Hi,
I have the exact same complaint. Basically, iPhoto does not allow you to geotag images once they have been imported!
To understand what's going on, you need to realize that geographic information is stored in several places: in a central list of all of you iPhoto picutures' properties (called the iPhoto "database), and in comments embedded within the header (i.e., the first few bytes/kB) of the picture file (called EXIF tags). (There are also several other tags -- such as the ones in which HoudahGeo stores city/province/country names -- but these aren't even acknowledged by iPhoto.)
As far as I can tell, when you import a photo, iPhoto extracts the lat/*** information from the photo's EXIF header (where programs like HoudahGeo write it), and makes a copy in the iPhoto "database." Apparently, this extraction is one way: there is no way to change it once it has happened (unless you'd like to replace it by typing in the
name of one of the thousand-or-so Apple-approved locations stored in iPhoto '09). It is this database that drives iPhoto '09's "places" feature.
In contrast, if you use a geotagging program like HoudahGeo on a photo that is already in iPhoto, it edits the EXIF tags in the image file stored in your iPhoto library. However this information is never re-read into the iPhoto "database", so iPhoto is clueless to your photo's location. (Note that "rebuilding" the database doesn't even do this.)
Note that if you drag a photo out of iPhoto, it will still have whatever EXIF tags it had when it was added, so all of your hard work Geotagging isn't
lost... it's just useless as far as iPhoto's new geographic features are concerned.
What can you do:
1. Geotag your photos
before you import them. Use HoudahGeo, use ATP's "photofinder" gadget, whatever. Just make sure the EXIF tags have been edited before the file goes into iPhoto. (Yeah, yeah, a lot of good this advice does you now...)
2. You can drag your pictures out of iPhoto and then re-import them. (After all, the EXIF tags are still there in the exported file.) But, be aware that here's what you'll lose in the process:
- All event/folder/album information
- Any updates to the photo's time/date that you made by simply typing in the photo information pane in the bottom-left corner. (If you used the "change date/time" menu command and checked to "work on original images", then you may be ok.)
- and, most important to me: the "original version" of each photo that iPhoto stores (if you have made edits -- e.g., cropping, "enhancing", etc. -- since importing). (Likewise, you will lose the RAW version if you just drag-out, delete from iPhoto, then drag-back-in.) (Note that you could instead opt to keep only the originals and lose all of the cleaned-up versions, if you prefer. However, HoudahGeo does not always add geotags to the "original" version if you tag a photo that has already been edited in iPhoto.)
- other stuff, maybe???
3. Drag your photos out now and import them into a geotag-friendly alternative to iPhoto (e.g., Flickr)... again you'll lose the above information, but at this point, you're not able to retain any more of your metadata by moving back into iPhoto than by jumping ship 😟
Basically, Apple is forcing you to choose between keeping all of the organization and editing you did to your old photos after importing them into iPhoto, or the geotagging information you added since importing into iPhoto. Yes it's true that geotagging after importing does "edit files within the iPhoto library without going through iPhoto" as LarryNH points out, and yes all of the work you did in geotagging is technically at-your-own-risk because of that fact. But given that iPhoto didn't give any way to edit these fields in the database (and still doesn't!!!!), they should at least try to make it possible to salvage your work by allowing you to force iPhoto to update the lat/*** fields in its "database" based on the file contents. (Sorry for the rant, this is just a real disappointment that kind of kills my excitement for what would have been a really cool new product!)
Good luck with your decision!
