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cleaning out iPhoto
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black bear theory
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Jun 12, 2007, 08:01 PM
 
i avoided using iPhoto for years, because i was always sure that i could do a better job organizing my files than it could and it was very slow on my old pismo. once i got my new mbp, though, i have been using it for my files, but i've always had the sneaking suspicion that it was using a lot of disk space.

i have been using Apple - Downloads - Singular - System/Disk Utilities to clean out some of my folders and when i threw my pictures folder on it, it shows two versions of a lot of my files.

here is a screenshot:

i'm wondering 1) is it safe to trash one (or more) of the files and 2) which one should i get rid of without upsetting iPhoto too much.
Earth First! we'll mine the other planets later.
     
zro
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Jun 12, 2007, 11:18 PM
 
You must have added those pictures more than once. It looks to me that you dragged folders full of pics to iPhoto. Try to keep in mind that if you use iPhoto to manage your image files, use iPhoto to manage your image files, not the Finder. Mixing the two can create what you're seeing now. And when you do use iPhoto, you are managing your photos yourself. iPhoto does not create albums and decide which photos go in them or which keywords they should have. You do.

What version of iPhoto? Ideally you should only have a maximum of three files similarly named (provided your camera doesn't recycle file names). One copy will be the Original, one will be the thumbnail (Data), and only if you've edited the original through iPhoto will you have a third Modified file.
     
voyage2k
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Jun 21, 2007, 06:36 PM
 
OK, so let me take this one step further in another direction:

Is it possible to go into iPhoto, delete EVERYTHING in there (meaning, toss everything into the iPhoto trash and confirm the deletion), close iPhoto, wait a moment, then RE-OPEN it and then import every picture I have on my computer?

Yeah, even my co-worker is saying "why??" but here's my thing -- over the years, I can't account for what folders of pics I've thrown in there and which ones I haven't. So I thought maybe if I deleted everything and started importing everything I have into it, there won't be any question as to "is this folder in iPhoto, or not?"

Maybe I'm just doing this:

Would that even work, or am I going to break something?
     
Curiosity
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Jun 22, 2007, 01:38 AM
 
I have noticed that iPhoto saves every version of a picture. If you enhance an image in several steps, it will keep every image that resulted from those steps. It is a regular packrat.
     
zro
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Jun 22, 2007, 03:09 AM
 
That does not happen to me. I have a thumbnail, a Modified and an Original version of photos I've edited. That's it. Plus, when I revert to original, the modified version disappears.

What version of iPhoto does this happen for you in?
     
mdc
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Jun 22, 2007, 09:14 AM
 
Originally Posted by Curiosity View Post
I have noticed that iPhoto saves every version of a picture. If you enhance an image in several steps, it will keep every image that resulted from those steps. It is a regular packrat.
I don't think that's right is it? I thought iPhoto kept your original and an altered version if you made changes.
If you're in the edit window/fullscreen and make a change or two you can undo them, but I think once you go to the next image or exit edit mode it saves the image (copying the original and saving the new version) and that's it. If you open the image again you can't undo the steps you just did.

Or am I wrong?
     
Curiosity
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Jun 23, 2007, 01:58 AM
 
Originally Posted by zro View Post
What version of iPhoto does this happen for you in?
I have the latest version. I think I noticed it before I updated to the latest, however.
     
Kanga
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Jun 23, 2007, 06:28 AM
 
Whenever I delete a photo from my library I first control/right-click on it and select Show FIle. Then when the original is shown I first delete that and if it's the only photo in the folder, I'll toss the folder too. Then I delete the alias in the Library Window. I used iPhoto for well over a year, pumping photo after photo roll into it and it was becoming a bit of a monster.

Finally, I decided to wade in and make sense of it all if I could. I now have everything catalogued and sorted and never will I return to my old habits of just importing straight into the general library and leaving them there unsorted/tagged etc.

As for all the duplicates/triplicates etc that are in the iPhoto folder in my Pictures Directory .... I wouldn't even begin to start cleaning that up .... it's a place I only want to go to if I want to delete a photo or photos from the Library within iPhoto the app.

