locate original image after being edited in preview

terence,

you write :

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

sorry, terence, but that is...not true: on Penny's 10.5.6 ( as on my 10.6.8 ), the command is "Revert to last saved ", and does NOT lead back to the original, the unedited original.

have to work with we are given: says OS 10.5.6

terence,

you write " What is not supported is dragging the image from the iPhoto Window to the external editor and expecting it to work correctly".

Dragging an image from iPhoto to an external editor works very well ( and is fully "supported" by Apple )...as long as you are properly counseled... in this case, finishing the edit with a "Save as" on the desktop ( and NOT a "Save", as has been clearly demonstrated in this thread ).

While we're at it, let's clarify that "Save—Save as" concept. Everyone knows a "Save" will apply the edits directly on the file you were working on while a "Save as" will apply these changes on a copy of the file you were working on, leaving the file you "dragged in" intact, unmodified. That's why a SAVE is usually used in documents ( you wouldn't want a new book created each time you changed a word in it ), while in digital photography, where you want to preserve always your ORIGINAL the command of choice is the SAVE AS , creating a new, edited photo that you will be able to place right beside the original ( or other edited versions of it , so as to compare them ! ). The trick here is to add a letter ( a different letter for each version, dah ) at the END of the original name, so they'll all end up side by side, when sorted by name, in the same Event.

Now, now, terence, let's not get carried away . Name-calling and stone-throwing will not( by the way, thanks for noticing my ongoing typing improvement ! ) get us any closer to clarifying that iPhoto feature, the not-so-well-known ( as can be seen in this thread ) Drag-Drop, and the effects it may have on the photos in ...iPhoto.

As for me being " more concerned with trolling experienced members of the forum than with actually providing useful information " ... i guess anyone who reads this thread may be the judge of that.

You also write:

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.

and then:

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.

Now, terence, bringing an external editor ( such as, for instance, the popular " Photoshop Elements " ), bringing it inside iPhoto ( making it the internal editor ), thus replacing the easy-going, user-friendly iPhoto default editor, is the way to go only for the few of us who edit a LOT of their photos, and do MOST of their edits on that external editor ( and these guys have already done that ). But for the average user, the iPhoto editor will handle most of their edit jobs quite well, while a heavier edit ( for instance "stitching" together a few photos into a panorama ) can be easily and safely done as has been described above, and then reintroducing that pic to iPhoto, and putting it back into the same Event it came from ( if so desired ). In this case the "SAVE AS" ( versus a "SAVE" ) is still ( as it has been for years ) a crucial command.

Let's note that the "SAVE AS" has been replaced ( only in name ) by a "Duplicate" command in the more recent "Preview" app ( thanks to léonie for that info ), and works exactly the same way as a "Save as", and it's keyboard command is still the same classic, standard "Save as" command : Shift-Cmd-S.

As for just about all external software, the "Save" and "Save as" commands are still standard, and do work as described above.

And, for the quality of a "preview", i stand by every word i wrote here, and will maybe post back on this... if you promise, terence, to keep this conversation rational and gentlemanly, as you always do...👿

But for the average user,

Who are you to decide what or who the 'average user' of iPhoto is or how the set up and use their app?

Again, for folks who may read this later: this guy is on an out-of-date version of the app, on an out-of-date version of the OS. His only aim is to cause confusion. You can see this clearly in how he deliberately confuses the meaning of 'quality' in this context.

you write " this guy is on an out-of-date version of the app " . Actually, i'm with iPhoto '11, version 9.2.3, something that quite a few of us are still running ( and no, terence, i don't decide "who" ). You add " on an out-of-date version of the OS " ... Yes, i'm proudly running a good ol' 10.6.8 Snow Leopard, and, here again, many of us are...Frankly, i don't see the point in insulting all these Apple users.

But, alas for you, léonie had the very professional attitude of checking out the facts and posted

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.

( by the way, this is not a bug, this is how iPhoto was designed to work, and works very well this way, as previously described )

So, basically, what i said above applies to the vast majority of Apple user's iPhoto

( by the way, this is not a bug, this is how iPhoto was designed to work, and works very well this way, as previously described )

It is a weird glitch, because it only happens for small original files, where the original doubles as the preview. I never could reproduce the issue with large original files.

I doubt that a feature that depends on the file size is intentional. And if you rely on this "Method" you will get unexpected results for multiple versions of a photo, that are sharing the original image files. I'd reconsider that workflow.

Or as I said weeks ago

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

A note for other readers - if you're still here: You can safely ignore all of that post. Jpeg Quality - and that is the only meaning that is involved with iPhoto - refers to the amount of compression applied to a file. That’s all. It has exactly nothing to do with the quality of the photograph. There are very good reasons why you might want to export at maximum quality - especially if you will subsequently use a destructive editing system. The rest of that post is just claptrap.

Select the image in iPhotos and use "File > Export" and set the "Kind" to "Original".

You're assuming that the O.P. on 10.5. Are you sure that's the actual version this person is using?

Hmmm. Too tedious to deal with.

See? Only purpose is to troll experienced members of the forum? That's how this sad little guy gets his kicks. Bless him.

Very well put. 😎