Picture organizing

So hopefully now that Aperture is getting out there, I can get a good answer for the question that's kept me from ordering it.
Does Aperture actually insist upon organizing your picture files in its own database and file structure, like iPhoto? Or can you use it without having it do that?
If it works that way, that would be a total show-stopper, so I'd like to know before I go and order it. I can't imagine anyone would design a program like this and then make it work that way, but they did it once with iPhoto, so, you never know...

Does Aperture actually insist upon organizing your picture files in its own database and file structure, like iPhoto? Or can you use it without having it do that?
yea, that's why (i think) iphoto is annoying...
i believe there are benefits from having proprietary database inside aperture,
but pro users will probably welcome a more "open-ended" architecture.
btw (for those have already got aperture)
after importing the raw files, i.e. aperture duplicating them, can i remove the original files? if not, then a several-hundred Gb library will need HD capacity x2!
QS2002 DP1Ghz | iBook 12" 1.2G

Similar Messages

Keeping Scanned Pictures Organized

I'm scanning in my Dad's slides - who was very bad on dating things. Thus I have, for example, 9 boxes of slides developed in July of 1966.
I would like to scan them in, give them a tentative date of July 1966, but also ensure that all the slides in box 1 stay together when displayed and in
the order they were taken. Is there an easy way to do this? And what happens if I figure out that slides 9,10, and 11 were taken 15 June 1966 - is there a way to ensure that slides 1-8 stay displayed before those and slides 12-24 stay displayed after them? I would rather not enter DDMMYY when the DD (and the MM) may be in question.
thanks

To answer some of the questions contained in the responses by MichelBParis and dj_paige.
1) Yes I'm using a scanner program and then adding the folder to PSE. I'm giving the files names in the format of YYYY_MM_BX#_SEQID. I was using a Directory structure of YYYY_MM.
2) Yes, I've been applying tags (names, places)
3) The reason for trying to keep "boxes" in the context was for two reasons 1) that if I later found a picture in my Mom's files (who did date everything) that matched one in my Dad's then I could better date the box and 2) my Dad was a procrastinator, I found a box of 24 xmas pictures developed in April - so I'm working with the assumption that the develop date may be within a year of the actual date taken.
4) I hadn't considered using the caption field for notes and photo description - I think I'll give that a try.
5) Creating Tags for boxes was something I had considered - and was trying to avoid becuase of the number of Tags I'd be creating - I may need to reconsider that.
Anyway;
Thanks for the responses.

IPhoto picture organizing

hi all,
is there any way i can influence the way iphoto stores pictures on my hard drive? one example:is it possible that my albums show up in finder as actual folders? any suggestion is appreciated!
thanks, flix
iBook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.7)

flix:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. No, iPhoto's albums are only virtual folders and cannot be accessed via the Finder. Why do you need to have those folders in an folder that you can access via the Finder?
Do you Twango?
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto database file and keep it current. If problems crop up where iPhoto suddenly can't see any photos or thinks there are no photos in the library, replacing the working Library6.iPhoto file with the backup will often get the library back. By keeping it current I mean backup after each import and/or any serious editing or work on books, slideshows, calendars, cards, etc. That insures that if a problem pops up and you do need to replace the database file, you'll retain all those efforts. It doesn't take long to make the backup and it's good insurance.

Can't view NEF thumbnails or pictures

Hi everyone =)
I am using Adobe Photoshop CS6 version 13.0.6 with Camera Raw 8.8.0.397 and Adobe Bridge CS6 version 5.0.2.4 all on OS X Yosemite 10.10.2.
My NEF files (thumbnails & picture) taken with my Nikon D5300 and stored on an external drive (where I can easily preview them outside of Bridge) won't load on Bridge.
I want to see them in Bridge to tag them with keywords!
Could you help me with this issue? What should I do?
Best,
Charly

Yes, I can see them (jpg and NEF) in Finder.
I have my pictures organized in folders by year ("2013", "2014", "2015") and then in subfolders by country, and then in sub sub folders by day or event. Which folders do I need to purge? I did my general pictures folder (that contains the "year" folders) and I did the individual "year" folders too. I didn't do the country and day folders because that would be a ridiculous amount of work.
I did what you suggested but it didn't change anything:
- I can see the jpg files from previous years that I've always seen in Bridge and never had a problem with so far.
- But I can't see the NEF files or jpg files (recent files) I've converted from NEF to jpg. Even after purging the cache.
Is it because all of my pictures sit in an external drive?
Any other suggestions?

