Photo quality and compression in iphoto vs canon's image browser, et. al.

hello. brand new here and very new to macs. the question I have is this:
when you import photos to iphoto, do the photos get compressed? do you lose any quality that you wouldn't lose by importing them to image browser or another program?
a friend who is a semi-professional photographer said that some quality is lost in iphoto through compression, but #1) she's probably on an older version than '09 and #2) I know she almost always shoots in raw, so I don't know how much importing of jpegs she does anyway. I am not talking about raw photos, but jpegs shot in the highest resolution (I have a canon g9, which is 12.1 megapixels). she always imports to image browser.
thanks very much,
sean

What format is the external disk? If it's a FAT format this will account for the discrepancy as the FAT format cannot make sense of the Resource fork in the Mac files. Also, the blunt fact is that the Finder can be an unreliable reporter of file sizes.
One reliable way to check if the pics are duplicates is to use Graphic Coverter.
As to the file size in iPhoto - reported in the iPhoto Window. Your camera has an Auto-Rotate feature. However, the camera does not actually rotate any pixels in the file, but instead flags it with an instruction: "Display me this way". No photo app with editing can respect this flag, so iPhoto, seeing the flag, reads the intention and creates a modified version. If you then try to Revert to Original, iPhoto will remove the edited version. However, when it then looks at the Original file again, it sees the flag, and creates a new rotated version. This loop will run as long as you Revert to the Original. The solution is to either a: turn off the Auto-Rotate feature on your camera or b: rotate the photos prior to importing them to iPhoto.
Obviously as it involves compression there is data loss. That's the 2.4 Version.
BTW: are you aware of the Non-Destructive Editing feature in iPhoto?
As to your workflow:
iPhoto is good for 250,000 images, so there is little need to be overly concerned about it becoming "overcrowded". And, you can have multiple libraries, of course.
I mention this because, in your current workflow, only your original files are backed up. Any work you do in iPhoto or via iPhoto - editing, keywording, albums, print objects etc - are not being backed up.
My suggestion would be to simply back up the iPhoto Library Folder and get it all - Original files and everything else.
Regards
TD

Similar Messages

Photo Stream and MobileMe in iPhoto: I don't get it!

Hi
Photo Stream is on for iPhoto on my iMac, iPhone 4, iPad and iPod Touch.
I'm somewhat confused about how to handle this feature - aside from the basic understanding that it syncs photos I take, say, on my iPhone, to all other devices without the need to manually sync.
Could someone please confirm / suggest answers to the following;
1) photos I take on my iPhone are shown in my camera roll and under a separate photo stream roll. I understand that photo stream on iOS devices holds the last 1000 images taken (unless you delete some following iOS 5.1). Correct?
2) my iPhoto library on my iMac stores 100% of the photo stream photos thereby negating the need to manually sync my iPhone (which I use to take photos) with iMac. Correct again?
3) Under 'Events' on iPhoto (iMac) it seems to create a new 'event' every month (and christens it, say, as 'March 2012 photo stream' for example) which holds that months images taken.
a) the folders appear in the top left hand corner of the 'Events' page which I don't like as all other events are shown in chronological order (i.e. the latest 'event' being in the bottom right corner of the page). Can I do anything about this, as in set it so that the photo stream folders create themselves at the bottom of the screen after the previous last event?
b) These monthly 'events' are just that; events that have happened within that last month which could comprise of several different events. I categorise by actual event rather than everything that has happened within a particular time frame. This therefore immediately conflicts with photo stream. I presume I am perhaps meant to select certain 'events' within the month's photo stream and then create a new 'event' from that but I don't know how to do this? Could anyone advise how / what they do?
4) I had a MobileMe account which expired last year. Instead of resurrecting the email address for my iCloud account I chose a slightly different one. This seems to pose a problem as under 'Albums' I have several MobileMe albums which generate a pop-up box asking me to log in. As my MobileMe account is expired, the password prompt is not accepted. I therefore can't share my photos as I previously did. Is there a work-around?
Thanks!

