[X4U] iPhoto Library Reorganization [2]

[Stroller]

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On 28/7/06 1:42 PM, "Ken Schneider" <ken at schneider.net> wrote:
> ...
> Reorganize my current iPhoto library to manual organization or
> ImageBrowser organization?

You'd need to export every image from iPhoto before doing this.

I think that Canon Camera Window (the app that actually imports from  
the camera before starting ImageBrowser) allows you a bunch of  
options about which subfolders it'll use, but otherwise I consider it  
a "suggested organisation" or a "base-line" one - I'm pretty sure you  
can make new folders & move the images around without ImageBrowser  
getting the hump about it.

So from that point of view "ImageBrowser organisation" equals "manual  
organisation" as far as I'm concerned. A lot of professionals still  
manage their images by hand, and they're amongst significant  
detractors of Aperture - many of them like Adobe Bridge because it  
allows manual organisation the same way I understand ImageBrowser to  
do; it is _certainly_ Finder-compatible. If you manage images by hand  
you can easily have whatever kind of 2006-08-01 folder hierarchy you  
like and copy those images to your "Granny's Birthday" folder; you  
can delete the copies of the images that you don't think are worth  
printing (whilst keeping the originals) and you can have a separate  
"edited" subfolder.

> Archive current iPhoto library and start over with SLR images?

That's pretty much what I did.

But then I considered my 2 megapixel & 4mp point-and-shoot cameras  
pretty much just as tools for simply illustrating eBay auctions &  
Usenet postings; I have a handful of family photos (my father's dog)  
in iPhoto. I consider my dSLR more as the tool of an artist or  
professional for capturing high-quality images of interesting or  
beautiful subjects; now I have a pet of my own I have a large section  
within Aperture of "Bunny Portraiture".

If I were particularly attached to my older photos then I might well  
want them in one place.

> Manually name files vs keeping camera file naming?

I have the import functions name files as "EOS_350D_<date>_<index>",  
but consider much beyond that to be unhelpful. I suppose that "Dave's  
Birthday 1" ... "Dave's Birthday 30" is a useful way of naming  
images, but I'd find it tedious naming images "Dave blowing out the  
candles", "Dave and the stripper", "Dave passed out drunk" individually.

Generally I want the image _filename_ to be consistent within all my  
photos. I like the date to be in the name because that's one thing  
that's universal and I can search for (from Finder or Spotlight) in  
an emergency. Note that "titling" the image within iPhoto will  
probably not change its filename, nor from within Lightroom or  
Aperture. Generally I find images by looking within the appropriate  
album within these apps.

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