About 12 months ago in New Photos, iView Media vs iPhoto I wrote about switching from iPhoto to iView Media Pro (v 1.5.7) for cataloguing my photos. That post was also published on my blog now called Oddity 59 where a reader has asked for a follow-up.
Several things have changed in the last 12 months. I now have a 1.5Ghz Powerbook with OS X 10.4.3, and iView is up to version 3.0.1. In 2005 I took about 1400 photos. My total library (1997 to 2006) stands at about 5,600 photos. This doesn’t count the 50 or so shots from my cellphone. I take the best shots each month or so and add them to an iPhoto library which I then set as constantly changing desktop slideshow. iView, which was already an excellent application, continues to gain improvements with each upgrade.
Image Capture opens iView for me when I insert my media card and I hide all current photos in the catalog. I’ve set up a template to add information such as my name and contact details into each photo’s meta information as its being imported. After import I eject the card and then watch a quick slideshow of all the new photos. Then I go through and add further keywords and categories, names of people, and label any shots I particularly like with the colour red.
I never use iView’s built-in image editing features, preferring to use Photoshop for that, but sometimes I export smaller versions for sending to my blog or emailing to friends, rather than opening ImageReady.
In the last few days I’ve pulled out all my best photos from each year, using iView’s multiple options for selecting photos, and added them into another separate catalogue (of 75 photos) so I can more easily focus on them for a new project. Within this catalogue I’ve also rated some of the photos with stars. I want to choose one or maybe two for getting put onto canvas — an expensive proposition, but with the right photo it can have magical results.
I must say that iView can do still more that I haven’t yet explored, but it’s an entirely different product than iPhoto. Both offer some cataloguing, a little photo editing, some rating and keywords, but iView’s power and abilities put it into an entirely different class. It can do so much more and with so much more flexibility. Above all, I love that I can put my photos where I like and not have them shunted off into folders within folders within folders. I favour a pretty flat hierarchy of one folder per year, within an overall photos folder. That’s it.
I think iPhoto is fine for many people. I have several friends who just want to take a few photos when they go on holiday and then choose a few of the best and send them to friends. iPhoto is perfect for what they want to do. However, if you want to make the most of your digital camera, take masses of photos, easily be able to find and sort them, pull some out for editing or further viewing then I think iView is far better choice. It costs quite a bit (especially when compared to iPhoto’s free), but in this case you most definitely get what you pay for.
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Thank you for your thoughts on this photo program. I feel I am outgrowing iPhoto, and was looking forward to the new upgrade. But now that iPhoto ’06 is here, I am disappointed in the improvements.
I will definitely check into iView, and also I am excited to work in the new Adobe beta for Lightroom.
Thanks again for your thoughts in both of your articles!
debbie T
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