What is best way to organize photos in iPhoto? Album? Date? Person? Place?

I recently imported all my PC photos over and not sure how mac users organize them. Album, date, person etc????

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 extensively. 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 40k 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.
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.

Similar Messages

What is the best way to organize photos? iPhoto or Aperture?

I am a mom taking tons of photos of my young children. On my old PC I used to organize everything within "My Pictures" by Month & Year (May 2008). I am a very organized, linear person and don't like to change the way I do things midstream so I am having a hard time figuring out how to organize our family photos now that I have switched to a Mac with iPhoto and Aperture. In the future I hope to learn about Aperture's professional tools (which as a mom & not a professional photographer I currently do not use). I would love to take photography classes at a local community college someday...
My questions are as follows:
1) What is the better way for ME to store our photos? Should I be uploading to iPhoto or Aperture? I basically want all of my "master photo images" in the same location in an organized fashion. I am hoping to do this without clogging up my computer. At this point I am thinking at the end of each year I will burn the year's photos to a disk for save keeping. But until then...
2) Is the "library" the over-arching place where all photos are stored? In general, I am having a hard time following the hierarchy of where my photos are being stored, how to organize them and how to completely delete bad photos.
3) Can I do everything I can do in iPhoto in Aperture? Obviously I know I can do more but is it as easy to edit/fix up photos?
I have listened to/watched several tutorials on both programs and have read through many other folks' questions/answers but I am still not sure of what to do.
I really appreciate any help/advice anyone is willing to give!
Thanks!

I'm not a professional either, just a grandma with a love of digital photography who takes lots of photos. We used to live in a motorhome full time, so we had lots of opportunities to take many photos.
I personally like Aperture better than iPhoto because I like to use some of the NIK software/plugins where I can do the adjusting right in Aperture and don't always have to send the photos to PhotoShop. Also you have a bit more flexibility as to file set ups with Aperture. In iPhoto you don't have as many nesting capabilities. iPhoto is great, but pretty basic.
I had my photos set up as files on the PC, long before I got my first Mac. So I set them up the same way. I'll try to explain
In Finder:
Pictures (in side bar on left in Finder)
Folder - My Photos
2nd Folder - by year
In the year folder I have a folder by date ie: 20000722 (year,month,date) and the photos from that date in there.
Once I got to using Aperture, I have my years set up as "projects" and the dates set up as "Albums". When importing the whole set of photos into Aperture, it was easy. I highlighted the "library", then did a right mouse click and selected "import folders as projects". That imported the photos into Aperture the same way I have them in finder.
Once everything is in Aperture, and you have new photos to add, I make an album under the corresponding year and import.
I do all my photos as referenced and don't duplicate them again, as I have them backed up in a couple of other places.
IMHO you can't back up enough! Don't wait and do it only once a year! Hard drives have a way of crashing and you'll loose all your photos. Use DVD's, thumb drives, ext. hard drives or what ever works for you. But always back up.
When I take my photos off of the memory card, I immediately send a copy to the back up external HD. Once the photos are adjusted etc. I make sure I have a copy elsewhere too. Only then do I erase them off of the memory card. Might be a bit redundant, but I'm not about to loose any of my photos. When we lived in the motorhome we were always aware of the possibility of theft or fire. So I got in the habit of taking some time to reduce the size of the photos and keep them on a thumb drive that I kept out of the RV. If anyone broke in or we had a fire, I'd still have the photos. Maybe not the originals or the bigger size, but we wouldn't loose them either.
If you want more info on non professional filing, send me a PM and I can send you a photo of my file hierarchy . (suemach (at) mac (dot) com)
Allie

What are the best ways to share photos from iPhoto?

What are the best ways to share photos from iPhoto?

If you use Adobe Photoshop, or even Adobe Photoshop Elements, stay as far away from iPhoto as possible.
iPhoto does not play nice with Adobe software or with software from any other third party developer.
iPhoto will hide your image files in a library paradigm where you have no access to them other than through iPhoto.

