The saga of Apple's iPhoto and Google's Picasa with some tests

I got a few interesting comments on my decision to move to Google's Picasa on my MacBook instead of using the newest iPhoto version 9.1.5.

Perhaps the one comment most illustrative of what I like least about the Apple world said that the whole thing was my fault because I had an issue with iPhoto and I couldn't solve the issue.  That is perhaps the best example of Apple thinking that I have seen in a long time.

The same people who think it is my fault because iPhoto 9.1.5 wouldn't run would be the first to rant and rave and blame Microsoft if Microsoft shipped a program which didn't install properly.

Somehow Apple gets a free pass from many of its users no matter what it does.  Unfortunately that just feeds the arrogance that has often been Apple's downfall. However, they have such a big cash cushion now, it is hard to imagine what they would have to do to screw up, but I have been surprised before.

I try to hold Microsoft, Google, and Apple to similar standards.  When they provide software free or otherwise, I expect it to work which includes installing without screwing up my data.

When I have paid money for a piece of software and the company ships me a piece of software to update it, it is reasonable to expect it to work.  I have been around Apple hardware and software for twenty-nine years this month which is the anniversary of my Apple II+ purchase.  September will be the 29th anniversary of the first Apple computer that I sold, so I have seen the good, the great, the bad, and the ugly.

Perhaps what I should have said in my most recent post is that I was a lover of iPhoto until the version that came out last fall, and I was willing to put up with some blemishes, but now I feel like that I have lost a valued tool since it has grown some ugly warts.

In the interest of putting some facts behind my assertion that Picasa is a better piece of software than iPhoto 9.1.5, I decided to once again try to get iPhoto 9.1.5 running.  I tried another repair of the library and actually left that running all night.  In the morning iPhoto was unresponsive so I forced iPhoto to quit and threw the whole iPhoto package in the trash and emptied it.

Next I got out my firewire drive and copied over a small iPhoto library that I was sure had been untouched by the most recent versions of iPhoto. It was around 9 gigs of photos, and I made it the main iPhoto library.

Then from the DVD, I reinstalled iPhoto 9 which came with iLife 11.  Of course I ended up doing all the updates and eventually got to the screen which asked me if I wanted to update the library which I did.  Finally iPhoto 9.1.5 decided to work.

As a bench mark I checked my old dual G5 system downstairs, it has over 50,000 photos in one of several libraries, but of course it is running iPhoto 8.

Having gotten iPhoto 9.1.5 running on my MacBook, I decided to run some tests.  While I tried to make it as fair as possible, Picasa ended up being a little handicapped.   The iPhoto library that I used for the tests has about 2,600 photos in it and came in at a little over 9 gigs.  Picasa because it was managing all the photos on my MacBook which includes several libraries, all my jpeg downloads, and even screen captures had 46,000 photo and over 30 gigs of data.

One of my assertions about the newest versions of iPhoto is that the program is flat out slow. To test that I wanted to see how long it would to take to upload photos.   I have two cameras with me on this trip, my Nikon 3100 and my Sony DSC-HX7V pocket camera.  I formatted both their SDHC cards and drove down to the Roanoke River and then visited a local farmer's market.  From the two spots I got about 50 pictures with each camera and made a couple of movies with the Sony.

When I got back, I set iPhoto to the default Photo application on the MacBook, I did a trial upload of another SDHC card just to check that everything was working.  Then I took one of the SDHC cards from my trip and timed with the stopwatch app on my Droid how long it took for iPhoto to launch and import all the photos on the SDHC card in the USB reader that I plugged into the MacBook.  It took just over 50 seconds to import the 50 photos from the Sony formatted card.

I quit iPhoto and set the default photo application to Picasa, once again did a trial import, and then timed how long it took to launch Picasa and import all fifty photos.  It was less than 30 seconds until completion.

I repeated the tests with HDSC card from my Nikon. It had only 49 photos, but they were larger files.  This time I did Picasa first.  It got the photos from the Nikon formatted card in 35 seconds.  I switched to iPhoto 9.1.5, and it took 53 seconds.

Just out of curiosity, I did the Sony card on my HP I7 laptop.  It took 32 or 33 seconds for the import, but it did take a couple of seconds to click and quit the Sony app that imports my movies.  With that said the times for Picasa were a dead heat on both platforms.

One thing that I did find out in all the changing of settings is that there is a setting in the new iPhoto that allows you go back to using Apple Mail for the default way to email your pictures.  As the next tests show, that is a very good thing.

I set the default picture size to be small and "shared" a photo by email.  With both Picasa and IPhoto set to use Apple Mail, it was a dead heat with both programs coming in at close to 4 seconds.  However, when you change the setting to iPhoto using its own email program and Picasa using Gmail, the results were very different.  Picasa took 3 seconds using Gmail, while iPhoto took 8 seconds using its email program.

