The Basics on Integrating Photoshop Elements and iPhoto

Question

I've been using iPhoto and PSE 4 for several months, and love what I can do with my pictures, but I haven't mastered exactly how to integrate the two. I'd really like to continue using iPhoto to organize my pictures, but I'm just not sure I "get" how to deal with pictures I've worked on in PSE and then want to bring back (with changes) into iPhoto. I guess I'm asking for ideas on a simple, effective workflow for a hobby user with a fair number of pictures to manage. It would be helpful to me to understand some of the "behind the scenes" stuff...why things should be done a certain way; this makes it easier to really "get" what's happening, and not have to keep re-reading what to do. Thanks.

Answer 1

When you import RAW files into iPhoto, the RAW is tucked safely away in your Originals folder, and iPhoto immediately places a jpeg version into the Modified folder. So if you open what you think is a RAW for editing, you are really just getting a JPEG. iPhoto can't edit RAW files at all. So, if you are importing a RAW and a jpeg version of every shot, then you are in fact doubling your library.
I agree that it is easiest to set up Elements as your external editor in iPhoto. I do this (and only use jpegs, too). Select photos in iPhoto, double-click to open in Elements, edit, save. This save creates a modified version in iPhoto and is reflected in the iPhoto library immediately. However, if the file name or extension changes and requires a Save As, this will not link to the original in iPhoto. So do any Save As-ing to a folder outside of the iPhoto library, then import to iPhoto as a new original. In iPhoto I have a keyword to identify photos that I've edited in Elements. It used to bother me that I spent all that time editing a photo, only to have it get mixed in with all the others. With my "edited in PE 4" keyword I can find all my best edits quickly. This is my workflow for editing jpeg files.
My suggestion for your workflow with RAW files is to use Image Capture to upload from the camera to a folder - anywhere NOT inside the iPhoto library folder. Elements has a great RAW editing workspace, so with your RAW files in a non-library folder you could access them directly from Elements if you like to tweak your RAW files.
Then you have a choice. You could import the edited RAW files into iPhoto. Any subsequent editing would be done on the jpeg created in the Modified folder. You would not need to import your camera-created jpegs at all. (Unless you want to compare how your photo looked before and after you tweaked the RAW in Elements.) (Perhaps you had already imported the jpegs so you could view in iPhoto before you finished editing the RAW versions.) OR, leave the RAW files outside of iPhoto and only import the jpegs. But then, tweaking the RAW files wouldn't be that helpful, since you wouldn't see the outcome in iPhoto. Not a good choice, I guess. The bottom line is that if you want to edit your RAW files as RAW files, you should do so before importing into iPhoto.
iPhoto automatically adds a RAW keyword to RAW files, so they're easy to find. An organizational suggestion is to create separate film rolls in iPhoto for RAW and jpeg. So if you import some photos today you could name one roll 20070123...RAW and the other 20070123...jpg. There may be a good reason to keep the jpeg versions independently from the RAWs, but I can't think of one specifically. Is it easier to print from jpeg? Does it make exporting faster, since you don't have to convert the files as you export? I honestly don't know, because I've never used RAW.
I don't have a simple answer, but maybe this information will help you decide what works for you.