tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post6656091142580259481..comments2024-03-19T13:29:04.853-04:00Comments on David Alison's Blog: iPhoto vs PicasaDavid Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-73716628975081571912011-01-24T18:20:45.203-05:002011-01-24T18:20:45.203-05:00BecameFanBoy
iPhoto stores photos in the regular ...BecameFanBoy<br /><br />iPhoto stores photos in the regular file system it is not a close library.<br />Just right click on the iPhoto library and choose "show package contents".<br />Like the MAC applications it is just a package.<br />The chances of corruption etc are identical to having your photos stored in files and folders.<br />I tire of this misconception.. sighAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-14088577236475597842010-12-09T21:21:15.185-05:002010-12-09T21:21:15.185-05:00I'm gonna pipe up on this old thread because i...I'm gonna pipe up on this old thread because its super relevant to my current decision and maybe there are more up to date opinions.<br /><br />I just got my first MBP. Running iLife '11. I was a fairly heavy Picasa users on both Windows and Linux, and I have paid for the extended Google storage (200GB for $50/year). I've easily face tagged over 10K of my 15K photos and I really love having that information. I've done some really cool things as gifts for people by being able to call up all my pictures the person is in.<br /><br />I WANT to want to move to iPhoto, but I just keep finding reasons not to.<br /><br />1. Tagging. I dont' see a solid tagging feature like Picasa's in iPhoto. I can't say I've poked that hard, but honestly, should I have ot poke hard to find a feature like this?!<br />2. Backup to Picasa Web Albums. PWA gives me the ultimate way to a) backup my pictures in the "cloud", and b) Share pictures and videos with a super flexible approach. I can send links out for an album, a person, an individual picture, etc. etc. Its great. And people can download full resolution version of the pictures I share.<br />3. Open data format. All the picasa information is encoded in hidden files within each individual folder. Its easy to move a photo collection, and if I really wanted to I could write scripts to get at teh face/star data and export it to another format.<br /><br />I'm normally not comfortable with submitting my data to non-open formats, but I'm willing to in the case of iLife products to make my whole multi-media management, and creation activities really take flight. But the points I mention above (among others) are preventing me.<br /><br />I'm sure I can achieve similar functionality on a mac with iphoto, but I can't see how it can be done more affordably and with less hassle.Stuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15520202155537230777noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-41138966617040044812009-11-27T11:31:22.764-05:002009-11-27T11:31:22.764-05:00well I just picked up my 21.5 inch, 1 terrabyte iM...well I just picked up my 21.5 inch, 1 terrabyte iMac at lunchtime - can't wait to unpack it and fire it up tonight - wish me luck!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-67554607400007324322009-11-22T12:17:38.556-05:002009-11-22T12:17:38.556-05:00I am a recent switcher. I just bought a new widesc...I am a recent switcher. I just bought a new widescreen iMac. I used Picasa under Windows to manage ~34,000 photos/videos; about 450GB. My initial experience with iPhoto was a bit negative. When importing my photos iPhoto froze. Then the system froze. It was messy after rebooting, but I did get everything cleaned up. Until I have more experience with iPhoto I will stick with Picasa. For me the deciding factor is the risk of using a closed library(iPhoto) versus using an open file system (Picasa) to organize files. The file system approach is a more conservative (less risky) solution.Yutuhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09061705377539588084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-89357278122896832642009-11-16T09:18:15.489-05:002009-11-16T09:18:15.489-05:00Ok - thanks. I have most (25Gb+) of my own content...Ok - thanks. I have most (25Gb+) of my own content backed-up using one of those on-line services (Humyo.com). If I change the file structure - say by going to iPhoto - then this may mess up my on line system. As Picasa will, so I understand, preserve the file structure - then maybe I will try that first. I think I just need to take the plunge, buy the iMac and just start adapting [evolving...? ;-)]. Anybody want to buy a Sony Vaio Laptop - there will be one going cheap soon! - Wish me luck!<br />regards<br />MWAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-80255834322887212442009-11-16T09:04:02.722-05:002009-11-16T09:04:02.722-05:00@Willsco: I'm not all that familiar with Apert...