Resizing photos in iPhoto
 

Help! I have 1,737 photos in my iPhoto librabry. Problem ( I think)n is they are mostly 2048x1536 pixels and run from 916kb to 648kb. I wan t to back them up to a zip drive but it seems I'm oly getting a few to a disk and my machine is running incredibly slow. I assume this is due to the huge size of these photo files.

Will someone please take pity on this poor troglidite and explaine how I resize these smaller and stop importing them at this size. I can't find any import or preferenc eoptions or any help on the mac site or google.

I''m just back from Costa Rica and want to see the photos but have instead spent hours trying to figure thisout.

Help!

export those puppies
 

Select all the pix- go to File>Export and chose the size you want to save them as and where you want to put them- good luck. T

There is no way I know of to resize your images before or during importing into iPhoto. Your speed question was asked in another post and I gave a suggestion there.

If you wanted smaller picture files you should have set the camera to the size that you wanted...

If you resize them, you ruin them (your master loses resolution). You want to keep the size large. It would be much better to back up your photos on CD-R rather than Zip. CDs are much, much cheaper and last longer.

If the size is bothering you, there are two things you could do. Reduce the resolution in your camera (as BigC suggested) or raise the jpeg compression level to crunch it smaller.

If you TRULY want to resize them, use GraphicConverter and batch reduce them to a reasonable size.

I agree with Schneb in saving them cd or even dvd. Remember though when you compress your pictures you reduce the amount of pixels per picture which means loss of quality or poor picture quality. Even reducing the .jpg to a medium file size, will reduce the quality. Most of the time you should only compress the jpg's if they are to go on the web so you have faster loading time...
good luck :)

I just played around with iPhoto for the first time today. I plugged in my Canon A80 camera and it saw it and I was able to pull the pictures into iPhoto, but I could not figure out how to resize one of them so I could create an avatar.

My search here found this thread and your message! :cool:

iPhoto is a toy
 

I'm new to the Mac and I'm used to ACDSee on PC. Boy I wished ACDSee would continue shipping on Mac. Anyway...

I agree with those who said you probably don't want to shrink your pictures and sacrifice quality just for the sake of fitting your backup on a zip drive. So you should really back them up on a CD or DVD if need be. Better yet get a small (40GB) external drive.

(In case anyone working on iPhoto reads this...)
That said, I too wish I could resize pictures in my library and not have to export them in order to resize them. I don't want the resized version to live outside my pix library. I want it inside but I want iPhoto to make sure the original is not overwritten. That's it. E.g.: When you resize, ACDSee will offer to rename or overwrite. I choose "rename" and a "_resized" suffix is automatically added to the new file's name.

Also, in the resize dialog box, you should have two options:
a) resize by pixel dimensions (x,y)
b) resize by file size (kb)

When you set one, the other is dimmed and automatically updated before you even click "OK".

Yes I know I could use photoshop for that but I'd have to export it first and then use PS because iPhoto is is keeping my picture hostage in its arcane proprietary directory struture. It's twice as much work for me. :(

Thank you all, I needed to vent. :)

PS: If someone knows a better photo manager on the Mac, I'm all ears.

jsneveu:
Are you saying you want a large original and a small resized version both to exist in your iPhoto library? Two ideas I have:
a) Just resize the pics. iPhoto will automagically keep the original around, and you can use the Revert to Original menu option to go back to it.
b) If you want easier access to either version of the pic, create a Duplicate and Resize it. (Sorry, I can't give the exact menu names, I'm at work and stuck on an inferior operating system known as Windows).

Your idea about the resize dialog box is neat, but, it would probably be pretty tricky programming to determine a pixel size from a desired file size in kilobytes. If you're that worried about space, iPhoto probably isn't the best tool to use, since it's going to keep the original around anyway. It's database structures are also going to take up extra room that you could use for photo storage.

Oh, and you don't have to Export an image to use Photoshop on it. There's a menu option to open a photo in Photoshop or another image editor, and your saved changes will go right back into iPhoto.

If you still want a different photo manager, I've heard good things about iView Media Pro (I think that's the name). I haven't tried it, because I haven't really found anything I want to do that I can't do with iPhoto and PS Elements (I upgraded to 3.0 for cheap, since I got 2.0 free with my camera).

iPhoto alternatives
 

Me too. But I don't have the funds for PhotoShop.

I'm new to Mac--bought an iMac just a few months ago.

This might offend some people here, and I apologize in advance for that, but the Mac is not the great "cat's whiskers" that I expected it to be. I do love it, but it is not quite living up to all the hype I've heard. Perhaps I will change my mind after I've had it longer. But in the meantime, I still have my PC, which is a nice one, and I'm using it to do my photo editing and resizing (and some other things, too.... looks like I'm going to need both computers, at least for a while).

I have Parallels on my iMac, and that's working out okay, but virtual Windows on a Mac is just not as good as Windows on a PC, so I still go my PC for a number of things.

Thanks to everyone here for all these posts--they were very helpful. I found this forum by searching for resizing photos in iPhoto.

