Using an external editor

Terence Devlin wrote:

What lossless means is that no changes are committed to the photo until you export or print the image. Further, even then, you can continue to edit the photo without losing data as you can revert to the original or step back along the edit history, fork then version to othe versions endlessly, again without losing any of the data in the image.

Photoshop format is not lossless, it is not compressed. it's perfectly possible to edit a photo in psd and lose data. That's because Photoshop is a file editor. iPhoto isn't.

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Sure sounds to me like you have either a corrupted Library or have not set your external editor correctly. There is no supported scenario where you access a file within the Library package.

That's not actually the definition of 'lossless' versus 'lossy'. Both with images and music, lossless is a term that only applies when you save your file. If it's a lossless format (like AIFF or PSD) no information is lost due to file compression - you can edit the file as many times as you like and still there is no loss of information.

'Lossy', on the other hand, such as MP3 or JPEG, means that each time you make an edit and then save, information is lost, and will continue to be lost until the original file quality has degraded noticeably.

iPhoto is only quasi-lossless, i.e. yes you can revert to the original, but you lose all your edits in that case. Yes, you can lose data in Photoshop, just as in iPhoto, by cropping the image or changing the resolution, but that has nothing to do with lossless formats.

I have set my external file editor correctly, as per Old Toad's post above. Does anyone have an idea how I can get my changed image to appear in iPhoto? Would I cause damage by copying it from "weird folder 1" (where the changed image is) to "weird folder 2" (where the unchanged image is) in the Finder?

No, I'm sorry. You're wrong. I already said you CAN lose information in Photoshop - as in ANY image editor - by cropping. That's not 'lossy'. That's altering the resolution. I repeat, "lossless" and "lossy" is to do with whether there is any compression leading to loss of information, when a file is saved. That's what Apple Lossless music is - it doesn't mean the file stays the same size if you chop the start and end off - it means you can edit the track, save it, and lose no information, which you would if you do the same thing to a MP3.

I THINK what you're grasping towards is the term 'non destructive'. Yes, that's what iPhoto is. Photoshop too, if you restrict yourself to using adjustment layers, but not otherwise.

Anyway, can anyone help with how to get my changed file to appear in iPhoto?

I'll give that a try.

Would copying the changed version to the unchanged version (each in a different folder) in Finder work, or could that create more problems?

I tried moving it in Finder as I described - so now the version in the two weird folders, and in the main Event, are all the changed version. Yet when I launched iPhoto, it was the unchanged version I was presented with!! Where did it get that from?

Finally, I opened the changed version in Elements, saved it to my Pictures folder, and then dragged it into iPhoto. It's finally there now! Though it's sitting in its own Event immediately beneath the other Event. In the other Event, its file has now disappeared from the Finder, though it's still sitting in the 2 weird folders.

Yet the unchanged version is still visible in iPhoto. None of this makes any sense. However, I shall in future live with iPhoto's duplicates and hope that I still see external edits. (With no Modified and Originals folders anymore, where do the originals live??)

No problem! (My confusion has all been with the new way iPhoto works, but I did understand what lossless means).

Keith, I've tried repairing iPhoto permissions, but the situation remains as it was before. I think iPhoto now has everything as it thinks it should be, so I've obviously made an error along the way. As I now have the changed image, though in its own Event, I'll live with that, and be more careful in future.

Keith, I think what happened is that I didn't understand the 'new' iPhoto, so when I saw duplicates I deleted them. I won't do that again - I shall just assume that those are what iPhoto used to call Originals (except that now you see them alongside the externally Modified).

It was a particular image I had problems with, but I've successfully imported the changed version to iPhoto where it lives in an Event of its own. Otherwise iPhoto is behaving normally so I will leave well alone, I think.

Unless you know how to merge 2 Events?