Photo organization in iPhoto

I am a new Mac user from PC. I have used ACDSee as a photo organizer on the PC. All my photos are organized simply in folders with subfolders and sub-subfolders. I cannot see anyway to have a similar organization in iphoto, nor can I find a third party software similar to ACDSee for the Mac. Anybody have any suggestions/solutions? Thanks!

drjoan827
iPhoto has two principle organisation methods: Events and Albums.
Events are very basic and unsophisticated: they are based solely on date and time. The advantage is that this is automatic. For my money, Events are for folks who don't want to organise their pics.
Albums are where the database in iPhoto shines. You can create albums easily, put them into folders, nest folders of albums inside other folders. Add keywords to the mix and you can create smart albums and use them in the same way as other albums.
all photos (now residing in finder) were orgainized into categories with subcategories (i.e. a certain trip with subfolders showing different aspects of the trip, or photos of my family with a subcategory for different family members/pets.)
Some methods to approach this:
1. Start at the bottom of your folder hierarchy and drag a folder of images to the Source (or left hand) pane in iPhoto. iPhoto will create an album (and Event) of the pics. File -> New Folder and name it. Drag the album to the Folder... in this way you can quickly re-create the system you have now in iPhoto.
2. Import the pics and keyword them. Use a Who, What, Where basis. John and Mary at the swimming will yield: John, Mary, Sea, Swimming, for instance, perhaps the name of the Beach too. Doing this you can easily find all the pics you have of
John (alone)
John (with Mary)
John (Swimming, alone, with Mary)
John not swimming
Sea
Mary (alone)... and so on...
Add ratings, and you can quickly create albums of
All you Favourites
Your Favourites of John
Your favourites of Mary... and so on
You can save these into Smart Albums. (File -> New Smart Album, there are a wealth of criteria available for making Smart Albums)
Then the real plus: A single pic can be in 1, 10 or 100 albums with no wasted disk space. Albums reference the file on the HD.
This organisational power is the advantage of iPhoto. Along with preserving your original pics, lossless editing, books, calendars, slideshow and the integration throughout the Operating System.
Regards
TD

Similar Messages

How do I organize my iphoto library on my iphone? My iphoto library is 60gb of photos and 80gb of video.

I purchased the 128gb iphone 6+ specifically for the reason of having my entire library of family photos and videos on my iPhone. Given that combined, my iphoto videos and photos equal over 140gb, I will not be able to fit them all on my new iPhone. I would like to have all of my photos on my iphone, which current works. But how can I organize my iphoto videos on my iphone?
I have taken the time to organize my entire iphoto library by putting all of the content into events. In the iTunes tab "Photos", I select to sync all photos and events from iPhoto but I leave "Include videos" unchecked. If I check "Include videos", then I won't have enough room on my iPhone for the 140gb of iPhoto content. I created an event in iPhoto call, "Choosen video" to grab only those videos that I want.
If I choose in the iTunes tab "Photos" and select the option sync photos from "Select albums, event, and faces...", I will still want to include all of my events for all of the photos of my family and also select the event "Choosen video" that I created. But that "Choosen video" event will not have any content because I did not choose the "Include video" option in the Itunes "Photo" tab. It seems that Videos are either all or nothing.
Is there a way that I can have all of my photos in events syncd to my iPhone yet only sync certain videos so that I do not run out of room on my iPhone?

Is there a way that I can have all of my photos in events syncd to my iPhone yet only sync certain videos so that I do not run out of room on my iPhone?
You could import selected videos to iTunes, and then sync the videos from the iTunes library.
Or move the videos, that you do not want to sync to your iPhone, to a different iPhoto Library.

How do I transfer photos in organizer to iPhoto?

I am going to be switching from windows to Mac. I currently use Photoshop Elements 9.0 and I have approximately 9000 photos in Organizer. I would like to continue to use Elements as my photo editing program and iPhoto to catalog my pictures. Is there a way to transfer ohotos from Organizer to iPhoto, keeping the tags I used to catalog my pictures in organizer?

I couldn't see how to export from the organiser?
I don't use the app but I'd ask on the support of whoever does.
The process of exporting from any app makes a new file. You would then import that file to iPhoto. Then trash both the ones in organiser and the exported copy.
As I'm not familiar with organiser I can't comment. But in your case I would export 50 shots from organiser and import them to iPhoto and explore.
I have tried to import from iphoto to the organiser but it seems to bring all files over each time even though some info on the net suggests it can select events
How are you exporting? This User Tip
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
has details of the options in the Export dialogue.
I had also used the faces feature in iphoto, but organiser doesn't seem to import these tags and wants to do face recognition again.
None of these apps can share Faces data. They all use their own system and there is no standardisation.

