Organising photos in iPhoto

[thomasp]

I recently switched from OS9.2.1 to OSX 10.4.2 (and have been wishing ever since that I'd made the switch sooner! ). On OS9, I kept all my digital pictures in a "Pictures" folder, which was then filled with lots of other folders with nice, descriptive names (like "Holiday 2005") telling me what pictures were inside the folder. I used to use Canon's Image Browser to quickly and easily view the images inside the folder.

I'd quite like to move away from Image Browser in OSX, and move towards iPhoto 5.0.4, which is installed on my G4 1.5GHz Powerbook. However, I don't like the way iPhoto stores the photos, in albums by year, and with no (obvious) room for sub-categories or sub-folders.

I haven't explored iPhoto that much, but is there any easy way to have nice, descriptive folders in the Library for my images?


I've found in iTunes, if I have an MP3 on my HD, I can create a folder in the iTunes Music folder, and drag the MP3 into that folder, and I'll have a new playlist with track in the iTunes window. I tried this with iPhoto, but didn't have any success.

Is there any way I can drag and drop photos into iPhoto from the desktop? I spent ages transferring them from my old computer to the PB, only to have to re-import them again (copying them to the HD, so I now have two copies - three if you include the old computer - of each file) into iPhoto.


Thanks for the help

 

[macOSX-tastic]

hi thomasp,

i dont have a difinitiive answer for you, because i am experiencing the same frustrating problem.....folders usually named 01 to 09 or something.....and then more of the same in subfolders.

i think that this is the way that iphoto likes to arrange its photos, and if you fiddle with it, there is a stong possibility that thngs take a wrong turn and you may not be able to access some photos. iphoto itself can arrange pictures onto "rolls" so you can have a difinitive list of all your photos taken on one memory card, with dates and things.....

if you need to edit/back up a picture, you can always drag it from iphoto to the desktop and do what you want with it from there...your photo becomes much more flexible then, as you have the chance to open it with different programs, eg. preview or photoshop.

i personally moved from windows XP, and like you, i had a pictures folder with nice, descriptive names. i have this backed up in my documents folder, which has nothing to do with the pictures folder in "home".

this way, all your snazzy names will remain intact!!! (NB>unless you drag new photos in here, they will go strsaight into iphoto when you connect your camera)

tastic

 

[thomasp]

hi thomasp,

i dont have a difinitiive answer for you, because i am experiencing the same frustrating problem.....folders usually named 01 to 09 or something.....and then more of the same in subfolders.

I think iPhoto organises the images into "months" folders (01 - 12) and then "days" folders (01 - 31) within the months folders. The date seems to be based on the datestamp from the camera and not the date they were imported onto the computer

i personally moved from windows XP, and like you, i had a pictures folder with nice, descriptive names. i have this backed up in my documents folder, which has nothing to do with the pictures folder in "home".

At the moment, I've just got my Photos folder doing the same job as my "Pictures" folder in OS9, apart from there's an "iPhoto" folder in there as well.

this way, all your snazzy names will remain intact!!! (NB>unless you drag new photos in here, they will go strsaight into iphoto when you connect your camera)

I've set this laptop up to use Canon Image Browser to download the photos from my camera, and not iPhoto.

 

[macOSX-tastic]

well it seems you have it pretty much sorted !

i dont see how you could possibly organise them any more than you have already!

ok, so having done all this stuff, what do you want to do further? unfortunately it could take a long time to sort through all those dated folders and put your pictures into a recognisable file stucture...it seems you already have that structure there.

what i meant by iphoto importing and organising photos into rolls is that it can be organised like that inside the program, not in the file stucture that the program accesses.

tastic

 

[thomasp]

well it seems you have it pretty much sorted !

i dont see how you could possibly organise them any more than you have already!

I'd like to use iPhoto though, with my sorting, and not its sorting iPhoto seems to do a better job of displaying the images than Image Browser, plus, it has a nicer slideshow feature

ok, so having done all this stuff, what do you want to do further? unfortunately it could take a long time to sort through all those dated folders and put your pictures into a recognisable file stucture...it seems you already have that structure there.

Yes, just not anywhere iPhoto can recognise it

what i meant by iphoto importing and organising photos into rolls is that it can be organised like that inside the program, not in the file stucture that the program accesses.

tastic

OK.


I'd just like to have an alternative way of organising my photos in iPhoto - I'd like to organise them my way, as opposed to by date. For example, during my recent holiday to Florida, I took quite a lot of "Nature" pictures (wildlife, etc), but these weren't all on the same day. Currently, iPhoto has these mixed in with beach pictures, etc, and Image Browser has all of the Nature pics together.


