Splash of Style...Macs, Photography, Design, and other Passions

iPhoto Smart Albums

June 29, 2009 by debbie T | Digital Photography • iPhoto • Mac Software

Cas Rifkin posted a question on a recent iPhoto tutorial. Cas asked about more detailed ways to organize photos inside events. Smart Albums are a very easy way to let iPhoto organize your photos for you. And you don’t even need to do much work!

First, let’s go over some of the terminology.

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iPhoto – How to Resize & Export Photo Files

March 15, 2009 by debbie T | Digital Photography • iPhoto • Mac Software

My Dad just bought a cute Mac Mini, and he’s feeling overwhelmed. He used to use Picasa on his PC to export photos to use on Craig’s List, now he’ll be using iPhoto. This tutorial is for him. It’s a very basic beginner tutorial. I am using iPhoto 2008 but it is very similar for iPhoto 2009.

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Create Simple HTML Photo Page in iPhoto

February 1, 2009 by debbie T | Computers • Digital Photography • iPhoto • Mac Software • Web Design • Web Development

I maintain a basic web site for a local non-profit, and every year, I must update their photo page of Officers. It’s always been time consuming to try to reassemble the table html codes and move all the names and titles to their appropriate spots.

I wanted to find an easier way to create a simple html table for the photo page. I looked into iWeb, but the output page looked like a portfolio, and the code was virtually impossible to edit later.

I had imported all the necessary photo files into iPhoto, and while I was checking out the Export command, I noticed there was an option to export as web page.

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Camera Raw Bundle 2.3 released

November 6, 2008 by debbie T | Aperture 2 • Art and Graphics • Digital Photography • iPhoto • Mac Software

Hopefully this version (check software update) will fix all the ongoing problems, such as importing in Aperture.

http://splashofstyle.com/archives/2008/09/25/aperture-2-crashing-when-importing-from-compact-flash-cards/#comment-18483

I will probably hold off for a day or two before installing. Just to get my backups in order. It looks like there could be further issues.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8404756

update 2008-11-8: Installed the update yesterday, and so far so good. No problems w/ importing photos and/or editing.

Untrained Applestore Salespeople

June 29, 2008 by debbie T | iPhoto • iTunes & iPhone • Mac Corner • Mac Software

We went into the Applestore in Salem, NH this afternoon to possibly purchase a new iPod Touch for my husband.

When we walked in the store, I asked the greeter if someone could help us with iPod Touch questions. She sent us over to what she thought was the iPod area, and I found a Touch. My husband had been previously been playing around with one, but I thought it might be nice to have someone officially show us around before we purchased.

The first salesperson (male) came over and he seemed knowledgeable enough, until I asked him about syncing photos, bookmarks, address book, etc. He didn’t know the answers, so he brought over another salesperson (female), and she started to push the new Mobile Me (dot Mac) service, telling me that I needed to use that to sync anything. I told her I have never been a fan of dot Mac, and that I was surprised that it couldn’t be done through iTunes.

She wasn’t too sure of the answer, so she went off to find someone that might know.

Another older gentleman came over. I assumed (wrongly) that he would perhaps have an answer about syncing. nope, more Mobile Me sales pitches. In fact, he took me over to a nearby iMac, and started to browse the apple.com website so he could show me more about Mobile Me. Again, I told the that I didn’t want to use dot mac or Mobile Me.

I spoke to no less than 4 sales people, and no one could tell me answers to simple questions, like syncing photos, address book, and iCal. Would you believe that no one actually knew the sales return policy either!!! That had to be figured out by asking another sales person as well.

I should have just went over to a Mac myself, and searched for the syncing answers on google (which is what I did when I got home). Truth is, you do NOT need Mobile Me or Dot Mac to sync your iPod. You can do it all through iTunes, which is what I originally thought, but no one in the store could confirm it.

Seems the Applestores have a lot of new sales staff, probably in anticipation of the iPhone release on July 11). But you would think they would go through a little bit of training. It’s almost like they were told if anyone asks about the iPhone or iPod Touch, just play stupid and push the Mobile Me sales crap.