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. a: View Menu -> Sort Events
3. b Flag the photos you want to move and go Events -> Create Event from Flagged Photos
Regards
TD

Can't select photo stream and Facebook in iphoto

I don't know why, on the side of iPhoto where we can select the library, we got a section call WEB, where we got our Photo Stream and Facebook account.
I don't know why but I can't select those two facebook account and Photo Stream to see and manage the photos that are in those section. I click on it and nothing happen.
But I can share with the share button at the bottom to those sections
Can someone can tell me why I can't select those sections?
I got iPhoto 9.4 and Mountain Lion 10.8.2

Make a temporary, backup copy (if you don't already have a backup copy) of the library and try the following:
1 - delete the iPhoto preference file, com.apple.iPhoto.plist, that resides in your
User/Home()/Library/ Preferences folder.
2 - delete iPhoto's cache file, Cache.db, that is located in your
User/Home()/Library/Caches/com.apple.iPhoto folder.
Click to view full size
3 - launch iPhoto and try again.
NOTE: If you're moved your library from its default location in your Home/Pictures folder you will have to point iPhoto to its new location when you next open iPhoto by holding down the Option key when launching iPhoto. You'll also have to reset the iPhoto's various preferences.
NOTE 2: In Lion and Mountain Lion the Home/Library folder is now invisible. To make it permanently visible enter the following in the Terminal application window: chflags nohidden ~/Library and hit the Enter button - 10.7: Un-hide the User Library folder.
OT

Can I modify the Export to... iTunes settings for better audio quality and compression?

I am working on some Music Videos to DJ at a party with, I notice that when I export them as .mov files with Final Cut HD Express, they have 320 kbps and 44.100 kHz in the audio compression settings. Once I export them in Quicktime 10.2, using the File / Export to... / iTunes drop down menu, the Second, (ipad, iphone 4, & AppleTV) setting (not using HD, so the Mac and PC tab is not an option.) The final exported file, that plays great in itunes, appletv, ipad, etc. has a reduced quality audio of Bit Rate of 159 kbps (instead of 320 kbps) and Sample Rate of 32.000 kHz (instead of 44.100 kHz). Is there anyway to change these preset settings somehow?
The Formats on the File / Export / menu are even less dinamic?
I also noticed that some of the Music videos I purchased from the itunes store some years ago, have a 256 Kbps and 44.100 kHz setting. Which is better quality than the ones exported from Quicktime 10.
I thought maybe with Quicktime 7 Pro, I could fine tune all the presets, but it got too complicated for me, might this be an option? What would the settings be?
Using Widescreen 853 x 480 at full quality .mov file.
thanks.

I am working on some Music Videos to DJ at a party with, I notice that when I export them as .mov files with Final Cut HD Express, they have 320 kbps and 44.100 kHz in the audio compression settings. Once I export them in Quicktime 10.2, using the File / Export to... / iTunes drop down menu, the Second, (ipad, iphone 4, & AppleTV) setting (not using HD, so the Mac and PC tab is not an option.) The final exported file, that plays great in itunes, appletv, ipad, etc. has a reduced quality audio of Bit Rate of 159 kbps (instead of 320 kbps) and Sample Rate of 32.000 kHz (instead of 44.100 kHz). Is there anyway to change these preset settings somehow?
Your question basically has too facets. The first is the quality of the source audio in terms of sampling rate and data rate. Under normal circumstances you don't want to export the audio using a sample rate or per channel data rate that is lower than your original source if you are trying to maintain the quality as high as possible and, on the other hand, you don't want to use settings greater than the source values since they increase the final file size without improving the quality of the audio.
The second is the workflow. Since you indicate you are using FCE HD for editing, then using QT X to re-export the data seems somewhat redundant. While it has been many, many years since I last used FCE HD, if I remember correctly, you have both "Export QT Movie" and "Export using QT Conversion" options. The first option takes the audio and video format in which you are editing and merely copies the edited data in that format to a new MOV file container. On the other hand, the second option allows you export the edited data format directly to a user selected compression format using user selected options (but does assume the user knows how to best use these options). These are, BTW, the same export options available in QT 7 Pro.
I thought maybe with Quicktime 7 Pro, I could fine tune all the presets, but it got too complicated for me, might this be an option? What would the settings be?
What is so difficult here? If the source is DVD stereo quality (usually 48.0 KHz @ 192 Kbps then set your output for stereo 48.0 KHz @ 192 Kbps. If you wish to save a bit of file space, the you can use 48.0 KHz @ 160 Kbps but that is normally as low as I go. As to setting combinations in QT 7 Pro, once you set the sampling rate, the application becomes cuntextually adaptive and will only allow you to select data rates that are "standards" compliant and non-compliant ones are automatically greyed out. Rendering quality settings are self-explanatory. These are the basics if you are using a preset option like the "Movie to MPEG-4" export option. If using more complex options like the "Movie to QT Movie" option, then you will need to also consider how you plan to use your file to select the correct encoding strategy. For instance, a constant bit rate is good for optical media from the standpoint of providing a constant flow of data to the player. Unfortunately, this is not very efficient since it forces the quality to vary as it maintains the constant data rate. A variable but contarined data rate is also good for optical media or fast start online files but allows the data rate to vary between user selected data rate excursions and thus provides improved quality over the constant data rate strategy. The variable data rate allows the user to target a specific level of audio quality and will then allow the data rate to vary as needed to maintain a constant level of quality. This option is better suited for playback on a computer since the bit rate can vary greatly in magnitude. The average setting allows the user to target a specific average target data rate but allows it fluctuate as the encoder applies predictor-corrector adjustments. This option, like the constant data rate option, is good for average complexity content when creating a target file of predictable size but can somtimes have problems towards the end of the file if the content suddenly becomes more complex than predicted.
Using Widescreen 853 x 480 at full quality .mov file.
I would rarely recommend using the full quality slider setting. This is more of a redundancy setting forcing the encoder to recycle through certain encoding routines in an effort to improve quality without increasing the data rate. You would like do better to increase the video data rate limit and decrease the quality slider to something in the 50 to 80% range. You also indicate the files are 853x480. Such files are frequently the result of anamorphic widescreen MPEG-2 or DV source files. If so, I would normally recommend retaining this anamorphic strategy by encoding the H.264 video at the same 720x480 matrix dimensions and allowing the player to properly display the files at their targeted aspect ratio. This strategy will either allow for slightly better quality at the current video data rate setting or allow the user to retain the current level of quality using a slightly lower data rate which, in turn, means a slightly smaller final file size.

