How to manage files with a MacBook and external hard drive, yet maintain intent and convenience?

[davideglasgow]

Posted this in a Mac forum, but wanted some other viewpoints...





I purchased a MacBook Pro recently. I already had an extensive
collection of photos on a 1TB external hard drive. I love iPhoto and
would love to use it to manage all my photos, including the ones I had
prior to purchasing the MacBook.



My first thought was to buy an AirPort Extreme and share the external
drive via WiFi. For iTunes, it works great, but with iPhoto is
unbearably slow. I guess I could move all the pictures from my external
drive onto the MacBook hard drive, but I'd rather not do that. At the
same time, having to access an external hard drive directly sort of
defeats the point of the mobility of a notebook.



I'm sure I can't be unique in this predicament...what's the best solution?

[jamiethole]

I have a similar setup but I use Aperture.


What I

[neuroanatomist]

I have a similar setup but I use Aperture.


What I've found works best is that I create a new library for each project, rather than keeping all my photos in one huge library.





That's one difference between Aperture and iPhoto - the former supports multiple libraries, whereas the latter does not (it can be done, but it's a pain).


Personally, I do use iPhoto and keep all my pictures on my MacBook Pro. But I only use it as a photo organizer, at which it does a fine job. I shoot in RAW - I used to process those images in DPP but now use DxO (which also results in smaller jpg files but with the same quality). The converted jpgs go into iPhoto, sorted into Events, kind of like a collection of 'real' photo albums with 4x6" prints. The 'negatives' in that analogy (i.e. the RAW files) get transferred off my internal HDD after processing, and I store them on two separate external drives stored in separate locations (one at home, one at work); once backed up to both drives, the original memory cards get erased. Monthly I also burn copies to a DVD-R DL and store those in a safe deposit box.


So, as a backup/disaster recovery strategy, the only time I have just one copy of an image file is after I've shot it and before the card gets pulled from the camera. From that point, there are at least two copies of the RAW files, and soon at least two copies stored in at least two different locations.


--John

[davideglasgow]

Personally, I do use iPhoto and keep all my pictures on my MacBook Pro. But I only use it as a photo organizer, at which it does a fine job. I shoot in RAW - I used to process those images in DPP but now use DxO (which also results in smaller jpg files but with the same quality). The converted jpgs go into iPhoto, sorted into Events, kind of like a collection of 'real' photo albums with 4x6" prints. The 'negatives' in that analogy (i.e. the RAW files) get transferred off my internal HDD after processing, and I store them on two separate external drives stored in separate locations (one at home, one at work); once backed up to both drives, the original memory cards get erased. Monthly I also burn copies to a DVD-R DL and store those in a safe deposit box.


So, as a backup/disaster recovery strategy, the only time I have just one copy of an image file is after I've shot it and before the card gets pulled from the camera. From that point, there are at least two copies of the RAW files, and soon at least two copies stored in at least two different locations.


--John
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This is a great idea...thanks!

[davideglasgow]

Hmm...giving this approach some more thought. Should I then import my existing RAW files into iPhoto as to include them in the library, and then delete the RAWs from my HDD, thus having ALL my shot jpgs in my iPhoto library on the MacBook HDD?


Sorry, BTW if any of this is obvious. New Mac user :)

[neuroanatomist]

In iPhoto, if you delete them from the library you also delete them from the HDD (well, they go into iPhoto's trash can, but ctrl-clicking that to empty it deletes them for good). If you have JPGs already, just import them into iPhoto on the MBP (then you can delete from where you imported them from, assuming you have the box to import photos into the library checked in iPhoto &gt; Preferences &gt; Advanced tab, and it's checked by default). Else, convert them to JPG from where they are now, and them import them into iPhoto.


If you import the RAW files into iPhoto, it will keep the RAW and make a JPG too, and thus take more space on your internal drive than you'd probably want.