iPhoto is stupid!....please help...how do YOU organize photos?

[eIII]

..but it is probably me.

i work hard to get a photo ready to submit to my gallery in photoshop elements 2.0, getting it down to the right size and saving it in iPhoto 2. when i go to upload onto this site the file size always says 4kb thus exceeding the limit. if i save the photo to any old folder i have no problem uploading- the file size is the same as i saved it. but that defeats the purpose of using iPhoto to organize.

am i doing something wrong? is there a better way to organize photos on my 'puter? i'm sure elements has some sort of organization capabilities. iPhoto just seems so promising and easy and i already have it- but if it isn't practical...

what do you use? will it work on the mac?

thanks.

billy

 

[kmack]

Speaking as an unrepentant Unix junkie, just create a directory structure for your photos and file them manually.

I have a series of directories under "Pictures" identified by date. I scan everything to a directory called "tmp", when I am finished with the basic cleanup etc I move them to a directory by date, film and camera. I have a text file in each directory to keep notes.

I use the SpotLight feature of Tiger to quickly find directories by camera, date, film or note content. Quick views can be accomplished by using the "column view" in the finder.

 

[derevaun]

I don't use a lot of iPhoto's features, but uploading from a di6it@l camera became such a drag that I moved on. In this case, it was back to good old GraphicConverter. Recent versions will download from the camera in year:month:date folders, just like iPhoto, but without the grinding wait and extra files. Maybe the latest version of iPhoto has solved the problem of slowing down after a thousand or so images, but I doubt it.

I use Photoshop's Browse command (I think it's been replaced by Bridge) to cull and rotate photos; it makes the necessary changes without creating extra files.

And for scanning negs, I just scan into a "raw scans" folder and then save from PS using Save For Web into an "outbound" folder so I can keep the original scan.

Anyway, GraphicConverter is Mac shareware. It's also useful for batch edits and slide shows.

 

[jan normandale]

Hi .. you are using a Mac so here goes.

1. make a file folder on your desk top and label it Rangefinder
2. open iPhoto and drag the shots you want to upload into the desktop folder you have made
3. close iPhoto and open your Photoshop.
4. drag the shots one at a time as you work on each onto the PS ikon on the Mac dock
5. this will open the jpg in PS
6. go to the drop down label 'image' and select image size, make the longest side no greater than 750 and max image quality High (8)
7. save the image as 'save as' ensure you save them in the same folder

8. upload this and the other images you have adjusted for RFF from the folder

good luck

 

[eIII]

Speaking as an unrepentant Unix junkie, just create a directory structure for your photos and file them manually.

I have a series of directories under "Pictures" identified by date. I scan everything to a directory called "tmp", when I am finished with the basic cleanup etc I move them to a directory by date, film and camera. I have a text file in each directory to keep notes.

I use the SpotLight feature of Tiger to quickly find directories by camera, date, film or note content. Quick views can be accomplished by using the "column view" in the finder.

i like this idea, but other than knowing osX is based on unix i know nothing. the manual aproach seems nice and efficient, though, bypassing one more program i have to open. i have 10.2 jaguar, and don't know if it has the "spotlight" feature you mentioned. since i don't have many photos to organize (rf/photo noob) i can start simple and reorganize as i go.

i will check out graphicconverter. i don't have a digital camera, and slideshow a priority until i have something to show, but that could all change quickly. thanks for the idea.

thanks, jan. i am using a similiar process so it looks like i was doing something right on my own. yea!🙂

billy3

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

I upload everything from my CD of images (the minilab makes the CD) into iPhoto and let it organise the images. That's my archive. Anything that I want to keep or change or print I export from iPhoto (it's on the 'Share' menu) and work on it in Photoshop, and then save it in a separate folder of 'keepers'.

iPhoto is very picky about cataloguing images. If you move or delete stuff using the finder iPhoto loses the plot.

 

[FPjohn]

Gc

Gc

Hello:

I also use graphic converter (the best $40 i've ever spent). Basically I transfer images to be uploaded or otherwise manipulated to a separate folder on the desktop (as already described) and proceed from there.

yours
Frank

 

[Nick R.]

4kb? That's tiny. That's the size of an empty file in OSX.

 

[darkkavenger]

I'm manually sorting them using a predefinite folder structure 🙂

 

[Doug]

I share derevaun's experience with iPhoto... When I found that it added every file to its own native collective datafile that kept getting larger and larger and slowwwwer, I gave it up. Many Macs of the past few years also come with a copy of GraphicConverter, and you can find and download a current version from www.versiontracker.com I started using it many years ago, paid my shareware ($35 then), and have noted a steady improvement of welcome features since.

GC also has a Browse feature that can even browse a hierarchy of folders, and of course includes sophisticated file editing features to the point (though excluding layers) that I haven't bothered using Photoshop for a long time. GC is able to scale the jpg files appropriately for internet upload as well as give accurate predition of file size.

For images from a digital camera, I use a card reader in preference to a direct camera-computer connection. I just copy the folder of pics over to the computer and name it (and the photo files within) according to my date-based filing system. I do the very same with lab scans copied from CD.

 

[lubitel]

I didnt like the iPhoto either. I create folders manually and use image viewer that came with my canonXT to go through files, or you can use the file browser from photoshop.

 

[jdos2]

I second the *nix file directory idea, and both GC and Photoshop CS (if available). I need both the later tools as CS does things that GC won't (yet). Since both of them come with directory browsers, it's fairly easy to organize things that way.

I still use iPhoto (5) with the digital camera, when shooting JPG's, but for the scanned negatives, the first approach is reasonably efficient.