iPhoto and Lightroom: play well together?

[LaJaca]

Sorry if this has come up - I've searched the Forum and cannot find an answer.

I'm a few weeks/months away from purchasing Lightroom, but I've already loaded my 20K pics into my new iMac. I'm reluctant to import them into iPhoto prior to my eventual addition of LR - I've read one or two screwy postings on other sites from folks who have had file corruption of some sort or another.

My questions to those who can help:

Is there any reason NOT to go ahead and import into iPhoto, or should I just wait a few more weeks (or months) until I get up to speed with LR? Do iPhoto and LR interfere with each other in any way?

Thanks in advance,

 

[ChrisA]

Are these 20K images raw, jpg or what? What program will you use to catalog these? You need to design a work flow for any new images you shoot. Just go an shot a few test mages and see what works for you. Will you process the raw files in LR then move the JPG to iPhoto ot keep raw files in iPhoto? Or maybe you will not use iPhoto at all. Once you figure out what to do with the new images you have not shot yet then it will be easy to know what to do with the existing library.

 

[juanm]

Or you can buy Aperture and just use the "import iPhoto library option".

 

[LaJaca]

Good questions. Most are jpegs, but I've shot RAW the past year so the RAW proportion will change. I do not plan on using iPhoto at all for finishing - workflow is (or will be) import to LR, correct exposures/crop/etc, finish any pixel-based corrections in CS3, and be done.

The only reason to use iPhoto is to 1) view my pics until I get LR, and 2) check out the really cool mosaic screensaver on Leopard everyone keeps talking about - I think it only works with iPhoto. These are not big items, so I'm happy to wait a bit, IF there's concern about future problems with LR once I begin using iPhoto.

 

[marioman38]

If I recall, LR asked me if I wanted to import any photos on first use, and I just choose my iPhoto library folder. It imported everything just fine.

 

[GetGo]

iphoto to LR

When you import your iphoto library to LR does it duplicate your iphoto library? Or does it just look for pictures in that location?