Saving original and modified versions

Hey all,
Can someone tell me how to stop iphoto from saving both an original and modified version of my photos? It's very confusing when I try to access the photos to upload onto flickr, or to burn dvds etc.
I can't believe how much time I've wasted on this program--and now have had to start all over from scratch.
LH

Hello.
You do have a choice. Use a file browser. There are many available. They let you simply store the photos on your hard drive, in your folders, how you want them. Easy.
Why does iPhoto behave as it does? Because it offers much more complex features than any file browser. iPhoto is not a file browser. It is a database application with non-destructive editing. You import a photo. iPhoto creates a thumbnail version, linked to your original, for efficient presentation of your library on screen. You edit, and it creates a full-sized copy, which you then modify. It keeps track of the edited version, linked to your original. Your thumbnail is also located and updated to match the edited version. If you ever wish to go back, you can always Revert to Original. The edited version will be deleted, and your thumbnail will again reflect the change. All before you can blink your eyes.
So, yes, the way to get your files for uploading or burning to DVD is to select from iPhoto, then export. Because iPhoto will be sure to export the full-sized, most recent version of your photos. You never need to root around its library folders to find them yourself. Exporting gives you the additional ability to rename the copies. And, even better, to resize the copies, since smaller files work better for viewing on most websites. After you finish with the upload you can trash the exported copies.
Then consider the Albums and Folders in your Source Pane. With a file browser, you'd have to duplicate your files to display them in more than one album (because album = folder). With iPhoto's database, albums never create duplication; they are virtual arrangements which have no presence in your folder structure. The benefit - you can have a photo in 100 albums, with very little increase to the size of your library.
Play with other search features, and iPhoto becomes very powerful indeed. Smart Albums can be created to compile photos based on many criteria, and they stay current with your library. With the calendar tool you can pull up photos from any year, month, and/or date with just a few clicks. Keywords can be used to include or eliminate (Option-click a keyword) groups of photos until you have just the grouping you want. [Ex: I can find all photos of my daughter, with my in laws, at a festival, NOT at Christmas, with animals....]
It is a shift in thinking to leave the iPhoto Library alone and let iPhoto deal with the file management. As long as it works, why does it matter how it's done? You have all of its tools at your disposal.

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How can I create a slideshow that depicts only a version of a photo rather than the original? Since the original and new versions are saved together, the aperture slideshow often choices the original rather than the desired version to display/

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There are two things we use the name "Slideshow" for in Aperture: a Slideshow Album, used for making Slideshows, and the Slideshow that is made. (Imho, it is a design mistake to not call the containers used to create Slideshows, Books, etc., "Albums".)
The Slideshow will use the Album Pick from any Stack. A good way to use Aperture is to promote the Image you want to regularly use (such as, for example, a Version with adjustments) to the top of the Stack. This makes it the Stack Pick, and will be the default Album Pick. If you haven't done that, you can still change the Album Pick for any Stack in a Slideshow Album. Expand your Stack(s), select the Image in each Stack that you want to be the Album Pick (and thus shown in the Slideshow), and "Stacks➞Set Album Pick". (Note the keyboard shortcut; there is also a Toolbar icon for this.) The change is immediate. The Slideshow will always show the Album Pick (or, if there is not one, the Stack Pick) for every Stack in your Slideshow Album.

How can I merge original and modified folders in iphoto library?

I see 2 folders within iPhoto library - originial and modified. Original folder keeps all pictures in original and modified has the edited version for picture I edit. So iPhoto basically keeps 2 version for any picture I modify, which takes a lot of space.
I would like to have just one copy for each picture (original picture or only modified version of the picture if I edit) - this way I think I would save a lot of memory. Could someone please advise
1. if there is any iPhoto settings that I change, so that it starts saving only 1 copy for each picture
2. If I could something with my already existing pictures - i.e. if there is a way I can delete "original" version of only those pictures for which "modified" version is available.
Let me know if anything is not clear or you need any more information. Thanks in advance.

