Where does iPhoto store imported photos?

And this is what I mean by not understanding the Application you're trying to use:

If you edit RAW files in Photoshop it stores the changes alongside the RAW in the same filesystem folder.

If you process a Raw with ACR (and it's with ACR and not Photoshop) the result is saved in a new file. So you have Photo.Raw and Photo.jpeg.

Iphoto in contrast stores the changes in the iphoto library even if the master is elsewhere. I

When you process a Raw with iPhoto (or with Aperture or Lightroom) there is no new file created. Your decisions are stored in an SQL database and applied to the Master (or Raw) file every time you view it. Again: There is no new file created. That's why you can edit and re-edit and re-edit to your heart's content. Each time the new decisions are applied in aggregate to the Original or Master and stored in the database.

That's lossless processing.

iPhoto (and Aperture, Lightroom etc) are not editors. Simply: you cannot edit a file with any of these apps. Open a Jpeg in Photoshop. Crop it. Save it. The original Jpeg is overwritten. That's an editor.

Open the same file in iPhoto (et al) Crop it. The Original Jpeg is... untouched. The instruction to crop is stored in the database. View the shot and you see it with the crop. Crop it again, enhance it and so on. All these decisions are stored in the database.

The file is untouched but the Photo is edited

That's the key distinction.

Okay so now you have a file, a photo and a lot of decisions about it, stored in a database. What if you want to do something with it - Email it, use it in a Website or a Word document - how do I get it there?

Strictly speaking you would export it from the database. Note this process makes a new file containing the decisions you've made about the photo. So it's a new file containing the cropped image. It's not a recompression of the original file. It's not the original file edited. It's a whole new file with the cropped image in it. (That's why you can actually export a larger sized Jpeg than the one you imported, odd though that may seem.)

If you export you have various options: you can export as Jepg, Tiff, png. In Jpeg you can export at various qualities (levels of compression) and sizes (in dimensions). You can write the metadata to the files on export (when the format supports that) and so on.

End result: Your original file untouched. Your edits stored in the database with unlimited options to re-edit, restore and so on. And the ability to export that Photo into a variety of formats and sizes depending on the use you have for it.

Note the Preview is a special case. And I suspect that this is what you refer to when you say

Iphoto in contrast stores the changes in the iphoto library even if the master is elsewhere. I

With iPhoto as you edit (and re-edit) a Preview is created automatically. (If you re-edit the existing preview is destroyed and a new one created. The Preview is not edited, note, it's re-created to reflect the changes you've been making to the Photo). What's that about? It's a handy shortcut. Rather than forcing you to export tediously every time you want to email a shot to grandma it makes a handy version, middle quality everything that's fine for most common uses. But this is not the "edited file", just a shortcut to save you exporting everytime you want to use the Photo.

In Aperture (pay more get more options) you can even elect not to use Previews at all.

So, you've been exporting the Preview (Current setting) thinking it was the edited version. It's not. (You could have got better quality output by exporting using other settings.) iPhoto can't store the changes in the filesystem because there ain't any such file to store.

And that's what I mean when I say you don't understand the application.

Regards

TD

"So, you've been exporting the Preview (Current setting) thinking it was the edited version. It's not. (You could have got better quality output by exporting using other settings.) "

What settings are better than exporting current version?

As I said above the Current version is the Preview, middle quality everything.

Want lossless, export Tiff

Want high quality Jpeg then use the high or maximum quality setting at Jpeg Quality

In either case check the boxes at Title and Keywords and Location Information to get all the metadata.

Export at Full Size to get the same dimensions.

Png doesn't support metadata.

Regards

TD

@Terence

Are you saying iPhoto export to PNG doesnt suport it, because PNG does support MetaData..

Nikon D5000 jpg at 5.8MB. Imported, modified then exported:-

1. current 4.9MB

2. Full 10.3 MB

3. Tiff 36.6 MB

Huge size differences but honestly cant see any difference viewing or printing, even zoomed in. In practice for the home user "current" seems Ok to me. Maybe I need a better camera.