Just bought macbook air; had macbook macbook with Tiger software. What is best way to upload photos to icloud on old computer without upgrading it's software? thanks.

just bought a macbook air upgrading from old macbook with Tiger software; what is best way to take photos from old backbook to icloud so I can see them or download on the new air; Have an external harddrive backup. photo library is too large to transfer directly.thanks.

Memory size has nothing to do with it. I can open my 60GB iPhoto library with only 8GB RAM. Perhaps you have an incompatible version of iPhoto under Tiger with iPhoto under ML.
As to downloading different photos from iCloud, you would do the same if you ...
* open iPhoto under Tiger
* dump the photos individually in to a folder on your external hard drive
* shut down everything on the old MacBook
* connect the external hard drive to new MacBook
* open iPhoto on new MacBook
* import the photos in the folder on the external hard drive directly in to the new iPhoto
IOW, you need not use iCloud (even if you could, which you cannot) to swap photos as you propose.
If you are at a loss for space on your external hard drive for whatever reason (perhaps that external hard drive is a full Time Machine partition), I recommend that you buy another external hard drive just for your photos.
JJW

Best way to prepare photos for iPhoto printed book

Hello,
I was wondering what would be the best way to prepare photos for iPhoto printed book on a Macbook Pro so to achieve the most realistic results to what's on the screen
ie. which software should I use to change photos from RGB to CMYK, photoshop or iPhoto itself. I'm guessing maybe the autofix feature in iPhoto? (I don't have Aperture)
Secondly, which monitor color setting should I set the screen at? I'm guessing it's either Apple RGB or Colour LCD, maybe even ColorMatch RGB?
Any any other tips that people can give in achieving the most realistic results to what you have on the screen when your printed iPhoto book gets sent back. I don't want the mid tones to disappear or become too bright because the gamma and color settings were different to what they use at the other end.
Many thanks.

Hi,
The situation has changed a little, our original photos are in RAW format and some of them are slightly over saturated in the higher tones.
I've read on other threads that it is a good idea to run the 'Enhance' tool on all photos before sending the iPhoto Book away.
Since iPhoto's 'Enhance' tools seems to do a lot of helpful things like sharpen, adjust the levels, etc it also seems to notch the contrast up and this would prove destructive for the lighter and darker tones not captured by the camera's dynamic range.
So as I've been advised it's best to use Apple's own tools before sending the iPhoto Book away, so I'm going to download the trial of Aperture.
Does anyone have any more recommendations on which monitor colour profile setting to use etc. I've also read that iPhoto prints best from JPEGS so the RAW will obviously need changed. Will Aperture automatically save to Profile name: Camera RGB Profile after I've done some editing there?
What would be the best way to prepare RAW images in aperture where some of them might need an Image Overlay in Photomatix then imported back to Aperture for printing an Apple/iPhoto style Book?
Many thanks

Best way to organize photos and home video

Looking for the optimum way to organize photos and home videos. Goal is to have all devices have equal access to all the media. Just as important is for this to be as easy as possible to maintain and use.
Have an iMac with iTunes and iPhoto
Have multiple iOS devices with different family members each of whom take photos and videos with their devices
Have multiple Apple TVs
iMac will be the hub with wifi synching
Right now about 30,000 files probably 1000 are videos (and growing)
I don't do any editing of photos or videos
Current set up is through iPhoto. I am importing all images not using the reference option. This worked fine until we started taking more videos which made for a large 200gb iPhoto library which barely loads even with 16gb ram.
I want to use iPhoto not iTunes because I keep everything organized by event, that includes photos and videos. And I don't want 2 separate organizing options to keep track of.
Most of my library is also available outside of iPhoto, I have a back up so I could use the reference feature of iPhoto which would mean a smaller library. However we use photostream on all iOS devices which has the feature that automatically imports into iPhoto. So I don't have to worry about those photos - it's easy. But then i would have some media copied into the library and some referenced. This doesn't work for videos so I will need to copy them.
I have a copy of iPhoto library manager software which could solve the excessive library size. That's cumbersome because I have to sync the correct library with the iOS devices and also make sure photostream is In the right library. I have only used this software a little so I could be wrong about this solution.
I appreciate any ideas that might work. Of course let me know if I am missing something, I am sure I am.
Would Aperture be a better solution? Some other software?

