I feel silly asking this but I've been trying to think this through and make sense of it and the process is frying my feeble brain so please help!


I have about 16,000 picts in iPhoto since I went digital. I understand that Lightroom is basically where you'd place your library of pictures, sort, and edit and then it can be exported to PS if further enhancements are necessary. So it can replace iPhoto right?

I really like using iPhoto for 2 reasons. First and foremost I'm used to it. Second, I like that it archives my pictures separated by roll #'s and by date/event since most of my pictures are of my family and documenting their lives.

So my question is this, does it makes sense that I keep all my photos in iPhoto as I always have and just separate my jobs by albums and import only these in Lightroom– once I'm done editing in LR I can export into a folder (I have monthly folders assigned for my edits) and then I can either keep it in LR or erase the job once I'm done? What would be the downfall of my little system?

Thanks for any and all replies.

anyone?

If you use both program you will be basically duplicating efforts. Lightroom is design to be a centralized hub for your workflow.

In iPhoto, everytime you import a image it creates a "film roll" for just that image, so the way iphoto organizes its import is very confusing as it does not has any realtion to reality. I personally never liked the way iphoto organizes internally its stuff.

In LR you can import and organize your shoots anyway you want. You can organize them by date, or by folder name, or any other way you can think up.

With LR the only use I have for iphoto is for slide shows, calendars, books, etc, but not for organizing images. Aperture or Lightroom are much better for that and for processing photos.

Hope that helps you...