Mac photo organization for dummies

January 8, 2016 9:55 AM

I am an amateur photographer, nothing more. All my photos are currently dumped into iPhoto, and I need tips for organizing them in a way that allows easy access.

I know there have been lots of posts about this topic, but they all seem to give options for serious photographers, people who want many photo editing options, etc. I will not be editing these photos--I just want a simple system to organize them so that I can find them when I need them.

The main complication seems to be when I want to make a paper album to print through an online system. When I'm in My Publisher or another portal, I can't access the photos by how they're arranged in iPhoto, but only by how they're arranged in the Finder. Therefore, any organization I do directly in iPhoto seems useless. Am I missing something? Should I be organizing directly through the Finder files (and if so, how?)? I am hesitant to use a whole separate software, as then photos will be in too many places on my computer. But correct me if I'm wrong!

Other general photo management tips (ways to backup, encouragement for ruthless culling down, etc.) are welcome!

posted by reksb to Technology (2 answers total)

Best answer: You can organize in iPhoto/Photos, to make them easier to find. The way I handle it when I want to use stuff stored in Photos in a third-party way is to export everything that might be relevant first, into another folder, and then pick from that folder.

That does mean that you have two copies of something for a time, but you can always delete that folder when your project is complete, as your stuff is still properly housed in Photos (or iPhoto).

If you want to keep them in iPhoto/Photos, you shouldn't do anything with them directly in the Finder — the apps are easily confused when things are not where they're expected to be.

Also maybe useful: There was also a recent Note To Self podcast episode dedicated to photo organization.
posted by brentajones at 10:43 AM on January 8, 2016

Have you by chance tried Google photos? Cloud-based (so you'll have a backup), easy to organize (via albums), very searchable. It's also possible (though not totally intuitive) to upload albums to printing services like snapfish et al, via Picasa. It's free, and offers unlimited storage (for slightly compressed photos). I've got similar needs (storage, publishing to instagram/vsco, sometimes ordering prints), and I've had a pretty easy time with Google photos over Apple Photos.
posted by Gilbert at 1:11 PM on January 8, 2016