Next I tried to run some tests of taking a picture, cropping it, applying an auto enhance, and uploading it from iPhoto to MobileMe Gallery or from Picasa to Picasa web albums.  I thought the tests looked pretty even, then when I tried to quit iPhoto, it told me that it was still updating the gallery.  I gave up trying to come up with a consistent way to see which was faster.   From what I could tell it looked like Picasa took 41 seconds, iPhoto 46 seconds, but again I am not sure iPhoto was finished.

I upload a lot from the iPhoto on my I5 iMac to Picasa web albums.  Of course you have to add something to iPhoto to make that happens since Steve has a holy war going on against Google.  I have long had the perception that it takes much longer to upload from iPhoto on my iMac to Picasa web albums than it does going from Picasa on my Windows I7 laptop to Picasa web albums.

This morning I took the same photo, cropped, auto enhanced, and uploaded to Picasa web albums using the I7 laptop.  It only took 24 seconds seconds and was clearly faster than either program on the MacBook.  Both computers are on the same wireless G class network.  My guess is that the difference was not in the editing but in the uploading.

I tried one more test.  I added some photos to one of the cards I used for the previous day's test and went through the uploading to the library test again except this time, I also tested the Windows laptop using the same external USB reader as I use on the MacBook.  Picasa on the MacBook took 29 seconds to get the photos.  iPhoto on the MacBook took 61 seconds, and the Windows laptop took 50 seconds.  The one caveat is that the way I have the Windows laptop set up, a Sony program launches for an optional import which is what I use for movies so I have to cancel it before Picasa on Windows can do its job.

From my tests I don't think that there is any doubt that Picasa is a faster program on the Mac.  It will remain my choice of a photo program on my MacBook while I will continue to use an earlier version of iPhoto on my iMac for as long as I can get away with it.  I will also continue using Picasa web albums since I believe it is a far better solution for my needs than MobileMe Gallery or its successors.

Your needs might vary, but here are some thoughts beyond speed that have gone into my decision.

Number one, I spent much of the last five years of my nearly twenty years at Apple preaching to enterprise customers that it was a very bad thing to let an application or a vendor hold your data hostage.  The biggest example in the enterprise world is Microsoft Exchange mail which at the time was certainly not standards based.  We preached IMAP which lets you use any standards compliant mail client that you want.

In a certain sense, iPhoto with its libraries also holds your data hostage.  Once you have used a library with a new version of iPhoto there is no turning back.  It there is a problem with the library, you need to have a back-up. I think the iPhoto library is a bad idea.  I like Picasa's method of just finding the jpegs and keeping track of them.  If I have a folder of jpegs, I can take it to a Linux computer, a Mac, or a Windows computer and find something that will look at them just like various email clients will look at an IMAP mail server.  I think we are really fortunate to have a free program like Picasa that to certain extent frees the data in an iPhoto library.  It certainly saved me lots of time when I needed to print some pictures.

What I love with the older versions of iPhoto is that I don't have to do a lot of switching around to get my tasks done.  When I have a batch of photos that need the same adjustments, it is easy to apply those exact same settings. I could click on a photo and click again and be back to the main library. That has all changed in the latest versions whose interface I find dumbed down for lack of a better phrase. iPhoto was a better program than Picasa for editing, but no longer.  It adopted some of the things I don't like about Picasa and added some of its own truly ugly interface changes.

The only thing that I do to my photos is to try to make what I see on the screen look like what I saw when I was taking the picture.  Since I live at the beach and shoot in lots of difficult light, a good auto contrast is worth a lot to me.  Picasa has a very reliable one that works most of the time in a way that gets me close to what eyes and memory caught when I took the picture.  I also like to put a watermark on a photo and sometimes I like to put a frame around it.  Picasa does the watermark easily when I want and with access to Picnik's online services does a better job of framing than what I get using iPhoto and Pixelmator.  I can get the same results with both, it is just easier and faster with the Picasa/Picnik combination as long as you have a fast Internet connection.  I pay $25 a year or so for the enhanced version of Picnik.  I think it is a good value for the money, and certainly a better value than I have gotten out of MobileMe.

Another area where I believe that Picasa is substantially better than iPhoto is the touch up tool.  There are photos where I might want to take a stray branch out of the finished picture.  For many years I would resort to Photoshop for that task, but the touch up tool in Picasa, once you learn how to use it properly, does an exceptional job.  I can't even remember when I have had to resort to Photoshop.  I find that the iPhoto retouch tool does more smudging than anything else.