Don't use iPhoto.
Iphoto is a Digital Asset Manager designed to protect your original file at all costs. In other words it treats the original like a film shooter treats the negative. This is hard-wired into iPhoto, it's the very heart of the programme. If you don't want that feature, don't use iPhoto/
Note that there are different versions of the photo, they are not copies. The Original is required for the Non-Destructive editing feature in iPhoto.
So, specifically, no you cannot merge the two folders - and by the way, doing so won't save any memory at all, just some diks space.
1. if there is any iPhoto settings that I change, so that it starts saving only 1 copy for each picture
There isn't.
2. If I could something with my already existing pictures - i.e. if there is a way I can delete "original" version of only those pictures for which "modified" version is available.
There isn't.
If space is an issue: use an external drive for the Library:
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Or, just use an app that works the way you want.
Regards
TD

Combining original and edited versions of photos?

Is there some way to "combine" photos in iPhoto such that edits I've made outside of iPhoto register as modified versions of the original images? (I only started using iPhoto last year, but I have original and edited versions of photos from before then. The same happens if I take a photo on my iPhone and edit it via an app before importing it to iPhoto.)
Thanks!

Well, I have gotten one thing to work: "edit" the original photo, save it without changes, open that file (under the Modified/ folder in my iPhoto Library), copy the modified file into that location, delete the "modified" photo and rename the actual modified file to that name, and then iPhoto sees it.
Lot of work though…
*And VERY dangerous*
NEVER make any changes to the structure or content of the iPhoto library using the finder - doing so carries a very high risk of corrupting your library and causing loss of data and possibly photos
The only safe way is to export the edited photo(s) and then import back to iPhoto and delete the old unedited photos using iPhoto - trying to do it with the finder as you are may work if you never make a mistake but it is VERY dangerous and should not be done
LN

How to transfer both original and modified images to another computer?

Hi,
I've been trying to figure out if there is a way to copy items between iPhoto libraries in two different computers.
Basically I've got a desktop mac and all my digial images are sorted in the iPhoto library there. This is where I want to keep them as the disk is a NFS-mounted RAID-array adding a bit more security.
Now I've got a macbook pro as a travelling companion. To avoid a huge project later in sorting and editing the pictures, I'd like to do that in pieces while abroad. So I'll edit the pictures already in the macbook and also would like to sort out what stuff to publish by creating albums containing the best pictures.
But how to preserve all that when coming back home? How do I export the stuff from the macbook so that it preserves both the original and modified image and also any comments I've added? And then how to import all this to the mac mini? When I'm at home, both the computers can access the same NFS server so transferring the data is not a problem.
I can of course export the pictures to a folder, copy that folder to the shared disk and then import in the mac mini. But export seems to export only the modified image so I'll lose that if doing it that way. If I just copy the files to the modified/original -folders in the mac mini, the index files of the mac mini lack the information about the new pictures as they were not properly imported.
Is there any way to do this? I can't just copy all the stuff including index files as then I'd lose track on the 10000+ pictures already in the iPhoto library of the mac mini.
/hv

Thanks.
It seems to be a little buggy. My first test import seemed to be ok but it didn't copy any of the modified pictures. It seemed to put some originals to the modified folder but not the real, modified ones. Second try seemed to work, though.
Anyway, this seems to be what I've been looking for.
/hv

Data, Original and Modified folders?

sorry, this may be a dumb question, but what's the difference between Data, Original and Modified folders? when I do a search for a specific folder, i find that I will find all the folders and there looks like duplicates but they are filed in Data, Original and sometimes additionally under Modified.
thanks!

A Note about the iPhoto Library Folder:
In this folder there are various files, which are the Library itself and some ancillary files. Then you have three folders
Originals are the photos as they were downloaded from your camera or scanner.
(ii) Modified contains edited pics, shots that you have cropped, rotated or changed in any way.
(iii) Data holds the thumbnails the the app needs to show you the photos in the iPhoto Window.
Please remember that Finder searches do not really understand your iPhoto Library. If you use iPhoto the correct way to search for photos is via the iPhoto Window.
Regards
TD

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Example: When I want to access picture files that are originals and modified and upload them to the internet, but when I access the iPhoto folder there are two separate folders (Original folder & Modified folder). Is there an easy way to actually put both the original and modified pictures into the same folder so you can access both kind of pictures?
(Kind of a wierd question) Just thought it would be easier to access pictures this way.