I have just installed Photoshop Elements for a MAC. MY photos were in iPhoto, I have 47,000 pictures and my drive on my Mac laptop is not large enough. I store my photos in iPhoto on an external drive. Can I store all my photos on an external drive when u

I have just installed Photoshop Elements for a MAC. MY photos were in iPhoto, I have 47,000 pictures and my drive on my Mac laptop is not large enough. I store my photos in iPhoto on an external drive. Can I store all my photos on an external drive when using Photoshop Elements? If so, in what format should they be stored in? I do I move them from iPhoto to the new storage location? How do I call them up in organizer? And how do I call them up to Edit? I do not want to store any pictures on my Apple Mac laptop. I want to store pictures on several external devices.

Yes you can store images on an external hard dive and have them referenced in Organizer. It’s best to export copies to separate folders/subfolders and that will ensure iPhoto does not get corrupted.
Alternatively you could continue to use iPhoto with the Elements Editor set up in the iPhoto prefs as your external editing app. Then there is no need to use Organizer and no need to duplicate your images.
You can then call up photos directly from iPhoto as normal with the additional option e.g.
Double-click on a thumbnail to edit in iPhoto editor.
Control (right) - click on a thumbnail to edit in the elements app.
http://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop-elements/kb/photoshop-elements-iphoto-mac-os.html

Photo not in iPhoto?

After uploading pics to iPhoto, I open some of the better ones in PE3 for "post processing." If it was originally a JPEG, I save it in exactly the same location (usually by date) it came from but with a different name, but still as a JPEG again. When I go back to iPhoto, my new saved pic is not there, although I can find it easily in Finder > Pictures > iPhoto Library. Any way to have these pics viewable when I open iPhoto? Thanks

Hi Starnie,
Let me give you a lot more info than you asked for, but your answer is in the info.
--First thing to know and remember is this...Do not drag any images, folder of images into the iPhoto Library in the Finder. Images have to be imported into iPhoto within the application. Do not scan images and save them into the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder. Save them to another location such as the Pictures folder or even the desktop. You can then import them into iPhoto.
If you have already put files/folders in the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder then you will also find out that if you try to import them into iPhoto you will get an error message. No worry, just drag them to the desktop and import from there.
--All images that you import are shown in the library view. You can choose how you want to view, by rolls, by date, by rating, etc. When you put images in an Album, slideshow, book, etc, you are actually just putting pointers to those images in the library. You are not adding more images. If you delete an image from the Album it will still be in the library. If you delete an image from the library it is deleted from iPhoto's database and your hard drive (unless you have it backed up somewhere else)
--You have a folder of images on your hard drive and want to import them into iPhoto. Drag the folder of images into an open iPhoto Library window and the folder of photos will be copied into the library, resulting in a new roll with the name of the folder. You now have two copies of those photos, the ones in iPhoto's database and the ones on your desktop. You can keep the ones on your desktop that you just imported as backup or you can delete that folder.
-- you scan a picture/pictures and save it in a folder. You cannot scan directly into iPhoto or the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder.
You want all your photos in iPhoto so you import them into iPhoto.
Now you have two copies of that picture/pictures, so you can delete the originals that were in the scanned folder and keep the one/ones that were imported into iPhoto.
-- You download pictures from your camera into iPhoto.
There is now one copy of each of the pictures. (DO NOT HAVE IPHOTO DELETE THE IMAGES FROM YOUR CAMERA! DELETE THEM MANUALLY WITH THE CAMERA-if something goes wrong with the import and they are never imported and then they are deleted from the camera you might end up losing those images)
You want to change something about a picture you imported, such as
cropping it or changing the size, or changing the orientation.
Once you do that to a picture, you now have two copies of the picture
in iPhoto, the original and the edited one. The edited one will be in the library organize view. The original is packed away in an Original folder in your iPhoto Library folder under the date of the roll. You can always revert to the original by control clicking on the photo and choose "revert to orginal" You will not have this choice if you used iPhoto Diet to get rid of the Originals.
(a quick note on cropping within iPhoto...when you are in edit mode, you automatically will be in the crop mode with cross hairs to highlight the crop area. To finish cropping you must click the crop button and then go back to library view and your cropped picture will be there.
3.You want to use Photoshop or another graphic program to edit a picture in your iPhoto library.
You can open up prefs for iPhoto and choose "when double clicking on
photo ..do" choose "other" and select Photoshop. Now you can edit all
pictures in your iPhoto library in PhotoShop by double clicking. If you save the photo with the same name and as a flattened file it will be saved right into iPhoto and you will see the changes. If you don't want to save it into iPhoto then do a "save as" and save to the desktop. You will then have the original photo still in iPhoto and your new edited photo on the desktop.
Or, with iPhoto open, you can drag a picture from the library window
to your desktop (you see a + sign on the pic you are dragging). You now
have two of the same picture, one in the iPhoto library and one on your desktop. You can open up the one on your desktop in any graphic program and work on it. The one in iPhoto stays the same. You can also share/export the picture/pictures to your desktop or folder to work on them or do batch processing, etc. You will still have the originals in your iPhoto Library.
Or, you can open up the ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/folders and option drag any
picture out of the folder to your desktop. Notice that you will see a plus sign while dragging the photo. This is copying the file to your desktop
I would advise anyone not to do this as they might forget to use the option key and drag the photo out. Next time you open iPhoto the photo will be missing.
Two Apple kbs for you to read
Don't tamper with files in the iPhoto library folder
About the iPhoto Library folder
Don't forget that in Library view you can Control click on any picture and get a contextual menu with many options. One is to revert to original.