Iphoto library transfer not organized in folders

My Mac book pro HD was full and I wanted a larger 500GB HDD. I had Best Buy swap out the old drive for a new HDD.
I needed to transfer my iphoto collection to my computer ( with the new high capacity HDD ). I used a adaptor to conncect the now externalized HDD to the mac book pro. It was recognized. I was able to then tranfer my photos from the library to the desktop of my mac book pro (all 12000 pictures and videos ). I then dragged this to iphotos and all 12000 pictures transferred sucessfully. The problem is that I had all of these pictures organized by folders with event names and dates. They did not transfer over like this. All 12000 came over into a single event folder arranged in random order.
HELP! Is there a way to fix this. I need all of these 12000 pictures organized like they were ...in about 200 or so event folders.
The externalized HDD is now unreadable! Dont know what happened to it but now when I connect it, the mac book does not recognize it and it is unreadable..maybe this can be fixed and it still has all of my folders on it with my pictures organized.
I still have the photos sitting in my desk top as well ( from the original tranfer as I did save then to the desk top thankfully )
Any advise is appreciated
Thank you

You do not provide details of how you transfered the iPhoto library - the correct way is
Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
You do not transfer photos and you do not import anything - just drag the iPhoto library package accross and open it with iPhoto
LN

Deleting Original Pictures Question?

I just started using iPhoto. Prior to that I had all my pictures organized in folders by event. I imported all my pictures in iPhoto and almost everything was correct. For about 500 photos they dates we wrong causing the events to be out of order. I changed all the dates to the correct dates. I looked in the package contents on the iPhoto library file and noticed that there is a modified folder and an original folder. My question is relating to that... I compared the two folders and found that when I modified the date it created an entire new file in the modified folder... but it did not delete the original. I can understand keeping the original if you ever want to revert back or something... but all I did was change the date. I don't see the point in having two copies of the same picture, only with different dates.
Is there anyway to delete those originals without manually going through original directory and comparing the files to the modified directory???
Thank in advance!

Is there anyway to delete those originals without manually going through original directory and comparing the files to the modified directory???
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.
Regards
TD

IPhoto events duplicate my pictures and use up my space

When I organize my pictures in iPhoto events, pictures duplicate and use up my space/memory, what can I do? I have a MacBook Air and I have used up all my free space because I tried to organize my pictures. I will rather have my pictures organized by events, where are the duplicates being saved? How can I eliminate them so I only have them at events?

Where are you seeing these duplicates? Remember if you're seeing them in the Events mode and the Photos mode those are the same. The photos mode is just a different way of viewing the photos in the Events, There's no duplications.
As Larry requested please describe your workflow and where you're seeing the duplication.

IPhoto 11 keeps asking to import pictures

I recently bought an MacBook Pro and Im still learning how to use all the features, including iPhoto. I have all my pictures organized and imported in iPhoto 11 but now every time I open iPhoto 11 it keeps asking me twice if I want to import 6 pictures. No matter if I say Yes or No, it's asking me again next time I open iPhoto and if I say Yes, no photos are getting imported...
How can I fix that problem?

Go to your Pictures Folder and find the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.
Look there for a Folder called 'Import' or 'Importing'.
Drag it to the Desktop. Make no other changes. Start iPhoto. Does that help?
If it does then look inside that folder on your desktop. Does it contain anything you want? If not you can trash the folder.

