locate original image after being edited in preview

TD and Larry, iPhoto and Aperture have a bug, that I have seen since iPhoto 9.3. and Aperture 3.3. and the unified library.

If a photo is only small, no previews are created, unless the photo has been edited. The original photo doubles as the preview. If we drag and drop thumbnails from the browser to an external editor, the original master file is passed to the external editor and not a copy. And if we save the edits, they will modify the original image file in the iPhoto Library.

That is what may have happened here, but in that case the original should not be missing from the Masters folder but only be modified.

When I tested again, the bug is still around in iPhoto 9.6.1:

I dragged a thumbnail from the iPhoto 9.6.1 browser to Preview, and edited it, then saved it with ⌘S.

The original in the iPhoto Library has been modified.

Do keep up the good work now. At least you get to practice your typing. But you do need to clarify that what you are doing is effectively nothing to do with using iPhoto and an external editor, but simply a form of exporting. For those who want to actually use the external editor feature in iPhoto you're simply adding layers of confusion due to your inability not to focus on every edge case. Is that what you want to do? Confuse people? Really?

So, for the benefit of folks who are being confused, please remember our little friend here is more concerned with trolling experienced members of the forum than with actually providing useful information.

So: to clarify

If you drag and drop from iPhoto to another App, then you're exporting from iPhoto and thereafter, none of your actions have anything to do with iPhoto. If on the other hand you wish to use an external editor in conjunction with iPhoto - .ie. not exporting from it - then dragging and dropping to another app is not supported. To use an external editor in this fashion you need to set it as one in the Preferences. (Preferences -> General -> Edit Photo: Choose from the Drop Down Menu.) This way, when you double click a pic to edit in iPhoto it will open automatically in Photoshop or your Image Editor, and when you save it it's sent back to iPhoto automatically. This is the only way that edits made in another application will be displayed in iPhoto without having to import it again.

All his claptrap about Save and Save As is based on material from his OS, which is now several years out of date, having being supplanted in 2011.

As for Drag and Drop we need to be careful, as the actual behaviour of iPhoto has been inconsistent over different versions.

If the photo is not edited, then in most cases drag and drop will yield the Original. However, there have been some versions where this was not the case. So the best way to be sure you get the Original is to export using the File -> Export command

This User Tip

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921

has details of the options in the Export dialogue.

There is no version of iPhoto where drag and drop will yield a best quality version of an edited image. Nor will it yield an "improved Quality" image. It yields the Preview and that's always a medium quality version of the image.

Now let's qualify what we mean by Quality. That's Jpeg Quality we're referring to here - that is the amount of compression applied to the image. It has no relevance to the quality of the photograph. It refers exclusively to the amount of compression used in creating the Jpeg. Use the export command you can export to a higher quality Jpeg than you can get from drag and drop.

I'm sure our sad little friend will have more to say. He always does. I'll try and correct his more egregious claptrap, but it does get tedious.

"tedious", eh ?

So sorry, Terence, this post , really, was meant for the beginners who might be reading this to improve their iPhoto skills, and could've thought a Save or a Save as , after an external edit, didn't matter.

But let's look at the good side of things, here : we got rid of a dangerous albeit widely repeated myth according to which a Drag-Drop from iPhoto could NOT bring out the original and thus put it in harm's way.

But there's another Drag-Drop-related myth that needs to be busted, that says a D-D from iPhoto produces a lesser-quality copy of the pic: in fact, the Apple Imagery engineering gurus designed it to output the best image, dragging out

• either the original ( if there is no "preview", no edited version of the pic )
• OR the "preview", which is an improved version ( that you color / contrast tweaked, cropped, leveled, etc. and that was then jpeg-compressed as a high to very high quality jpeg )

Have to admit busting myths is a tedious job...and a dangerous one at that: some myth-busters were crucified, or burned at the stake ( which some say is even more painful, although, really, it depends on your personal resistance to heat ).