If you have a folder of images or a group of images on your Desktop, you can drag them directly onto the left pane in iPhoto and they will automatically be grouped into an 'Album' and you will be prompted to give it a name. Then if you have a lot of Albums that fall within a catagory you can create a Folder and drag them into it to free up some real estate in that Left Pane. I have gone from being unsure about iPhoto to really liking it and enjoying using it to manage my picture collection.
     
zro
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Jun 23, 2007, 01:30 PM
 
Originally Posted by Kanga View Post
Whenever I delete a photo from my library I first control/right-click on it and select Show FIle. Then when the original is shown I first delete that and if it's the only photo in the folder, I'll toss the folder too. Then I delete the alias in the Library Window. I used iPhoto for well over a year, pumping photo after photo roll into it and it was becoming a bit of a monster.

Finally, I decided to wade in and make sense of it all if I could. I now have everything catalogued and sorted and never will I return to my old habits of just importing straight into the general library and leaving them there unsorted/tagged etc.

As for all the duplicates/triplicates etc that are in the iPhoto folder in my Pictures Directory .... I wouldn't even begin to start cleaning that up .... it's a place I only want to go to if I want to delete a photo or photos from the Library within iPhoto the app.
Why? Deleting a photo from iPhoto removes it, and the thumbnail and modified versions of it in two easy steps (counting emptying iPhoto's trash). Trying to use the Finder and iPhoto together to manage image files is a pointless waste of time.


Originally Posted by Curiosity View Post
I have the latest version. I think I noticed it before I updated to the latest, however.
I don't think I've ever noticed that before, but I know for certain that that doesn't happen in iPhoto 6.
     
KP*
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Jun 23, 2007, 06:40 PM
 
I have always been a fan of organizing my photos myself, and in the last year or two have started using iPhoto. I really kind of hate it. See the thing is, since you can't do sub-albums, you're stuck with only one level of organization. Say I have pictures from three shows I've done this summer, and I want to have an album called Summer 07, and within that a sub-album of each individual show. I can't do that in iPhoto, but it's very easy just to do it with folders in the Finder. And the way iPhoto organizes your photos in subfolders by the date they were taken is absolutely useless if you ever want to find them or access them outside of iPhoto, which I very often do.

I started using iPhoto because it was very easy to plug in my camera and have everything download. But once the photos are there, I find them really difficult to work with. Any time I want to do anything with a photo I wind up opening iPhoto just to find it, and then dragging a copy to the desktop. I don't want to pay for the pro-level apps like Aperture or Lightroom, so I think my only other option would be to go back to Finder and Preview. I'm sort of at a crossroads right now.
     
AKcrab
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Jun 23, 2007, 10:57 PM
 
Originally Posted by KP* View Post
See the thing is, since you can't do sub-albums, you're stuck with only one level of organization. Say I have pictures from three shows I've done this summer, and I want to have an album called Summer 07, and within that a sub-album of each individual show. I can't do that in iPhoto, but it's very easy just to do it with folders in the Finder.
If you tag your photos for each concert with a keyword, such as Shows 07, you can then create smart albums based on the keyword and the date of the photo, which is stamped automatically. So you would have a smart album with keyword Shows 07 restricted to the date range 6/1/07-6/30/07, 7/1/07-7/31/07, etc. You can then create a *folder* called "Shows 07" in the album list and put the three smart albums in the folder.

Keywords use to be a pita, but you can now just select a range of photos and drag them to the keyword you want assigned. If you tag your photos with at least one keyword as soon as you import them, sorting and management becomes quite simple.
     
KP*
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Jun 23, 2007, 11:07 PM
 
Originally Posted by AKcrab View Post
If you tag your photos for each concert with a keyword, such as Shows 07, you can then create smart albums based on the keyword and the date of the photo, which is stamped automatically. So you would have a smart album with keyword Shows 07 restricted to the date range 6/1/07-6/30/07, 7/1/07-7/31/07, etc. You can then create a *folder* called "Shows 07" in the album list and put the three smart albums in the folder.

