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Migrating from iPhoto *TO* PC
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driven
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Dec 21, 2008, 02:06 PM
 
Guys,

I'm going to ask the opposite question of most.

After my MBP was stolen earlier in the year my company replaced it with a Dell E6400. Decent machine, but it runs Vista. I thought I could just be happy with my photos at home on the home Mac, but since I am on the road 20 - 25 days per month I've decided that that's less than convenient. I've already migrated my music to iTunes for Windows. No problem there.

I am running into a challenge with iPhoto though. I have approximately 7,000 photos with comments and keywords that span about 10 years of events.

I find that if I simply copy the files then I lose the keywords and the comments. If I export (with Keywords) then I keep the keywords but the date and time is reset to the date/time of the export. (NOT ideal).

I'd like to preserve the keywords *AND* the date/time. Comments would be a nice bonus. I don't care what app I use on Windows (Windows Live Photo or Picasa are fine.) I hate that I have to move things BACK to Windows, but that's the situation I'm in. I really don't want to buy a Mac and have to haul two laptops through the airport twice a week.

Any thoughts? I've been banging my head on this for a few weeks now and can't seem to come up with an ideal solution. (Or even an acceptable one.) The family pics are too valuable to lose so I want to be careful and deliberate.
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TETENAL
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Dec 21, 2008, 02:39 PM
 
Can't you just keep your family pics on your home Mac and while you are on the road you view them on your MobileMe-gallery online? I don't see why one would want to carry around 7000 family pictures on their company laptop.
     
driven  (op)
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Dec 21, 2008, 02:56 PM
 
I was trying to do some projects for my family (Christmas cards, books, etc.) that I couldn't do because the pics were at home and I was on the road for nearly the entire month of December. Don't want that to happen again. Can't quite put everything I want onto the online gallery. :-)

Besides, I like having them with me.
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besson3c
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Dec 21, 2008, 03:02 PM
 
How about iPhoto -> Gallery via the iPhoto2Gallery plug, and then Gallery -> Picasa?

This is one of the unfortunate problems of being dependent upon proprietary Desktop applications (I don't mean this critically either, I wish I could access my iTunes shares and purchased music under Linux without having to use WINE).
     
driven  (op)
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Dec 21, 2008, 03:09 PM
 
Yeah ... the proprietary nature of the iApps reminds me of the Hotel California. "You can check in any time you like, but you can never leave."

I'm not familiar with iPhotoToGallery. I will certainly look into it. Do you know if it preserves the keywords? That's my utmost concern at the moment. (I really drank the kool aid with iPhoto from the first version ... and I don't regret it ... it's an awesome application for what I needed it for.)
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alex_kac
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Dec 21, 2008, 10:47 PM
 
Or just VNC into your home computer next time.
     
besson3c
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Dec 22, 2008, 12:29 AM
 
It looks like it doesn't export keywords and ratings:

http://zwily.com/iphoto/wiki/index.p...rt.Suggestions

It may be a moot point if the Gallery Picasa import doesn't support them either. It seems overall like a tall order hoping for them to make the jump, unfortunately!
     
driven  (op)
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Dec 22, 2008, 02:35 AM
 
Originally Posted by alex_kac View Post
Or just VNC into your home computer next time.
That's actually NOT a bad idea.
(It would be perfect if I had faster than 384k upstream bandwidth).

I've got a fetish with working locally on projects, but perhaps I need to get over that. Maybe I'm a relic.

You've given me something to consider. (After spending 4 hours today just EXPORTING the various events from JUST 2008 ... and not even IMPORTING them and re-applying the keywords yet, I'm certainly open to suggestion to avoid doing this to the other 9 years in my library.)
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driven  (op)
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Dec 22, 2008, 02:37 AM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
It looks like it doesn't export keywords and ratings:

http://zwily.com/iphoto/wiki/index.p...rt.Suggestions

It may be a moot point if the Gallery Picasa import doesn't support them either. It seems overall like a tall order hoping for them to make the jump, unfortunately!
Yes it is a tall order, but it really shouldn't be since this data can easily be embedded into the file itself. :-(
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turtle777
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Dec 22, 2008, 03:17 AM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
I wish I could access my iTunes shares and purchased music under Linux without having to use WINE).
How about http://www.simplifymedia.com/ ?

-t
     
besson3c
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Dec 22, 2008, 09:17 AM
 
Originally Posted by driven View Post
Yes it is a tall order, but it really shouldn't be since this data can easily be embedded into the file itself. :-(
Yeah, I think you can do this by using this script to export iPhoto keywords as ITPC file information that is embedded into the file itself:

http://code.google.com/p/iphotokeywordutilities/

From this point, you can look at a more direct path to import files straight into Picasa or anything else, but Gallery will definitely recognize this metadata. I like the idea of using Gallery because you can use it with both Picasa (which it supports importing) and iPhoto (likewise).
     
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Dec 22, 2008, 09:24 AM
 
Originally Posted by turtle777 View Post
I don't think so, but thanks. I've tried streaming my iTunes library over the internet before, I simply didn't have the upload bandwidth to do this. I'm looking for something purely local that will work within the house. Unless I'm missing something, it doesn't look like this would fit the bill...
     