Speaking of tediousness, have you read Galileo's "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" ? Well, don't, it's

B-O-O-O-O-RING !

terence,

you write :

" ...he deliberately confuses the meaning of 'quality' in this context. "

So here are a few little clarifications on the "quality" of a Drag-Drop from iPhoto: it was designed by the engineers who built iPhoto as a user-friendly way ( "user-friendliness" was part of the Apple "aura" ) a user-friendly way to easily extract from iPhoto the "best quality" pic , this meaning:

• the original of that pic, if there is no modified, improved by you version of this pic,
• OR the edited, improved by you version

Clear enough ? : a Drag-Drop from iPhoto does produce the best version of the selected pic, that you can now drop on a DVD, or on a USB flashstick and give your friends ! No hassle, no "export dialog", just a "user-friendly" "copy-this-pic" !

But here's a question: my original pic had a filesize of 10 MegaBytes, and now the edited, improved version has only 6 MB ? Have i lost any "quality" ?

Nope... iPhoto simply jpeg-compressed your pic ( before storing this edited version in the "Previews" folder ) as a " high to very high " quality jpeg file, thus reducing its filesize but NOT its visible quality.

Now a little quiz : do you think you could see the difference between two jpeg copies of the same pic, one at maximum jpeg quality and the other at low quality ? If you answered "yes", think again !

But don't take my word for it: this'll take less than two minutes : pick one nice photo of yours, click "File" up there, then "Export". In the Export dialog, choose "JPEG" as the "Kind"

then, on the "JPEG Quality" line, choose "Maximum".

(on the "Size" line , throughout this experience, be sure to keep "Full Size" selected: this is the SIZE of the photo, measured in pixels wide by pixels height. Changing the size of a pic can dramatically alter its quality ).

Then export the pic on the Desktop, changing its name to "max".

Back to the thumbnail in iPhoto, repeat the same operation, but this time, on the "JPEG Quality" line, choose "Low". Export to Desktop, renaming it "low".

Now click on the "Preview" app icon in the Dock, then on the name "Preview" up there, then on "Preferences". In the "General" dialog, make sure the "Open each file in its own window" option is selected.

Go to the two pics "min" and "max" on the Desktop, select them both, and right-click (Control-click) one , then "Open with" , then "Preview": the two pics should open each in its own window. Arrange the windows so they each get half of the screen, and, tell me, which photo's the best ..? Be my guest: you can zoom all you want ( in "Preview", each pic is zoomable independantly ) on the details you choose, feed them to your 4K 60 inch TV, whatever.

By the way, while in "Preview", click "Tools" up there, then "Show Inspector" :nothing gives you more info on a pic than Preview's Inspector. Use it now to see the BIG filesize difference between the two pics ! ... And yet you can't see the difference. ( In fact, we're working here, depending on the photo, very close to the TEN to ONE ratio that is generally agreed to make a visible difference in jpeg-compression, that is, let's say, a 10 MB pic jpeg-compressed to ONE MB ...so it is not impossible that you could find a photo where a difference can be seen ).

So, basically, if you can't see the difference between a "Max" and a "Min" quality jpeg, you sure won't be able to see one between the original photo and the high-quality jpeg that iPhoto will produce of that edited photo. Hence, a Drag-Drop gives you the best visual-quality photo you can have, just as the Apple imagery team wanted.

P S : all this works for the vast majority of us, whose camera outputs JPEGs ! If you use TIFFs or RAWs, you'll have to do your own tests

Open a Terminal window (the Terminal application is in the folder Applications > Utilities):

Copy and paste this line into the Terminal window - all in one single line:

open Users/pennyfurseman/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library.photolibrary/Masters/2015/07/25/20150725-155952/

This should open a Finder window at the location, where your original file should be. Does this folder exist?

If the above does not work, try this command:

open Users/pennyfurseman/Pictures/iPhoto\ Library.photolibrary/Masters/2015/07/25

Are any original image files at all in your library from /2015/07/25 ?

