Starting my photo organisation, currently in folders, iPhoto keep structure

Question

Currently all my pics are organised roughly in folders on my external disk. I want to start using iPhoto to organise,tag like I have done with my iTunes library.
Currently there like this...
2008 > Sons party
Xmas
summer holiday
etc etc
I know I want to import all to iPhoto and I want to let it do it's stuff, but what about structure? Or will I have to just do a export as I want and need? Picking individual photos as I need? (time consuming)
also I plan to use an external disk and use I for Time Machine. Does iPhoto and all your pics get backed up using Time Machine? If so then I would have a decent backup of my pics, ie 1 on interal HDD on iMac and one on external disk using Time Machine
cheers

Answer 1

The first thing when working with iPhoto is, oddly, to forget about the files and concentrate on your photos.
As to structure - this is the genius of iPhoto. What structure do you want? In your current structure in the Finder it's all quite limited. Yes, you can find all the pics from Xmas 2008 very easily. But what if you want to see all the Xmas pics from all the years? Quickly?
The core strength of iPhoto are its Albums and Smart Albums. Along with rating and keywords they mean you have pretty much infinite possibilities for finding and structuring your collection.
I use Events simply as big buckets of Photos: Spring 08, July - Nov 06 are typical Events in my Library. I use keywords and Smart Albums exensively. I title the pics broadly.
I keyword on a
Who
What
Where basis (The When is in the photos's Exif metadata). I also rate the pics on a 1 - 5 star basis.
Using this system I can find pretty much find any pic in my 25k library in a couple of seconds.
So, for example, I have a batch of pics titled 'Seattle 08' and a typical keywording might include: John, Anne, Landscape, mountain, trees, snow. With a rating included it's so very easy to find the best pics we took at Mount Rainier.
File -> New Smart Album
set it to 'All"
title contains Seattle
keyword is mountain
keyword is snow
rating is 5 stars
Or, want a chronological album of John from birth to today?
New Smart Album
Keyword is John
Set the View options to Sort By Date Ascending
Want only the best pics?
add Rating is greater than 4 stars
The best thing about this system is that it's dynamic. If I add 50 more pics of John to the Library tomorrow, as I keyword and rate them they are added to the Smart Album.
Keywording takes time to set up, there's no doubt about it. I use Keyword Manager as it's much more powerful than the inbuilt system, and adds the possibility of nested keywords. So, for instance, if I add John to a photo it also adds 'Family'. Now I can add many keywords to a pic quickly.
In the end, organisation is about finding the pics. The point is to make locating that pic or batch of pics findable fast. This system works for me.
I'm not sure what you mean by this comment:
r will I have to just do a export as I want and need? Picking individual photos as I need? (time consuming)
Finding a pic in iPhoto is a lot faster than in the Finder, so I don't understand you comment. There's no need to export - depending on what you're using the photo for:
There are many, many ways to access your files in iPhoto:
*For Users of 10.5 and later*
You can use any Open / Attach / Browse dialogue. On the left there's a Media heading, your pics can be accessed there. Command-Click for selecting multiple pics.
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
(Note the above illustration is not a Finder Window. It's the dialogue you get when you go File -> Open)
You can access the Library from the New Message Window in Mail:
Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
*For users of 10.4 and later* ...
Many internet sites such as Flickr and SmugMug have plug-ins for accessing the iPhoto Library. If the site you want to use doesn’t then some, one or any of these will also work:
To upload to a site that does not have an iPhoto Export Plug-in the recommended way is to Select the Pic in the iPhoto Window and go File -> Export and export the pic to the desktop, then upload from there. After the upload you can trash the pic on the desktop. It's only a copy and your original is safe in iPhoto.
This is also true for emailing with Web-based services. However, if you're using Gmail you can use iPhoto2GMail
If you use Apple's Mail, Entourage, AOL or Eudora you can email from within iPhoto.
If you use a Cocoa-based Browser such as Safari, you can drag the pics from the iPhoto Window to the Attach window in the browser.
*If you want to access the files with iPhoto not running*:
For users of 10.6 and later:
You can download a free Services component from MacOSXAutomation which will give you access to the iPhoto Library from your Services Menu. Using the Services Preference Pane you can even create a keyboard shortcut for it.
For Users of 10.4 and later:
Create a Media Browser using Automator (takes about 10 seconds) or use this free utility Karelia iMedia Browser
Other options include:
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.
You can store your iPhoto Library on an external disk that is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
I'm not sure if TM will back up material on a external disk, but there are many, many utilities that will do incremental back ups such as DejaVu or Chronosync or any of the many, many options you'll find searching on MacUpdate
Regards
TD