Folders added to "Desktop Pictures" not visible in System Prefs...

Hello,
I am trying to add additional wallpaper images to the "/Library/Desktop Pictures" directory. I can add images to this dir and they are visible in the Desktop & Screen Saver preferences, however newly added folders are not (I would like to add folders so I can keep the pictures organized).
How do I get Desktop & Screen Saver prefs to see new folders?
-Steve

Hi Mike,
Thanks very much! That did the trick!
Just so you know, there is one additional file I edited to make the folders appear with the desired name. Basically if you just add the text to Collections.plist it will display the folder but with the name on the identifier tag. If you want the folder to show a name other than the identifier you have to edit the Collections.strings file in the English.lproj directory.
Here are the instructions I've put together for this whole procedure:
--------------------INSTRUCTIONS------------------------
- cd /System/Library/PreferencePanes/DesktopScreenEffectsPref.prefPane/Contents/Resou rces/DesktopPictures.prefPane/Contents/Resources
- sudo vi Collections.plist
- add additional items in the following form:
identifier = myPatterns;
path = "/Library/Desktop Pictures/My Patterns";
showScalingPopUp = YES;
- save file and exit
THEN
- cd English.lproj
- sudo vi Collections.strings
add line entries in the following format:
myPatterns = "My Patterns";
(the tag on the left of the '=' sign must match the identifier noted above)
save file and exit
--------------------INSTRUCTIONS------------------------
The only thing I haven't been able to figure out is how to get the scaling drop-down box to appear; you know, the drop-down box that gives you the following choices on how to display the image: Fill screen, Stretch to fill screen, Center, Tile.
I see in the Collections.plist file there is a tag for showScalingPopUp and I've set this to YES on some folders, but it doesn't bring up the drop-down box when I select an image within that folder.
I can certainly live without this b/c it's not that critical, but still it's curious...
-Steve

Best sequence to follow after, or before, importing pictures using an iMac?

I recently purchased Lightroom 4 to use on my iMac. I will first be importing several thousand pictures in numerous folders from the iMac finder picture file. My plan is to organize these numerous folders in a Lightroom catalog, or catalogs; a Lightroom file format which makes sense; a collection set, or sets, and collections. After I have these pictures organized in Lightroom, I plan to reveiw them, discard, arrange, edit as necessary. I want the Lightroom file structure in my iMac finder picture file seperate from all the other numerous folders, since I have many more picture folders to move into the finder picture folder from iPhoto. What do I do first and subsequently to make all this happen? I will also want to add information in Lightroom about the pictures such as the camera used, when taken, copyright, etc. And, eventually, I will also be importing new pictures into Lightroom. Is it best to import directly from a card into Lightroom or onto my iMac hard drive and then into Lightroom? I assume this will depend first on answers to my earlier questions. And how do I set up Lightroom 4 so I can migrate between it and Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 which I will also be using for more detailed editing of my pictures? Any step-by-step directions would be greatly appreciated asap. Thank you.

