I use iPhoto to import images from my iDevices and the photos go to the iPhoto library folder.
When I import from my DSLR, I place photos in a folder I organize myself by date and events.
I would like to automatically copy the imported photos in iPhoto to my folder so that all my photos can be found in the same place.
Is is possible to launch an automator workflow upon import in order to perform this task?
How to launch an Automator workflow upon import in iPhoto
automatorimportiphoto
Related Solutions
Easy.
- Select all photos in your manually sorted album (e.g. using cmdA)
- Choose
File–Export...from the menu (or hit ⇧cmdE) - Select "Sequential" for File name, and enter a base name (which will be followed by numbers)
- In the next dialog, choose the target folder (e.g. directly on your USB drive). Your photos will be exported there, and sorting them by file name will result in your beloved custom sort order from iPhoto!
In step 3, you might also want to select other options such as picture size and file format – this comes in handy if you don't need the full-resolution versions to be exported.
iPhoto has an internal file storage system where it saves all the photos for the events, albums etc.
You notice this, when you select an event and click "Show in folder". Then you see the whole folder with all the pictures in it.
You should treat events or albums as your folders. You can give them custom names and everything.
What I have done is:
- Import all photos to iPhoto
- Delete original files
- Just work with iPhoto (when I want to see the photos in a folder structure, I can choose "Show in folder".
Note: I have heard that you can have an external file storage for your photos with Apperture. This is iPhoto with more functionality for 200 USD, in case you do a lot of work with iPhoto this might be interesting.
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Best Answer
As you don't seem to use the iPhoto library at all, you should use Image Capture instead. It allows you to put your picture directly in a given folder.
You can also create a "transfer module" with automator which can be set to run after an import using Image Capture with imported pictures as input. Thanks to this, you can create an automator process to arrange them in folder as you want.
Image Capture is also scriptable with AppleScript, you might want to take a look at its dictionary if the GUI or Automator don't provide enough flexibility for you.
If you want your pictures both in iPhoto and in your folder, you can configure the automator process to add them in iPhoto once imported in your folder with Image Capture. Lots of workflow are possible, it depends and what you exactly want to achieve.