Keywords use to be a pita, but you can now just select a range of photos and drag them to the keyword you want assigned. If you tag your photos with at least one keyword as soon as you import them, sorting and management becomes quite simple.
Yeah, I've started doing that, and it does help a little. It really frustrates me that I can't drag a photo into the smart album and have it take on the properties of that album. I have to import it, find it in my library, and then set the keywords. And it still doesn't help with having sub-categories.

I think my problem is that I use iPhoto to hold my photos, but everything I later do with the photos happens outside of iPhoto, so I still wind up needing to copy them to the desktop where I can work with the actual files. There are a few times when I work with other apps that can import directly from the iLife apps, but even then, my iPhoto library is so sprawling and disorganized because of the lack of subfolders that it takes forever to search through it.

I think I'm going to go back to using the Finder and see how I feel about it.
     
AKcrab
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Jun 23, 2007, 11:22 PM
 
Originally Posted by KP* View Post
It really frustrates me that I can't drag a photo into the smart album and have it take on the properties of that album.
That would be an awesome feature.
I have to import it, find it in my library, and then set the keywords.
I use the "last roll" function to make sure I assign keywords right away. Helps a little.
And it still doesn't help with having sub-categories.
I guess you're right, there are no true sub-categories, only multiple keywords and other meta-data.
I think my problem is that I use iPhoto to hold my photos, but everything I later do with the photos happens outside of iPhoto, so I still wind up needing to copy them to the desktop where I can work with the actual files.
Remember, you can also just drag the file right out of the iPhoto window into other apps, like Photoshop. (just drag the thumbnail to the dock icon)

iPhoto doesn't work for everyone, I just wanted to be sure you knew all the options since iPhoto doesn't make them exactly obvious.
     
Gus
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Jun 24, 2007, 07:59 AM
 
If you want 'sub albums', why don't you just create a new folder in iPhoto (named 'Summer 07' e.g.) and put the 3 albums in there.
When you select the folder, all photographs from the albums within the folder will be selected and viewable.
Or am I missing something here?

( Last edited by Gus; Jun 24, 2007 at 08:02 AM. Reason: Added image.)
     
simby
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Jun 27, 2007, 01:48 PM
 
I'm new to iPhoto, but I already see many threads in many forums complaining about iPhoto's treatment of photos in folders in the Finder. In fact, the major complaint about iPhoto seems to be that it doesn't allow users to directly access the folder hierarchy for the purpose of organizing and accessing one's photo archive independently of the iPhoto interface. On the other hand, the design philosophy of iPhoto seems to be that users should work with their photos through the iPhoto interface, for user simplicity and unity of design. What solutions would work, and could be proposed constructively to Apple?

I'm not a programmer, but how about a feature which allowed users to create, in a dedicated panel for example, a 'simulated' folder hierarchy of their photos, mimicking what they would want to see in the finder. This entire folder hierarchy could then be exported (or just mirrored in real-time) into an actual folder hierarchy located in the finder, composed of aliases or thumbnails (i.e. very small files, which would point to the actual large files in the iPhoto library), so that users could interact with photos through the finder either directly or through other programs, without affecting the iPhoto archives directly. This 'simulated folder hierarchy' could also be systematically generated or automatically modified based on a user's actions in organizing , to reduce/eliminate the workload, and allow for optimal organization. It could, in effect, be some kind of 'smart' folder hierarchy.

I believe aliases are really designed to be double-clicked, but since Apple has control over both the Finder (this kind of functionality may be useful for other apps too), can't they figure some way (scripts? I'm not a programmer, don't really know...) for aliases to automatically call up the original file across a range of potential actions?

Is there any merit to this kind of solution? How about other solutions?
     
