How do you save from Photoshop back to iPhoto?

Question

How do you save from Photoshop back to iPhoto?

How do you save your external edits from Photoshop back to iPhoto?

Fine, I know how it can be done ONCE : you simply flatten the image and then hit Save, and you see your edited image in iPhoto.

But, what if you FIRST want to save the .psd document complete with layers outside iPhoto, THEN flatten the image and save as a jpeg back to iPhoto? I tried this yesterday. I saved as a PSD file - with all layers and a new name - to my Pictures folder. Then I flattened the image and wanted to save it to iPhoto, but the temporary iPhoto location had disappeared from the Photoshop Save dialogue and Photoshop now displayed it under the new name.

This is annoying : you've got to save the PSD document first in order to preserve the layers. But when you do this, you lose the ability to save the image a second time, all layers flattened, back to iPhoto.

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

Posted on Dec 17, 2013 10:19 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,984 points

Dec 17, 2013 10:50 AM in response to christopher rigby1

You can't do what you want to do.

When you use iPhoto with an external editor, iPhoto creates a copy of the photo - a jpeg - and sends that to the editor. If you edit and save that jpeg there is no problem, the photo returns to iPhoto, edited, the thumbnail updated and so on. This is all possible only because iPhoto created the file.

If, as you're doing, you are saving a psd, then the Editor is creating the file. iPhoto knows nothing about this file. Then then, using the Editor, you're creating a Jpeg from the psd, and iPhoto knows nothing of that file either. So you have two files that iPhoto knows nothing about. They have to be imported as new files - which is what they are.

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Answer 2

Dec 17, 2013 1:17 PM in response to Yer_Man

I think I didn't make myself clear Terence - the file I want to save back IS a file that iPhoto knows about, as I first clicked "Edit in external editor" and iPhoto created a duplicate.

From there I processed it in Photoshop and in so doing I created new layers and adjustment layers. What I wanted to do was

Save that layered Photoshop file to a different folder (which I did)
Flatten and Save that file - as a jpeg - back to iPhoto to overwrite the duplicate it had created

I could easily have done it the other way around ... except that then I'd have lost the layers I wanted to preserve in the 'other' version.

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Answer 3

LarryHN

Level 10

106,142 points

Dec 17, 2013 1:35 PM in response to christopher rigby1

Re read his reply - he understood and the answer is very simple - you can not do what you want to do - he explains why very clearly - basically you are not saving the edited photo but a new photos that you created using save as - you can only import that to iPhoto as it is no longer just a version of the original photo but a totally new photo

LN

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Answer 4

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,984 points

Dec 17, 2013 2:06 PM in response to christopher rigby1

As Larry says, iPhoto did not create that file. You saved the image to a psd. Then you flattened the psd and Saved as a Jpeg. All based on the psd, not the jpeg that came over from iPhoto.

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Answer 5

Dec 17, 2013 2:22 PM in response to Yer_Man

But if I'd flattened the psd without saving it as a psd, I could simply have saved it back to iPhoto (I've done that before).

Hold on - perhaps that's the answer...

What if..

1. I flatten the image and Save it back to iPhoto, then ...

2. Undo the 'flatten image' in Photoshop, then save THAT version as a psd?

I'll try this and let you know if it works.

ETA - Yay it works! Shoulda thought of that right off. I blame toothache 😊

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