Digital photos on a mac: iPhoto or Preview?

I just started with a digital camera. My computer is a Mac. So far, I
have viewed the JPEG photos with Preview. It seems to work fine, but
each time I download pictures, my computer wants to open iPhoto; I just
say no, but being unfamiliar with iPhoto I also don't know what I am
missing.

So, is it worth learning iPhoto or is Preview good enough for viewing
digital pictures?

Newbie wrote:
I just started with a digital camera. My computer is a Mac. So far, I
have viewed the JPEG photos with Preview. It seems to work fine, but
each time I download pictures, my computer wants to open iPhoto; I just
say no, but being unfamiliar with iPhoto I also don't know what I am
missing.

So, is it worth learning iPhoto or is Preview good enough for viewing
digital pictures?

I use iPhoto to import my pictures from my camera and view them. I see
a set of thumbnails of the pictures I have imported so far, and can
expand any of them to view them in more detail. I can also export
pictures to email from iPhoto, adjusting the size in the process.

You might give it a try; if you don't like it then you can stop using
it.

--- Brian

Newbie wrote:

I just started with a digital camera. My computer is a Mac. So far, I
have viewed the JPEG photos with Preview. It seems to work fine, but
each time I download pictures, my computer wants to open iPhoto; I just
say no, but being unfamiliar with iPhoto I also don't know what I am
missing.

So, is it worth learning iPhoto or is Preview good enough for viewing
digital pictures?

For simply viewing images directly from the camera or in a separate
folder, Preview is OK. If you get a lot of pictures, iPhoto will store
them for you in a way that lets you navigate them easily. And the
learning threshold is very low - have no fear. The only thing you should
not do, is to use iPhoto and then not let it "do its thing", i.e., try
to overrule it re the way it stores things. Let it do its job, and you
can do yours - take the pics, view them and use them. :-)

BTW: If you really do not want to use iPhoto and want it to stop opening
(or want Preview to start instead), what you need to do is find the
little utility app called Image Capture, open it, go to Preferences and
change the default image viewer app.

BTW 2: Imavge Capture is good to use if you want to import images
manually from a camera or memory card, as it lets you select which
images to import and then skip the rest. iPhoto will always take the lot
and then you have to delete the superfluous ones later.
--
/Jon
For contact info, run the following in Terminal:
Mail: echo 36199371860304980107073482417748002696458P|dc
Skype: echo 139576319600233690471689738P|dc

Jon wrote:
Newbie wrote:

I just started with a digital camera. My computer is a Mac. So far, I
have viewed the JPEG photos with Preview. It seems to work fine, but
each time I download pictures, my computer wants to open iPhoto; I just
say no, but being unfamiliar with iPhoto I also don't know what I am
missing.

So, is it worth learning iPhoto or is Preview good enough for viewing
digital pictures?

For simply viewing images directly from the camera or in a separate
folder, Preview is OK. If you get a lot of pictures, iPhoto will store
them for you in a way that lets you navigate them easily. And the
learning threshold is very low - have no fear. The only thing you should
not do, is to use iPhoto and then not let it "do its thing", i.e., try
to overrule it re the way it stores things. Let it do its job, and you
can do yours - take the pics, view them and use them. :-)

BTW: If you really do not want to use iPhoto and want it to stop opening
(or want Preview to start instead), what you need to do is find the
little utility app called Image Capture, open it, go to Preferences and
change the default image viewer app.

BTW 2: Imavge Capture is good to use if you want to import images
manually from a camera or memory card, as it lets you select which
images to import and then skip the rest. iPhoto will always take the lot
and then you have to delete the superfluous ones later.

Yes to all the above. But if you think you're into photography for the
long haul, you might be wise to buy a copy of Photoshop Elements, use
Image Capture to download into folders, and then view and modify them in
Elements. If you get seriously into it down the road, you'll want to
upgrade to the full Photoshop. Both Elements and the full version are
available for trials of 30 days.

--
John McWilliams

Jon:
For simply viewing images directly from the camera or in a separate
folder, Preview is OK. If you get a lot of pictures, iPhoto will store
them for you in a way that lets you navigate them easily. And the
learning threshold is very low - have no fear. The only thing you should
not do, is to use iPhoto and then not let it "do its thing", i.e., try
to overrule it re the way it stores things. Let it do its job, and you
can do yours - take the pics, view them and use them. :-)

BTW: If you really do not want to use iPhoto and want it to stop opening
(or want Preview to start instead), what you need to do is find the
little utility app called Image Capture, open it, go to Preferences and
change the default image viewer app.

