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Using an external editor

I jumped from using iPhoto '06 to using iPhoto '11 and now I'm very confused. Before, if I 'Edited in external editor', I would do the changes in Elements, then simply Save there, and my changes were saved back to the Modified folder of my iPhoto Library. Now, I simply don't understand what's happening.


1. When I edit externally, iPhoto seems to create a duplicate of the image. Why? It didn't do this in iPhoto '06.


2. I just edited a picture, and after making changes in Elements, clicked Save. I then clicked back to iPhoto to see the changes, but they didn't show. So I deleted one of the duplicates, quit iPhoto, and relaunched, expecting to see the changes. No, they are still not there. Yet if I go back to Elements and click the most recent file, the changed version loads! Its location is now a folder in iPhoto called - wait for it - b8KWKsN7T22dur56ix0Vvw. Yup. I kid you not.


Can anyone explain

  • what has happened
  • why there are unnecessary duplicates
  • why doesn't iPhoto do the simple 'external editing' thing anymore?

iMac Core i5 4GB RAM-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jul 17, 2013 9:09 AM

Reply
33 replies

Jul 17, 2013 9:54 AM in response to christopher rigby1

Using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements as Your Editor of Choice in iPhoto.


1 - select Photoshop or Photoshop Elememts as your editor of choice in iPhoto's General Preference Section's under the "Edit photo:" menu.


User uploaded file


2 - double click on the thumbnail in iPhoto to open it in Photoshop. When you're finished editing click on the Save button. If you immediately get the JPEG Options window make your selection (Baseline standard seems to be the most compatible jpeg format) and click on the OK button. Your done.


3 - however, if you get the navigation window

User uploaded file


that indicates that PS wants to save it as a PS formatted file. You'll need to either select JPEG from the menu and save (top image) or click on the desktop in the Navigation window (bottom image) and save it to the desktop for importing as a new photo.


This method will let iPhoto know that the photo has been editied and will update the thumbnail file to reflect the edit..


NOTE: With Photoshop Elements the Saving File preferences should be configured as shown:

User uploaded file


I also suggest the Maximize PSD File Compatabilty be set to Always. In PSE’s General preference pane set the Color Picker to Apple as shown:

User uploaded file


Note 1: screenshots are from PSE 10


Note: to switch between iPhoto and PS or PSE as the editor of choice Control (right)-click on the thumbnail and select either Edit in iPhoto or Edit in External Editor from the contextual menu. If you use iPhoto to edit more than PSE re-select iPhoto in the iPhoto General preference pane. Then iPhoto will be the default editor and you can use the contextual menu to select PSE for your editor when desired.


OT

Jul 17, 2013 10:21 AM in response to Old Toad

Hi Toad


To address your points one by one...


1. I've set iPhoto to edit in Photoshop Elements (6) in the Advanced tab of Preferences. (I'm sure it used to be a way to set the EXTERNAL editor only, but now it asks to choose between iPhoto and an external editor - I've always used both editing methods according to the needs of individual pictures.)


2. I'm not sure what you mean by "thumbnails"? To edit a picture I right-click the image in the iPhoto Library, then choose either 'Edit in iPhoto' or 'Edit in external editor'.


3. I'm confused. I just click 'Save' in Elements, and in the old days it added my Edited image to the Modified folder, and after a second or two (if I clicked straight back to iPhoto) I would see the changes. On this occasion I didn't see the changes in iPhoto but I finally found it in the weirdly named folder. Oddly, I can't find any Originals or Modified folders in my iPhoto Library, only an overall folder called 'Previews'.


(I've amended my Photoshop Preferences -

2 were already set to what you recommend, but I've now also unchecked 'Ignore picture's EXIF data', and selected 'Apple' over 'Adobe' for the colour picker.)

Jul 17, 2013 10:35 AM in response to christopher rigby1

3 - If you do any edit that creates layers or want to have PSE save the file as a .psd file then it will be saved but iPhoto won't recognize it as an edited version. Simple edits will let you save as a jpeg and will go to the modified folder. However, check your PSE preferences to see if you have an option similar to the one in this window:


User uploaded file


That is save over the current file. I don't remember if PSE 6 had anything similar.

Jul 17, 2013 1:11 PM in response to Keith Barkley

Keith, Toad - no, you missed what I said. I just clicked Save not Save As, in PSE6. I didn't create any new layers and there was no PSD version on offer. If I had done, Elements wouldn't have Saved, it would have presented me with a Save dialogue, with a file ending of .psd in the name. One thing I did do, however, was delete the duplicate in iPhoto before I actually made the changes in Elements and saved the picture back (I thought the duplicate was a mistake by iPhoto until I saw all the angst online about that. I have left feedback with Apple about that, but I'm thinking LOTS of people before me already did that. Why on earth did they change the design to having duplicates? It's very poor IMO.)