Lets say I modify a picture and iPhoto keeps the original picture also isn't it taking up a lot of space on the hard drive?
IF space is an issue you can run iPhoto from an external HD. IF you don’t want to do that, +and don’t want to preserve the Original+ then - very simply - don’t use iPhoto.
Also I could still delete the original picture but it would have to be through the Finder or another hard drive.
Yes you could. And, as it’s your Mac and your photos feel free to do anything you want.
*But iPhoto won’t work if you do*.
Remember: 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 shows original and modified side by side

Hi.
I can't find the solution or similar cases on the web so I went to you.
On iPhoto (iLife 11), if I edit one photo and then I go back to the event where it belongs, I see both the original and the edited version of my photo. They have both the same name. (Of course they are stocked in different places by iPhoto on the HD).
It's much more annoying than usefull. Each time I modify a photo it gets duplicated. Please note that my photos are well imported in iPhoto's library.
I have crawled through the preferences and the menus, I can't find where it could be an option to show/hide originals.
Any idea why iPhoto behaves like this ?
Thank you very much.

With the amount of information you've provided it's impossible to offer a potential solution. We can't see your computer so we need to know the details of your problem and setup, i.e.:
what version of iPhoto are you using?
what system version are you running?
what fixes have you tried?
where is your library located?
did you apply any updates or upgrades just prior to the problem occurring?
are you running a "managed" or "referenced" library?
what type of Mac?
how much free space on your boot drive?
how are you editing the photo. With iPhoto or an exterernal image editor?
Happy Holidays

Have original and modified pic in diffrent events

Hi,
i would like to edit a photo so that i keep the original in some event and i would like to move the modified version to new event.
What is the proper way of doing this?
Thank you.
Also: i tryed copy, but if i go to new event it wont paste :/

I can duplicate the issue in existing and new Libraries.
The interesting this is what happens if you go
File -> Reveal in Finder -> Original file for the first photo.
Then go
File -> Reveal in Finder -> Original file for the duplicate.
You get the same file in the Finder. Iphoto is not actually duplicating the File, like in previous versions, just the image. It's a virtual duplication.
If you edit the file (even a simple rotate or crop), a new file is created, can be found by going
File -> Reveal in Finder -> Modified file
Now you can move either the actual photo or the modified version to another Event with no issue.
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To solve the specific issue: you'll need to actually make an edit prior to moving the file.
Regards
TD

Original and modified file folders in iPhoto

I just loaded photos into iPhoto and the files populated in both the Originals and Modified file folders in iPhoto. None of these photos have been modified. I'm concerned with conserving disk space on my Mac. How do I keep this from happening moving forward?

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". Because iPhoto integrate with other apps it automaticlly creates the modified version. Otherwise photos would turn up in your emails or word processing documents sideways, as these apps don't know nything about such tags.
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Regards
TD

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At first I was going to keep both the original .dng AND the .dng after adjustment in Camera Raw (save w/[DONE] hosted in Bridge) - but in the interest of saving some space I thought I could instead save only the adjusted .dng.
That way I'd have saved my adjustments, but if I ever wanted to "start over," or try another processing round for the file, I could just make a copy of the adjusted .dng and reset everything to 'default' in Camera Raw so that the file would be (I think...) just as it was right after the .cr2 -> .dng conversion.
Is there any major/critical flaw to this plan? I don't want to start to do this and then find out 1,000 images later that I overlooked something I shouldn't have.