BTW 2: Imavge Capture is good to use if you want to import images
manually from a camera or memory card, as it lets you select which
images to import and then skip the rest. iPhoto will always take the lot
and then you have to delete the superfluous ones later.

John McWilliams:
Yes to all the above. But if you think you're into photography for the
long haul, you might be wise to buy a copy of Photoshop Elements, use
Image Capture to download into folders, and then view and modify them in
Elements. If you get seriously into it down the road, you'll want to
upgrade to the full Photoshop. Both Elements and the full version are
available for trials of 30 days.

I am so new at this that at present I am not sure if I would want to
get serious enough to buy Photoshop etc. It is nt exaclt cheap, so let
that evolve naturally. What I want as a beginner right now is to get
into good habits.

What I have been doing is, connect the camera to the computer, a folder
appears and I copy its contents. I select them all, double-click, and
they appear in Preview. I can choose a slide show if wish. (I do have
to organize the folders myself, but so far it is not a big burden, and
I like to rename/regroup them thematically anyway.)

What I am curious about is, would it be a better habit to start using
either iPhoto or Image Capture as suggested above? (I checked IC and it
offers to crop or fit every picture to a certain size; is that a good
idea?)

One last question: My photos are slightly under 1MB. Would it be a good
idea to reduc etheir size somewhat before emailing? If so, by how much,
and which (free) app does one use?

If all you want to do is view a few photos, Preview is fine.

iPhoto is used to organize your photos, and to do some basic
adjustments to color, brightness, cropping, size etc. It's pretty easy
to use and is extremely helpful for keeping your photos organized.

Regarding photos you're going to email, most folks would be very
annoyed to get huge, 1 MB photos by email. It's simply not necessary to
send a file that big, unless they are going to print them and want the
highest-possible quality file.

If you open a photo in iPhoto, then select File Export, you can tell
iPhoto to export the photo as a JPEG with a size of, say, 800 x 600,
and you'll end up with a file that's maybe 200k (give or take) and it
will be perfectly good for viewing onscreen.

James

Newbie wrote:

One last question: My photos are slightly under 1MB. Would it be a good
idea to reduc etheir size somewhat before emailing? If so, by how much,
and which (free) app does one use?

Yes, definitely.
And that's one of the things iPhoto is brilliant at! :-)
--
/Jon
For contact info, run the following in Terminal:
Mail: echo 36199371860304980107073482417748002696458P|dc
Skype: echo 139576319600233690471689738P|dc

wrote:

Regarding photos you're going to email, most folks would be very
annoyed to get huge, 1 MB photos by email. It's simply not necessary to
send a file that big, unless they are going to print them and want the
highest-possible quality file.

If you open a photo in iPhoto,
snip

Much easier to select the photo(s) you want to mail in iPhoto, then
click its "Mail" button and select the pic size in the drop-down menu
(it also tells you the total for all the pix you are mailing so you can
adjust). After that, the images appear ready to go in a Mail message.
Just add adddress and text, and off it goes.
--
/Jon
For contact info, run the following in Terminal:
Mail: echo 36199371860304980107073482417748002696458P|dc
Skype: echo 139576319600233690471689738P|dc

lid (Jon) writes:

Newbie wrote:

One last question: My photos are slightly under 1MB. Would it be a good
idea to reduc etheir size somewhat before emailing? If so, by how much,
and which (free) app does one use?

Yes, definitely.
And that's one of the things iPhoto is brilliant at! :-)

Another simple thing it usually does very well (which you can't do in
preview, and which PhotoShop is overkill for) is the red-eye
adjustment.

In article , Newbie
wrote:

I just started with a digital camera. My computer is a Mac. So far, I
have viewed the JPEG photos with Preview. It seems to work fine, but
each time I download pictures, my computer wants to open iPhoto; I just
say no, but being unfamiliar with iPhoto I also don't know what I am
missing.

So, is it worth learning iPhoto or is Preview good enough for viewing
digital pictures?

iPhoto is very useful software. Besides viewing photos, share them in
different ways, edit them, and catalog them. If you're using iLife '06,
you can also share your photos via a web site.

For information about iPhoto, just check out Apple's web site at
http://www.apple.com where you can find extensive information. You can
also check the seminars section of Apple's web site to see if Apple or a
reseller is offering a free iPhoto or iLife workshop in your area.