Comments on: Importing Images from iPhoto into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v3

By: alyssa

alyssa — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:55:26 +0000

David,
When I am developing a photo, I’d really like to compare the original photo side by side with the latest version of the photo. But when I click on the before and after button, usually I end up seeing the same version of the photo side by side, whether it is the original, the latest, or a version somewhere in between.
I am having the same problem when I use this button: \ to toggle back and forth between the original photo and the latest developed photo. It just toggles back and forth between the same photo: the latest one usually.
Do you know why I am having this problem? WHat am I doing wrong? THank you so much and also for your last response to me as well. It really answered my question!
Alyssa.

By: David Marx

David Marx — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:44:40 +0000

Dear Alyssa,

Your files are showing the “?” symbol because the actual files are indeed offline. They are offline because the images live on your external hard drive and that drive is not currently active. The video tutorials in our post on the fundamentals of image storage and the role of the Lightroom Catalog might help. See Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Catalog Creation and Image Storage Fundamentals.

–
David Marx

By: alyssa

alyssa — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 18:53:28 +0000

Thank you for your tutorials!!! My question is: I just followed your steps to transfer my pictures from iphoto to Lightroom 3. However, most of them appear grey with the question mark in the corner, and no picture shown. When I click on the question mark, it states that the file is offline or missing. Why is this? How can I get my pictures to show up in Lightroom normally? Is it because I imported them from my external hard drive? Do I always have to have the hard drive plugged in in order to access my pictures in Lightroom? Thanks for your help!

By: David Marx

David Marx — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 22:54:00 +0000

Dear Carly,

You could delete your old photos from iPhoto once they are safely added to your Lightroom index and backed up with your Time Machine. The question is will you actually save enough space to make it worth the effort. If you have 10,000+ raw files in iPhoto then this might be worth the effort. If, on the other hand, all you have are a few 1000 jpegs then I probably wouldn’t bother.

To stop iPhoto from popping up everytime you connect your Nikon go to iPhoto’s Preferences. In the first panel there is a switch that controls what program launches when “a camera is connected.” Set this to “No Application.” Then in Lightroom go the Preferences Menu > General tab and enable the launch Import Dialog when Memory Card is detected preference switch.

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David Marx

By: Carly

Carly — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 03:36:16 +0000

Love your tutorials! Thank you!

I’m in the process of transferring my photos from iPhoto to LR3.

I have a MAC with an external Time Machine Backup Hard Drive that automatically backs up everything on my internal drive.

My husband suggested I keep my Lightroom database and my “PHOTOS GO HERE” file internally because they are automatically backed. Then they are pretty protected incase one of my units goes kaput.

Currently between the external, internal, and iPhoto I have 3 copies of my photos. I feel that soon iPhoto will be an outdated third copy that I don’t really need. I like iPhoto for my iPhone and iPad but not for my Nikon photos.

Questions are…

1. Once I have verified my photos are all in the “PHOTOS GO HERE” and backed up on my external hard drive am I safe to delete them from iPhoto? (To conserve space mostly.)

2. When I plug in my Nikon iPhoto pops up to download my pictures. Do you know how I change this so iPhoto will pop up only for my iPhone or iPad and LR3 will open to download for my Nikon?

Thanks for your time.

By: David Marx

David Marx — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:15:34 +0000

Dear Keenan G,

It maybe a question of terminology but when I hear “originals” in relation to iPhoto I have to wonder if you are trying to work with the originals folder that exists within the iPhoto Library package. If you are indeed messing with this folder then you are guaranteed to either upset Lightroom or iPhoto. This is the reason that I advocating exporting copies of your files from iPhoto and then importing the copies into your Lightroom Catalog. Trying to have both programs read and write from the same folder within the iPhoto Library package is always unpleasant.

Might I also suggest that that you hold off on this project for a few weeks if possible. Eventually working with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 might someday make this process easier.

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David Marx

By: Keenan Gilson

Keenan Gilson — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 07:52:51 +0000

Hey Dave!
First off all I would like to thank you for taking the time to read this, it’s much appreciated. I’m currently trying to correctly organize my Lightroom 3 albums, making the newb mistake of not reading up on this prior :/. I’m having a problem with iPhoto’s “original” files. Currently, the majority of my iPhoto photos in Lightroom are running of the “original” files from the iPhoto catalog. I would like Lightroom to look at a copy of the “original” files that are stored in a separate folder; a folder that Lightroom reads as originals. I want to do this for 3 reasons…
1. I can put all of my original files on an external drive, all contained in one neat folder.
2. All of my original files are together, easier to deal with
3. iPhoto seems like its going crash (Lugs really badly) and my “original” files are going to be destroyed
I tried making an Alias of the “original” folder and then trying to update the iPhoto based photos within Lightroom, and it keeps giving me this “merge” option!! Won’t exempt the alias folder…any suggestions?
One last thing…..could I just take the original photos from then iPhoto catalog and just store them in my designated folder? I thought about this, but then thought it might mess with my iPhoto library photos :/ AHHHHHHH!!!

Thanks a bunch,
Keenan G.

By: houtan dehesh

houtan dehesh — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:46:53 +0000

Great thread. Now let me invert all this for a moment.
I am a photographer and have been using LR from the get go. Have all my photos tagged and have been extremely happy.
Now my apple desk top is upstairs and our TV is downstairs and my family is just about to kill me because they are not able to look at photos on the TV though we have apple TV. To make a long story short I need to take my photos from LR to Iphoto but be able to preserve my tags so that I can show the photos using Iphoto through the apple TV in a reasonable fashion.
So here is the essence of the question: How can you preserve the tags when you export out of LR and import into Iphoto.

Thanks

By: David Marx

David Marx — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 12:41:53 +0000

Dear Gustavo,

Please hold this question, and your desire to import from another application, for a few weeks. Adobe is still working out the bugs with this feature. When they are convinced that it works properly they will release a Lightroom 4 update.

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David Marx

By: Gustavo

Gustavo — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:50:56 +0000

I’m trying to get more information about the “Import from Application” feature. But there’s nothing at adobe website or Lightroom 4 help page. I have a library from Aperture that i want to transfer to Lightroom 4. Can you help me?