Jul 17, 2013 2:46 PM in response to christopher rigby1

As iPhoto 11 uses the same Library as Aperture it works like Aperture.


In iPhoto when you duplicate a photo it is virtual. No extran file is created, just another entry in the db, based on the original. So you can have multiple versions of the same photo, all virtual. Quite efficient.


Obviuosly an external editor can't work with virtual files, so an actual new file has to be created. That gets sent to the external.


That's why.

Jul 17, 2013 3:33 PM in response to Yer_Man

Yes, but that's not how iPhoto ever functioned. It worked on the basis that you either edited a picture or you didn't.If you did, it got added to a Modified folder, but there was always the original in the Originals folder.


You could choose whether to use iPhoto or an external editor, or even both. The end result was the same - your picture ended up in the Modified folder. Simples.


Now it's all very counter-intuitive. The change, IMO, was unnecessary. Aperture has been around for years and years. Why harmonise the two (they are not even the same type of app) and disgruntle iPhoto users for no good reason?

Jul 17, 2013 11:30 PM in response to christopher rigby1

Now there is no modified folder at all. All processing in iPhoto is virtual, in other words, it's truly lossless.


The fact that a file ended up in the Modified folder means nothing, given that you never accessed the Modified folder. You still access your files the same way. Simples.


For you this is counter-intuitive and unnecessary. They most certainly are the 'same type of app', exactly the same type.


Anyway you asked why. That's why.

Jul 18, 2013 2:54 AM in response to Yer_Man

Terence Devlin wrote:


Now there is no modified folder at all. All processing in iPhoto is virtual, in other words, it's truly lossless.


Sorry, this makes no sense to me. 'Lossless' to me means - e.g. - Photoshop format where there is no compression. The instant JPEG comes into the equation (and most of my pictures in iPhoto are JPEGs), it's 'lossy', not 'lossless'. iPhoto can process both 'lossy' and 'lossless' formats, so I'm not sure what you're saying here, or what 'virtual' means in this instance. The changes are real enough to me, and I can print them off, and - if I do them in iPhoto - I actually see them right there in front of my eyes.


The fact that a file ended up in the Modified folder means nothing, given that you never accessed the Modified folder. You still access your files the same way. Simples.


The fact that pictures are duplicated means I actually DON'T access my files the same way. Plus the fact that I no longer see the changes in iPhoto I've applied in Elements.


For you this is counter-intuitive and unnecessary. They most certainly are the 'same type of app', exactly the same type.


Well, except that Aperture is actually like Lightroom, not iPhoto, and offers a workflow experience that is more akin to Photoshop than iPhoto.



Anyway, enough of arguing the whys and wherefores of what has happened to iPhoto (which from my trawling of the internet, seems to have caused angst far and wide). The main problem now is, how do I get my changes from a folder named b8KWKsN7T22dur56ix0Vvw (no, don't laugh - it really is) into my main iPhoto Library? I tried dragging it in Finder, and accepting the "Picnnnnn already exists, do you want to replace it?" dialogue. Unfortunately, the change still didn't appear in iPhoto even after a relaunch, so I copied the picture back to b8KWKsN7T22dur56ix0Vvw.


Now I can see the changed picture in iPhoto's Library if I use the Finder. However, if I use iPhoto itself, the picture is the unchanged version, and if I click "Edit in iPhoto" it's still the unchanged version, even if I go full screen! Yet the unchanged version is not actually in iPhoto's Library according to the Finder. (Subsequent research: no, actually it IS - it's now in a folder called zSiaLBSfSseQbHCiGU1Uiw (please, STOP laughing 😁 )


Basically, it is a right old mess. How on earth do I get my changes - which are there - so I can see them in iPhoto? Should I copy the picture from b8KWKsN7T22dur56ix0Vvw and overwrite the version in zSiaLBSfSseQbHCiGU1Uiw using the Finder?

Jul 18, 2013 3:11 AM in response to christopher rigby1

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.


Virtual means that when you duplicate a photo in iPhoto no extra file is created. You see two versions of the photo based on the same file. Saves disk space.


The fact that something is "real enough for me" is interesting autobigraphy, thanks for sharing.


You say you don't access your photos the same way? Why not? There are a variety of ways to access photos in iPhoto - essentially via Media Browsers, Drag and Drop or Exporting. That was the same in iPhoto 09. What has changed for you?



Well, except that Aperture is actually like Lightroom, not iPhoto, and offers a workflow experience that is more akin to Photoshop than iPhoto.



Huh? Have you ever used any of these apps? iPhoto, Aperture and Lighroom are exactly the same kind of app. They are Digital Asset Mangers that offer database driven lossless processing. They take exactly the same place in the workflow. That's why using more than one of them makes no sense. All of them can use Photoshop as an editor. There is no usage scenario for Aperture, Lightroom or iPhoto that is "more akin to Photoshop". That's like saying Word is the same as Excel.


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.

Using an external editor

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