording is also very powerful. Here’s a stock answer I use for folks when wondering what iPhoto can do:
I use Events simply as big buckets of Photos: Spring 08, July - Nov 06 are typical Events in my Library. I use keywords and Smart Albums extensively. I title the pics broadly.
I keyword on a
Who
What
Where basis (The When is in the photos's Exif metadata). I also rate the pics on a 1 - 5 star basis.
Using this system I can find pretty much find any pic in my 40k library in a couple of seconds.
So, for example, I have a batch of pics titled 'Seattle 08' and a typical keywording might include: John, Anne, Landscape, mountain, trees, snow. With a rating included it's so very easy to find the best pics we took at Mount Rainier.
File -> New Smart Album
set it to 'All"
title contains Seattle
keyword is mountain
keyword is snow
rating is 5 stars
Or, want a chronological album of John from birth to today?
New Smart Album
Keyword is John
Set the View options to Sort By Date Ascending
Want only the best pics?
add Rating is greater than 4 stars
The best thing about this system is that it's dynamic. If I add 50 more pics of John to the Library tomorrow, as I keyword and rate them they are added to the Smart Album.
In the end, organisation is about finding the pics. The point is to make locating that pic or batch of pics findable fast. This system works for me.
Finally, all of this can be exported from iPhoto should you decide to migrate to a different app or different OS in a year or two.
Regards
TD

I was loading a big file of photos from iPhoto to Adobe Photoshop CS3 and it keep collapsing, yet each time I reopen photoshop it load the photos again and cal laps again. is there a way to stop this cycle?

I was loading a big file of photos from iPhoto to Adobe Photoshop CS3 and more then midway it keep collapsing, yet each time I re-open photoshop to load a small amount of photos, it load the previous photos again, and again it collapse. is there a way to stop this cycle and start a new?

http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop.html

Is it possible to resize a photo in iPhoto--controlling the maximum dimensions and the dpi?

is it possible to resize a photo in iPhoto--controlling the maximum dimensions and the dpi?

The dpi depends on the print size you'll be making. This explains it in detail: The Myth of DPI.
A 300 dpi image for a 4x6 print will have fewer pixels in it than a 300 dpi image for an 8. 10 print.
You can set the pixel dimension of a photo by exporting it via the File ➙ Export ➙ File Export menu option and use the Custom size setting. However, you should crop the photo to the size ratio you want before exporting, i.e 4 x 6, 5 x 7, etc. Then set the maximum pixel size you want for the image:
OT

How can I archive photos in iPhoto to a hard drive and retain the Album folders and the Events?

How can I archive photos in iPhoto to a hard drive and retain the Album folders and the Events? I tried to Export the Albums but just transferred the files individually.

If you want to maintain the iPhoto organisation then back up the iPhoto Library.
If you want to export to the Finder, well you need to create a folder for the contents of an Album and expot to that.
If you have an older version of iPhoto: Apps like iPhoto2Disk or PhotoShare will help you export to a Folder tree matching your Events. This feature is built in to iPhoto 11.
This User Tip
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
has details of the options in the Export dialogue.

When I try to share photos on Iphoto a windo comes up and says "The email server didn't recognize your usernme/password combination. Where do I go to fix this?

When I try to share photos on IPhoto a window comes up and says "The server didn't recognize your username/password combination." Where to I go to fix this?

Hey, click on Iphoto on the top bar.
Then go to preferences.
Go to accounts, and change your user name and password for the email.
Hope this helps.

Organizing photos in iphoto 08

Friends,
I recently converted from a PC. I had thousands of photos on my PC; they were organized into general categories (trips, baby, etc.), which were subdivided into event folders (date and name), which were further subdivided into folders such as RAW, emails, etc. I want to import them into iphoto, and it seems that I cannot import this structure directly. I have determined that the best way to import and roughly maintain the structure is to manually create folders and subfolders using my old naming conventions and then import the images into albums named RAW, edits, that are placed in each subfolder. Any other ideas would be appreciated. However . . .
My question is: can this folder>subfolder>album structure be exported, either to Aperture, if I go that route, or just another location on the computer entirely? What if I want to export the images back to a PC? Can the folder structure be exported? I recognize that the albums just have links, not images, which is why I ask.
Thanks!
Steve

DC Steve
The easiest way to rapidly recreate your folder structure in iPhoto is to
1. Start at the bottom of your Folder heirarchy and drag a folder of images to the Left-Hand (or Source) pane in iPhoto. There iPhoto will import the pics and create an album of the same name.
2. Then create the enclosing folders in iPhoto (File -> New Folder) and drag the albums to them.
Some comments: Don't bother creating a date based library - it's redundant. Simply create a Smart Album (File -> New Smart Album) based on the dates, or use the Date search (Click on the Search Window and select date)
As you have the photos already theme based - use Keywords as you import the pics to further enhance your Smart Albums.
So, want to create an Album of pics from John's various Birthday Parties? Well, keyword on the who, what and where basis (When is there already in the Exif data) > John, Birthday, and create a SMart Album. If you're going to use Keywords - and you should - you'll find Keyword Manager very useful.
As for intracting with Aperture, it has a facility to import iPhoto Libraries. You can export (file -> export) individual pics, albums etc, to Folders to recreate something like the structure that you now have, but also you can add the keywords to the files on export too.
Regards
TD