How to delete pictures in photo stream in iPhoto

I have a whole bunch of pictures that I do not want to keep in photo stream in iPhoto on my macbook.
When I select the files I want to delete, it only gives me a quick "white" blank and does not respond. Dragging the photos to the trash can does not work, either.
iPhoto has been my worst nightmare ever since I got my macbook. It is just way too difficult to organize or keep track of my photos. I need to visit this forum every time I need to do the simplest commands like deleting a file or transfering a file.
Please help.

Where are you selecting the photos you want to remove from the Photo Stream?
This should work: See: How to delete photos from Photo Stream
On a Mac using iPhoto 9.2.2 or later, or Aperture 3.2.3 or later:
Select a photo or group of photos from the Photo Stream (or My Photo Stream) view in iPhoto or Aperture.
Press the Delete key.
Click Delete.
iCloud: Photo Stream troubleshooting

If I make a photo album in iPhoto,will it read well in an iPad? I want a photo flip book? Or is there a better app for me to create a digital scrapbook that I can share?

Hi, I'm interested in creating a photo scrapbook in iPhoto, but I want to send it as a gift in digital form? Ideally, I want the pictures, writing and images to view well in an iPad, like a customized FlipBook. Can you recommend an app or program that I can use, that doesn't require printing?
Thank you,
Tania

iPhoto is a consumer level photo storage and manipulation program,
It stores it's files in the iPhoto Library, which appears to be a file, but if right clicked on and "show package contents" is actually a folder with it's sensitive guts inside, including a folder called Modified and Originals which you can Finder > File > Duplicate and transfer out.
If you use iPhoto to delete a photo, it IS removed off your hard drive as well but only from the iPhoto Library folder/package, not anywhere else on your drive as iPhoto is supposed to import a copy if say you have some on your desktop already and import them into iPhoto.
So it shouldn't touch anything outside your iPhoto Library. So how you organize photo's outside your iPhoto Library is your business, however don't expect iPhoto to respect your wishes inside the iPhoto Library package, that's really reserved for iPhoto use only.

Can I use Adobe Photoshop Element 11 to manage my photos rather than iPhoto?

What are the problems, if any, with by passing iPhoto and using Adobe Photoshop Elements 11?

Are you referring to actually managing the image files with the Adobe Elements 11 organizer as well as editing the photos or just use PSE 11 to edit the photos?
The latter is easy. The former would have you abandon iPhoto, move you photos out of it to folders and then manage the folders and their contents.
What exactly are you wantng to do: manage and edit or just edit.
By the way the file management capability of PSE is far less capable than the photo managementcapability of iPhoto which is a DAM (digital asset management) application.
OT

PC photos to iMac IPhoto

Returning to Mac from PC. Last used Mac in 1992. Much changed and bou is it lovely, but...
Copied my PC photos to a folder on iMac via network connection to PC. Then imported photos (9K+ photos) to iPhoto. Proceeded to merge, edit, organize, etc. Completed work. Set my screen saver to "Photos" and all went well until I shut down my PC. Now the screen saver cannot find the photos. "MY Pictures" folder from PC appears on the desktop while PC is on and disappears when PC turned off. I am assuming from what I read that I only "referenced" the photos on import rather than un-clicking something on import and having a "true" copy.
Is there a way to re-import in such a way as to not lose the editing, organizing, deleting etc. or must I empty my iPhoto Library and import all 9K photos again and do all the editing again?
Thanks.

Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
The first thing to do is to confirm this is the case.
Go to iPhoto Menu -> Preferences -> Advanced and see if 'Copy Files to the iPhoto Library on Import' is unchecked.
If it is, make sure it's checked from this point out.
Select one of the affected photos in the iPhoto Window and right click on it. From the resulting menu select 'Show File (or 'Show Original File' if that's available). A Finder Window should open with the file selected. Does it? Where is the file?
When you run a referenced Library iPhoto creates an Alias in the Originals folder (within the iPhoto Library) to the actual file. What you need to do is replace that alias with the actual file.
This thread has some suggestions, including a reference to an app called AliasHerder.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1356720&tstart=0
Regards
TD

Can someone explain the difference between photos app and iphoto for iphone?

I recently downloaded the iphoto app to my iPhone 4s. I am hoping to clear up some space on my iphone and I deleted some pics from what I thought was the camera roll within iphoto. I noticed later that while attempting to change my wallpaper, I noticed that pics I thought I deleted were still on the phone as evidenced by their availability to be used as wallpaper. I checked that I had selected cameral roll and not photostream, where it would make sense the photos would still be there. When I left settings I noticed that I have iphoto and the phots app on my iphone. Do I need both? And if i want to delete photos, do I need to delete photos from the cameral roll within iphoto AND the photos app???? I really need someone to make sense of all this photo business!

The "Photos" application is built into the phone and is meant only for viewing and making small edits (crop, auto-enhance, etc.) to photos in your Camera Roll and other photos synced onto your phone via iTunes.
iPhoto for iOS is a new application which is meant to allow you to organize your photos, share them via sideshows or "journals" and make mode substantial edits (contrast, brightness, sharpness, photo effects, etc.)
Keep in mind that iPhoto or any other app from the App Store does not have the ability to delete photos from your Camera Roll. What you did is probably hit the x icon which hides the photo from your iPhoto library but it remains in your Camera Roll. To delete photos, they must be deleted from the Photos app. Oce they are deleted from your Camera Roll they will no longer show up in iPhoto.

How do I get my existing photo library from iPhoto to Photoshop?

How do I get my existing photo library from iPhoto to Photoshop?

Hello MWWWB,
Unlike iPhoto, Photoshop is only an editor. It does not store or organize images. In iPhoto preferences, you can choose Photoshop as an editor. You will then get a choice when you double click on an iPhoto thumbnail to use iPhoto or Photoshop to make edits. But Photoshop does not have a library to store images like iPhoto.
You may want to use Adobe Bridge or Lightroom to help name and organize your pictures. You can Export your iPhoto Library to a folder and manage the exported images there.
Personally, I hate the arcane manner iPhoto stores and organizes images. I use it only for photos from my iPhone.

Using Spotlight to find photos named in iPhoto

I have iPhoto 4 but am upgrading to 6 soon. Reading about how iPhoto organizes photos has been very helpful. I think I can get used to having to use iPhoto to manage my photos (how Windows of it!), although I do not like the idea of a photo having a different name in iPhoto than in the Finder. For instance, I use Spotlight a lot, but it does not seem to find the names of photos in iPhoto. Is there a way to use Spotlight to find photos in iPhoto?

Mark
Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
Spotlight will not find photos outside of the Search in the iPhoto Window. It doesn't index the library6.iphoto file. So, titles comments and keywords etc are not indexed.
I think I can get used to having to use iPhoto to manage my photos (how Windows of it!),
You don't have to use iPhoto you know. But if you do, finding your pic files is very easy. There are three ways (at least) to get files from the iPhoto Window.
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.
Rolls in the iPhoto Window correspond exactly with the Roll Folders in the Originals Folder in the iPhoto Library Folder. You can move photos between Rolls, you can rename rolls, 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 Roll Name using the Info Pane, the Roll Folder in iPhoto Library Folder/Originals will also have the new name.
although I do not like the idea of a photo having a different name in iPhoto than in the Finder.
iPhoto is a photo organiser, not a file organiser. If you're concerned with file names, stick to the Finder. Or name the files before importing them to iPhoto. Other than that, find them visually, or by date, comment, title in the iPhoto Window.
Regards
TD

Advice On Proper Photo Organization?