I was really discouraged and disappointed. I expected more knowledge from the sales staff. The Applestores have always seemed to be a step above the Best Buys and Walmarts, in that they know their products. If we were an uninformed customer, we might have possibly been talked into purchasing a Mobile Me account, when it wasn’t even necessary! Very disheartening!

We left the store w/out an iTouch. My husband isn’t sure he wants one anymore. I told him that he should wait until July 11, just in case something (like a price drop) happens. Who knows, I have been eyeing an iPod Touch for awhile. I might get one after July 11!

iPhoto Library Manager

January 27, 2008 by debbie T | Digital Photography • iPhoto • Mac Software

Well, I still haven’t finished rebuilding my iPhoto library, but it’s mostly due to time restraints, not any additional problems. But in the meantime, I found a wonderful little app to manage my iPhoto Libraries.

The iPhoto Library Manager from Fat Cat Software, is a shareware app that easily organizes multiple library databases. I have been using it for a couple of weeks, and I just love it. I paid the $20 so I can have full access to the advanced features of the app, but it still works very well if you want to mess around with the free version.

What I love about the iPhoto Library Manager:

If your iPhoto albums are out of control and too large to handle, then give the iPhoto Library Manager a whirl. I am really excited to really get my albums in order, to free up some much needed space on my MacBook Pro.

Download the free version from Fat Cat Software: http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/

Corrupted iPhoto Library – Crashed and Burned!

January 17, 2008 by debbie T | Digital Photography • iPhoto • Mac Software

I was in the middle of viewing some new RAW photos in iPhoto 06 the other night, and no surprise, I could tell iPhoto was going to crash, and it did.

But this time, when I relaunched, most of my photos were gone from the iPhoto library view. I checked Finder, and thankfully all photos appeared to be safe and sound, but they were not viewable in iPhoto.

Now comes the stupid part. Instead of thinking things through, I panicked and backed up to my external hard drive, which in turn overwrote the only file that could have saved me….the Library6.iPhoto file located in the iPhoto Library folder.

After some online googling, I found out that the Library6.iPhoto is the file that stores all the tags and descriptions, and since that file was now overwritten, I was out of luck.

I tried to rebuild the library database – hold down Option & Apple keys while launching iPhoto. I chose all options, including find orphaned files. No luck, my photos were still missing. I tried switching to a new Library, and that didn’t help.

So, I started to search through my DVD backups, hoping to find something that would help. I did find an older backup from September that included my descriptions/comments, but no tags were saved in the backup.

I was ready to throw in the towel, when I remembered another backup on my external hard drive. The bootable backup I made was at the end of October, so I did have a fairly recent backup of the Library6.iPhoto file!!

I launched iPhoto using this library (hold down the Option key while starting iPhoto, will give the option to either start a new library or choose another) and my files were there.

So now, all I have to do is import and update 2 1/2 months of photos, which shouldn’t be too bad.

Lesson learned! NO matter how good you think your backup is, check to see if you are missing some important files for recovery! I thought I was covered, but if I just saved the Library6.iPhoto file, I might have been a lot safer!

Right now, I just overwrote the Library6.iPhoto with the one from my backup….and when I launched iPhoto, the thumbnails were missing. So, I am now rebuilding the library database and thumbnails. So hopefully my files will be intact, at least up to November, and I will manually add the rest.

Nosillacast Podcast

September 4, 2007 by debbie T | iPhoto • Mac Corner • Mac Software • Podcasting

I have mentioned the Nosillacast podcast before, but it deserves another mention. Allison is a wonderful host. I don’t have as much time to listen to podcasts as I used to, but I always make time for the Nosillacast podcast. She releases a new show every Sunday, and I look forward to listening on the way to work Monday.

She pegs her podcast as a “Technology Geek Podcast with an Ever So Slight Macintosh Bias.” Yes, she is an ardent Mac user, but she is also a car care fanatic (by her own admission), a new iPhone user, a software tester, a photographer, and all-round good natured humorous chick.

I enjoyed this week’s show #110, not just because of Allison’s fun banter about Palm OS, car polish, or jump starting her hubby’s car. I was pleased to hear the iPhoto 08 review from Bart Busschots. That is the beauty of Allison’s podcast, she shares the spotlight with others that send in audio reviews and comments.

Anyway, take a listen to the Nosillacast. She makes my drive to work more entertaining!