Steep Ascent wrote:
Is there any major/critical flaw to this plan? I don't want to start to do this and then find out 1,000 images later that I overlooked something I shouldn't have.
Well, you do know that Camera Raw has the ability to store Snapshots, right? So, when you get finished with an image you can save a snapshot so you can keep a record of your image adjustments. You could then also do a snapshot of the Camera Raw "Defaults" will in essence be whatever you have set as the default for your camera...
But no, as long as you are sure you'll _NEVER_ need to use the camera makers raw processing software, saving out a DNG with your snapshots should not produce a technical issue down the road...
With the possible exception of the fact this stuff keeps getting better and better so while your PSD might be state of the art given today's processing, the next version of Camera Raw may be capable of producing better results. You are under no obligation to reprocess your images once you are done with them, but nice to know you can if you want to...

What is the difference between 'command delete' and using 'delete original and all versions'?

My masters are not referenced and I usually have only one version. What is the difference between using 'command delete' versus going to the top menu bar and using 'dele

Good question .
When the Version is the only Version based on the Original of that Version, the two commands have the same effect.
See this User Tip by master Aperturist Frank Caggiano.

Viewing Original and modified side by side

Hi,
I was wordering if it where possible to see the original picture while having the modified one side by side to see the difference while editing.
Thanks,
Stephane

Hi Stephane,
With iPhoto 6 you can hold down the Control key after the edit to view the original and edited photo side by side.
This option is not available in iPhoto 5.
You can however drag the photo from the library view to the desktop to copy the original to the desktop. Double click to open the photo on the desktop in Preview.
Now within iPhoto, do your edit on the photo in the library. Switch between iPhoto window and the Preview window to compare. You should be able to view both at the same time by adjusting your windows.

Iphoto and pse elements 9 events original and modified

Hi I am new to iphoto and adobe elements 9 so please accept my apologises if this is answered eleswhere.
I have set up iphoto with the library to store my photos and set up in prefs. to use elements as editior. I can click on edit when on a photo in either events or photos and edit with elements then save and the photo is sent back to iphoto. All this is ok. When I view my photos in either photo or event i see two photos the original and the edited one. I have follwed the path of each photo back the photo on the left for example can be revealed in finder as the original, the photo on the right can be revealed in finder as the orginal and the modified. Both orignals are revealed as the same photo so only in one place. Can I get events to only show the modified photo not both oginal and modified. The only way I can see is to hide the original. I have followed carefully all the editing instructions in the discussions and i believe to be doing this correct. As soon as I click on edit I see a duplicate photo apear then elements opens and I do my editing and then save (not save as) and the photo goes back to iphoto as modified image. To sum up I have only one original and one modified stored in iphoto but both are in events when viewing events.
Thanks for any help given.

Suggest that you delete preferences:
Preference settings control how Photoshop Elements displays images, cursors, and transparencies, saves files, uses plug‑ins and scratch disks, and so on. If the application exhibits unexpected behavior, the preferences file may be damaged. You can restore all preferences to their defaults.
Press and hold Alt+Control+Shift immediately after Photoshop Elements begins launching. Click Yes to delete the Adobe Photoshop Elements settings file.
A new preferences file is created the next time you start Photoshop Elements. For information on a specific preference option, search for the preference name in Help.

What is the difference between original and modified?

Hi,
Because of a series of odd coincidences, I need to reconstruct my iPhoto library. The iPhoto directory is 'broken', apparently past the point of bring repaired. The disk utility can't do it, Disk Warrior can't do it, nor could the genius at the Apple Store, though to his credit he won't on it off and on for almost an entire day.
The images themselves are there on the drive, and I'm planning to reimport them a year at a time, and rebuild the directory manually.
My question is this: there are two folders containing the images, one labeled Original, one labeled Modified. At first glance, the meaning of those terms seems obvious -- one contains the original image, the other contains -- what? an actual modified image? Or just pointer to the changes I've made. For example, if I had cropped an image, what is in the second folder labeled Modified -- the cropped image, or the original image and a series of instructions on how to display it?
Put another way, what should I import into the 'new' iPhoto library? The originals? Or the Modified?
Thanks,
Hal
Note: The odd coincidence: For reasons unknown, the directory for my iPhoto library got corrupted, and couldn't be fixed. At almost the same time, the backup drive failed.

The original is as you suspect an exact copy of the original imported image - the modified is a preview of the current version with editing - to start over you should use the originals
LN

Saving original and modified versions

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