Can iPhoto catalogue images like Picasa

[dharmit]

Hi,

I didnt want to continue my last post as this topic is different.

I was looking at several webhits after googling iPhoto tutorials. People around the web are saying that iPhoto cannot just view photos in the directory that you have on harddisk (like Picasa does) instead copies all the photos to its library.

I think this is wastage of hard disk space.

Even if you turn off copy photos to library, it does copy some, is there a bug in iPhoto?

Can iPhoto see the tags that I marked on my photos in Picasa?

Cheers

[wulf]

I think that, if you use iPhoto, you commit to using it as your photo library. That is how it manages things like sorting by date, tagging and always allowing you to revert to the original image. Without all those features, there are probably more lightweight programs to use. What are the shortfalls of Picasa that make you want to use iPhoto?

Since moving to a Mac, I use iPhoto as my firstline photo library and then archive copies to a hand-maintained directory structure on an external disk (as well as publishing the photos to Flickr). Duplication of image data, for sure, but that's just backup and double backup.

Wulf

[dharmit]

Originally Posted by wulf

Without all those features, there are probably more lightweight programs to use.

Wulf

Wulf, can you please guide me to those light weight applications. I did a quick google search and found quiet a few but didn't know if I had time to try them all. If DPS users have experience (and I know there is more than 1000 years of experience combined) they can guide me in the right direction. I think this might be an excellent post/tutorial for DPS (Open Source Photo managers for Mac)

Originally Posted by wulf

What are the shortfalls of Picasa that make you want to use iPhoto?

Wulf

Picasa is great and I was using it on Windows for cataloging and minor edits to photos. Also if someone has found a utility that can convert Picasa tags to iPhoto tags, it would be much appreciated. iPhoto has some good features like Make calender, cards, face recognition etc from your photos that Picasa does not have. I know there will be some other software that can do this but if I can get everything in one place, for ease I will go for it. Also iPhoto is bundled with Mac and people have been using it since when it came out long ago so there should be good reason to use it. Also I dont want to crowd my Mac with 10 different software applications that have overlapping functions.

Originally Posted by wulf

Since moving to a Mac, I use iPhoto as my firstline photo library and then archive copies to a hand-maintained directory structure on an external disk (as well as publishing the photos to Flickr). Duplication of image data, for sure, but that's just backup and double backup.

Wulf

Wulf, will it be possible to elaborate on this a bit more, I mean the work flow (I know that it is different for different people) but a guide from experienced people is worth its weight in gold.

Dharmit

[wulf]

If you don't want all the bells and whistles iPhoto offers, you might be able to get as light weight as just a well organised file system and an external image editor. The three thing that keep me using it are:

1. I like being able to view all my photos and also to be able to divide them up into different groups dynamically. Most often, I use the ability to pick out all photos that I have tagged "forflickr" (I think the tagging would get unwieldy if I hadn't stuck to a fairly small set of names though).

2. I find the ability to compare two or more photos side by side very useful, especially when thinning down my shots and deciding what to keep (although I'd love more control over zoom levels and the ability to track the same viewing window on each photo displayed).

3. From time to time, I find the slideshow useful, particulary for showing others my pictures.

It looks like there isn't a version of Picasa for the Mac... so that's not an option to worry about!

Wulf

[dharmit]

Wulf,

Picasa is available for Mac. Click Here to go to the website.

Rest, I think I will do the following

1. Download photos in DPP
2. Correct WB, Exp and save them as tiff/jpeg
3. Use Gimp to edit, if need be
4. Use Picasa for mac, to do tagging and light weight editing (if not done with Gimp)
5. Share with friends on Picasa

Cheers for the support.