Managing Multiple iPhoto Libraries

Summary

This tutorial reveals a lesser-known feature of iPhoto: managing multiple libraries. The speaker demonstrates how to create and switch between libraries, which is particularly useful for organizing photos from specific events or trips without overloading the main library. They explain the benefits of this method, such as improved performance and ease of access, and provide tips on naming conventions for different libraries. The video also touches on the use of Photo Stream with the system library and concludes with an invitation for questions and further engagement.

Takeaways

• 🖼️ The tutorial introduces a method to manage iPhoto libraries by creating multiple libraries for different events or purposes.
• 🔄 To access multiple libraries, hold down the option button while opening iPhoto to bring up the 'Choose Library' dialog.
• 📸 Having multiple libraries is helpful for managing large volumes of photos from various sources without slowing down the main library.
• 🗂️ Each library can be organized by events, such as trips or specific activities, making it easier to find and manage photos related to those events.
• 💾 Libraries can be stored on external hard drives, allowing for additional storage space and organization.
• 🚫 Large libraries can become slow and difficult to manage, which is why creating separate libraries for different events or time periods is recommended.
• 📅 The speaker suggests creating a new library for each major event or starting a new one every year to keep the library sizes manageable.
• 🔑 Naming conventions are important; the main, active library might be named with 'live', while backed-up libraries are named with 'locked' to indicate they are not actively being edited.
• 🔄 The process to create a new library is demonstrated, showing how to use the 'Create New' option after holding down the option key at iPhoto launch.
• 📹 The tutorial also touches on the use of Photo Stream, which syncs the last thousand pictures across devices and only works with the main library.
• 👋 The presenter invites viewers to ask questions in the comments and encourages subscribing to the channel for more content related to children's ministry.

Q & A

What is the main hack discussed in the tutorial?

The main hack discussed is managing multiple iPhoto libraries to keep photos organized and prevent the main library from becoming too large and slow.

How can you access multiple iPhoto libraries?

You can access multiple iPhoto libraries by holding down the option button and clicking on the Photos icon, which will open a dialog to choose a library.

Why might someone want to create multiple libraries in iPhoto?

Creating multiple libraries helps manage large volumes of photos from different events or sources without overloading the main library, making it easier to find and edit specific photos in the future.

How does the size of the main library affect iPhoto's performance?

A main library that gets too big can slow down iPhoto and make it difficult to manage, which is why creating separate libraries for different events or years is recommended.

What is an example of a specific event library created in the tutorial?

An example of a specific event library created is 'Trunk or Treat 2018', which contains photos from a church event where people dressed up and kids went around for candy.

How can you create a new iPhoto library?

To create a new iPhoto library, hold down the option key, click on the Photos icon, and select 'Create New' to set the location and name for the new library.

What naming convention does the speaker use for libraries that are not actively being edited?

The speaker uses the term 'locked' at the end of the library name to indicate that it is a backup and not actively being edited or having photos moved in and out.

How does the tutorial suggest using iPhoto libraries for event promotion?

The tutorial suggests using separate libraries for major events to easily access and promote past events by pulling up the relevant library with all the event photos.

What is the role of Photo Stream in relation to iPhoto libraries?

Photo Stream syncs the last thousand pictures across devices and only works with the system library, not affecting other libraries, and is managed through iPhoto settings under iCloud.

What is the recommended action after each major event according to the tutorial?

After each major event, it is recommended to create a new library for that event to keep photos organized and easily accessible for future use.

Outlines

00:00

📸 Managing Multiple iPhoto Libraries

This tutorial introduces a lesser-known feature of iPhoto: the ability to manage multiple libraries. Typically, iPhoto opens to the last library used, but by holding down the option button while opening, users can access a dialog to choose from multiple libraries. The presenter has various libraries, some stored on an external hard drive. The reason for multiple libraries is to avoid a single, bloated library that becomes slow and difficult to manage. For instance, the presenter has a library for a trip to Yosemite, which includes photos from multiple devices and sources, and another for a specific event like 'Trunk or Treat 2018'. The tutorial suggests creating a new library for major events or each year to keep the library manageable and to easily access photos for future promotions or needs.

05:01

🖼️ Organizing iPhoto Libraries for Events

The second paragraph elaborates on the process of organizing iPhoto libraries, especially for events. It explains how to create a new library by holding down the option key while opening iPhoto and selecting 'Create New'. The presenter advises naming the system library with 'live' to indicate it's the active one and appending 'locked' when a library is backed up to signify it's no longer in use. The tutorial also addresses the use of Photo Stream, which syncs the last thousand pictures across devices and only works with the system library, ensuring it doesn't overload other libraries. The presenter shares an example of creating a library for a 'Kids Blitz' event, emphasizing the ease of accessing specific event photos in the future and encourages viewers to create new libraries for events or annually to keep their photo organization efficient.

