iPhoto is scary, and Lightroom is too much - help!

Try this, http://picasa.google.com/ its free and pretty straight forward. For your purpose, there are many open source/shareware programs around that would be great. I actually watched a review on youtube for a new one that looked similar to aperture with out the develop module... looked great for catologing, if I remember the name I will get back to you.
Ryan

I would love to use Picasa, but it's only for Windows. There is a "Mac Uploader", but then my photos are in the cloud somewhere - not what I was looking for. Or does the Mac Uploader for Picasa do something I'm not aware of?
Thanks.

i will get a crash course on Iphoto at my local apple store... as you said its a pretty simple program well integrated that does all you need and more..just learn how to use it in 1hre : )

So the fact that everything in iPhoto is stored within its own structure, that all photos are duplicated into a 'Modified' directory, the fact that you can't simply rename photos... Is this just how things work because I don't know how to use the program properly? or should I not care about those limitations?

Well, you got what you pay for; a simpe, easy to sue program that doestn permit you to make mistake..or a better one overkill for you liek Ligthroom.

if you ask, i would get Ligthroom eyes close, but you want something easy, Iphoto is then for you..with what you call *limitation*

iPhoto in its latest incarnations (iLife '08) is actually quite capable and much more robust/reliable than earlier versions were. Why are you worrying about file system management? Let it do the job for you. Organize your work with titles, tags, albums and events ... there's no need to manipulate file names until you export from the iPhoto environment to use elsewhere. Yes, there's a learning curve ... go talk to the folks at an Apple Store near you, they have people trained to educate and assist you.

That said, Lightroom is far more capable for the heavy lifting I need in terms of image management and processing. At $300, I find it inexpensive. There is also a learning curve there too ... I'm teaching a course on using Lightroom in March which will focus on aspects of its use beyond the image processing. I've already got 6 people signed up. :-)

Godfrey

Hi Godfrey,
Thanks for the reply. My biggest concern about iPhoto and file naming, etc., is that I have years worth of photos stored offline. I get nervous when I think about my photos from 2002 and finding one that is named "img_0802.jpg", or finding one in a directory that isn't intuitive to me. I like being able to organize my photos by year and month, and then naming all the photos from an event to something meaningful. To me, this insulates me against any new technology that may come up in several years. But I can certainly take a free class at the Apple store, that's not a problem.
As for Lightroom, I only paid $99 for it when it was released, so now I'm on the upgrade path and it would only cost me $99 to upgrade. From what I'm reading about the changes to how it manages offline photos, it might be worth it. But again, it seems like overkill with all the other modules.
- Robin

I'd buy a book or watch some youtube on Lightroom and slugg it out through the learning curve. You already own it and it's the superior choice of anything out there.

I like being able to organize my photos by year and month, and then naming all the photos from an event to something meaningful.

easily doable with Iphoto 08 at least : )