Organizing pictures in IPhoto

Question

If I have uploaded photos from multiple CDs and cameras into the same album, i.e. "ireland 2007," how do I organize them so that the same photos are together? My recent family vaccation produced lots of pictures on multiple cameras and I would like to get them all grouped by each place we took pictures without having to keep highlighting and dragging. Help??

Answer 1

Hi.
With the PC you were used to file browsing, in which you had to deal with the files directly. The whole philosophy of iPhoto is that you never touch the files and folders in the library folder. Once you import your photos into iPhoto, you manipulate them through the application.
When you make Albums in iPhoto, you select the photos you want from the iPhoto window and create the Albums. There's no going into the folder structure at all.
I love Photoshop Elements. It will work seamlessly with iPhoto, as part of a larger workflow. In iPhoto's Preferences, see where it says Edit photos in... You choose Other, then navigate to Photoshop Elements in your Applications folder. Once done, you can select up to 4 thumbnails in the iPhoto window, double-click, and they will open in Elements for editing. To save your edits, do a Save in Elements, and the edited version will be written to your iPhoto Library. Do not "Save As" with a different file name or location, because those changes will not be recognized by the iPhoto database. If Elements creates a layered .psd file you can flatten, then save the jpeg. Or to keep the layers, Save As to a location OUTside the iPhoto Library folder (the desktop is convenient) then use iPhoto to import that file to the library as a new original.
You can also right-click (Control-click) a thumbnail and choose how you want to edit it. You can choose among several iPhoto edit modes, or choose your external editor (Elements). If you click on the iPhoto Full-Screen Edit Mode icon (the box with the arrows pointing outward) in the lower iPhoto toolbar, then the photo opens for editing in iPhoto. This is useful for quick cropping or red-eye fix, for example.
I recommend that you do not try to use Adobe Bridge (or any other file browser) to browse the iPhoto Library folder. If you do, you are accessing the photos directly from their folders. Any changes you make to the photos will not be recognized by the database, and you can damage your library. Think of iPhoto as a much superior substitute for Bridge. Some people delete it from their Macs. I do keep some image files outside of my iPhoto library for digital scrapbooking. I use Bridge to browse those files.
When you edit a photo in your library, iPhoto keeps the Original and saves your edits in its Modified version. You can always revert to the original if you wish to delete your edits. Each photo in your library exists only once inside the library folder structure (in up to 3 versions: Original, Modified, and thumbnail). Albums are virtual structures that exist only in the iPhoto database file. That is, placing a photo in an album does not duplicate the file on your hard drive. This allows you to place a photo in one album, 100, or none, with no duplication. When you edit a photo, the Modified version will appear in every instance of the photo in your library. If you wish to have one version in one album, and a different edited version in another album, you can create a Duplicate in your library and edit the duplicate, resulting in 2 separate, unlinked sets of that photo in your library.
Apple has created a set of multimedia tutorials that can help you get started with iPhoto and the other apps in the iLife suite. I found them helpful and easy to understand. For the iPhoto tutorial, start here: http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/iphoto/
Regards.