tidying up folders of pics which are already in iphoto (copy items to library not tic

[madeirabhoy]

ive started using iphoto again, but its starting to remind me of why i have binned it at least twice before.

rightly or wrongly i dont tick 'copy items to the iphoto library' as i like to have access to the pics for photoshop and i like the library backed up automatically on dropbox.


my photos are all in separate folders by event, and then i imported the lot into iphoto and its all hunky dory.

but ive noticed that some pics, well a lot of pics, are either in wrong folders or i want to combine some folders and split up others.

whats easiest way to do this so that they move both in the events in iphoto, and in the folders in finder?


so for example ive a folder called misc with a lot of stuff in it. its a folder with the name misc and the pics all in it, and then also in iphoto theres an event called misc with the same pics. most of those pics i want to redistribute to other events.

is it like itunes where i can just move the pic and itll also move its location? or if i move the location in finder iphoto will realise this ? or will doing both work or should i delete from iphoto, move in finder and reimport?

 

[themumu]

To be honest, I think if you insist on both using iPhoto and managing the folders manually, you are probably gonna snap and bin iPhoto again some time soon. None of the photo managing apps like iPhoto, Aperture or Lightroom like it when you mess with the photo locations. The reasons you provided for wanting to manually control folder structure are not very strong.

iPhoto library is really just a folder itself, and there is nothing that should prevent it from being backed up to Dropbox or any other backup solution you may decide to use.

As for Photoshop, it's fairly simple to use it even with iPhoto managing your files. Just open the event or album with the photo you want to edit in Photoshop, then drag and drop it onto the Photoshop icon in the dock.

 

[madeirabhoy]

To be honest, I think if you insist on both using iPhoto and managing the folders manually, you are probably gonna snap and bin iPhoto again some time soon. None of the photo managing apps like iPhoto, Aperture or Lightroom like it when you mess with the photo locations. The reasons you provided for wanting to manually control folder structure are not very strong.

iPhoto library is really just a folder itself, and there is nothing that should prevent it from being backed up to Dropbox or any other backup solution you may decide to use.

As for Photoshop, it's fairly simple to use it even with iPhoto managing your files. Just open the event or album with the photo you want to edit in Photoshop, then drag and drop it onto the Photoshop icon in the dock.

been thinking the same to be honest. however can indesign import pics from iPhoto?should have mentioned that before.

 

[swordio777]

None of the photo managing apps like iPhoto, Aperture or Lightroom like it when you mess with the photo locations.

Aperture and Lightroom are both completely fine with you moving referenced files around, as long as you move the files from inside the app.

If you move anything outside of the app (using the finder) then your referenced links will be broken.

Because you manage your folder structured manually, I think Lightroom would be the best fit for your workflow. This is because you can navigate around your folder structure inside Lightroom and use Collections for any smart albums, etc. Aperture's file management is more flexible in some ways, but because it disregards any folder structure outside of Aperture it would require a little more work to do things like merge the folders that contain our images.

Hope that helps.

 

[madeirabhoy]

thanks for everyone's help. figure probably easier to go with iphoto way. i dont need any of the extra capability that lightroom and aperture give, and i like some of theniceties like location and faces that i dont think lightroom does.


i have plenty of disc space, and prob only 20 gigs of pics, so ill keep my folder of pics separate as a backup (which will allow me to get to them as well for indesign and other stuff) and have a managed iphoto library for normal use.


daft question, i ticked the tickbox in iphoto to have it copy to library, but of course it doesnt copy the pics that are already there. do i import everything again, or should i create a new library? in itunes there is a consolidate button but not in iphoto.