iPhoto alternative?

You have to understand that both iPhoto and Aperture and similar programs like Lightroom try to keep your original image un-molested. So if you process your image, it writes a "version" to another folder. (Aperture and Lightroom adjust your images non-destructively, so they only write a set of instructions rather than the whole image).

OS X 10.4 has a reasonable utility called Image Capture for just looking at and sorting through a set of images. It doesn't do a lot, but it's O.K. for that purpose.

OS X 10.4 is going to have some neat new image browsing functionality built into the new Finder. Go to the Apple web site and look at the preview of Leopard.

--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/

Search is out at the moment so I dare to join the conversation since I seem to have the same problem as the first poster.

I just converted from W95-98-XP world to MacBook and am loving and hating it. I have just started to understand the logics but am missing my trusted software. Mostly ACDSee Classic which was amazingly fast and simple photo browser.

Pros were

+ (that) folder structure so you could easily just quickview your USB memory stick etc.
+ no library
+ relatively fast thumbnails next to the folder structure

+ pressing enter went straight to full screen and dedicated page up/down buttons to previous or next photo

+ + - buttons were then for zoom and with cursor buttons you could move in the image
+ pressing enter second time or esc returned you back to thumbnails
+ alt+arrow was lossless JPG rotation

Cons were

• ???

= all I would ever ask from a picture browser, not an archiver

I have quickly tried several programs but none seem to work for me and the ACDSee 1.6 for Mac has some flaws.

iPhoto is not intended as a photo browser--it is more for image management and some semi-lightweight retouching. There have been several freeware and shareware Mac image browsers in other threads below. Google has a Mac-specific search site you also want to use.

Have you just used the Finder's built-in slideshow? Select your images and right-click and choose slideshow. And there is always Preview.

In a related post I just made, i want to view the pictures I transfer to my OS X Picture folder QUICKLY and WITHOUT having import OR reference them in a new db (eg iPhoto or LR) This is a hugely uncessary step IMHO. My end game is to quickly be able to look at whats in my photo folder. Can't see to know how to do this (see my post eariler today in this forum)

Firstly, in the folder you want to view thumbnails (this means any folder, not just 'Pictures'), click on the finder window toolbar button which looks like 4 squares. This will give you icon view.

Then under the view menu, select 'show view options' and check the box that says 'show icon preview' and if you want all windows select the 'all windows' radio button.

You can adjust the size on the icons, thus the thumbnails' with the icon size slider.

To see a slide show, just select the thumbnails and right click and select 'slideshow'.

That's it.

I hope that helps.

Shrey

Indeed it does! THANK YOU. I knew that my new Mac HAD to have an easy way to do this, but just couldn't find it. There does however seem to be a little quirk in that when I say 'all folders' to resize icon, my folder icons themselves (and any non picture icon) ends up being WAY too big for comfort... And when I select 'this folder' only, i'm going to have to manually select that for all my subfolder within PICTURES...seems a bit too manual, but I only have to do it once I believe.

thx again.

I still have another related problem in my other post today, perhaps you can help? thx

It's a shame that the Icon Size slider can't be dragged out onto the Finder Toolbar, so that you can get to it quicker. And it's a shame that the icon size maxes out at 128 pixels, when you consider the thumbnails on Google Images go up to 150 pixels.

Also, it would be great to have the Finder Slideshow feature available as an icon you can place on the Finder Toolbar, instead of having to go into menus everytime you want to use it.

Why do you need to find them in finder?

If you want a copy, just drag and drop it from iPhoto.

I went through all the messages in this thread and I understand about the complaint that many people have. I myself have a similar one and still trying to find out a solution.

I have been a pc user for a long time and recently switched to mac for the first time. I like this system very much. It's much faster than pc and safer too. But when it comes to photo browsing, I miss Photoshop Elements (PE) for Windows. In Photoshop Elements (PE) for Windows, I could keep my pictures in any folder I want, or even in an external hard drives, and still import previews/thumbnails in photoshop elemnents library. It exactly appeared as in iphoto library. I could open them, edit them, assign tags and do many more things. And still all the pictures will remain in the folders that I keep them in. But for some reason, these features are not offered in Photoshop Elements (PE) for Mac. I foud all these features in iphoto, but the real pain is that now I have no control over organizing the pictures in folders that I want. I have to rely on iphoto folders, which are so many that I loose track of them or waste a lot of time to find their locations. I think Photoshop Elements (PE) for Windows made it very easy to organize your pictures at any location (local or external hard drive) and name the folders in any way you want and still keep them in library in the same fashion that iphoto does..

Hopefully Photoshop Elements (PE) will introduce same features for mac too some day. Or maybe iphoto will give a little bit control over organizing the folders and location of pictures. Except this, I like iphoto and think its a powerful program.

If anyone finds out a way to organize picture in a better way, please share the information with all of us.

Thanks,
Toby

I don't understand your problem. You can reference links to the Finder-based folder structure of your choice in iPhoto. Or, you can setup any folder structure of your choice within iPhoto.

Where' s the gap for you?

It is true that you can reference files in outboard folders just fine in iPhoto. But PSE4 or 5 for the PC has a very robust cataloguing function that Adobe has never seen fit to implement on the Mac, probably because of competition from iPhoto since it is basically free. On the other hand, you give up a lot of useful image editing capabilities in iPhoto. So.....probably the best answer is to start using either Lightroom, or Aperture. Aperture if you have a big need to have very flexible cataloguing and sorting and integration with other iLife programs, and you have a fast Mac with a good video card and lots of ram. Lightroom if you have a slower Mac with the basic video card, and your cataloguing needs are not on a high volume business oriented basis. Either one will give you more and better cataloguing and sorting abilities than iPhoto or Elements, they work just as good with JPEGs as they do with RAW format, and they open the door to more possibilities down the road. Time to upgrade.

--
Only my opinion. It's worth what you paid for it. Your mileage may vary! ;-}
http://www.dougwigton.com/