While we're on the subject of iPhoto, does it automatically play .avi movies (I have the neccesary codecs) in a slideshow? Or does it just skip past them?

 

[Abstract]

I'll say it before, and I'll say it again.......iPhoto needs an overhaul quite badly.

Any newbie like yourself could go into his Photo folder, change the name of his folders from months and days (1-12, 1-31), which would completely screw up iPhoto. Sometimes people change the name of a folder and even if they change the name of the folder back to what it was before, it doesn't repair the damage and iPhoto doesn't recognize the photos anymore, nor display it in it's Thumbnails window. So basically, iPhoto never works with the photos in that folder ever again. Ridiculous.

I think what you're asking for is fair. You should be able to name the folders whatever you want, and iPhoto should f***ing deal with it. iTunes (and ever OTHER app in the world) does that. If you rename an artists name, or an album name, iTunes doesn't just flip out and stop recognizing that folder ever again. It just says, "Okay, he changed the name of the folder, so from now on, I go to this folder instead."

Programs that are as inflexible as iPhoto shouldn't be considered "Consumer Level Applications." I mean, God forbid you actually rename a folder without fully understanding iPhotos quirks beforehand.

Its not iPhoto, but here's something: http://eosim.sourceforge.net/

However, if you want to use iPhoto in the future, iPhoto would/could never work with those file names.

Other image viewers that don't suck.
http://www.stalkingwolf.net/software/cocoviewx/
http://www.feedface.com/projects/ffview.html

 

[macOSX-tastic]

hi thomasp,

im sorry this issue is taking a long time to sort out!

basically, iphoto has been designed, as far as i know, to used the month and day file stucture that bugs you so. it does not have the ability (as far as i know) to recognise and organise your other files.

it does this because the file stucture with the numbers seems to be crucial to iPhoto's operation (eg. when you connect a camera, (without software) it imports into iphoto straight away and organises your photos into files that you would supposedly never see unless you searched for them. these files are ones that iphoto understands.)

many people use iphoto to simply store and organise their pictures, unlike many windows users who just have folders with the files in them and use the picture and fax viewer, or indeed OS 9 users who do pretty much the same.

.avi files, or indeed any file that can be opened in quicktime, can be launched from, but not viewed in, iphoto. they are represented in iphoto with thumbnails with timestamps.

i completely agree with abstraact here, this is the way it should be organised, because many people want to open their pictures in other programs, whilst not having to sift through endless numbered folders.


tastic

 

[thomasp]

Thanks for all the help - I think I'll just stick with Image Browser for the time being.

Also, it might be worth registering your views on the lack of "folder naming" in iPhoto here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphoto.html - hopefully Apple will pay attention to the masses

 

[Applespider]

I'd just like to have an alternative way of organising my photos in iPhoto - I'd like to organise them my way, as opposed to by date. For example, during my recent holiday to Florida, I took quite a lot of "Nature" pictures (wildlife, etc), but these weren't all on the same day. Currently, iPhoto has these mixed in with beach pictures, etc, and Image Browser has all of the Nature pics together.

I use Keywords and smart albums to do this so I have one called Nature, one called Landscapes, Cityscapes etc. You can create whatever categories you like and add pictures to more than one of them. Then I have a smart album of Cities split into US, UK, EU cities etc One with all my family pictures in it etc. The Library contains everything but I rarely use it for browsing unless it's a specific film roll I'm hunting for.

 

[macOSX-tastic]

very intuitive applespider! why didnt i think of that?(he says sheepishly)

hehehe.

i think i may do that also, i keep forgetting that iphoto is similar to itunes in that respect!

glad we could be of help thomasp.

tastic

 

[AtHomeBoy_2000]

hi thomasp,

many people use iphoto to simply store and organise their pictures, unlike many windows users who just have folders with the files in them and use the picture and fax viewer, or indeed OS 9 users who do pretty much the same......
i completely agree with abstraact here, this is the way it should be organised, because many people want to open their pictures in other programs, whilst not having to sift through endless numbered folders.

I just sent Apple some feedback along those lines. Basically, i told them that I wish iPhoto had the same "import" options as iTunes. In iTunes, you can use it to organize audio but it doens thave to me imported into iTunes file structure. iPhoto shoul dhave the option too. i like having folders that i can name and organize, but I would like to import these files into iPhoto WITHOUT importing into its file stucture.