1 - do not change to a referenced library with iPhoto - it has many problems and should not be done - if you switch to Aperture it is ok - Aperture handles referenced libraries fine
2 - iPhoto does not load your entire library and while 200 GB is large it is not giant and is not causing you an problems - if you ave problems please describe them and will try to help with thme -it is not libary size - My library is 263 GB and I have 8GB of RAM and there are no issues
3 - not sure what your constraints are but for me having all IOS devices logged into iCoud using the same Apple ID work best - the downside is that we all see the same things - which is our desire and I think yours
LN

What is the best way to import photos from iPhoto 9 into PSE 11?

I just installed PSE 11 and I would like to move the pictures from my iPhoto 9 Library in to PSE 11.
What is the best way to accomplish this as far as accuracy of data?
Thank you!
Len

There is a direct option in Organizer which lets you import from iPhoto. This is under Import dropdown menu in left panel.
If you are importing from iPhoto'09, your Tags, Albums Events, captions, star rating would also get imported apart from your media. This works differently for iPhoto'011 where you can get only the media to the Organizer,
Just a couple of things to know:
1. If in iPhoto preferences, you have chosen to create copies of your photos in iPhoto library and your library hence refers to the media store inside the library package, then on importing from iPhoto, Organizer would create copies of all those media under your pictures folder. That means, it would not corrupt your iPhoto package or modify it in any way.
2. However, if in iPhoto, you are organizing by using references to original location on your Hard drive i.e. you are not creating copies of media in iPhoto library then on importing from iPhoto to Organizer, the Organizer would also use the same references and would not create copies of the media.
Hope that helps!
~V

Best way to organise photos in iPhoto

Hello All!
I'm starting to scan our family history photos and I'm wondering about the most efficient way to organise them in iPhoto. I'd like to benefit from the experience of others on this Forum.
A typical photo should contain the following information: a date, a place and people’s names (e.g., 1963 Béal Feirste Séamas Eilis) and in many cases more detailed information (exact location, description…) in the Information tab. As I see it, I have basically a choice between two methods:
1. Type in detailed individual titles as outlined above and then create as needed smart folders per year, per person, per location.
2. Select relevant photos and assign keywords and then create smart folders as above.
I'm using Aperçu to scan my photos and it requires me anyway to type in titles. In that case is assigning keywords a waste of time?
I’m interested in using a method that not only makes finding and sorting photos easy but which also would enable me to use the resources of iPhoto to save time typing in details.
I'm looking forward to reading your advice!
And thank you for taking the time to reply!

Welcome to the Apple Discussions. Here's how I manage family photos.
1 - upload from camera or scan into a folder on the Desktop.
2 - name the folder with the date of the photo and a brief description of the shoot: +03/08/08-Temecula Hot Rod Show+.
3 - sequentially rename the photos with the date taken and a brief description: 2008-03-08-TemRodShow-001.jpg, -002.jpg, etc. I use a file renaming application like Name Mangler or Renamer4Mac to do the batch renaming.
4 - import the folder into iPhoto which will create an Event with the title +03:08:08-Temecula Hot Rod Show+.
5 - now I use keywords to identify whose in the photo, where it was taken and any other information. That way I can search for a person and a place or a person and a day.
For scanned photos iPhoto will sort them based on the scanned date. You can use the Photos->Batch Change->Date menu option to set the correct date for those photos.
6 - Albums can be used to group photos for special projects like books, slideshows, etc. Photos in albums are only links back to the original photo in the Events folders and do not take up any hard drive space. Smart Albums can be use to group all photos which contain the criteria set in the Smart Album - like all photos between two dates that have the keyword for a certain person.
5 - You can add virtual folders in the left hand source pane to hold other folder, albums, slideshows, etc. - like a 2009 folder containing albums of family gatherings in that year, birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas.
Others here will add other approaches to managing photos. It's been my experience that a little upfront preparation (like the folder and renaming before importing) goes a long way in having a organized library later down the line. Sit down with pencil and paper and layout what you want to have as far as organization. Then you can create a library and add keywords ahead of time for family members (don't forget the pets), places, things (like your hot rod, boat, etc.) so that they can be added easily as you import without having to take the time to create those keywords.
Also I've found that if I put off adding keywords at the time of import or shortly afterward I get waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind.