Slideshow - low photo quality and resolution

In AP3 and slideshow mode I have tried to make some slideshows, but the images are of low quality and resolution. I guess this is due to my previews setting of 1680 x 1680 with a quality level of 6. By increasing the preview settings to 2560 x 2560 and quality 9, the images in the slideshow seems ok. But the increase in quality increases the size of the library file. One can choose to only apply the increased quality settings only to the images in the slideshow and then go back to the preference and change to the default setting of lower quality, but I find this rather cumbersome. Any solutions to a faster workflow?

As you have figured out, Aperture unfortunately re-uses the Preview image settings for its slideshow images. There's not much we can do about that short of waiting for an upgrade to give us the same quality settings for Slideshows as it does for any other type of export. That said, however...
If you're concerned about Preview storage requirements (totally legit concern, since it affects preview loading time) the "Preview photo quality" setting you choose in Preferences->Previews can have a huge effect on file size without much perceptible change in quality at the higher settings. For most images, for instance, I can't tell the difference between a "quality 7" Preview and a "quality 10" Preview. Yet the difference in file size can be a factor of 10! That's much bigger change in file size than going from 70% to 100% in pixel resolution alone.
So I'd suggest you err on the side of larger resolution but (slightly) lower quality previews to retain maximum detail. Do your images typically reveal the difference between quality "9" and "7"?
-Steve

Export a folder from iPhoto to canon my image garden

trying to export a folder from iPhoto to canon's my image garden

Is there a question there?
This User Tip
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
has details of the options in the Export dialogue.
Once exported to the Finder see the help on the Canon app or service you refer to.

How do i save my photo library and then reinstall iphoto 11

Hi Everyone
I was having a problem with imovie which kept crashing so (probably unwittingly) decidied to reinstall ilife 11 to see if that would fix the problem - which it didnt but we will ignore that for now.
A resulting consequence of this action was that the iphoto app has a no entry sign over it and comes up with an error message saying 'you cant open the application iPhoto because it may be damaged or incomplete.
Does anyone know how to fix this???
I have saved my iphoto library to an external hard drive so am now thinking that I should completely delete the iphoto app (and I'm not sure how to do that either) and then reinstall from the iLife 11 disc that I have.
Is this the best way to resolve it as I would hate to loose any photo's, events, and various faces that i have saved etc etc
Cheers

For iPhoto, see > iPhoto: How to move the Library folder to a new location
For iTunes, see > iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder

I want to use photo stream and I have iPhoto' 09 8.1.2 at the moment, which upgrade do I need?

I have been trying the 'Software update' thing but It isn't coming up with anything. I just want to use photo stream in icloud.