I have problems and dislikes, which I'm making notes of, and will make an appointment with a Mac "Genius" at the Mac Store and see if he or she can help me with these.

Thanks much, and everyone have a hoppy day!

MizMacFrog

MizMacFrog, what application do you use on your PC to do photo editing and resizing?

I have several that I can use.

Microsoft Photo Editor
Microsoft Office Picture Manager (two versions: 2003 and 2006)
Picture It! 7.0
Jasc Paint Shop Pro
Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

That's all I can think of right now.

Thanks,
MizMacFrog

The Mac alternative I use regularly is:

Graphic Converter http://lemkesoft.com/

The all-purpose, can do everything you typically want to do in photo editing. For under $40.

Which brings up a question: why would you want multiple sizes of identical photos in your library?

For me, whenever I want a make smaller versions, I am exporting them and posting them, or printing them, or doing something to make an end product. Not just storing copies in the same library.

Here is a quick tip for what I think you are asking:

* While in iPhoto, select the photos you want to send by email.
* At the bottom of the screen, click the MAIL icon; you will get a prompt to pick the size / quality.
* Then iPhoto will export them for you and attach your selected photos to a new mail messsage (this assumes you use MAIL as your default app.)

Hope this works for you.

I find that most people who have difficulty are usually looking for things to be harder than they actually are - for example, your method of resizing photos before emailing them is already done automatically within iPhoto (see haironfire's post above). I use iPhoto and I find it quite intuitive. One of the reasons I am so comfortable with iPhoto is because I have long since given up any need to manually organize my photos in the Finder. I do all of my organizing within iPhoto.

If you absolutely have to organize your photos manually (rather than using Events and Albums within iPhoto), then iPhoto may not be the right app for you. Photoshop Elements may be more appealing to you in that case.

Resizing photos in iphoto - Photo Editor 4 Mac
 

ANSEWR: I've spent hours trying to figure this out myself and got frustrated enough to want to go back to PC and ACDSEE.

I bought a fine Mac photo editor; a mini Photoshop, for $60. Pixelmator. It is as good as ACDSEE or better. I open the photos in Pixelmator, resize them, save in 'pictures' and can then email or save them in a reasonable size. I still have the original size photo saved so no loss here. Some of the responses say to change your cameras setting which is a no go.

elements is $60, has a decent workflow with iphoto, and will do almost everything you need it to.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelmac/

There are lots of good reasons to have a good photo editor but to just resize a photo for email or to export is not one of them. In iPhoto select the photo or photos you want to send and click the email button on the tool bar under your photos. You can then select from a popup which size you would like. You can even do this from within Mail when you drop an image in a new email you will see a button appear at the bottom of the window and you can again select the size you want. Also when you export a photo from iPhoto you will again get a chance to select the size you want. Maybe this will help you from having to have so many sizes of the same photo.

I must admit, I hate iPhoto!! I still do most of my photo manipulation in Windows on my old PC. The lack of a resize function does my head in. I need to be able to resize a selection of photos from, say, all the hundreds I took on holiday, store them in a separate folder, then e-mail them to friends and family, and this seems to be impossible in iPhoto! It's such a basic requirement I can't believe Apple saw fit not tio include it.

Oh Dear.

Refer back to the post by haironfire. Drag any photos you want to email from iPhoto to the Mail icon and a new mail message will open containing the photos. Then click on the Image Size button on the lower right and choose your size (small, medium, large or actual size).

If that doesn't suit your needs, drag the photos to Resizeit from http://homepage.mac.com/nsekine/SYW/...eit/index.html (works fine in Snow Leopard), or a similar application, and save them to a selected folder at a size of your choosing.

Quick and simple, and either way, you retain your iPhoto pictures at their original resolution.

Why in the world would you want to make another folder and another copy of all those photos just to send in emails when resizing is done for you with the click of a button in both Mail and iPhoto. When you get over the idea of sorting in folders and start to use your Mac like a Mac and not a Windows machine you will discover the real power of iPhoto.

Once more, with feeling:

In iPhoto, you press the "Mail" button, and set the size you want.

You don't need to keep an archive of "email size" pictures. This is why we use Macs.

It's like asking how to make fire, because you want a cup of coffee. Don't make fire. Just use a kettle.

How to Use Quicksilver to Re-scale Photos and Images. If you don't have Quicksilver, get it. Every Mac user (running 10.4 or later) should have this in their arsenal.

I believe you can do all these things in iPhoto now.
Maybe it is labeled different that you expect.

* You can export a photo (or album) to any size / format you want
* You can edit > crop a large photo to highlight certain elements
* You can share an album or your whole library either by email, creating a web site, or several other means.

From you list above, it seems like that should do the trick. However, if you are more comfortable with the PC editor work flow, why not just do it there anyway?

iPhoto Solution?
 

Anyone use Aperture? Sounds by what everyone is talking about is solved by using Aperture. Reducing size, fixing, using in emails, categorizing, etc.
:)