@Willsco: I'm not all that familiar with Aperture so I don't know if it uses the exact same storage library that iPhoto does. iPhoto has decent consumer level editing tools but to handle changes on a larger scale (adjustments to multiple photos at once for example) you should consider Aperture. You can get a free trial from Apple so it's no-risk to try it out.<br /><br />I've also covered Picasa for Mac in more detail <a href="http://www.davidalison.com/2009/01/first-impressions-picasa-for-mac.html" rel="nofollow">in this post</a>. Hope it helps.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-78392572564463807422009-11-16T08:58:00.631-05:002009-11-16T08:58:00.631-05:00Thanks for this - yes storage will be an interest ...Thanks for this - yes storage will be an interest to me - but I am prepared to be flexible.<br />Where does Aperture fit in? - Is it like Photoshop is to Picasa? - somewhere you go when you want more than red-eye removal?<br />Does Aperture copy it's own library of yours thereby doubling up on storage?<br />Apologies for Aperture question in this thread - Is there a more suitable thread..?<br />regards<br />MWAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-23917565462248441982009-11-16T08:22:31.396-05:002009-11-16T08:22:31.396-05:00@Willsco: While I was initially excited about Pica...@Willsco: While I was initially excited about Picasa for Mac I've rarely run it after initial install. When I switched to Mac one of the things I really enjoyed was a consistent look and feel to the Mac oriented applications; Picasa is a port from the Windows version and looks a little odd. This is fairly subjective so you may want to try it out before tossing it out based on that recommendation.<br /><br />The reason I've stayed with iPhoto for over 1 1/2 years is that I've learned to deal with it's idiosyncrasies, which mostly revolved around how photos are physically stored on disk. With a 10K photo library this may be a concern of yours so you will want to look into how that storage model works and whether that's going to cover your needs.<br /><br />The big advantage to me for iPhoto is the integration with OS X and other iLife applications. If I'm in iMovie and want to toss in a photo from my library I have immediate access to the edited photos (red-eye corrected, etc) without having to hunt them down in the Finder.<br /><br />That aspect is something you may not appreciate until you've been using iPhoto for a while so it's worth trying it out and seeing if you can adjust to it.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-12751990313589671012009-11-16T06:48:53.160-05:002009-11-16T06:48:53.160-05:00Hi. I have just read 18 months worth of this threa...Hi. I have just read 18 months worth of this thread with interest. I am just about to jump from 20 years of being a Windows user to Mac. The only thing that is making me waver is handling photos. I have around 10,000 from the last 10 years or so and they are all managed in Picasa. My concern was how will I manage them on a Mac. I have now learnt that there is Picasa for Mac - but there are pros and cons vs Mac's native photo manager - iPhoto. Has Picasa for Mac settled down now - are most of the bugs ironed out? Should I ignore iPhoto and go with Picasa for Mac? <br />Also, I naively thought that Aperture was a large photo-library management application. I had intended to make the switch and have Aperture installed and use that in place of Picasa and iPhoto. But many of the comments seem to infer that Picasa or iPhoto is still needed for library management. Is this the case? Many thanks in advance. MW.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-45790816414605683922009-11-06T04:44:55.608-05:002009-11-06T04:44:55.608-05:00One thing you can't do in iPhoto is have two m...One thing you can't do in iPhoto is have two managed databases. One on your removable hard-disk and one on the local machine. If this functionality were introduced it would far outstrip picassa.Jacknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-72845482920777890232009-07-24T16:58:50.477-04:002009-07-24T16:58:50.477-04:00I never liked the way iPhoto treated my photos or ...I never liked the way iPhoto treated my photos or my library, plus the interface was a little clunky compared to Picasa. So i was ecstatic when Picasa came out for mac. I won't ever switch back to iPhoto.Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02744911476189277103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-51908473786207408912009-07-24T14:34:18.520-04:002009-07-24T14:34:18.520-04:00simply blast those pictures into iPhoto and away I...