iPhoto: destructive editing possible?

[Ridge08]

I have iPhoto `08 (7.1.5). It uses non-destructive editing.

It was raining the other day so I bought some flowers and photographed them against a while background in my apartment. Unfortunately, I wasn`t able to prevent bits of dust and the like from landing on the card. So I have a bunch of white backgrounds with little but noticeable blemishes.

I used iPhoto`s retouch tool to clear them. No problems there. But now, those photos load up really slowly because of the time the program is taking to re-apply the changes every time I open them.

So I`d like to know if there`s a way to selectively apply destructive editing in iPhoto to get around the slow loading times.

 

[thr33face]

now why would you want to go back to 1998?

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

now why would you want to go back to 1998?

I thought was fairly obvious. The OP is not likely to use the original images and wants iPhoto to load faster.

Ridge08, I wish I knew more about iPhoto, so I could help more.

 

[jaseone]

You could always export the images as .jpg's or tiff's even, delete the originals from iPhoto and then reimport the exported files, kind of a pain though.

 

[Ridge08]

Tobefirst, that`s right. There`s no way I`m going to use the original images.

Thr33face, I find non-destructive editing really useful in most cases. It allows me to undo my mistakes when I screw up as a result of being a beginner. But this is one of those situations where non-destructive editing doesn`t do me any good.

Jaseone, thanks for the tip. I only actually need one or two photos right now, so that should work just fine.

In the longer term, will a more powerful program like Photoshop (Elements) allow me to do what I want, which is to selectively apply destructive editing?

 

[ProwlingTiger]

Tobefirst, that`s right. There`s no way I`m going to use the original images.

Thr33face, I find non-destructive editing really useful in most cases. It allows me to undo my mistakes when I screw up as a result of being a beginner. But this is one of those situations where non-destructive editing doesn`t do me any good.

Jaseone, thanks for the tip. I only actually need one or two photos right now, so that should work just fine.

In the longer term, will a more powerful program like Photoshop (Elements) allow me to do what I want, which is to selectively apply destructive editing?

In your case I'd go with a program like Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture.

 

[kmaute]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe that aperture and lightroom use metadata to track the changes rather than hard edits... Photoshop and bridge is good, although it lacks the integration of iPhoto or aperture. Aperture is the best choice IMO for managing an extensive photo gallery.

 

[ProwlingTiger]

If I'm not mistaken, I believe that aperture and lightroom use metadata to track the changes rather than hard edits... Photoshop and bridge is good, although it lacks the integration of iPhoto or aperture. Aperture is the best choice IMO for managing an extensive photo gallery.

Yeah, but that way he can change the image however he chooses then export it if he so desires. The difference between that and iPhoto is that Lightroom, IMO, runs a lot faster and takes less load time to apply the edits.

Elements or Photoshop will do hard edits, though.

 

[KettyKrueger]

I tend to use Picasa for my destructive editing needs. That said, I only tend to make slight alterations (cropping, saturation, touch-ups). Just make sure you 'Save to Disk' afterwards then delete the back-up from inside the hidden folder. Then import into iPhoto. Kind of a pain but not so much if you only do it for a few pictures.

I only really use this method for scans that I've done, they always look terrible when first scanned.

Hope that helps.

 

[DLH]

What's slow to load? From the OP's original post, it sounds like he's saying that when he goes to view the modified image it is slow to load that image.

I'm pretty sure that iPhoto's non-destructive process is as follows:

1) Store the original photo
2) Store an edit list of changes to the original file
3) Store a modified version of the photo

Any subsequent edits to a photo change the "edit list" and then a new modified photo is generated using the original photo and the edit list. This way you don't lose quality by continually re-saving a lossy file type.

When you view the photo, iPhoto would just be displaying the modified photo. I can't see why this would be slower than showing the unedited original.

 

[Raid]

What's slow to load? From the OP's original post, it sounds like he's saying that when he goes to view the modified image it is slow to load that image.

I'm pretty sure that iPhoto's non-destructive process is as follows:

1) Store the original photo
2) Store an edit list of changes to the original file
3) Store a modified version of the photo

This is my understanding of how iPhoto operates too. If the OP wishes to verify you can right click on the image and select "show in finder" it should take you into the iPhoto file hierarchy, and the image should be in a folder marked 'Modified'.

I don't know why it would be slower other than it somehow created a much larger file size... which would be fairly odd.

 

[Ridge08]

What's slow to load? From the OP's original post, it sounds like he's saying that when he goes to view the modified image it is slow to load that image.

I'm pretty sure that iPhoto's non-destructive process is as follows:

1) Store the original photo
2) Store an edit list of changes to the original file
3) Store a modified version of the photo

Any subsequent edits to a photo change the "edit list" and then a new modified photo is generated using the original photo and the edit list. This way you don't lose quality by continually re-saving a lossy file type.

When you view the photo, iPhoto would just be displaying the modified photo. I can't see why this would be slower than showing the unedited original.

@Raid too.

In thumbnail mode, it`s fine. Double click and it`s fine. No lag for either.
Go into full screen mode and one of two things happens:
1) The unmodified photo pops up. A second or two later, the spinning beach ball appears for a similar amount of time. Then the modified photo is displayed. This happens when I click the full screen button.
2) I just get the spinning beach ball for a couple seconds, after which the modified photo comes up. This happens when I`m already in full screen mode and am using the arrow keys or three-finger gesture to move between photos.

I don`t know why it loads more slowly. My four-month-old Macbook has a 2Ghz Intel dual processor. This happens when it`s 80 or 90% idle.

 

[Raid]

Hmm maybe rebuilding the iPhoto library would help... it's worth a shot.

 

[Ridge08]

Hmm maybe rebuilding the iPhoto library would help... it's worth a shot.

Just did that. Initially, at least, it seems to have worked perfectly. Thanks for the tip!

Does holding option and command while opening a program always bring up the rebuild library options?

 

[Raid]

Hmm well I just did it for iTunes and it launched in 'safe mode', I'd bet if there's call to do so it would work with most (if not all) the iLife apps.