[X4U] iPhoto Library Reorganization [1]

[Stroller]

On 28/7/06 1:42 PM, "Ken Schneider" <ken at schneider.net> wrote:

> ... I had been using a small 2
> megapixel Canon PowerShot for years and would just import directly
> into iPhoto.  Before version 6, the library was simply stored in
> nested numbered folders corresponding to the date the images were
> shot.  Now with version 6, the library is organized completely
> differently.

Ummm... I'm not sure how your iPhoto library was organised, but mine  
has NEVER been organised like that.

On the left-hand side of iPhoto I have a "Library" section with each  
year underneath it, then "Last Roll" and "Last 12 months" and then I  
have my own folders & albums.

The way you're "supposed" to use iPhoto is to import into the library  
then go into "last roll" and drag & drop the images into the  
appropriate folder / album. So you might move them into "Holidays" or  
"Visiting Granny". I don't use iPhoto so much since I got my XT but  
AFAICT each "Album" is hierarchically underneath a folder; you can  
have a photo in only one folder (unless you duplicate it) but in many  
albums (within the same folder). So you might want to have "eBay" and  
"family" as separate folders, but within "family" you could have  
albums for Jon, June & Granny - a photo of Jon & Granny would be in  
"family" but both the "Jon" and "Granny" albums.

If you mean "the image files used by iPhoto used to be organised in  
nested numbered folders within ~/Pictures/iPhoto Library/" then give  
yourself a slap on the wrist - you shouldn't be accessing those files  
in that way. iPhoto is a photo-organisation app, and in using iPhoto  
you're saying "I trust iPhoto to take care of my images for me, I  
will move images around only within iPhoto's interface". Yes, in an  
emergency you can extract an image from iPhoto's library using  
Finder, but most of the time you shouldn't need to. If you edit any  
of the files within iPhotos library by accessing them through Finder  
then you will break iPhoto's indexing, and that'll really mess things  
up. If you want to Photoshop a photo from your iPhoto library then  
you should right-click on the image within iPhoto and choose "Open  
With External Editor".

This way of working takes a bit of getting used to, and initially I  
hated it myself. But you need to consider iPhoto fundamentally broken  
as an image-editor if you demand control of your image-files through  
the Finder.

> Plus, If I use the Canon ImageBrowser software to
> import the SLR pictures, they are organized differently.

Indeed. These images are not imported into the iPhoto library. With  
reference to my previous statement, you can freely move photos around  
within the file-structure created by ImageBrowser. I don't think  
ImageBrowser will care - although I don't really use ImageBrowser  
myself I'm pretty sure that the folder-tree shown on the left-hand  
side is just a "Finder-alternative" or "Finder-compatible" interface,  
and represents the location of the files on the hard-drive (in a way  
that iPhoto's folders & albums do not).

> In
> addition, I want to keep all my images on a drive that is on a
> different Mac on my home network.

Ummm... that makes life difficult. If you import them into iPhoto on  
machine X then you can use iPhoto's "Sharing" preference to allow you  
to browse them on machine Y. But I don't think machine Y has any  
right to organise them. Alternatively you could point Machine Y's  
iPhoto library at a network share - I think you would have to do this  
by removing the iPhoto folder on Machine Y and replacing it with a  
symlink to "/Volumes/Machine X/iPhoto Library".

> ...What did you do?
>
> Import using iPhoto vs Canon ImageBrowser?

I find iPhoto a little restrictive for "serious" photography, and  
haven't trusted it to store images in a non-lossy format (although I  
see from its options there's a checkbox to allow RAW edits to be kept  
as 16-bit TIFFs).

I'm personally not quite ready yet to commit to any of the other  
image management utilities, so I import from the with camera with  
Canon ImageBrowser and then import those files into Aperture. This  
leaves me with 2 copies of the RAW files, of course, so I will  
probably end up importing directly into Aperture or deleting the  
whole Canon ImageBrowser file structure.

> Let iPhoto organize the library vs Canon ImageBrowser vs manually
> making folders?

As I explained above, if you use iPhoto you don't have a choice. The  
only thing you can do is import from the camera with ImageBrowser and  
then import again into iPhoto - when you import into iPhoto, iPhoto  
makes a copy of the file and stores it wherever it wishes within your  
User's "Pictures/iPhoto Library" folder.

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