You are using iPhoto '09, and Photo Stream requires iPhoto '11 or Aperture 3, so you have to purchase iPhoto '11 from the App Store.
Before purchasing, open Finder, select Applications in the sidebar, and delete iPhoto. Then, open App Store and purchase iPhoto. After being downloaded and installed, make a backup of your iPhoto library in a different folder: iPhoto will update your library, and if this process fails, you will lose all your pictures

I uploaded some photos yesterday and now my iPhoto is just white and grey panel when i open it, any clues how to resolve this?

I am running Version: 8.1.2
This has never happened before, all help much appriciated
Thanks
Gary

Spinning beachball?
Option 1
Back Up and try rebuild the library: hold down the command and option (or alt) keys while launching iPhoto. Use the resulting dialogue to rebuild. Choose to Rebuild iPhoto Library Database from automatic backup.
If that fails:
Option 2
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one. .
Regards
TD

ICloud Photo Library and iPhoto/Time Capsule

Ok, so I'm thinking about getting a Time Capsule. I use iCloud Photo Library and also use iPhoto to sync my photos to my Macbook. I have the storage optimizer turned on in iCloud Photo Library.
That being said, let's say that I sync my iPhone to my Macbook and import my photos into iPhoto. Presumably, this is only going to import the photos in the storage-optimized resolution, correct? My goal here is to have my full-resolution photos backed up both to iCloud as well as iPhoto/Time Capsule. Is there any way to do that other than to turn off the size optimization? The big problem problem I see with that is that when my phone gets full and I have to clear off the photos, this clears them from iCloud as well and I'm left with only the Time Capsule backup.
Am I wrong or have they kind of made these two products somewhat incompatible? Is this something that's going to be addressed with the new Photos app for OSX, where you can download the original resolution files from iCloud into Photos and then back up?

Yes, the photos will still stream from My Photo Stream to iPhoto on your Mac, even with iCloud Photo Library Beta enabled. Like before, the camera.app needs to be closed and the device connected to Wi-Fi, and properly charged.
You can see the photos also using the iCloud home page from the Photos.app Beta at iCloud.com .

Sharing photo's in aperture en iphoto

I have all my photo's in Iphoto. Now I want to use Aperture, but my wife still wants to use Iphoto.
Does anybody know if there is a way to use the same photo directory and library using Iphoto as well as Aperture? I don't want to duplicate all my photo's on my harddisk.

I just ran into the same problem. I was going to switch to Aperture completely until iPhoto went from 5 to 6. It has a lot of the new features that Aperture has but there are still some awesome features in Aperture that I can't live without. One thing Aperture is missing is that it doesn't check for duplicates when importing pics. So what I decided to do is use iPhoto as my importer (whether from a camera or folder), and then use Aperture's import menu to import the rolls or pictures I want. If you haven't tried it out yet, do so. It is really awesome since it lets you select the rolls as they are saved in iPhoto and gives you a preview of each picture.

Displaying Photo Titles and Descriptions in stills in iMovie

Hello, I'm wondering if it's possible to get still photo titles and descriptions from iPhoto to display on Stills inserted into iMovie. I am trying to create slideshows of stills and iMovie is the only system that allows you to modify soundtracks, but it, as far as I can tell, won't display Titles or Descriptions. iPhoto and iDVD slideshows display this info, but you have no control or can't even see what audio files you have inserted.
Please help!!
Thanks

I'm wondering if it's possible to get still photo titles and descriptions from iPhoto to display on Stills inserted into iMovie.
I assume you are referrimg to an automatic method of displaying this information and AFAIK there is no such feature currently programmed into iMovie '08. You can, of course manually title each slide.

Slideshow photo quality?

Once creating a slideshow in Aperture 3, does it maintain the photo quality and not change?

