Mac users (iphoto question)

[DawnM]

I am so frustrated. I must be doing something wrong.

I have tons of older photos on my PC. I thought that if I uploaded photos to either Flickr or Picassa I could then have them on the web and download them to iphoto from those.

it isn't working! When I download them from Flickr or PicassaWeb they are blurry and distorted.

What am I doing wrong?

I want to get these photos on to my Mac as I am trying to transition all my photos and photo editing on my Mac (and probably getting Aperture.)

HELP!,

Thanks,

Dawn

 

[Shutterbug]

just a few questions..are you downloading the original size one?

Whats the resolution size?

Have you brought the pics up in Preview? do they look distorted there too?

 

[DawnM]

Yes.

Dawn

just a question..are you downloading the original size one?

 

[Shutterbug]

When you say distorted? how so?

 

[DawnM]

Completely blurry and somewhat pixilated.

If I could figure out how to post the two pics here as an example I would.

Dawn

When you say distorted? how so?

 

[Shutterbug]

What resolution is the pic you are trying to open in Iphoto?

 

[DawnM]

they vary. some are from early 2000 when my kids were born until now and those are taken with an older camera, 4.2 megapixel.

Last year I finally upgraded and those are mostly in RAW.

It doesn't matter which one, the results are the same.

We are not downsizing any of the photos before loading them.

Dawn

What resolution is the pic you are trying to open in Iphoto?

 

[DawnM]

Ok, in further looking at the picture, if I keep it really tiny, 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch, it is fine.....when I click on it to see it larger, it distorts and pixilates. This can't be the only way I can see the photos.....I need them larger!

Dawn

 

[Shutterbug]

Have you tried opening a photo in Preview and see how they look?

 

[TinksDH]

Do you have a Flickr Pro account? If not, I believe that the images you upload get resized to a smaller image size, so when you download them, they are smaller.

Also, how are you downloading? If you just right click on image and do a "save as", all you get are the thumbnails. You need to click on the image, select "All Sizes", click on the largest size available and then select the download link just above the picture.


Hope this helps!

 

[DawnM]

You mean while in Flickr?

I will play with it.

Dawn

Have you tried opening a photo in Preview and see how they look?

 

[DawnM]

I DO have a Flickr Pro account!

It must be saving in thumbnail anyway as that would make the most sense.

I will try clicking on the image.

Does this mean I need to download photos one at a time? I think I was doing batches. I have thousands of photos.....yikes.

Dawn

Do you have a Flickr Pro account? If not, I believe that the images you upload get resized to a smaller image size, so when you download them, they are smaller.

Also, how are you downloading? If you just right click on image and do a "save as", all you get are the thumbnails. You need to click on the image, select "All Sizes", click on the largest size available and then select the download link just above the picture.


Hope this helps!

 

[DawnM]

Thank you both! I will play around with your suggestions tomorrow and see if I can figure this out.

Dawn

 

[disneyboy2003]

Do you have a Flickr Pro account? If not, I believe that the images you upload get resized to a smaller image size, so when you download them, they are smaller.

Also, how are you downloading? If you just right click on image and do a "save as", all you get are the thumbnails. You need to click on the image, select "All Sizes", click on the largest size available and then select the download link just above the picture.


Hope this helps!

TinksDH is right. In your Flickr account, click on one of the photos in your Photostream.

At the top of the photo, there should be one button that says "ALL SIZES". Click that button.

At the top of the next page, there should be several different sizes for viewing your photo: Square, Thumbnail, Small, Medium, Large, and Original. Also, under each of these choices, Flickr shows the dimensions for each of these photos.

Click "Original" to view the original-sized photo. From there, you can right-click-save the photo (or do the Mac equivalent of this).

