ICloud – Why use iPhoto instead of manually saving images

icloudimage captureiphoto

I would like to know whether there are any advantages to using iPhoto on Mac for my pictures taken on my iPhone. For the past few years I have simply exported all images via Image Capture which stores the actual file to a location on my hard drive. Recently I have had to use iPhoto to get images off an iCloud shared stream, I have noticed when importing the images it saves into one file (almost like a database) instead of individual JPEG files.

Can someone tell me whether what pros and cons are there to using iPhoto instead of manually saving images?

Best Answer

Most things you can do in iPhoto you can do in Preview and Finder, except a lot slower. Organization in iPhoto is more powerful than simply using a file system.

  • You can sort:
    • by Event
    • by Location
    • by Person via facial recognition
  • Arrange into albums (Unlike folders, photos can reside within multiple albums.)
  • Shows extra metadata, such as:
    • Stars
    • Camera and settings used
    • Map position
  • Allows basic image touch ups:
    • Color-grading
    • Auto touchup (really hand, fast and convenient)
    • Built in "straighten" function (also very useful)
    • Auto-enhance
    • Automatically retains "originals" in case you want to revert an edit
  • Manages Facebook and Flickr albums