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radishrog
radishrog
Participant
January 4, 2017
Question

Importing edited photos from iPhoto to lightroom CC

  • January 4, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 1610 views

Hi.  I'm a longtime iphoto/photoshop elements user that is making the switch to LR.  I'm a hobbyist who is also the families photo depository.  I don't have an interest in maintaining my iPhoto library so I plan to use LR going forward for new photos as well as old.  Two things are important to me:  keeping key words and the edited versions of my photos.  In other words, I just care about the photos as I see them displayed in iPhoto currently.  No need for the originals.  In iPhoto, aside from some keyword based smart albums, I don't use albums and events.  In a sense, I guess I have one big album, and it displays photos in chronological order (I edit the original date of any old photos I scan).

To my surprise, I see the LR iPhoto transfer plug in does not transfer photo adjustments.  I assume that means I will get the originals only without the edits I made in iPhoto.  As a result, would it be better for me to export my entire library from iPhoto with title and keywords into a folder that will eventually be my import folder for any new photos to LR?  In a little experiment I did, I see I am getting keywords, and photos are displaying in chronological order.  Does anyone see a flaw in this plan?

I presume I would then delete the contents of that unintelligible iPhoto library some how afterward.

I'm currently running OS 10.9.5 and iPhoto 9.5.1 with 6,700 photos mostly jpg with a few RAWs and a smattering of videos.   

Thanks for any info, suggestions and experience you can share.

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

jonathanp41403920
jonathanp41403920
Inspiring
January 19, 2017

I'm currently trying to do the same thing as Radishrog. I was on an older version of iPhoto (08) and Snow Leopard and wanted to trial Lightroom before I potentially buy it. I exported my 18500 photos from the iPhoto package to 240 named folders on an external drive. To do that I used the export function in iPhoto, selecting 'Current' (to get the latest, edited versions of my photos) + the highest JPG quality + 'Title' (if my iPhoto copy had a title) or 'Use album' (if the photos didn't already have a title) which gives the exported file a new name based on the Album name but in sequential order. I also ensured that 'Keywords' were selected in the Export dialog box.

I then had to upgrade MacOs to El Capitan (my iMac won't take Sierra but El Capitan should be ok) and obtain the trial versions of Lightroom and Photoshop. So far, its mostly going well. I've imported a few of the photos from the external drive and they seem to be the edited versions. They also have the filenames I exported them with and I'be been able to do a few basic edits in Lightroom.

One problem I have is that I can't seem to find the keywords that were associated with some of the photos in iPhoto now that I've imported them into LR. As mentioned, I checked the Keyword option when I exported from iPhoto. My trial copies run out in a few days so I'm hoping to resolve this before then.

melissapiccone
Community Expert
melissapicconeCommunity Expert
Community Expert
January 20, 2017

I have failed miserably with keywords, so I can't help you. Maybe they didn't save to the file from iphoto. I manage my images by decade, year, month, event. I know, I have an OK memory. Not ideal, but keywords are not my friends...

Melissa Piccone | Adobe Trainer | Online Courses Author | Fine Artist
    melissapiccone
    Community Expert
    melissapicconeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 4, 2017

    I don't envy you. I literally spent moths getting my stuff out of iPhoto and starting over in LR. I did all chronologically and I used Adobe Bridge to get it done. My photos are organized by decade, year, month and some some months are broken down into events.

    Adobe Bridge saved the day. I had multiple Bridge windows open to see and move the images around. Using Bridge, I could see into the folders and isolate just the images all in a single "location". I used show files in subfolders, then you can select just jpgs to hide the folders... make sense?

    I wasn't able to keep any keywords or adjustments. However, with my organization, keywords aren't critical.

    Melissa Piccone | Adobe Trainer | Online Courses Author | Fine Artist
    radishrog
    radishrogAuthor
    Participant
    January 4, 2017

    Hello Melissa,

    Thanks for taking the time to respond.  I appreciate your experience AND the sympathy!  I feel like I'm missing something though.  Why not use iPhotos export tool to export all of my photos in one massive export to a folder?  In my situation, my only album really is the entire photo library, so it would be one export and I would get my edited photos plus the keywords.  In your situation it would have been exporting the contents of each album.  To my small mind, that seems easier, but I have the sinking feeling that I'm missing something important.

    melissapiccone
    Community Expert
    melissapicconeCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 4, 2017

    I think it's because I already had everything organized the way I wanted it and I didn't want to lose the organization. I moved everything over so it was organized as I moved, instead of organizing later. I had lots of scans and stuff with the wrong dates.

    Melissa Piccone | Adobe Trainer | Online Courses Author | Fine Artist
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