Best way to import photos into iPhoto from apeture

Hi
I imported all my photos from iPhoto to apeture a while back, and after using it for a year, have decided its not for me.
Now I want to import them all back into iPhoto from apeture, with preserved events (projects in apeture), metadata and quality.
Can anyone provide a step by step guide to do this easily and efficiently?
Many thanks in advance
Richard.

he only communication between the two is as follows:
Aperture is able to parse the iPhoto Library to allow it to import the contents while stacking the Originals and Modified versions, preserving metadata and so forth.
Aperture can share its Previews with the iLife apps, including iPhoto.
That's it.
So, specifically, what interaction there is between the two is designed to facilitate migration from iPhoto to the more powerful app. After that, iPhoto has exactly the same relationship to the Aperture Library as, say, Pages or iMovie.
iPhoto has no knowledge of, and knows nothing of how the Aperture Library works. It cannot read the Aperture library.
1. Export all your Masters
2. Export all your Versions
You can write the metadata to the files on export - check out the Export presets. Note that you cannot export Faces. There is no convention for sharing Faces. The best you can do is use Faces as a basis for keywording.
Import them into iPhoto. Note that there is no way to associate the masters with the versions in iPhoto, so you'll have apparent duplicates.

Best way to burn photos on DVD as data files?

Ok - I may be losing it, but I'm confused as to best way to burn a DVD of photo files that I just want to be photo files - not played in a slideshow, etc. Basically, I scanned 50+ photos and used them in a montage I created in Photo To Movie. But, I want to give the client two discs - one that is the TV-ready playable DVD - did that one already. Second is a DVD (or CD?) that they can put in their computer and just get the files off if they ever want to use them (since I'm charging them for scanning and retouching the vintage photos).
Can someone please let me know how to do it? All told it's about 63 photos and 80 MB according to iPhoto Album. So, do I use DVD or CD or does it matter? How do I transfer (drag and drop)? and Burn?
Thanks -
Alexa

Alexa:
To burn a data disk of the photos you used in the slideshow you need to export them to a folder on the Desktop via the File->Export->File Export menu option. Select the appropriate options for exporting and export.
Then drag that folder onto a mounted blank disc and burn via the Finder. That will give you a cross platform disk of just the image files.
TIP: For insurance against the iPhoto database corruption that many users have experienced I recommend making a backup copy of the Library6.iPhoto (iPhoto.Library for iPhoto 5 and earlier) 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.
I've created an Automator workflow application (requires Tiger or later), iPhoto dB File Backup, that will copy the selected Library6.iPhoto file from your iPhoto Library folder to the Pictures folder, replacing any previous version of it. It's compatible with iPhoto 6 and 7 libraries and Tiger and Leopard. Just put the application in the Dock and click on it whenever you want to backup the dB file. iPhoto does not have to be closed to run the application, just idle. You can download it at Toad's Cellar. Be sure to read the Read Me pdf file.
Note: There's now an Automator backup application for iPhoto 5 that will work with Tiger or Leopard.

Best way to archive photos from iPhoto?