All the other images from 2015/0725 are there...

That is reassuring.

I tried both entries and still get the response.. does not exist

If the image indeed is missing, something must have removed the original file. Did you run software to remove duplicates?

Then you can only try to restore the original file from your Time Machine backup.

When you try to restore from Time Machine, open the folder where the original should be, before you launch Time Machine.

With this folder the frontmost window go back in time, until you are seeing the missing photo.

when you drag-drop and edit a photo in Preview, it will edit the original image IF THERE IS NO MODIFIED VERSION OF THIS PIC, so it is better to end your edit with a "Save as", put on your Desktop, and then reintroduced into iPhoto, with just a letter added at the end of its name ( for instance "M", for "modified" ). Reintroduced to the same Event, it will then sit right beside the original.

when you drag-drop and edit a photo in Preview, it will edit the original image IF THERE IS NO MODIFIED VERSION OF THIS PIC,

Not quite. It will not edit the original file. It will edit the original Photo. A copy of the original file is sent to Preview, not the actual file. Therefore:

so it is better to end your edit with a "Save as",

This is unnecessary. Save it, Save As, makes no difference as the original is still in iPhoto.

and then reintroduced into iPhoto, with just a letter added at the end of its name ( for instance "M", for "modified" ).

Again, not necessary. There is no need to change the name at all if you don't want to. There is no way to overwrite the original.

Terence, you write : " There is no way to overwrite the original ". Obviously ( and unfortunately ) this is exactly what happened to Penny.

Please allow me to demonstrate :

-in iPhoto, choose a photo that is of no importance ( ideally, scan in a piece of paper )

-if you selected a photo, make sure it has no edited version ( File »»Reveal in Finder : make sure there is only an original file, and "modified file" is greyed out )

-drag-drop this pic in Preview

-using the annotating feature , draw a few big ellipses on the pic ( so they are visible easily even on the thumbnail

-click "Save"

-going back to iPhoto, click on that photo, then "File »» Reveal in Finder »» Original File, and lo and behold, the original file ( yes, scandalously, the one that sits in the MASTERS folder ) that original file is now decorated with a few big ellipses and there is no way to persuade them to move away !

The only path to getting back the "original" original was well indicated by Léonie.

of course if you do unsupported things and make changes to the content of the iPhoto library (which you should never do) you will get bad results

I guess there are millions of way to destroy your data by doing unsupported things you should never do - like directly accessing the contents of the iphoto libray

LN

As Larry says, once you break th workflow, anything can happen but this :

-going back to iPhoto, click on that photo, then "File »» Reveal in Finder »» Original File, and lo and behold, the original file ( yes, scandalously, the one that sits in the MASTERS folder ) that original file is now decorated with a few big ellipses and there is no way to persuade them to move away !

is not true, thanks to the miracle that is versioning. File -> Revert to...

larry,

you write : "if you do unsupported things"...Well, i sure would NOT say drag-dropping a photo to Preview for editing is an "unsupported thing", since Preview is described by Apple this way : "In addition to viewing PDF and image files, you can edit them, convert them and add your comments ".

Penny's editing a photo in Preview was perfectly legitimate and as stated above, ending her edit with a "Save as" on Desktop will remove any problem of "original tampering".

The only thing here that's "unsupported" is your comment, unspported by the facts.

you write : "if you do unsupported things"...Well, i sure would NOT say drag-dropping a photo to Preview for editing is an "unsupported thing", since Preview is described by Apple this way : "In addition to viewing PDF and image files, you can edit them, convert them and add your comments ".

What is not supported is dragging the image from the iPhoto Window to the external editor and expecting it to work correctly. The supported method is to set the editor as an external editor in the iPhoto preferences. That way no problems arise.

No one said that editing a photo in Preview is illegitimate, all Larry said was that her problem arises because she got it from iPhoto to Preview in an unsupported way.