iPhoto editing shadows makes displayed photo go black

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Level 1

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iPhoto editing shadows makes displayed photo go black

I am using a MB core 2 Duo at 2.16 MHz with 4 MB RAM with MacOS 10.7.4 and iPhoto '11 (ver 9.3.2) and have a problem with editing photos when I change the 'shadow or highlights'. The photo turns to black when I move the slider off the zero mark and the photo returns when I move the slider back to zero.

I had the same problem with the previous version iPhoto ('09 I think) and bought the new version '11 to try to fix the problem. The problem seemed to go away for a while but has returned. I have tried starting iPhoto using command/option and repairing the permissions, then rebuilding the thimbnails, then repair the database and then finally rebuilding the database. Each time I tried a repair, I tested the shadow/highlight edits and got the same black result. All other adjustments work fine. It is just the shadow/highlight adjustment that turns everything black.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.4), 4 MB RAM, 2.16MHz Core 2 Duo

Posted on Sep 14, 2012 1:11 PM

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Answer 1

jfaughnan

Level 3

869 points

Dec 31, 2012 4:18 PM in response to ElectroTech

Same here.

I've created a blog post I'll update with what I learn:

http://tech.kateva.org/2012/12/iphoto-bug-black-or-all-white-photos.html

Did you come up with any fixes?

I suspect it's a bug with the Intel integrated graphics processor in this old machine. Apple is very unlikely to fix it.

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Answer 2

jfaughnan

Level 3

869 points

Dec 31, 2012 4:23 PM in response to jfaughnan

I moved the library to another machine - no problems there.

This is very likely a bug; iPhoto isn't compatible with the MacBook's GPU at least for some kids of JPEG (might be camera dependent too).

I don't expect any fixes from Apple. It would be very atypical for them to fix a bug that affects old machines only.

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Answer 3

jfaughnan

Level 3

869 points

Dec 31, 2012 4:46 PM in response to jfaughnan

Last experiment for tonight I think. Aperture is fine on same hardware and library, but if adjust shadows there the image will be all black in iPhoto.

In short, this is a bug that affects rendering of at least some JPEGs following shadow/highlight edits on MacBook Duo with integrated Intel GPU.

Aperture does not seem to be affected.

Since there's no way to revert an updated iPhoto library, and since it is very unlikely that Apple will fix this bug, the only option may be Aperture. (Which is a pretty drastic option, even now Aperture is not easy to use.)

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Answer 4

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,260 points

Jan 1, 2013 1:01 AM in response to jfaughnan

Since there's no way to revert an updated iPhoto library

Restore from back up or use iPhoto Library Manager

http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/Help/downgrading%20a%20library%20to%20an%20ea rlier%20version%20of%20iphoto.html

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