iphoto - you tell me...

karavite

karavite

Registered
If you ask me, the usabilty of iPhoto is a little weird and as a dedicated, long time though picky Mac user, I feel I can complain.

I install iPhoto and start it up. I create a new album and choose to import existing photos off my hard drive - just like it says in the online help. I choose a file or a group of files, hit import.... where the hell are they? They aren't in the album I selected, oh they are in the "Last Import" screen pane." I guess I can't import directly to an album. Why not? Why the extra step for existing files?

Hey, what happned to my file names? I spent hours naming those damn things in Xsee, the Finder... now they are titles like Roll 8 - 30. I want my titles back (damn it)!

I drag a pic from Last Import to an album, but it is still visible in Last Import. How do I delete it from Last Import, but keep it in the album? I don't know if I can, but it would be nice because I imported about 95 pics and it is messy in there. Gee, if I could just import them directly into an album that would take care of this - remember, these pics are from files, not my camera.

I want to crop a photo, but crop is ghosted. I click edit, but crop is still ghosted. I drag the cursor over the photo and draw a zone to crop - crop is now available. Okay, this isn't too bad, but having a selection cursor was not obvious.

I don't see how I can change contrast/brightness - I guess iPhoto did it for me, but I don't like it. I want to change this. Guess I have to go to photoshop in Classic? So much for a one app solution?

What are these categories listed below - seems like it is organized as a table with headings - nope, the empty squares in the second "row"are simply undesignated categories. Why can I click on an empty category to a picture and get the empty category box to light up?- sure I get a system beep, but...

Just where are all these files in the Finder now? Whoa, iphoto made a few new directories by year - 1999, 2000, 2001... and all my imported photos are there without their orginal titles in sub-directories labeld 06, 07... What if I want to attach one to an email, copy it... Well, I can drag it from iPhoto to the desktop and it seems to make a copy there, but I am the kind of user who likes to know where all his files are - I can handle the Finder so why not let me use it? I'm sorry, but this is weird, and it is hard for me to completely trust an app with organizing my files. Maybe I'm too old school on this, but I feel out of control of some very important files! Will iPhoto and its direcotries and dbs be there in ten years when I need these pictures (wedding, family...)?

I'm sure iPhoto will change and improve but this initial release does little to match the hype from todays presentation. If Apple were really confident they would put a brand new user up on stage and show what happens - when Steve is driving it all looks so elegant, but it is far from "intuitive" to novice and experienced users alike - IMO. Still, I think I will give it a shot, though I can bet you I will use Xsee to go in and rename (AGAIN!!!) all those files in all those weird directories!
 
Originally posted by karavite
I drag a pic from Last Import to an album, but it is still visible in Last Import. How do I delete it from Last Import, but keep it in the album? I don't know if I can, but it would be nice because I imported about 95 pics and it is messy in there. Gee, if I could just import them directly into an album that would take care of this - remember, these pics are from files, not my camera.
Click to expand...

I think you CAN delete the photos listed in the Last Import album provided that you have dragged the photos to an existing (or new) album first. I tried this and seemed to retain my photos. Has anyone else been successful?
 
Here's what I've found out in playing around:

1. It's set up to work like iTunes. ALL of your photos/music are available in your Library. Just as you do not import into a playlist in iTunes, you do not import to an Album in iPhoto. When you import, the photos are added to your Library. If you want to make an Album of those particular photos, just click Last Import - and there they are.

2. There is no need to delete the images from the Last Import source. That selection automatically updates itself everytime you import.

3. When you add files to an Album from the Last Import source, the photos shouldn't delete/move from the Last Import source, becasue those items are still your 'last import'.

iPhoto, iTunes, and iMovie are all set up with a new paradigm that Apple is introducing slowly. Not only have they de-emphasized the Desktop in OS X, but they are slowly de-emphasizing The Finder! Steve Jobs made an important statement in a keynote speech last year indicating that The Finder itslef would loose its importance to MULTIPLE finders. Meaning, that iPhoto, iTunes, and Mail (etc) have built in "finders" to handle the file types they need to handle.

I think we will see more and more of this as well written applications remove the maintenance from the user's realm to that of the computer. It is a more task based, easier to use, and advanced way of computing (so advanced that it will make us uneasy, at first).

WIth each of Apple's "i" apps, they have tried to eliminate the 'computer' interface with a task based interface. EVen the iPod demonstrates this. You plug it in, it updates in seconds, and your done. No Finder, no drag & drop necessary (unless you choose manual operation).