Keywords

💡iPhoto Library

iPhoto Library refers to the central database where all the photos and albums are stored in iPhoto, an image organizing and editing software. In the context of the video, the speaker explains how to manage multiple iPhoto libraries to keep the main library from becoming too large and unwieldy. The script mentions opening the iPhoto library and the option to have multiple libraries for different events or collections of photos.

💡Multiple Libraries

Multiple Libraries is a concept where a user can create and manage more than one iPhoto library. This is useful for organizing photos from different events or time periods separately, which helps in managing large volumes of photos efficiently. The video script illustrates this by showing how to create new libraries for different events like 'Trunk or Treat 2018' or 'Nerf Wars'.

💡Command + Option

Command + Option is a keyboard shortcut combination used in the script to open a dialog box that allows the user to choose between multiple iPhoto libraries. This shortcut is a key part of the tutorial, as it demonstrates how to access the option to create or select different libraries within the iPhoto application.

💡External Hard Drive

An External Hard Drive is a portable storage device that can be used to store iPhoto libraries. In the video, the speaker mentions having some libraries on an external hard drive, which allows for additional storage space and the ability to keep large libraries without cluttering the main computer's storage.

💡Albums

Albums in iPhoto are collections of photos grouped together, usually based on a theme, event, or time period. The script discusses how albums can be created within each library to further organize photos, such as separating photos by device type or event within a trip to Yosemite.

💡Library Management

Library Management in the context of the video refers to the process of organizing and maintaining iPhoto libraries. This includes creating new libraries, renaming them for clarity, and archiving them for backup. The video emphasizes the importance of managing libraries to ensure the software runs efficiently and to facilitate easy access to photos in the future.

💡Event-Specific Libraries

Event-Specific Libraries are iPhoto libraries created for a particular event or occasion. The video script provides examples such as 'Trunk or Treat 2018' and 'Nerf Wars', where the speaker created separate libraries to store all the photos related to those events. This approach helps in keeping the main library organized and makes it easier to find specific photos later.

💡Photo Stream

Photo Stream is a feature that syncs the last thousand photos across all devices using the same iPhoto library. The video mentions that Photo Stream only works with the main or 'system' library and not with multiple libraries. This is important for users who want to keep their most recent photos synced across devices without overloading all their libraries.

💡Highlight Video

A Highlight Video is a compilation of selected photos or video clips that showcase the best moments of an event. The script mentions creating a highlight video from the Yosemite trip, where the speaker sorted and organized photos from different devices into favorites for this purpose. This illustrates how multiple libraries can be used to manage and select content for specific projects.

💡Locked Library

A Locked Library in the video refers to an iPhoto library that is no longer being actively edited or updated. The speaker mentions adding the word 'locked' to the library name to indicate that it is a static backup and not to be used for current photo management. This helps in distinguishing between active and archived libraries.

Highlights

Introduction to managing iPhoto libraries by creating multiple libraries.

Demonstration of how to open multiple libraries in iPhoto by holding the option button.

Explanation of the benefits of having multiple libraries for organization and performance.

Example of a Yosemite trip library with photos from multiple devices and sources.

Strategy for managing large events by creating separate libraries to avoid slowing down the main library.

Tutorial on creating a new library in iPhoto for a specific event or year.

How to name and organize libraries for easy identification and access.

Use case of a 'Trunk or Treat 2018' library for a church event with a large number of photos.

Advantage of having a separate library for promotional material, like Nerf War photos.

Step-by-step guide on creating a new library and adding photos to it.

Discussion on how Photo Stream works with the system library and not with multiple libraries.

Practical tip for creating a new library for each major event or each year to keep the main library manageable.

Recommendation to name the main, active library with 'live' and backup libraries with 'locked'.

Case study of a 'Gingerbread Hunt' library with photos from a specific weekend event.

Encouragement for viewers to create new libraries for better event promotion and photo management.

Invitation for viewers to ask questions in the comments and to subscribe for more content.