I didn't make it through all seven pages of this to see if anyone had given the straight forward, easy answer to this problem. The solution is pretty easy and doesn't need any debate on how hard apple makes things or all the roundabout ways to get to your files. Sometimes you just want access to your original files.

In finder, go to users->yourusername->pictures->

Right click on the "iphoto library"

Select "Show package contents"

That will open up a new subfolder. All of your photos are probably in "Masters" or "Originals" depending on what version of iphoto you are running.

Hope this helps.

But direct access to the contents of the iPhoto library is not supported and is dangerous. It is strongly recommended that you do not use this unsupported way to access photos

LN.

But if your need is simply to recover the photos from a time machine backup or for moving them to a new hard drive / windows machine, etc., then copying all files from that directory shouldn't cause any problems. Moving, manipulating, or otherwise tampering with the files is ill advised if you want to preserve them, but for restoration purposes it shouldn't cause any problems and is probably the easiest way.

Oversoul, The two senior posters on this forum don't want you to stray from the paths of righteousness.

I did offer an alternative around page 5 but scorn was poured on me for my sins.

Are you saying iPhoto export to PNG doesnt suport it, because PNG does support MetaData..

png supports a very limited subset of standard metadata.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics#Comparison_to_other_file_ formats

The PNG specification does not include a standard for embedded Exif image data from sources such as digital cameras. TIFF, JPEG 2000, and DNG support EXIF data.

or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPTC_Information_Interchange_Model

IIM metadata can be embedded into JPEG/Exif or TIFF formatted image files. Other file formats such as JPEG2000, Portable Network Graphics and GIF do not support IIM.

It simply does not support IPTC at all.

Regards

TD

But if your need is simply to recover the photos from a time machine backup...

That doesn't work. Remember a TM back up is in increments, so accessing one particular snapshot this way will not necessarily find all of your photos. To restore from Time Machine you need to restore the whole library.

And, of course, for your ther point: File -> Export achieves the exact same thing - by design.

Regards

TD

Huge size differences but honestly cant see any difference viewing or printing, even zoomed in. In practice for the home user "current" seems Ok to me.

Well I did point out that it was good for most common purposes. However, you are still missing metadaata and, of course, when you delete the files from iPhoto (as you do in your scheme) you lose the lossless editing feature.

As I said already - you're a grown up, you can decide to do what you want. But what you're doing is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what iPhoto is and you're using that misunderstanding to complain about iPhoto.

Given what I guess is your aim from your description of what you’re doing, it can all be achieved more effectively with iPhoto, less work and more data safety.

Y'all have a nice day now.

I'm not speaking from a hypothetical. I had to do this exact operation yesterday for my girlfriend.

Her old computer failed and had been thrown away six months ago. She thought she had lost all her photos and other data.

She had made a time machine backup, but didn't want to restore everything to her new computer. She didn't even realize she had done the backup until long after she had purchased a new system.

I found the time machine files on her external hard drive. Everything was there and easily restorable by dragging the files to her new HD, as the latest time machine backup has all of the latest versions of the current files (older versions will be in older backups)

However, her iphoto library showed no files when it was opened.

So I opened the package and navigated to find all of her old photo masters.

Now they're safely on her new computer and everything works fine, as she reimported them into her new iphoto. She was beyond elated.

While your defense of iphoto is admirable, I think you severely undervalue the simplicity of "just getting the files" and moving them to whatever new purpose they might serve, especially in the case that the iphoto library has become corrupt or seemingly "lost." You guys are having separate debates.

I believe it did contain every one of her old photos because I loaded the most recent vesion of her iphoto library and unpacked it. Since the iphoto library is condensed into a single file, it contained every file... even those that hadn't been changed or updated recently.

So, you restored the back up and then accessed the Masters folder?