There is something I -still- don't understand about iPhoto... Please!! help

[animefx]

There is something very annoying about the way iPhoto organizes image files that really doesn't make any sense to me. I find it pretty annoying. I was wondering if someone could explain why they did it this way, and more importantly how to change it, or how to go about dragging images to iPhoto so it doesn't do this anymore...

If you go into:
finder -> pictures -> iphoto library -> originals -> 2006 -> ... ok notice there are TONS of folders called Roll <number>. this makes it almost impossible to find an image without using iPhoto. What is even more annoying is the waste of folders... each folder has ONE IMAGE in it, thats right, a folder that holds a single image.

I don't want 3,000 folders with 1 image each in them. If you want to send someone a file its impossible to find it without using iPhoto.

Doesn't this bother anyone else? Is there a work around for this?

Thanks,
Bryan

 

[Chundles]

There is something very annoying about the way iPhoto organizes image files that really doesn't make any sense to me. I find it pretty annoying. I was wondering if someone could explain why they did it this way, and more importantly how to change it, or how to go about dragging images to iPhoto so it doesn't do this anymore...

If you go into:
finder -> pictures -> iphoto library -> originals -> 2006 -> ... ok notice there are TONS of folders called Roll <number>. this makes it almost impossible to find an image without using iPhoto. What is even more annoying is the waste of folders... each folder has ONE IMAGE in it, thats right, a folder that holds a single image.

I don't want 3,000 folders with 1 image each in them. If you want to send someone a file its impossible to find it without using iPhoto.


Doesn't this bother anyone else? Is there a work around for this?

Thanks,
Bryan

iPhoto '06 allows you to keep your photos in their original folders if you so choose - it's in the preferences. So if you want to put photos into a folder that you name and locate yourself that's fine, iPhoto will leave them where they are and access the images within that folder as necessary.

As for your problems, iPhoto is a photo management application in the same vein as iTunes. They are there so that you don't ever have to access the file structure and folders, you can email photos, back them up to discs, edit, copy, resize, basically everything without leaving iPhoto. I have about 5000 photos in iPhoto and have not once, ever, had to go into their root folders to find a picture - that's what it's there for, so you can go about working with your photos without having to worry or even consider the way they are stored at the heart of the program. It's the same with iTunes, I organise my music in iTunes the way I want it - I don't need to worry about the folders in which the songs are stored as everything I need to do with music is available within the iTunes application.

 

[animefx]

I understand what your saying.. but I like to email my photos to people. If I use iPhoto and want to email someone photos I'm forced to use Mail app. I use web based gmail, which you have to browse to the location of the actual file. Finding the location of the file is kind of a pain. I like the idea that it auto organizes your photos but it could really use an improvement.

I would turn on manual folders or whatever, but then I lose some of the iphoto features for the color sync or whatever. :\

iPhoto '06 allows you to keep your photos in their original folders if you so choose - it's in the preferences. So if you want to put photos into a folder that you name and locate yourself that's fine, iPhoto will leave them where they are and access the images within that folder as necessary.

As for your problems, iPhoto is a photo management application in the same vein as iTunes. They are there so that you don't ever have to access the file structure and folders, you can email photos, back them up to discs, edit, copy, resize, basically everything without leaving iPhoto. I have about 5000 photos in iPhoto and have not once, ever, had to go into their root folders to find a picture - that's what it's there for, so you can go about working with your photos without having to worry or even consider the way they are stored at the heart of the program. It's the same with iTunes, I organise my music in iTunes the way I want it - I don't need to worry about the folders in which the songs are stored as everything I need to do with music is available within the iTunes application.

 

[Zman5225]

animefx, you could always configure your mac mail to use gmail as a pop3 account

heres the link for a quick how to

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=13275

I think its easier to use a mail program then web based.

 

[ingenious]

Don't forget if you need to upload picture, you don't have to use the Finder, either. Just have the dialog box up and drag the photo into it. Sometimes you have to drag it twice to actually select the photo, but it works most of the time.

Very handy.

