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wallinbl · Nov 18, 2003, 09:20 AM

If you use something else, what do you use?

I posted in peripherals about CompactFlash card readers because I've twice had iPhoto erase photos from my camera but not import them. One of the posts mentioned that the problem was not unique to me. I've done some reading, and many people are having problems with this.

What other programs are good for this?

Montanan · Nov 18, 2003, 09:31 AM

I stopped using iPhoto some time ago, mainly because its method of organizing photo files was annoying and cryptic, and because it slows down rapidly as the size of your photo library expands. I think it's really only useful for photo catalogues of limited size.

Take a look at the software offered by iView Multimedia. Their basic iView software is a big step up from iPhoto, and is only $29.95. I use (and quite like) the Pro version, although at $160 its probably a little too pricey for what it does.

JacobyO · Nov 18, 2003, 10:12 AM

I use imagecapture which comes as part of the system. It allows me to connect to the camera and choose which pictures I want to download instead of it automatically downloading everything.

There are no bells and whistles for editing and such but I don't need that since I use Photoshop.

bbales · Nov 18, 2003, 10:50 AM

And then, how do you organize the photos? I keep going back and forth on this -- I find iphoto pretty annoying and can never find stuff, but it does integrate quite nicely with the other apps.

Consequently, I have photos all over the place...

Turias · Nov 18, 2003, 10:58 AM

I agree. I use and love iPhoto for the easy organizing and the excellent interface for viewing albums.

Unfortunately, I also hate the damn program. It's slow as hell and is a little too complex with the way it stores my photos. I'd like to be able to edit my photos in photoshop, and have iPhoto pick up on the changes automatically. I'd like it to use a directory structure of my choosing (or at least one more like iTunes, based on the names of the photo albums).

Basically, I would like a program that merely displays and organizes my photos, but nothing more, allowing me to do as I wish with them in the filesystem.

If anyone knows of a cheap (read free) program that does all of this, let me know.

JacobyO · Nov 18, 2003, 11:51 AM

I have to manually store the photos in job folders which is the way I prefer it.

First of all I rarely leave the photos in RGB or as JPEGS. I am doing photography for print and 100% of them need to have some sort of retouching or outlining.

I am somewhat of a special case since I don't need to have all of my photo's in one place.
I was merely making a suggestion to those who may not want to automatically download all the pics on their camera every time it connects.

Mediaman_12 · Nov 18, 2003, 12:56 PM

Jacoby: Be aware that iPhoto is a 'consumer' application for regulat people to store the pic's that thay have taken on there digicam. It's not a proffesional photo archive application.

Turias: iPhoto intergrates quite will with photoshop. if you launch Photoshop manually first, you can then select and drag the photos from iPhotos Libruary view and on to the Photoshop icon, these pic's will then open directly in Photoshop.

I quite like iPhoto. I dont really care how it organises the photos on the disk, if I want a copy of a pic i can drag it out of iPhoto on to the desktop/in to mail/in to an FTP app etc. I just wish it was a bit quicker, my mum takes loads of pics at events she goes to an loads them in to iPhoto when she returns, it is now starting to get a bit slugish on her (my old) G4 350.

teszeract · Nov 18, 2003, 04:00 PM

Flame if you want, but on my two computers (a mac g3 500 & a Pc Piii 450) I'd rather use my pc for pix. With ACDSee it flies superfast to browse and work with. The two computers are equivalent speed wise, but my mac just has not got a piece of software that works as fast as ACDsee. I use my mac for everything else, but not for my digital album.

Cadaver · Nov 18, 2003, 11:04 PM

Originally posted by teszeract:
Flame if you want, but on my two computers (a mac g3 500 & a Pc Piii 450) I'd rather use my pc for pix. With ACDSee it flies superfast to browse and work with. The two computers are equivalent speed wise, but my mac just has not got a piece of software that works as fast as ACDsee. I use my mac for everything else, but not for my digital album.

While I haven't used it personally, there is a version of ACDsee for the Mac.

I've heard very good things about iView.

I use iPhoto presently, but I'm going to have to find something else. My library is getting big (over 2500 photos now, most at 4 megapixels & high-quality jpeg). However, now I'm using a Nikon D100 camera, and at 6.1 effective MP, my picture files are large and iPhoto is getting very sluggish - even on my Dual G5.

Here's hoping for a iPhoto update!

kooBi · Nov 19, 2003, 04:09 AM

There are some nifty scripts for iPhoto though:

http://www.apple.com/applescript/iphoto

Mastrap · Nov 19, 2003, 04:10 AM

Canon's ImageBrowse software is excellent. Comes free with any Canon camera or printer.
Fast, easy to use and includes a slideshow option.
I think it can also be purchased of the Canon site.

MickS · Nov 19, 2003, 08:32 AM

I use iPhoto to manage the images on my system. I'm happy with using the interface that it provides to access the images. It is designed so that you don't hack around inside the iPhoto library directory, this can cause problems if you delete/move something.

I do keep a copy of all of my images on a network file system that I organise manually. This means that I only keep a 'working set' of images on my laptop in iPhoto which probably eliminates some of the problems other have with it.