Use iPhoto to Fill Your Lightroom Library
If you're ready to start playing with Lightroom, you can tap your iPhoto library to provide the source material. It's really simple, and you have plenty of options along the way.
Open Lightroom and click on the Library module. Go to the File menu and choose Import... You'll be greeted with a dialog box that lets you navigate to your iPhoto library, where all of your images are stored. I recommend that you go down another level, to your Originals folder, so you can grab the images as they were recorded by your camera.
If you have an extensive iPhoto library, you might not want to import all of the pictures at once. An option is to import by year, starting with the one that has the fewest images. As you get confidence with the process, you can add subsequent years.
Once you've indicated while folder you want to import. Lightroom will present you with another dialog box where you have a major decision to make: how are you going to handle those iPhoto files? Your options in the "File Handling" popup menu are:
- Reference files in existing location - here, Lightroom will simply refer to the pictures in your iPhoto Originals library, but store any changes you make in its own library structure.
- Copy files to Lightroom Library - Lightroom will do exactly what it says here... make copies of all those pictures and store them in its own library. You'll now have the same shots in two locations on your hard drive.
- Move files to Lightroom Library - Stay away from this one! Never, under any circumstance, move pictures out of your iPhoto Library.
- Copy photos as Digital Negative (DNG) - I would only consider this option if the originals you're importing are RAW files, otherwise, I'd leave Jpegs as Jpegs.
You have other options in this menu, such as if you want the imported folders labeled by date or iPhoto roll number, and you can add IPTC data too. If you care to add keywords, Lightroom enables that in the Keywords field.
No matter which choices you make, you can start using Lightroom today, with images you already have stored in iPhoto.
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I have been having problems importing and old iPhoto library (iPhoto 6, I think on panther) onto a MAcBook Pro's iPhoto (latest version).
I tried everything: copy original library to an external hard drive, go to the new MAc and replace the empty iPhoto Library with the old one, open iPhoto and "update library" (or "rebuild", I forgot the term they use when you open it for the first time with tghe old structure, when I go to iPhoto Library>show package contents the library is messed up with folders such as "2003_01" (copies of some folders by year and some pictures are split into original folder and the copy, if I had 10 pictures on "September 2003", now I'd have maybe 4 photos in "September 2003" and 6 photos in "September 2003_01"... I tried "exporting" the library from the old one onto the hard drive, just the picture flders by year ("file > export") then importing the pictures to the new Mac's empty iPhoto ("file">"import"), iPhoo shows all pictures as an event from 1970.
This has made me so mad, that I've stopped taking pictures until I can figure this out... and I don;t want to use stupid iPHoto anymore...
So, my question, if I import my iPhoto Library pictures into LightRoom, will the pictures be organized by date (year, month, etc.) automaticall or am I going to have to import a chunck of pictures and go back and create separate folders in Lightroom's library?
Please advise.
:(
Thanks, Ryan! I'm not sure how to 'watch' a folder, but creating an alias worked like a charm.
I've found a workaround for this one. It seems iPhoto 7 has changed the iPhoto folder into a package instead of just a folder. What I've done is this:
-Right click on your iPhoto Library and choose "Show Package Contents"
-Right click your "Originals" folder and choose "Make Alias"
-Move this alias wherever you'd like. In my case I've put it in my Pictures folder in my User directory and renamed it to "iPhoto Originals."
When I import in Lightroom I simply choose this folder. To keep them synced I set this as a watched folder.
Hope this helps!
Since I updated my iPhoto to version 7 new imports in the iPhoto library can't be imported into lightroom anymore.
I have several questions, though none of the below were answered either, so I'm wondering whether you're answering!
- Same question as steve, "if you want to use iPhoto and Lightroom in parallel, do you have suggestions for keeping your library in sync once you've imported an iPhoto library into Lightroom the first time?"
- is there any way to import the keywords, albums, and smart albums from iPhoto?
thanks ...
Alan
can you copy files to lightroom and have the library reside in an external drive?
This page is the top hit when searching for "iPhoto Lightroom" on Google.
However this is nothing other than just importing the files, the fact that you are using a folder structure created iPhoto is irrelevant, anyone could do that. You don't get any of the keywords, comments or ratings that you may have invested much time maintaining.
This post has nothing to do with iPhoto, you are just importing files from your HD and you may as well just import everything it your Pictures directory.
The fact that Adobe have not provided a proper import function, like the one that iView Mediapro has is just appalling. What makes it worse is that Lightroom doesn't have any proper applescript functions, so I'm going to have to create some GUI scripted monster to get my iPhoto library into Lightroom.
I'm sure, however, that it will be worth it.
My understanding is for "modifying" images, you need to have one application be your primary one. Lightroom is a non-destructive editor, so it won't overwrite your original files, just hook XML data to them.
You can have Lightroom, iPhoto, and Aperture read all the same files using the "referenced" approach to file management. But iPhoto isn't going to be able to read the image edits you make in Lightroom, only the master file.
I got the same question as to what Steve is asking. If I was to modify a photo in Lightroom, how can I get Lightroom to save changes by overwriting the file as opposed to saving changes in its own library structure?
If you want to use iPhoto and Lightroom in parallel, do you have suggestions
for keeping your library in sync once you've imported an iPhoto library
into Lightroom the first time?