 

[Chundles]

Yeah, just configure Mail to go through GMail. Also, if you don't want to do that, you can just drag a photo from iPhoto to your desktop - it will copy the photo there so that it remains in it's original folder but it's much easier to locate when you're using GMail.

 

[plinden]

I understand what your saying.. but I like to email my photos to people. If I use iPhoto and want to email someone photos I'm forced to use Mail app. I use web based gmail, which you have to browse to the location of the actual file.

I use gmail too, and I like to resize my photos when emailing, since some members of my family are living on the edge with their quotas, so I use iPhoto's export function. I export to a folder on my Desktop, set the size I want (usually 640x480 or 1024x768) and export the photos. It's easy to find and I don't have to navigate through the folders.

Having said that, I wish I'd known about keeping the original folders when I first imported my photos from my windows machine when I got my Mac, but I can live with this.

 

[animefx]

Thanks for the advice guys, that will really help me out. I suppose it will just take a little getting used to. I'm really liking iPhoto now that I know some alternative methods to the issues I was having.

I didn't consider simply dragging the photo from iPhoto into the dialouge box... Simple and sweet!

- Bryan

 

[rizzo1982]

if you still don't want to open up iphoto. there is a easy way to make just a photo browser application. I use it all the time to find photos fast and send them to friends/family. it is identical to the photo media browser that you find in iMovie and iDVD.

 

[mmapples]

If you really need access to the original file, you can just right-click it in iPhoto and go to "Show File."

Also, is the Film Rolls view option turned on? if you go to View --> Film Rolls, the name of the roll will appear in iPhoto, making it easy to rename the rolls to whatever you want and combine different photos into the same roll (thus putting them in the same folder).

 

[ImNoSuperMan]

animefx, you could always configure your mac mail to use gmail as a pop3 account

heres the link for a quick how to

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=13275

I think its easier to use a mail program then web based.

It might be lil easier at first, But I`d go for Web based Gmail then using AppleMAil. Gmail, unlike a lot of other emails, is prettty easy to use and has a lot of innovative features too. eg I really like the chat style compilatation of emails in Gmail. Also I can check very easily if I forwarded a specific mail to someone or not. And the best thing is that I can use all these features even when I m not using my MB but some other PC.

The only problem might be that it doesnt work that well with safari. It doesnt fwd a mail with attached picture. Also all the formatting is gone when trying to fwd a mail using safari. But using FireFox instead eliminates those issues too.

 

[Applespider]

Also, is the Film Rolls view option turned on? if you go to View --> Film Rolls, the name of the roll will appear in iPhoto, making it easy to rename the rolls to whatever you want and combine different photos into the same roll (thus putting them in the same folder).

Yup... viewing by roll and putting all those single related pics into one Roll and calling it by the subject area helps enormously. Pre-iPhoto 6, when it organised by individual date, life was even trickier.

I use gmail too - and as suggested, configure your Mail to use gmail and you'll have the best of both worlds.

 

[gekko513]

Finding the location of the file is kind of a pain. I like the idea that it auto organizes your photos but it could really use an improvement.

Just drag the photo from iPhoto to your desktop first, then.

 

[Eraserhead]

It might be lil easier at first, But I`d go for Web based Gmail then using AppleMAil. Gmail, unlike a lot of other emails, is prettty easy to use and has a lot of innovative features too. eg I really like the chat style compilatation of emails in Gmail. Also I can check very easily if I forwarded a specific mail to someone or not. And the best thing is that I can use all these features even when I m not using my MB but some other PC.

The only problem might be that it doesnt work that well with safari. It doesnt fwd a mail with attached picture. Also all the formatting is gone when trying to fwd a mail using safari. But using FireFox instead eliminates those issues too.

Heh I'm the opposite I much prefer Apple's Mail application, I like the interface with AddressBook (and via iSync my Nokia 6230i phone), you can instant search for messages with apple mail and it highlights in blue any related messages, also in prefereneces if you create a rule you can get it to auto download messages you sent on GMail to Apple Mail's sent folder.

 

[SJK123]

Do you guys know if I can put an iPhoto folder (to store photos in) in the root directory so that multiple users on our home computer can access it? If so how would I make the changes in iPhoto. Thanks in avance for any help.