How do I import iphoto 11 library to Lightroom 3?

For those that are looking at this and couldn't find an answer try this:

- Go to your ~/Pictures folder

- Right-click (Ctrl-Click) on the iPhoto Library icon and choose Show Package Contents

- Scroll down to the Originals folder

- Right-click (Ctrl-Click) on the Originals folder and choose Make Alias

- Name it something (e.g. iPhoto Photo Link)

- Move this alias to your ~/Pictures folder

- Now go back to Lightroom in the Import screen, navigate to where you put that alias (e.g. ~/Pictures/iPhoto Photo Link)

You should now be able to import all of your iPhoto photos to Lightroom. Note this will not preserve events or any other iPhoto features, but it will allow you to see all of your photos in Lightroom without having to Export from iPhoto (which requires making a copy of every photo).

JK

This is functionally no different from exporting the files from iPhoto. But - unlike exporting - it's an unsupported hack and could cause issues with the iPhoto Library further down the road.

The functional difference is that when you export you duplicate your entire library. I have 76GB worth of photos (and that's just the originals). Duplicating those is something I wanted to avoid. Although this is a "hack" in the sense it is a workaround to no direct Adobe support, it does not change the iPhoto Library in any way. It simply provides a pointer for Lightroom to access the files (to which it will create a catelog of pointers through it).

Are you going to abondon iPhoto entirely? If so then open the iPhoto Library package in the Finder and move the Originals folder to the Desktop and then to wherever you want to have the photos kept permanently.

Inside the Originals folder (which you can rename if desired) will be sub folders for each event depending on the iPhoto version you're using. For iPhoto 7 (08) and earlier each event will have one subfolder. If events were merged or photos moved to an event the actual files were moved into that sub folder inside the library package.

So if you're running iPhoto 7 (08) or earlier just get the Originals folder out of the library and use it with Lightroom. there could be some empty folders inside the Originals folder but those can be culled out via the Finder rather easily.

With iPhoto 8 (09) and later you would not be able to retain the Event structure as viewed in iPhoto so exporting each event to a folder on the Desktop would be the way to go.

OT

Old Toad! I feel honored to have you as part of this thread. You're comments saved me many times over the years...

Personally, I'm not ready to abandon iPhoto, yet. I downloaded the 30-day trial of Lightroom and plan to play with it a bit before committing to something like that. I still wanted all of my photos in Lightroom to see how it handles 15k photos (one of my bigger complaints about iPhoto is that it's slow).

My solution above made senes for me. I agree though, if you're ready to abandon iPhoto completely, just move your photos out of the iPhoto Library and you're good to go.

JK

Since you can mess with photos in LIghtroom that potentially could mess up your library I'd export a couple of events to their own folders and then experiment with them and Lightroom.

That's a fair point, although I'm relying on Adobe's word that nondestructive means nondestructive. From Adobe's FAQ:

How are the different versions of my photographs stored when I edit them with Lightroom 3?

Lightroom 3 is a completely nondestructive editing environment because, in fact, your photographs are never changed. Instead, the changes you make to your photographs are stored in metadata as a series of instructions. Whether you are viewing them onscreen, creating a web gallery, or making prints, Lightroom is simply applying those instructions to the original, untouched photo file. This provides the photographer complete flexibility, control, and creative exploration, with the knowledge that any change applied to an image is 100% reversible at any time — today, tomorrow, or years in the future.

(http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/faq/)

Um, it's the same in iPhoto. I think Old Toad was referring to messing up your iPhoto library, hence exporting photos to experiment with.

Frank