Unfortunately, you will have to do this for each photo individually, one by one. I don't think Flickr has a way for you to download a batch (or a bunch) of photos all at once. Here's what Flickr has to say on their FAQ (http://www.flickr.com/help/photos/#91):

On your own photos, you will always see the "All Sizes" button and the original is available with a pro subscription. There is not a batch download option but you can have a CD made from QOOP.​

Downloading photos 1 by 1 from your PC to Flickr to your Mac is probably the most difficult and most time-consuming way of transferring photos.

Do you still have your PC and are your photos still on your PC? There are a couple easier things you can try. If you have an external hard drive (ex. a USB hard drive), you can plug the USB hard drive to your PC, move all your photos from the PC onto the USB hard drive, unplug the drive from your PC and plug it into the Mac, and then move the photos from the drive onto your Mac.

Or, on your PC, you can burn a DVD of all your photos, and then insert the DVD into your Mac, and move the photos onto your Mac from there.

You can do a quick Google search for "transfer photos from pc to mac". There are tons of folks who have previously gone through the same thing.

I'd probably go with the USB/external hard drive. You can buy these for less than $100. See if that helps.

 

[Shutterbug]

Thing is though, the OP said she did download the original size.

 

[DawnM]

Thank you!

I was so exhausted last night I couldn't think about it anymore.

I am up and will start some playing around today.

This is happening in Flickr and Picassa, but I see I did save thumbnails.

I DO have a DVD of some of the photos but for some reason, my Mac isn't reading them when I put the DVD in. I have no idea why. I do still have all the photos saved on my PC though, so they aren't lost.

This whole Mac thing is new for us and so far I really like it and would like to actually get a Mac desktop at some point.

I don't HAVE to get all my photos into iphoto if it won't work, I can just keep them on my online accounts, but I thought if it were possible, I like iphoto and would like them there for sorting purposes (face recognition, etc...), plus I like having all my photos in one place and not scattered like they are.

I love photography and did it a lot before digital came around, but the computer end of it confuses me! My 12 year old is almost at the point of being able to help me figure this all out! They are growing up in such a different world than we did!

Thank you all and I may have more questions as I continue to try this.

Dawn

 

[handicap18]

Thank you!

I was so exhausted last night I couldn't think about it anymore.

I am up and will start some playing around today.

This is happening in Flickr and Picassa, but I see I did save thumbnails.

I DO have a DVD of some of the photos but for some reason, my Mac isn't reading them when I put the DVD in. I have no idea why. I do still have all the photos saved on my PC though, so they aren't lost.

This whole Mac thing is new for us and so far I really like it and would like to actually get a Mac desktop at some point.

I don't HAVE to get all my photos into iphoto if it won't work, I can just keep them on my online accounts, but I thought if it were possible, I like iphoto and would like them there for sorting purposes (face recognition, etc...), plus I like having all my photos in one place and not scattered like they are.

I love photography and did it a lot before digital came around, but the computer end of it confuses me! My 12 year old is almost at the point of being able to help me figure this all out! They are growing up in such a different world than we did!

Thank you all and I may have more questions as I continue to try this.

Dawn

External Hard drive. Best way to transfer pictures. Make sure the one you get works for both PC and Mac.

I have a 500GB Simpletec HD that I used with my PC. I have every one of my images backed up there. I unplugged it from my PC and plugged it into my iMac and had NO problems. The Mac read every image. So I transferred them to my Mac's hard drive so that I can then back them up again with Carbonite.com.

Its a lot faster than downloading them one by one from flickr.

 

[DawnM]

Thank you. We do need to look into getting something like this ASAP.

I was finally able to download pics one by one from PicassaWeb. So far I am only focusing on the ones I want right now.....will worry about the rest later.

Dawn

External Hard drive. Best way to transfer pictures. Make sure the one you get works for both PC and Mac.

I have a 500GB Simpletec HD that I used with my PC. I have every one of my images backed up there. I unplugged it from my PC and plugged it into my iMac and had NO problems. The Mac read every image. So I transferred them to my Mac's hard drive so that I can then back them up again with Carbonite.com.

Its a lot faster than downloading them one by one from flickr.