Gus
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Jun 27, 2007, 02:29 PM
 
The question is: what would you want to do in the Finder with your photos that you can't do in iPhoto?
Is starting up iPhoto such a hurdle for some people, they think working from Finder would make it easier or faster?
Personally, if I had enough RAM (only got 1.5 GB on my current iMac G5), I'd leave iPhoto running all the time, just like the Finder. But even starting it when I want to work on my photos, only takes like 5 s.
We see this 'diversification' into different browsers for different media everywhere on Mac OS X now (iTunes for music and movies, iPhoto for photo's (and PDFs?), Finder for other files, Safari for webpages, Mail for e-mails and notes, ...). Is unification a necessity and is that why Leopord will have coverflow and quicklook built into Finder?
If a unified browser of all content is preferable, would Apple be better off making iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie into services i.s.o. applications so Finder can perform all necessary manipulations these applications supply at the moment?
Personally, I have so many files on my hard disks that I find different applications/environments to manipulate different types of files a bonus and not a hurdle.

Opinions?
     
peeb
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Jun 27, 2007, 03:25 PM
 
Quite - specialized interfaces to deal with specialized media is a good thing. Why would you want to use one tool to browse text files, mp3s, .jpgs etc? Each has its own needs, metadata, and structure. The only reason I can think of is 'it's how I used to do it in Windows', a certain comfort in knowing what's going on under the hood. If you really want to manage photos using the finder, you can do it, but don't use iPhoto at the same time.

On the other hand, as someone else once said "I personally prefer to move my files manually because today, you let the computer manage your podcasts. Tomorrow it'll be making your toast. Day after that, metallic Arnold Schwarzeneggers are hunting you and your family in a post-apocalyptic LA. And who wants that?"
     
KP*
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Jun 29, 2007, 12:32 AM
 
Well I stayed up really late one night and organized all my iPhoto photos into regular folders by subject, and I really appreciated the freedom to break them up however I wanted. Many times I used more than one layer of subfolders, which I find much easier than sorting through large general folders with hundreds of pictures that could be better organized by being broken up further.

Aside from the more detailed organization, I also like being able to get at the photos directly. I am not a fan of keeping iPhoto open. Things I do a lot: opening pictures in Preview (which provides a more accurate, larger-screen view than iPhoto, and I prefer Preview's slideshow features to browse groups of photos up close). When I add photos to my blog I have to select the file using the Browse window from within the browser. There is no way to access a file in the iPhoto library from within the Open menu of another app -- I mean there is, if you want to go through the ridiculous folder system and happen to know the date it was taken, but who does that? Often with photos I'm opening them in Photoshop, or adding pictures to Word documents. Admittedly, you can do some of these things by dragging from iPhoto, but why should I need to open an entire (IMO difficult to use) app just to find a file I'm looking for? Isn't that the whole function of the Finder? I don't use any of the other features of iPhoto, because I find them too structured and limiting. The only thing I haven't quite found a replacement for (yet) is the ease of plugging in my camera and having it import my photos and then erase the photos from the camera. I've got the import handled by Adobe Bridge, but it doesn't seem to offer the option to erase, and for that I'd rather have something that was a little simpler. I just want to get the photos off quickly and easily and then decide what to do with them, I don't need something quite so "pro".
     
AKcrab
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Jun 29, 2007, 12:54 AM
 
Originally Posted by KP* View Post
The only thing I haven't quite found a replacement for (yet) is the ease of plugging in my camera and having it import my photos and then erase the photos from the camera. I've got the import handled by Adobe Bridge, but it doesn't seem to offer the option to erase, and for that I'd rather have something that was a little simpler. I just want to get the photos off quickly and easily and then decide what to do with them, I don't need something quite so "pro".
/Applications/Image Capture
     
KP*
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Jun 29, 2007, 01:52 AM
 
Originally Posted by AKcrab View Post
/Applications/Image Capture
LOL. Yeah, that's why I said "yet." I knew there was a built-in way to do it but it had been so long I couldn't remember where to go to change it, and hadn't gotten around to looking it up. Thanks for the reminder. That's exactly the combination of simplicity and flexibility I'm looking for.
     
   
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