I also think that it is interesting that with iTunes and iPhoto, the underlying file strucutres that they set up, and the way we interact with them, is a very DATABASE structure. It will be interesting to see what Apple does with and advances they are able to introduce to ease of use by laying a database out at the bottom level of all of our user information.
 
While I understand and wholly support the direction apple is moving with this, I take extreme exception to one problem with it all-

The filesystem.

What apple has been doing is to lots of 'hidden files' with metadata and the like scattered about and all too easily destroyable by a user without even knowing it. Also- their methods of storing images and is a breakdown in logical modelling- a huge UI problem. iTunes is allright with this- but iPhoto actually moves images you import into it into a new hidden directory structure that the user isn't supposed to access- it's a black box without much apparent reason to the storage.

Worse still is the 'year' folders in the iPhoto Library- this caused me to infer that the photographs were actually held in rolls according to their date, which they're not.

While I understand and agree that users simply should stay away from their iPhoto library- I feel like Apple is reducing very powerful flexibility WITHOUT sacrificing usability. Their continuation of HFS+ is an enormous hold-up for lots and lots of functionality. If they were to produce a more BFS-like filesystem and involve metadata with the finder en masse, they could do some very very interesting and POWERFUL things. I know I've harped about this before, but it bothers me very much.

My one hope is that Apple is waiting until they can really ditch classic support. Presently- alternate file systems (err, system- UFS) cause tons of compatability issues with both Carbon and Classic applications. My hope is that when they feel comfortable in doing it- they'll drop HFS+ as the primary supported filesystem (maybe even no longer support OSX running from HFS+ drives) and involve file bundles for drives not running the new filesystem. Unfortunately- this is probably a pipe dream though... but I can pray :)
 
Originally posted by .dev.lqd
Worse still is the 'year' folders in the iPhoto Library- this caused me to infer that the photographs were actually held in rolls according to their date, which they're not.
Click to expand...

Most of the pictures I imported (at least those I had taken with a digital camera) DID appear to import into the correct date location in the iPhoto library.


On the other issue of these task-based UIs. I like the CONCEPT, but it is going to require a lot of habit changing on my part. Eventually, I suspect, I'll forget I ever used "files" and be happy at how much more productive I am. But it's going to take some time.
 
I wholeheartedly agree - this is going to be some difficult times for longtime Mac users. Although it took some time, I actually enjoyed the move from OS 9 to OS X. It was even a little confusing, at the start, going from the Mac based file structure to the new OS X structure (Library, Font,...etc files everywhere) even for an old NeXT user like myself. But after the adjustment, man oh man, I love it. And now, I think I 'see' where they are going with it.

Karavite, you mentioned in your post, you wanted to add a picture as an attachment to an email. No problem, you just have to look at it a little differently. Instead of double-clicking your way through your hard drive, or clicking the Finder icon in the Dock, you just click iPhoto - cause that's "where" your photos are. No need to drill down through hierarchical file structures. iPhoto organizes and maintains your photos for you. If you need a photo, it's in your iPhot Library - which you can organize by albums (as many as you want, plus you can assign and search by (multiple) keywords. Once you spy that photo you want to add as an attachment, just drag it from the iPhoto window into Mail. Drag & drop at it's finest, actually. You "know" it's the photo you want, you just saw it in all its glory in a scalable fashion, and you just drag it right to where you want it to go.

I think Apple is on to something here that is going to make computers even easier to use that we have been used to with using Apples. The computer is going to handle all that dirty work for us. We won't even have to worry about file structures, because we will no longer deal with them. I mean, if you're a Photoshop user, instead of going to the Finder to open some image files, you go to the Image Finder, aka iPhoto. Double click on your photo to open in Photoshop (if you so choose), or drag and drop.

As an aside:
It seems to me that when you import pre-existing files, it creates a "Modified Date" file structure. Top folders are year, then month, then day. But I think the point is, that you shouldn't care, just go to iPhoto to find you files.

Have fun!
 
So far I have not noticed *any* change made by iPhoto to my .jpeg files other than file name renaming. In other words, no loss of quality, etc. Can anyone confirm if the only thing done when importing is physically copying the *exact* image file to the iPhoto Library (I am not concerned with cropping, red-eye removal, etc. or other post-editing) -- or is the image file itself altered in any way?
 
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