<i>simply blast those pictures into iPhoto and away I would go. My first step was to copy the 45GB of photos to my MacBook. Next, I imported them into iPhoto.</i><br /><br />You've already lost me. How do I "blast" the Picasa albums into iPhoto? How do I copy them to my hard drive? If there's a Copy command on the Picasa page I can't find it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-47860273837691291122009-06-20T22:44:38.846-04:002009-06-20T22:44:38.846-04:00Thanks for helpful tips. My impression is that Pic...Thanks for helpful tips. My impression is that Picasa is good for storing and managing a large collection of photos with limited functionality for organizing and editing. iPhoto seems better at more sophisticated organizing and categorizing functions but inept at storage management. My solution is that I keep track of all my photos in my Windows or iMac by means of Picasa and from time to time I transfer a folder of photos with which I like to play iPhoto to my MacBook via the local network. Then I delete the transferred original files from my MacBook only leaving iPhoto's library files. So far so good.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00078232753837246011noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-87437891188215145762009-05-26T22:08:58.567-04:002009-05-26T22:08:58.567-04:00@Jince: Thanks for the nice comments on the blog, ...@Jince: Thanks for the nice comments on the blog, I appreciate it. I've got Picasa for Mac installed but to be honest I never run it. While I love the file handling in Picasa I just can't get over the UI. It's basically a non-standard Windows application running on OS X. As I've become more Mac oriented over the last year I'm becoming a huge advocate of standardized Mac oriented UIs and the little UI widgets and presentation model for Picasa breaks that.<br /><br />iPhoto '09 doesn't allow the tagging in the way Picasa does. You can however create keywords for groupings of photos, though it's not as clean as I would like. The Faces feature in iPhoto '09 is a big help in organizing pictures though after the novelty of trying it out I don't really use it that much any more.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-72029698671001226752009-05-26T21:23:25.305-04:002009-05-26T21:23:25.305-04:00Hi Dave, I went though your blog and it is all sim...Hi Dave, I went though your blog and it is all simply amazing posts. You answered so many of my questions. I am a new MAC user- just got my new macbook pro. It has been hard getting used to i-photo. Like you, I too am on a quest of the "one" photo software. I really like the way Creative memories allows to tag and place one picture in multiple categories like "family" and "holiday". which I don't think i-photo or picasa allows. I wish the three softwares would merge!!! So finally, what are your thoughts comparing i-photo and picasa for mac after having used it for a few months now?Jincenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-43710534232148416512009-01-30T14:08:00.000-05:002009-01-30T14:08:00.000-05:00I've recently migrated from a PC, and I'm still tr...I've recently migrated from a PC, and I'm still trying to get my head around the non-heirarchical structure iPhoto uses. I like the way Events work, but I wish I could have events within events: for example, the Celtic Ensemble's trip to Quebec is one event, but each city they visited should also be a sub-event. I guess I can use folders and albums to accomplish that organization (but when you put a bunch of albums in a folder, and then select the folder to view, it still just shows all the pictures in chronological order, regardless of the order of the albums).<BR/><BR/>It's also really frustrating to try to share my photos with non-Mac users. My mom wants a CD of our family photos from 2008. I created an album of selected pictures, but I wanted to identify the different events, so I created a 2008 folder with a bunch of albums of each event. When I burnt it and then tried reading it on my PC, not only was the organization nothing at all like what I had created; but iPhoto burned both thumbnails and original versions of each picture. What's the point of that?<BR/><BR/>Any solutions to burning a CD that will be useful to PC users?<BR/><BR/>One more annoying thing: is it not possible to have a caption that is different from the file name? Sure I can put a description in the file info, but then I can only see it when I select the photo.<BR/><BR/>I'm trying to trust iPhoto, but I have to agree with Grant: a program should let me do what I want to do, not tell me what to do.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-20034728210720531962009-01-24T17:59:00.000-05:002009-01-24T17:59:00.000-05:00Hi,Has anyone had a problem in iPhoto where you cl...Hi,<BR/><BR/>Has anyone had a problem in iPhoto where you click on an image and it doesn't appear in the edit window? I just get the death spiral.