I have a couple of comments
Unless you have a very good reason for using multiple catalogs, you want to go with a single catalog. One catalog. Emphasis on "one". As in: less than two, and greater than zero. I hope this is clear. What would be a very good reason for using multiple catalogs? I can only think of one, and that is if you have photos that have completely non-overlapping subject matter, such as personal vs work, then two catalogs would make sense.
Instead of using "a collection set, or sets, and collections", I would first begin by using keywords as your primary organizing tool. While keywords and collections overlap somewhat, the benefit of keywords are that they can stay with the photo, if that's of interest to you. Thus, if you send the photo via e-mail, or upload to a website, or make use of the photo in other programs, your keywords will be available in all of those situations. If you use collections, these are not available outside of Lightroom. Additionally, you can add captions and other metadata for more detailed descriptions of what is in the photo, these can be very helpful.
"After I have these pictures organized in Lightroom, I plan to reveiw them, discard, arrange, edit as necessary." I would discard the ones you don't want before you do any other organizing.
"I want the Lightroom file structure in my iMac finder picture file seperate from all the other numerous folders, since I have many more picture folders to move into the finder picture folder from iPhoto." Not sure what this means at all, but the emphasis on worrying about file structure (do you mean “folder structure”?), in my very biased opinion, is the wrong emphasis, and will lead you down the wrong path. When you organize in Lightroom, folders are not an organizational tool ... they are simply places to put photos, with no other meaning. And so you can put your photos into default folder names (I use capture date, it takes no effort on my part) and then I use keywords to find all of my photos inside of LR. I never (and I really mean never) use folders to find anything.
"What do I do first and subsequently to make all this happen?" Import the photos. Delete the ones you don't want. Add keywords religiously, and optionally captions and other metadata. Edit.
"I will also want to add information in Lightroom about the pictures such as the camera used, when taken, copyright, etc. And, eventually, I will also be importing new pictures into Lightroom." Camera used is already present. You don't have to add it. When taken is already present. You don't have to add it. Copyright is something you will want to add, you can use the metadata panel and add it to all imported photos in one action.
"Is it best to import directly from a card into Lightroom or onto my iMac hard drive and then into Lightroom?" It doesn't matter, they are equivalent. Depends on what you want to do. I import directly from the card, as it saves me a step. But either way, the photos wind up on your hard disk somewhere. (For photos that are already on the hard disk, you would import using the "Add" option.)
"...how do I set up Lightroom 4 so I can migrate between it and Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 which I will also be using for more detailed editing of my pictures?" In preferences, you set up PSE10 as an external editor.

Rescan location has to be done for every picture?

rescan location has to be done for every picture? I have about 300 pics all on the same drive and folder and it seems like I have to find them one by one - can't I just click to that folder and it finds all the missing pictures which are all in the same folder on that volume?
This seems like torture and I can't find a way to re-establish the link to this organized drive that had all the pictures organized by year, month and named appropriately.

Assuming you mean you're using iPhoto 11 then, short of hacking the SQL database there is no solution.
This thread details one users efforts to do that:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3216539?tstart=30
Regards
TD

Image content type in Site Asset Image library: The Preview and Thumbnail Preview columns do not display the picture of the item.

I have two different Site Asset libraries. The Site Asset Picture library has items of
content type picture. The Site Asset Image Library has items of
content type image.
1) I do not quite understand the different between a picture content type versus an image content type.
2) the thumbnail and preview columns do not display the image in the Site Asset
Image Library. (the image does display in the thumbnail column of the Site Asset Picture library.) I expected the image to display in the Site Asset Image Library the same as it does in the Site Asset Picture library.
Why doesn't it?
Betty
Betty Stolwyk

I have subsequently found out that our "Site Asset Images" library is a Document Library to which someone must have replaced the Document content type with an Image content type. I also found out that picture previews/thumbnails cannot be displayed
in Document libraries. So the problem was the library type, not the content type.
So I simply created a new Picture Library (whose content type = picture) and copied the files into that and the thumbnails displayed just fine!
I bet what led to this is the default "Site Assets" library that is created for a new Team site. It is just a document library but sounds very similar to the "Assets" library. I can imagine someone thinking the "Site Assets" library was a standard
container for images, and simply changed the name to better identify the content!
As far as 'image' vs 'picture' content types, I noticed that a new Picture Library contains a content type of 'picture', but an Asset Library contains a content type of 'image' (as well as audio and video). Although the 'image' content type has a few
more fields than the 'picture' content type (picture content type does not have thumbnail), the actual Picture Library contains pretty much all the same fields, including the thumbnail. So for all practical purposes, either library type can be used for
storage of pictures. I am guessing that the Pictures Library which uses the picture content type is for backwards compatibility purposes, and that the 'image' content type is newer, being derived from the new "Rich Media Asset" content type and used
in the new Asset Library which can hold audio and video in addition to pictures.
Microsoft Help also mentioned that a Picture Library has a slide view which an Asset library does not. So my take on that is that if you want the potential of seeing your pictures as a slide show, put them in a Picture library which is still using
the 'picture' content type of previous SharePoint versions. If you want to keep pictures organized with audio/video files, then put them into an Asset library which uses the 'image' content type derived from the new Rich Media Asset content type.
Betty Stolwyk

