Lightroom and iPhoto Question

[matty D]

Ive never bothered using iPhoto so far, but I want to start using it as a way to easily and quickly display pictures to family and friends, rather than using Lightroom.

Now, Ive got all my pictures in my Lightroom catalogue, all in one parent folder called 'My Lightroom Photos' (kept in Pictures). They are then organised into many sub folders.

If I import them all into iPhoto, do they all get duplicated, or will iPhoto just know where they are and keep them in their original location?

If they do get duplicated, I will then presumably have to delete the original folder, but how do I then keep my lightroom catalogue intact?

Just wondering if its worth the bother or not??

 

[zlinuk]

I believe that iPhoto will import the images into its own library and doesn't allow you to reference an external location. I believe that there is a lightroom plugin available for exporting images to an iPhoto library in a couple of clicks, so that may be worth a look.

 

[LongLensPhotography]

I suggest not using iPhoto too much. It tries to organise everything in some unconventional duplicated and locked down catalog in a true iOS style - a very undesirable feature IMHO.

Preview is fairly decent for showing slideshows. All you need to do is select relevant jpegs from the folder, double click the lot, and cmd+shift+F (for full screen)

 

[jakeblu]

I suggest not using iPhoto too much. It tries to organise everything in some unconventional duplicated and locked down catalog in a true iOS style - a very undesirable feature IMHO.

Well seeing as its OSX rather than iOS thats not quite right. There are other points I think need to be made. Cant speak for iPhoto I am an aperture user which uses a similar 'locked down' catalogue. It does not duplicate your files unless you want it too, neither is it locked down you can access your catalogue outside of aperture. You see the designers at Apple had this strange idea. They thought let the photographer take the photos and the system will take care of organising your files. There's no need to have numerous folders on your hard drive just import your photos, tag them and let the program do the rest. You PC guys with your numerous date related folders year/month/week/day/shoot its just neither necessary, efficient or practical. Searching for your files in an organised catalogue is a breeze and undoubtedly much quicker than manual trawling through numerous folders. Dont get me wrong, each to there own, you want to do it that way thats fine but dont pretend its the best system because I would argue the opposite. To be honest its lightrooms file cataloging that stops me moving from aperture to lightroom despite its better editing tools. Just my 2ps worth

Steve

 

[jakeblu]

I believe that iPhoto will import the images into its own library and doesn't allow you to reference an external location. I believe that there is a lightroom plugin available for exporting images to an iPhoto library in a couple of clicks, so that may be worth a look.

I believe that iPhoto like aperture allows you to reference an external location.

Steve

 

[LongLensPhotography]

Well seeing as its OSX rather than iOS thats not quite right. There are other points I think need to be made. Cant speak for iPhoto I am an aperture user which uses a similar 'locked down' catalogue. It does not duplicate your files unless you want it too, neither is it locked down you can access your catalogue outside of aperture. You see the designers at Apple had this strange idea. They thought let the photographer take the photos and the system will take care of organising your files. There's no need to have numerous folders on your hard drive just import your photos, tag them and let the program do the rest. You PC guys with your numerous date related folders year/month/week/day/shoot its just neither necessary, efficient or practical. Searching for your files in an organised catalogue is a breeze and undoubtedly much quicker than manual trawling through numerous folders. Dont get me wrong, each to there own, you want to do it that way thats fine but dont pretend its the best system because I would argue the opposite. To be honest its lightrooms file cataloging that stops me moving from aperture to lightroom despite its better editing tools. Just my 2ps worth

Steve

Lightroom organisation is as good or bad as you make it, but it is open and accessible.

An important point about iPhoto/Aperture is that when it goes wrong it goes really wrong. I had a few duplicated JPEG files in it for ipad export, ie. nothing important. Well after OSX 10.9 update and new iPhoto they messed up the catalog completely :thumbsdown:. The files are still in looking at the overall size, but it doesn't see any of them. It would be disaster if I needed anything from there. You would be lucky if you could do something useful with a backup.

 

[jakeblu]

Lightroom organisation is as good or bad as you make it, but it is open and accessible.

As is Apertures, the library is not closed you can access it outside of aperture.

An important point about iPhoto/Aperture is that when it goes wrong it goes really wrong. I had a few duplicated JPEG files in it for ipad export, ie. nothing important. Well after OSX 10.9 update and new iPhoto they messed up the catalog completely :thumbsdown:. The files are still in looking at the overall size, but it doesn't see any of them. It would be disaster if I needed anything from there. You would be lucky if you could do something useful with a backup.

Right click on the iPhoto library and select show package contents, its all there (well assuming its not corrupted of course) its even in date order and even if it is corrupted, well that's what we have backups for yeah


Steve