<BR/>Thanks!<BR/>NicoleNicole (Colin's Mom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/08072572473768463143noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-11436448059310829522009-01-13T12:45:00.000-05:002009-01-13T12:45:00.000-05:00"I'm a pro who has NO NEED for Aperture - iPhoto i..."I'm a pro who has NO NEED for Aperture - iPhoto is phenomenal for organizing - but you need to install iPhoto Library Manager (Freeware!)."<BR/><BR/>There is also iPhoto Buddy.<BR/>http://www.iphotobuddy.com/<BR/> <BR/>I love this application for creating different libraries.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-12692645653738600152009-01-11T14:59:00.000-05:002009-01-11T14:59:00.000-05:00okay.. for those of you who want "folder" organiza...okay.. for those of you who want "folder" organization in iPhoto, my advice is not to worry at all about events. You don't even have to use them. It's something new in the last iPhoto. Before that we just used Albums; Albums are like Playlists in iTunes. You can set them up exactly how you want. Albums act just like Folders do. I'm not crazy about events because some times you can have several events in one camera sync, and sometimes you're just taking snapshots of people. Thats not an event. I pretty much treat events like albums. but it's double work.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-69599901793548624872009-01-09T17:22:00.000-05:002009-01-09T17:22:00.000-05:00I'm glad I'm not the only one. Just switched from ...I'm glad I'm not the only one. Just switched from Windows to Apple last week(Macbook Pro... so sweet!). Love my Picasa, but expected to be blown away by iPhoto....I have to say I was underwhelmed too. But I paid so much $$ to switch to Mac that i feel obligated to like iPhoto. I'll feel guilty for continuing to use Picassa. I'm going to give iPhoto a chance to grow on me. I'm hoping the overall integration to iDVD etc. will make it worthwhile. Thanks. Great Blog for a new Mac user with amature/casual photo needs.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-11162431940752696392009-01-06T12:20:00.000-05:002009-01-06T12:20:00.000-05:00And the new iPhoto '09 is being demoed as I type t...And the new iPhoto '09 is being demoed as I type this... things are getting interesting. :)corsahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03764779033418241016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-76572461542437640532009-01-05T21:22:00.000-05:002009-01-05T21:22:00.000-05:00@goDog: Thanks - already kicking the tires on it. ...@goDog: Thanks - already kicking the tires on it. Interesting so far.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-18990119950549010762009-01-05T21:18:00.000-05:002009-01-05T21:18:00.000-05:00Picasa for Mac is out!Picasa for Mac is out!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-47076767081744124392008-12-30T01:02:00.000-05:002008-12-30T01:02:00.000-05:00Thanks for the informative post. I am trying to fi...Thanks for the informative post. I am trying to find an alternative to iphoto. <BR/><BR/>My iphoto library is 10.11 gig and continually crashes. We also have lots of gray boxes instead of pictures which means that the photo file is corrupt or missing. <BR/><BR/>My guess is we have too many photos, I am not a professional we're just organizing family photos.<BR/><BR/>I am now looking at transferring my photos to light room or aperture. <BR/><BR/>The frustrating part is I have spent so much time organizing all the photos with key words, added descriptions, etc. And now the challenge will be to transfer the pictures without loosing everything. <BR/><BR/>From what I have read the best thing to do is picturesync. <BR/><BR/>If you have any insight let me know.Mehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13543792741635969883noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-79753122410713231082008-12-17T19:54:00.000-05:002008-12-17T19:54:00.000-05:00@Anon: This is one of the things that drives me cr...@Anon: This is one of the things that drives me crazy about iPhoto; it will sometimes place the photos into the library even if the option is set NOT to do that. Case in point; if you edit any file it gets pulled into your local iPhoto store. While that makes sense in some ways, the problem is simply opening a picture and ZOOMING in is considered editing by iPhoto and the file gets added into the store. I personally cannot wait for the Mac version of Picasa. I've learned to get around the iPhoto quirks in large part because I just have a fairly large amount of disk space at my disposal.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.com