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Dec 22, 2008, 12:42 PM
 
Buy a MacBook/Pro, install Vista on it and leave the PC at home - simple!

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Dec 22, 2008, 01:04 PM
 
Originally Posted by WOPR View Post
Buy a MacBook/Pro, install Vista on it and leave the PC at home - simple!
For security reasons (and liability reasons) we are no longer allowed to use non-company hardware for company business. It was my personal MBP that was robbed with company data on it. It made for a lot of grief.
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mduell
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Dec 22, 2008, 03:08 PM
 
If you export the photos with the keywords, the exif data should be intact even though the file creation date changed. Any decent photo management software can read exif data.
     
driven  (op)
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Dec 22, 2008, 03:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
If you export the photos with the keywords, the exif data should be intact even though the file creation date changed. Any decent photo management software can read exif data.
I'll give it a try. Thanks.
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besson3c
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Dec 22, 2008, 03:43 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
If you export the photos with the keywords, the exif data should be intact even though the file creation date changed. Any decent photo management software can read exif data.
True, but are iPhoto keywords written to exif metadata?
     
driven  (op)
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Dec 22, 2008, 04:19 PM
 
They appear to be on export, but the file creation date changes. :-(
I have thus far been unable to verify that the actual file date/time is in the exif data. (My mac is offline until later tonight when I can experiment again)
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mduell
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Dec 22, 2008, 08:52 PM
 
Originally Posted by besson3c View Post
True, but are iPhoto keywords written to exif metadata?
The OP says they're available some how in the OP: "If I export (with Keywords) then I keep the keywords"
     
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Dec 23, 2008, 01:48 AM
 
Roundabout, but Aperture can import iPhoto libraries with metadata intact, and then Aperture can export the originals ("masters") with Sidecar files (containing metadata) that a proper photo app on the PC should be able to handle. If you know someone with Aperture, it's worth a shot. (Actually, come to think of it, I think the 30-day demo of Aperture would do, since IIRC it's not feature-limited.)
     
driven  (op)
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Dec 26, 2008, 12:58 PM
 
Guys,

I did an experiment with all of my 2007 photos.

If I export (JPEG) and check ("Include Keywords") then the photos do indeed export with the date/time stamp in the Meta data. Windows Live Photo Gallery will import using the date/time of the shot, not of the file.

So ... it appears that the problem is solved.

That said: iPhoto is about 4 generations ahead of Windows Live Photo Gallery (at least). There is an amazing contrast between tools.
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64stang06
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Dec 26, 2008, 03:57 PM
 
Originally Posted by driven View Post
Guys,

I did an experiment with all of my 2007 photos.

If I export (JPEG) and check ("Include Keywords") then the photos do indeed export with the date/time stamp in the Meta data. Windows Live Photo Gallery will import using the date/time of the shot, not of the file.

So ... it appears that the problem is solved.

That said: iPhoto is about 4 generations ahead of Windows Live Photo Gallery (at least). There is an amazing contrast between tools.
Great to hear. However, was there a reason you chose to use Windows Live Photo Gallery over Picassa 3?
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Dec 26, 2008, 04:37 PM
 
Originally Posted by 64stang06 View Post
Great to hear. However, was there a reason you chose to use Windows Live Photo Gallery over Picassa 3?
I think it was mostly the photo-stitching feature. (I used it once.) :-)

That said: I installed Picasa in a VM to see what it had .. I didn't see that it offered much more than the Windows Live software other than a different look/feel. Both were lacking IMHO.
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driven  (op)
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Dec 26, 2008, 05:44 PM
 
Actually one problem. Any photo that I had taken with a camera phone didn't have the embedded EXIF data. So ... it used the file date. Fail.
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Dec 26, 2008, 08:17 PM
 
What a shame for all those great photos taken using a phone.
     
driven  (op)
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Dec 26, 2008, 08:32 PM
 
Originally Posted by mduell View Post
What a shame for all those great photos taken using a phone.
ROFL. Seriously. :-)

That said: Also some photos that I scanned in using a flatbed scanner don't include the info .... and also got jacked up with dates.
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driven  (op)
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Dec 27, 2008, 11:25 AM
 
BTW: With regards to the criticism of camera phone photos, isn't having a picture with a camera phone (2MP or 3MP) better than nothing when finding yourself on a business trip or family event and that's the only camera you have with you?
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Dec 27, 2008, 01:40 PM
 
Originally Posted by driven View Post
BTW: With regards to the criticism of camera phone photos, isn't having a picture with a camera phone (2MP or 3MP) better than nothing when finding yourself on a business trip or family event and that's the only camera you have with you?
That's what I use when I don't have my camera with me. In regards to the Windows Live/Picasa question I brought up earlier, I didn't realize that there was photo stitching and so I'll have to look into that at some point.
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driven  (op)
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Dec 29, 2008, 04:15 PM
 
I found this (short) article comparing Windows Live Photo Gallery vs. Picasa.

http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/09/g...ive-photo.html
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