Transcripts

hey everybody

and welcome to a quick tutorial

on iphoto library management all right

this is a little hack that a lot of

people don't know now when you open up

iphoto you just click on it obviously it

opens up to your library

and you'll have all your albums over

here and everything

and what a lot of people don't know is

you can have multiple

libraries so i'm just going to command

quit this

and show you how to do this and why it

is so

helpful you hold down the option button

and my finger's on the button and then

you click

photos and what's going to open up is

this dialog

that says choose libraries you can see i

have a lot of libraries here now

some of these are on an external hard

drive if they are

they won't all appear sometimes you have

to actually navigate to

an external hard drive let's see if i've

got one attached there we go

and you'll see i've got some more

libraries on here but most recent ones

or ones it finds quickly

will be on here now why do i have all

these libraries well

let's take for example one of my most

recent ones i think i have a trip to

yosemite here

and we'll open up this library now the

reason

is that i took lots of pictures

on multiple days you can see over here

with multiple devices

i also collected pictures from my friend

pat who went

my friend matt who went on this trip to

yosemite

and i also wanted to sort what was from

my iphone what was from the gopro what

was from the sony

uh my iphone my osmo dji osmo

and then sort of into favorites that's

going to be for

making a highlight video now the reason

is if i put all of these

into my main library your library can

get

really big all right and once your

library gets too big it gets

slow and it gets hard to manage so

what i will do is if i have an event

like trunk or treat 2018 let me open

this one

this would be an event that we did a

couple of years ago

um and it's just a really fun event you

know with at our church with

you know people dressing up there's me

and my unicycle

and people decorated cars and kids went

around and got candy and stuff

and i collect all kinds of pictures

from different types of people people

send me in

i edit them and i crop them well there's

a lot of pictures so

let's see there's a total in this album

does it tell me how many it does

somewhere i think i'm just done the

wrong let me click on one

and it'll say yeah this is picture 424

of 669 photos well that's a lot of

photos

to load into my um iphoto library that

really after that event i don't need

them

um but some days in the future i'll be

asked hey do you have some pictures

from the nerf wars because we're going

to do a promotion i can open my nerf

wars

library and obviously these are updating

because i haven't

used a lot of these libraries in a while

so obviously it had to do an update so

i'm going to resave what i said before

so you know there's a lot of pictures

here so in this album

there's 200 pictures it's not a lot but

it's all for one

event and so some days in the future you

know

um i may go you know what i want some of

those nerf war uh

photos for promoting um you know our

next nerf war well instead of going

digging through tens of thousands of

photos

i can just go onto my hard drive pull up

this old library

and there is all of my nerf pictures

from the past so i do this for

for all of my major events all right

so um here's wind river range uh our

extravaganza our gingerbread

hunt so now you're probably wondering

well how

do you do that so i'm going to show you

how you do it so

hopefully you get the why it just makes

these big buckets

that you can use to promote your events

save your

pictures have easy access to access to

them

in the future now here's how you do it

all right again you're gonna hold down

option and the photos icon will bounce

and then when it bounces you're gonna

hit uh create

new library all right so you're gonna

hit create new

and then you're gonna decide where do

you want do you wanna in your pictures

uh do you wanna on an external drive and

so i'll literally make a new

library up here and i'll be demo

um libraries what i'll call this one

and then i hit ok and now i have a brand

new

iphoto and so if i wanted i can take

this picture

which i just used on the wallpaper

earlier and there's my picture

i can put it in albums this is not a

tutorial on how to use iphoto

but how to have multiple libraries now

remember it's always going to open if

you just click

it's always going to open to the last

library that you

open so if you're working on a project

you'll notice that

i think on my laptop i do this i usually

name

my system library that's this my main

one

with the word live but that's on my main

computer and then that way i always know

that's the live one i'm editing

if i back up a library to a hard drive i

i

change the name with the word locked at

the end so i know i'm no longer editing

or moving pictures in and out it is just

a locked

um library and it's primarily just for

backup

purposes so um so yeah here's uh

here's another library just with we did

a gingerbread event

and um and so it's got some other

ministry pictures in it as well

um that from that weekend because i

imported all my pictures

from that weekend so hopefully this is

helpful to you i would encourage you

every time you have a major event um go

ahead

and create a new library for that event

you also can just create a new library

each year

starting in january if your library is

getting cumbersome and huge

uh name it the year that it is

and you can just start a new library

every year

now if you use photostream which i love

syncs your last thousand

pictures across your devices that only

works with the system library

um and that is turned on in your iphoto

settings um under icloud so

um you don't have to worry about you

know photo stream

loading a thousand pictures into all of

your libraries that will only do it

in that main event so here's an awesome

event we had we brought in kids blitz to

our church and and we had a blast and i

wanted to make a highlight video

and so uh what's i here it looks like i

just have

oh and here's all the videos um so i

didn't make a lot of folders for that

event but

anyway hopefully this is helpful to you

thanks for watching

if you have any questions go ahead and

throw them in the comments

if you haven't please subscribe to this

channel

and check out kidology.org for lots of

help

for those in children's ministry alright

talk to you later bye