Organizing photos on iphoto

Hi,
I am new to iPhoto. I have few questions on organizing my photos using iPhoto.
1. I would like to sort my photos using the date added (& if possible date modified) instead of date taken. How to do this?
2. When I import images, iPhoto copies them to the iPhoto library folder. Within it, every new set of images are stored in a new folder (named roll 9, roll 10 etc). I dont like the way it organizes them. Can I organize all the snaps in the iPhoto Library myself and then add import them to iPhoto?
Thanks.
Murali

I dont like the way it organizes them. Can I organize all the snaps in the iPhoto Library myself and then add import them to iPhoto?
No. Don't change anything in the iPhoto Library Folder. IF you do then the application will not work. It sorts the photos the way it needs them to be. In truth there is no need to go near the folder anyway because anything you need to do with the pics can be (and should be) done through the iPhoto window.
Important: Do not modify the contents of the iPhoto Library folder from outside the iPhoto application.
Use iPhoto to delete, duplicate, or modify any photos in the iPhoto library. Modifying the contents of the iPhoto library from anywhere but the iPhoto application could result in a library that is unusable and may cause photos and albums to no longer appear in iPhoto.
That's from: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61262
Regards
TD

Organizing photos into iphoto

I have some photos that are in the iphoto folder and some photos that exist in a folder outside of iphoto. All of the photos can be seen by iphoto. I was wondering the best way to get the photos that reside outside iphoto into it.
I want to make sure that the system doesn't create duplicates especially if I have to go one by one to delete them. That would be a disaster. I have about 2000 photos in this folder.

scubanut
To create and populate a new library:
Note this will give you a working library with the same film rolls and pictures as before, however, you will lose your albums, keywords, books, calendars etc.
Move the iPhoto Library to the desktop
Launch iPhoto. It will ask if you wish to create a new Library. Say Yes.
Go into the iPhoto Library (Right Click - Show Package Contents) on your desktop and find the Originals folder. From the Originals folder drag the individual rolls to the iPhoto Window and it will recreate them in the new library. You can do the same id there is a folder of images called Recovered and or Imported.
When you're sure all is well you can delete the iPhoto Library Folder on your desktop.
In the future, in addition to your usual back up routine, you might like to make a copy of the library6.iPhoto file whenever you have made changes to the library as protection against database corruption.
Regards
TD

Organizing photos in iPhoto 09

I am trying to organize and move around photos in iPhoto 09. Can you explain it to me? There are no tutorials for it. Thank you so much!

Start here
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/photos/#intro
If you have specific questions by all means post back.

Iphone 4s Organizing Photos for IPhoto

Is there an app for iphone 4s that I could sort my photos on my phone and import them later into iphoto already sorted as they are in my phone? Basically Im looking to sort them in my phone as I take them instead of sift through hundreds of photos later as I import them into iphoto.
Thanks

Ok, I only have a minute here, but the short answer is iPhoto.
Import some some photos. Go to the Events tab and split and combine them as needed. For the scanned photos, you can adjust the date and time.
Use a keyword to mark the photos you want to use for your anniversary show. Then create a Slideshow and add those photos to it. Edit to your hearts content, and finally export the slideshow as a video (however, if you can use your mac to power the projector, then you wouldn't need to export the slideshow as a movie).
Go to youtube.com and search for "iPhoto slideshow" to see some tutorials.

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.

I cannot drag photos from iPhoto to desktop with iMac and Mavericks OS

I can no longer drag my a photo from iPhoto to my desktop. I cannot open a folder on my desktop from finder.

It sounds as if you have a permissions issue with your Home folder. Try this method posted by Linc Davis:
Linc Davis
Re: Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs not working?
This helped meRe: Reset Home Folder Permissions and ACLs not working?
Apr 30, 2014 10:06 PM (in response to plcmms)
Triple-click anywhere in the following line on this page to select it:
{ sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR..; sudo chown -R $UID:staff ~ $_; sudo chmod -R u+rwX ~ $_; chmod -R -N ~ $_; } 2>&-
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.
You'll be prompted for your login password. Nothing will be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The command may take a few minutes to run, or perhaps longer if you have literally millions of files in your home folder. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear, then quit Terminal.

If I edit a photo in iPhoto, where does it go and how do I view the edited version?

I am editing photos and once done so, I cannot view them and seem to be going roung and roung in circles trying to import/export and no tgetting anywhere! All I want to do is view the edited photo to use in the future.

To view the edited photo launch iPhoto and view it
Depending on what you want to use it for you may export it (file menu ==> export) or from another program select it in the media browser in the lower left hand corner of every open/attach/upload window
What exactly are you trying to do?
LN

Problems with organizing photos in IPhoto

I am organizing my Iphoto in preparation to move the albums to an external hard drive to make space on my laptop. I just finished deleting and re-arranging around 90 albums with 11,000 plus photos. I then realized that when I was deleting them out of the albums they were not deleting out of the Iphoto library.
I need to find a way to keep only the photos I want (which are already organized in the albums) without having to go back through the 17,000 photos in my library and re-deleting and re-arranging. I don't think that moving the albums to the external hard drive and then deleting them is an option because I found that there are photos in my library that somehow did not make it into an album. There are also photos in the Iphoto trash that I do not want trashed so I guess I will have to restore those to my library and go back through them.
I was hoping there was a way for Iphoto to automatically recognized which photos were already in albums and leave the rest in the library for me to look through and either delete or place in albums.
Any suggestions to make this process easier would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.

I am organizing my Iphoto in preparation to move the albums to an external hard drive
What does that mean? You can't move "albums" outside of an iPhoto Library.
I was hoping there was a way for Iphoto to automatically recognized which photos were already in albums
New Smart Album
Album -> is not -> Any

Organizing photos in Iphoto is a big pain and

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