I have been a careless iPhoto user over the years -- dump pictures off the camera, scan the odd snapshot, import images from the web or email, ...
All my photos are "organized" (I guess) by date and into events I (sometimes) name. The photos all have the original filename -- something like "IMG_20150306_154423" I've got no tags, no faces, no places, ...
Okay -- now my question.
I have a pile of old family photos -- some digital, many to be scanned from prints -- that I'd like to organize properly once and for all.
Any advice? Any good resources you can recommend? ... Is iPhoto good enough for the task or should I invest in a "fancier" app like Adobe Lightroom or some such.
I'm using iPhoto 9.5.1 and have not upgraded to Yosemite and so the newest iPhoto but I could if you think it worthwhile.
Thanks

Fair warning - I just upgraded to Yosemite 10.10.3 and lost all of my organization from iPhoto.
Not all of it. Open the sidebar, Option+Command+S, and look inside the folder titled "iPhoto Albums". Moments in Photo art the new Events. There's a way to simulate events in Photos.
When the library was first migrated there was a folder created titled iPhoto Events and all migrated iPhoto Events are represented by an album in the folder. To open the sidebar if it's not open use the Option+Command+S key combination.
When new photos are imported into the Photos library go to the Last Import smart album, select all the photos and use the File ➙ New Album menu option or use the key combination Command+N. Name it as desired. It will appear just above the iPhoto Events folder where you can drag it into the folder
When you click on the iPhoto Events folder you'll get a simulated iPhoto Events window.
You can continue using iPhoto until the system no longer supports it or until Photos gets updated to where it's not so dumbed down.

Please help needed os x lion I wish to transfer photos from the iPhoto library to a album or folder then delete them from the Library but when I do this it also deletes them from the album ? how do I do this please.

Please help needed os x lion I wish to transfer photos from the iPhoto library to a album or folder then delete them from the Library but when I do this it also deletes them from the album ? how do I do this please.

Albums are not places to store photos, they're more like "labels" you can apply to photos to better organize them. A single image file can be in multiple albums... they are not copies, it's simply been labelled as being in all those albums. So what you're trying to do doesn't make sense, because it's based on incorrect assumptions.
The iPhoto library will always show all photos that you have added to iPhoto.

IOS photo app vs iPhoto, keywords, smart albums, face detection?

greetings,
i have some questions about iOS photos app in comparison to iPhoto (in 10.8). i've done a little searching on the web and in the forum, but didn't see this covered...
i always sync my iPhone to my mac, copy/import my photos to iPhoto, and use iPhoto to organize my photos. in iPhoto, i tag photos (keywords) and use "smart albums" to access all my photos based upon the keyword tags. face detection in iPhoto is GREAT!.   i have all my friends faces named and finding them by "people" grouping is fantastic. the down side to all of this is that i have everything working great on my mac, but usually i'm using the photos app in the iPhone to show pics to my friends since that is what i have with me. i'm not sure if this information in iPhoto ever gets synced back to my iPhone.
1- does the iOS photos app have any of these features from iPhoto?
     in other words, can i tag photos, lable the faces of friends, set up smart albums in iOS photos? if so, please point me to some info. i haven't seen an obvious way to do any of this.
2- can i sync what i do in iPhoto back to my iPhone?
     in other words, can i get the tags, peoples' names on their faces, and smart albums copied from iPhotos back to my iPhone? is there some setting or command in iPhoto, or somewhere else?
3- i just turned on photostream. can/does this iPhoto data transfer via photostream to the iPhone?
i have an iPhone 4.
i am just about ready to upgrade from iOS 5 to iOS 6. so if any of these features are specific to iOS 6, please let me know.
i'd appreciate it if you could mention if there is anything special about iOS in the iPad, because a friend has asked me how she can do in her iPad (iOS 6), what i do with iPhoto in my mac.
thank you for any suggestions or advice.

You're best bet would be to do your own comparison: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iphoto/id497786065?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/iphoto/id408981381?mt=12

Photo organization in iPhoto

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