I have 463 events and 18,177 photos in my iPhoto with photos dating back to 2004! I'm running iPhoto '08 and I would like to know if there is a good way to archive these photos so I can clear out the oldest photos (at least 80% of them) and allow iPhoto to run at a faster speed (I assume that's why it's slow at this point in time). I spoke with a sales rep in an apple store and she suggested burning the photos to DVD and then deleting from iPhoto. I have done this once before in my last batch from years before 2004 and the pictures were not organized in any way on the DVD. Is there a way to preserve the events or albums from iPhoto when moving to a DVD? Is there a better way to archive the photos in general? I could not possibly sort through the 18,177 pictures on the DVD and start regrouping. Any advice is much appreciated!

You can bring those photos back from the DVD - how to do this depends on how you made the DVD.
To speed issues: As a Test:
Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library'
Import a few pics into this new, blank library. Is the Problem repeated there?
Archiving photos to an external:
Here's one way to do what you want: 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 drive.
Now you have two full copies of the Library. To choose between them: Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
3. On the Internal Library, remove the pics you don't want with you all the time.
Now you have one full library on the external and another smaller sub-set on the Internal.
A couple of comments:
a. The external disk needs to be formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
b: When you're removing the unwanted pics from the Internal Library you need to delete them in batches of about 100 or so. Trashing more at one time can cause problems with the database.
c: Managing Multiple Libraries - including moving pics/albums/rolls and metadata between them - is greatly facilitated by using iPhoto Library Manager
Regards
TD

Whats the best way to get photos off my iphone to my pc (ios8)

Hi
Even with the new icloud drive I still want to take my photos off my iphone so I can take my own backups
I have icloud on my pc, so can access them this way - and this does include any photo editing I have done to the photos which is great. However I have noticed when I do it this way, the size of the photo I save is only 1mb so it appears there is some kind of compression or reduction in the resolution which bothers me slightly. Is this something I should worry about?
So I have then gone and plugged in my iphone and grabbed the photos like a flash drive, however this only gives me the original photo without any photo editing! I do however get the full size photo around the 1.6mb mark!
I guess I could used drop box or something similar (I get full size of 1.6mb and photo edits this way) but its a slow upload process.
Am I missing something in ios8 - I had assumed by now they would have made it easier to move photos around but its still seems like a total pain. Can anyone help??
Thanks so much

If these photos are in your Camera roll then you can transfer them by attaching your iPhone to your MacBook and having it recognized as a camera.
If the photos/videos are in Camera roll or not you can directly transfer them via WiFi from your iPhone to PC/Mac with an App like Photo Transfer.
See: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-transfer-app-easily/id365152940?mt=8
Or you can upload the photos/videos to the Dropbox service using the Dropbox App on your iPhone and download them to a PC/Mac using the Dropbox App on that device.
See: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dropbox/id327630330?mt=8

Whats the best way to get photos off ipod touch 4?

I want to get my sons photos off his ipod touch 4 (ios 6-something), and onto a flash drive so he can use them in Windows movie maker, and to free up space on his ipod. Can't use dropbox with ios 6. I've backed up his ipod to our PC, but I can't find where the photos are stored on our computer. Is there an easier way?

iOS: Importing personal photos and videos from iOS devices to your computer

Is there a way to organize pictures in Iphoto by dragging? not organizing by date....

is there a way to organize photos in Iphoto by dragging directly to the top of page? not organizing by date.....

Create an album and place into it any pictures you like. You can even place every single picture in your iPhoto library into it. The pictures can then be organized in any arbitrary way you wish within that album.

I need to organize medical photos. They are pre-op and post-op photos. What is the best way to organize them. should I use iphoto or is that too much trouble.

I need to organize medical photos. They are pre-op and post-op photos. What is the best way to organize them? should I use iphoto or is that too much trouble? Since they occur on different days, organizing by event does not seem appropriate. Also, organizing by face is not always possible as some are close up photos of an individual eye. Surely, this has been done before, and I don't want to spin my wheels reinventing this.

Who can tell with that amount of information to work with?
iPhoto is not limited to Events or Faces as organizational tools - Albums, Keywords, various forms of metadata can be leveraged for use as well, and these are often more flexible. Really it's up to you to look at the tools available and see if they suit your usage scenario.

What is best way to organize photos in iPhoto? Album? Date? Person? Place?

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