Comments on: CyberNotes: iPhoto vs. Windows Photo Gallery

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:22:25 +0000

“Familiarity with one tool doesn’t negate usefulness of another tool.”
Amen. A longtime mac user I find myself using more winxp system due to changes. Its a little frustrating to make a windows system cough up ‘where are my files’ when the Mac has them all right there. (Yes my comment is the exact opposite of the complaint about control cited in the original article. Funny how perspective and familiarity bias opinions.)

I use the iLife suite but for platform migration issues I have to find Win7 replacements for what I can do now without thinking. That’s what brought me here. Thanks for all your comments!

By: Sam

Sam — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 16:13:06 +0000

Sorry to disagree but I switched to Mac Dec 2009 and I way prefer windows to iphoto. Iphoto wants to make all my decisions for me..in the way of organizing. I want my photos in folders by year, month, then the name of the activity etc… iphoto wants to organize them for me and changes the dates if I change or add a photo of a different date. Plus, if I make exposure improvements etc to the photos it keeps the original in a file and the improved photo in a file. I dont need both of them. And, my biggest complaint is that I have the fastest and newest computer Mac sells but it takes over 3 mintues for iphoto to startup because evidently I have too many photos for it to handle. I have the exact file of photos on my PC at work and it is four years old and it opens immediately.

By: Michiel

Michiel — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 21:27:54 +0000

I think this article is about another iPhoto from another planet because in the iPhoto i use i can do the things these people apparently can’t. For Windows-people it makes sense to leave all your pictures scattered throughout your harddrives, making you forget where they are when you want to backup them all together. On a Mac they are all organized in one place.
Besides… These people dont know the difference between ‘memory’ and ‘space on my harddrive’. Importing is the ‘only way’ ? Not able to drag and drop ? Not the thing windowies are used to but then again; you are power-users, right ? Power-users with the enclosure permanently detached because the wires fall apart every now and then !
Bad article.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 18:27:20 +0000

I work in software development – primarily Windows programs. However, a few of our titles are published for Mac’s as well. I work on both platforms and the debate I see on this thread is the exact same argument I see expressed in my company every day. When you use Windows, you buy into a very particular work-flow philosophy that encompasses everything you do. And the same is true for Mac’s.

So whenever some one who is conversant with one philosophy attempts to use a program embedded in another philosophy, they are going to feel discombobulated. But many choose not to recognize the feeling for what it is and instead insist the unfamiliar computing platform is the problem.

Both Iphoto and Photo Gallery work well – both allow you to organize and edit your photos. Iphoto has more bells and whistles. The suggestion that you lack control in Iphoto is a very old complaint that Window users have about Macs. It has absolutely no basis in fact. What the reviewer is saying is “Since I don’t understand low level control in Macs as well as I understand low level control in Windows, it must follow that low level control in Mac’s does not exist.”

Mac vs Windows = jigsaw vs circular saw. Familiarity with one tool doesn’t negate the usefulness of another tool.

By: Roberta

Roberta — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:40:16 +0000

Are you sending directly or using an email program? Mail has a not-very-obvious selector at the bottom of the message pane that lets you select the size of the attachment. Often the default is set to Small. Set it to Actual Size.

Your email is the likely culprit here.

See [discussions.apple.com] for discussion.

By: rfinell

rfinell — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:09:43 +0000

You can name photos in iPhoto anything you want …and you can do so quite easily. You can also rate them, assign them key words. Group them into albums and easily create “smart” albums (ie. all photos containing the key word “dog”, taken on or before May 12 1999, and rated 5 stars) Both programs iPhoto and Photo Gallery are designed novices and both offer basic editing tools. If you use a PC, Windows Photo Gallery works just fine. Afterall, Microsoft designed it to compete with iPhoto. Personally, I’m convinced Windows Photo Gallery has the edge. Still, if I had to teach my Grandmother how to use one or the other, the “Mac” way of doing things wins hands down. There are, of course, plenty of software programs for the more serious photo archivist; Picassa and ACDSee 8 come to mind.

By: Barbara

Barbara — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:01:11 +0000

I have recently started experimenting with iphotos on my first apple computer. I rather like it’s features and being no expert haven’t had a problem using it.

However, I do have a serious problem when sending a photo from the mac to a windows PC. I can’t open it fully on the windows system – it’s tiny. I have the same photo on both systems approx size 3400 x 2400 pixs yet when I email it as an attachment in plain text it says it’s only 340 x 240 approx. What’s that about? Am I missing something obvious? At the moment I have no option but to use windows for my pictures as the iphoto isn’t doing what I want – which is a shame as I quite like it.

Does anyone know how I get over this problem? Please bear in mind I am new to this and NOT a techno wizard like some of you above. Many thanks

By: Barbara

Barbara — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:56:54 +0000

I am a recent user of iphoto. I like it and use folders. My problem is sending a photo as an attachment to our computer which uses a windows system. The same photo is on both computers and the pixel sizes are the same on both computers. But when I send from my snow leopard mac to windows vista it goes from 3200 x 2400 pixs (approx) to 320 x 240. I don’t understand. What’s happening in transmission to shrink it?

I have learned, by reading on the forums, to use plain text in the email to get it as an attachment, but why doesn’t it open in full size on the other windows computer in the house?

It must be something very obvious but I can’t seem to find out what. AT the moment I am having to send pictures via windows which is a bit of a shame considering I’m now getting used to iphoto. Any help is much appreciated.

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 00:11:07 +0000

I think these comments are quite biased towards Windows Gallery. If you haven’t used iPhoto before you cannot compare. iPhoto by far has way more advanced features in editing and organizing photos. iPhoto purposely moves photos into a library so that they are not accidental erased. iPhoto 09 has advanced software such as face recognition, map creation, and more. I have yet to find any photo program that is comparable for the pricing of iPhoto (more or less free).

What they say is true once you go mac, you don’t go back…while Windows 7 has come a long way for PC, Mac still supersedes PC.

Until next time…until you’ve really played with iPhoto, you can’t complain about it.

By: holmenp

holmenp — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:41:22 +0000

Hi,

I am very new to MAC. I am taking plenty of pictures and like to keep them in folders.

I am a Nikon man and use Nikon Transfer to import my RAW pictures into my own specified folders and with my own specified name. I use View NX to quickly view my pictures and then delete the obvious blunders. Then I do a batch process and convert all of the remaining images into Jpeg format. I have then been using Windows Photo Gallery to browse through, organize in different folders and crop. When I get a real nicer image, I will open up the RAW file of that Image in Capture NX and do the necessary enhancement there.

I now have all the Nikon sw installed on my MAC, but i am missing the easy to use features that I am used to in Windows Photo Gallery. I will never change my way of working. I do not like the idea of importing all the images into iPhoto. Is there a simple photo editor like Windows Photo Gallery available for MAC. I only need to open the picture, delete, zoom, crop and save. If only View NX had a crop function for JPEG, I would have been ok.

Please help

Per