maintaining folder structure in iPhoto?

Hi

I just switched to mac and am very impressed

but i am about confused about the best way to transpose my photo folders.

I have stored my photos on windows by folder according to subject e.g. uk>london or italy>milano

so for example when i want to view a photo or browse through a series of photos i go to the country and then the place and I use windows photo preview to scroll and open for editing.

if i import to iPhoto i lose this structure. what can I do? I´ve checked the iPhoto tutorials and I see you can create folders within iPhoto but can i do it automatically from an existing folder structure??

 

I believe if you go to preferences > Advanced and uncheck Importing: copy to iphoto library, that will take care of your needs.
Not 100% sure as I directly import my pics from my camera into iPhoto.

If you have a large library, you may want to look at using something like Lightroom or Aperture (great discount on that if you're a student).

Hope that helps.

 

But if you don't need the advanced editing features of Aperture or Lightroom, have a look at ShoeBox.

 

Many thanks for your responses. I´ll check out shoebox but want to make sure about iphoto before i spend money...

Basically it sounds like I need to restructure my folders a bit more to suit iPhoto before I import.
Another complication is that I use subfolders to manage my pictures

So I have Italy folder > Milano folder > Milano Candidates > Milano RAW

When I come back from a shoot in Milano the RAW files go in the 'RAW folder'. I then convert ones I like in Bibble to jpeg and place in the 'Candidates' folder. Then I do any tweaking in photoshop and photos I want to publish to flickr and actually use go in the top level 'Milano folder'.

I use Bibble to browse the RAW folder, and would normally use Windows Picture Preview to scroll through the jpeg folders, either for selection of candidates or just for my viewing pleasure!

If I continue using this folder structure outside of iPhoto because it suits my workflow, can anyone think of a way I can actually get any use out of iPhoto without doing double work (ie. maintaining folders outside of iPhoto and albums within it) !?

 

As hollownail said, if you uncheck that option your files will stay where they are - but that won't change the fact that you need to order them inside iPhoto also. It works on metadata (EXIF etc), not on how they are organized as files.

Using that option you will also be editing the originals if you do any editing in iPhoto, so be careful about that.

 

thanks again, I'll play around a bit and see what I can do.

Shoebox is looking tempting becuase it will let me view from folders. But I am reluctant to pay 70 dollars for someting XP does for free!

 

ok I just tried shoebox and it is the business!

the express version is enough for my needs for now and well worth 30 dollars

Shoebox rocks!

 

That is one thing I had a very tough time with, moving from a folder centric workflow on XP to a GUI centric on OS X. I still am irked by the whole thing.

 

Yup I am feeling you. 2 Days since I got my Mac and I have got everything I need to be able to do sorted and I love it... But it defo feels odd !