Actually, Slideshow images do not appear to retain the detail +even of the Preview on which they're supposedly based+. I have been using Previews carefully scaled to the maximum resolution of my monitor but have been dissatisfied with the apparent sharpness.
Here is an enlarged screenshot of a landscape image's Quick Preview generated at 1920x1920 max resolution and displayed in Full Screen mode on my 1920x1200 monitor:
!http://homepage.mac.com/steve_hoge/.Pictures/QuickPreviewDetail.jpg!
However, here's a detail of the same image displayed full screen as a Slide Show:
!http://homepage.mac.com/steve_hoge/.Pictures/SlideShowDetail.jpg!
In these examples the difference in sharpness is most obvious in the contrasting areas around the circular mirror.
Edges are clearly softer in the slideshow, and while the difference may appear relatively subtle at this scale, when the entire image is viewed - especially on a large display screen - there is an overall perception of softness across the whole image.
I've worked around this by scaling up the Preview size to around 133% of my monitor resolution; beyond that there's little apparent increase in detail in the Preview when displayed at the monitor's lower resolution, and it successfully increases the sharpness of Slideshow images. I backed off one notch on the Preview quality and for most of my images the resulting Preview actually has a smaller file size than before.
Here's a screenshot of a newer, sharper Slideshow image generated from a 2560x2560 Preview but still displayed on my 1920x1200 monitor:
!http://homepage.mac.com/steve_hoge/.Pictures/ImprovedSlideShowDetail.jpg!
According to the Aperture documentation and [knowledge base article|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3781] covering this subject, a Slideshow image based on a Preview size larger than your display shouldn't appear any sharper - but it does.
-Steve

Photo has packet loss. Can I improve the image with Aperature?

I received a poor quality family photo (hard copy). Almost like "packet loss" on TV whereby the image edges are muted and/or missing. I wanted to enlarge the 3 X 5 inch photo but if the quality is poor at this resolution, I know enlarging will just make it worse.
Can Aperature improve the photo quality? Compression or rendering or ??
OR is this a photoshop opportunity?
Please advise.
Thanks

Hi labratinaz;
While I will admit I am now learning to use Aperture, IMHO this sounds like if it can be solve it will take Photoshop to do it. I don't think the adjustments in Aperture are powerful enough.
Allan

Poor photo quality when exporting iPhoto slideshow

Does anyone know which setting produces the best quality for an mp4 when creating a DVD using iDVD? I put a slideshow together using iPhoto because I wanted to use the iPhoto scrapbook theme. I exported the iPhoto slideshow using the highest quality (standard display setting) which produces an mp4 1422 x 800 (H.264, 30 fps, 7 Mbps, ~907 MB).
The iDVD project settings are:
1) Best Performance
2) High Quality
3) Professional Quality
What doesn't make sense to me is that #1 claims to produce a total ~1GB DVD with a 995 MB movie and shows the Quality level as green.
When selecting #2, the claim is a total ~643 DVD with a 575 MB movie with Quality in the red.
When choosing #3, the numbers stay the same as #2 but the Quality goes to yellow.
Why wouldn't the higher quality settings produce a larger DVD with less compression? Which setting really gives the highest quality?
The default is #1 (Best Performance) which clearly produces the lowest quality video when compared to the mp4 export from iPhoto (appeared with a higher quality) and when compared with playing the slideshow directly in iPhoto (appeared with the highest quality).
Would the quality be any higher if I export the iPhoto slideshow using a customized setting? iPhoto custom settings allow the choice of about 10 different compression types from Animation, Apple Intermediate Codec, to DV/DVCPRO - NTSC, to H.264, to MPEG-4 Video, to None (and others not listed here). The frame Rate can also be adjusted from Current (whatever that means), to 8, to 60. The Compressor Quality can be adjusted from Least to Best. Would "None" as the compression type produce the best quality when producing the iDVD?
The ultimate goal is to display the slideshow on the project at my church. The easiest way to do this is to put it on a DVD. But as described above, the quality decrease from iPhoto direct play of the slideshow is noticeable when moving to the .mp4 and extremely noticeable when putting the .mp4 in iDVD and playing the DVD back.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions or links to better documentation.

you just cannot export your slideshows in order to burn DVDs, with the same quality
That's an issue with iDVD and the DVD standards. All DVD media is downsized to 640 x 480 or the wide screen 720 x 480. It's the nature of DVDs, not iPhoto. If you use the Ken Burns effect in iPhoto you will need to use the largest 4:3 ratio images possible so the zoom and scan of the KB effect is working on the most number of pixels possible.
I've found that the best final image resolution is obtained by creating the slideshow in iDVD from stills imported from iPhoto at the 4:3 size ratio. The downside to that method is no KB effect and only one transition per slideshow. I play those types of slideshows on a 50" 1020p HD Panasonic plasma TV and the images are quite good. But good is in the eye of the beholder.
See Jim Symon's post in this iDVD topic: Re: High-definition DVDs. Also search his other posts as he was working out a workflow using Photo to Movie to create high def movies and burn them with iDVD. As I recall he found and posted his workflow at one time.

Photo quality and compression in iphoto vs canon's image browser, et. al.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for