Trouble creating album from My Pictures Folder

I'm trying to create an album from the My Pictures folder under the My Documents folder. Within MyPictures I have several years worth of pictures organized into different folders. I would like to basically import the folder structure into an Album. I can import all of the pictures but they're not organized in any useful way. I don't want to have to reoganize 5 years worth of pictures. I've been using Picassa and thought Photoshop Elements would be nice to have. Picassa easily organizes the pictures according to the folder structure I already have. Is there any practical way to import my folder structure into the album? If not I think I wasted my money on Photoshop. Thanks, I'll keep trying but for now I've gone back to Picassa to edit my pictures.
Mark

If you have PSE7 or later (not sure about PSE6), you can set the album name when you import photos from a folder. Its in the photo downloader, under advanced options.
An even simpler way to "recreate" your folder structure is to use Folder Location View (Alt-Ctrl-3), although there are some bugs that affect the operations of Folder Location View on occasion.
But ... the point of the Organizer is not to duplicate your folder structure as albums, or to organize by folders. If that's all you're going to do in the Organizer, I wouldn't bother, as it seems like a waste of time to me -- import, set the album name, and when you're all done, you have the same structure and have no benefits that you didn't have before in the folder structure. The Organizer is not a file browser, as Picasa is.
However, if you plan to create these albums, plus use the more powerful tools in the Organizer: (tags, captions, notes) you will have a much more powerful organization of your photos. These tools allow you to organize your photos in non-hierarchical ways (folder organization must be hierarchical). If you want all of your pictures of Churches, regardless of which folder they are in, you click on the Church tag, and you've got them all. You really can't do that in Windows, or with your folders duplicated into albums. If you are going to use these tools (along with your albums), or use the Organizer to make creations, then great, its probably worth your time.

Cloud backup of Elements 13 pictures

I have my pictures organized in Elements 13. Right now I backup the pictures to local hard drives. I want to change to cloud backup but at the same time I want to access the pictures using the same way I have them organized in Elements. There are many cloud backup packages such as Carbonite, crashplan, etc. They simply backup the way the pictures are stored on my "C" hard drive. Does Adobe have a cloud backup plan which will backup my pictures and at the same preserve the Elements organization and at the same time allow access over the internet so that I can easily show pictures to others.

if anyone knows a way to take cloud backups of my iPhoto library, but to copy only the jpgs, not the raw files?
The really easy way is to upload the shots to a photo site like Flickr or SmugMug. But bear in mind that the Raws will be represented only by your iPhoto Previews.
There are many options: Flickr, Picasa, SmugMug etc. However, check the terms of your account carefully. While most sites have free uploading, you will often find that these uploads are limited in terms of the file size or the bandwidth you can use per month. For access that allows you to upload full size pics with no restrictions you may need to pay.

Importing pictures using iPhoto to the pictures folder

I don't understand why I can't select a folder to import my pictures to when using iPhoto. I really like the way I have all my pictures organized in my pictures folder but it only lets me import to the iPhoto library folder. If I try to move the pictures after I import them, then iPhoto can't find them and gets confused. Is there any way to rectify this?

That is not the way iPhoto works - you need to use iPhoto correctly or use a different program
iPhoto is a SQL databasse program and it must be the only program that makes changes to its database - you never need to and never should go into its database - you must NEVER make any changes of any sort to the structure or contents of the iphoto library (the SQL dataabase)
You access your photos via iPhoto or via the media browser in the lower left hand corner of every open/attach/upload window
If you want to use iPhoto then you need to learn it - start by watching the tutorials
LN

Picture organizing

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