Another really big point for me is that it is very easy to share a single photo using Picasa web albums. I get the link for sharing, embed it into my blog post, and I am off to the races. I also like that I can choose in Picasa whether to use Gmail or AppleMail to send my pictures by email without going to the preferences.  Of course Picasa syncs automatically to my the photo gallery on my Droid.

I always try to use the best tool for the job.  I have Aperture and have tried Adobe's Lightroom several times, but I don't need their features.  That said, there are days that I take 500 to 1,000 pictures, and it would be a rare day when I don't take fifty or sixty pictures.

I use Nikon, Panasonic, and Sony cameras.  I use Apple, HP, and Dell hardware along with OS X, Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux.  I have Epson, Canon, and HP printers.

Sometimes a different camera lets me see a scene in a different way, and there are tweaks that are better done in one program or the other.  The results are highly subjective.  I still prefer the editing on the iPhoto 8 that I have on my iMac. Sometimes now I use Picnik with it for watermarking and framing.

Your needs are going to vary from mine, but I have given this a lot of thought, applied some tests, and come to the conclusion that Picasa is far better software for my needs than iPhoto 9.1.5.  All the tests were done on my July 2006 Intel MacBook running Snow Leopard.

This settles the issue for me, I might run some more tests when I get home to my I5 iMac just to see how fast it is importing, but I won't be upgrading to iPhoto 9.1.5 ( or LIon for that matter) since the newer iPhoto just doesn't meet my very demanding needs.

This isn't the first time I have had comments about iPhoto and interface changes.  Share has once again moved.

That said I am probably going to need some more Marsh time after all this thinking about computers.

 

 

Comments

[Stevepughcom]

one killer win for picasa is that it tags photo's inside the actual image file, where as iphoto just enters tags into spotlight's database. you can only embed tags from iphoto if you resave or convert the picture which is of course lossy- this is the only way to email a tagged photo from iphoto. obviously if the iphoto library gets corrupted all your hundreds (or thousands) of iphoto tags disappear, where as picasa could just re-read the tags from pictures it had previously tagged. I love iphoto's polish, and many of it's features, but picasa (despite being kinda ugly and having some really clunky elements) was the better choice for me

[AsaWeinstein]

Hate iPhoto 9.1.5. It mangled my library, but fortunately I have had this experience before and backed up my library prior to upgrading it. You're experiences are very similar to mine in that iPhoto 8 was an improvement over previous versions but subsequent versions have been terrible.
Constant library permission repairs, rebuilds etc...wasting huge amounts of time. I too will try Picasa to see if it's an improvement. Thanks for your extensive documentation of your efforts.

Asa

[John Davis]

I have absolutely no problem with iPhoto. It's not slow and it does what it says on the box.

I wonder if it might be your equipment?

Picasa is ghastly.

The GUI is not intuitive at all. It's even worse than Word or Photoshop for complexity. I'm sure that investing time in it might pay off. But since iPhoto does everything I need and it's plenty fast enough and integrates with other Mac apps that I use - Comiclife, Pages, Mail, etc., etc., I see no reason to change it.

[ocracokewaves]

Well as I said in the article, iPhoto 9.1.5 borrows the worst of Picasa and adds some very bad things on its own.

Picasa is not complex. If you are happy with iPhoto stay with it, but back up your libraries regularly. I take a lot of pictures, and the new iPhoto is not the program for me.

It is hard to blame my equipment since Picasa manages 17 times as many photos effortlessly on that very hardware.

Your reasoning is typical Apple thinking, the problem can't be with software that Apple has newly released. The problem is me. What I have is too old or I haven't properly maintained it. I don't buy that. You shouldn't have to have the latest and greatest to manage a library of photos.

I still like iPhoto 8 but iPhoto 9.1.5 is not a good program, and I don't want to trust my photos to it.

[bradisrj]

@ocracokewaves - while I agree that John Davis makes a mistake by generalizing his experience and observations of iPhoto and Picasa, you are betraying your own bias with the comment: "Your reasoning is typical Apple thinking..."

It is typical of people in general to question the observations of others, when their own observations differ. Yes, there is some brand loyalty to Apple that, at times, seems too fervent. This is true of many brands and products across all sorts of tech and non-tech.

For my part, if you leave those assertions out of your blog and subsequent comments, it would be a better read.

[ocracokewaves]

Well if you will notice the masthead, it says "A Salty Perspective on Apple." I don't pretend to be a comprehensive unbiased view of Apple. After nearly twenty years there, I think that is likely impossible, and my goal is to balance the views that Apple can do no wrong.

I try to walk a fine line, but I am human and likely make mistakes. I add commentary which tries to add the views of someone who was insider. I am certain that I often err one way or the other, but many of the comments that I get ask for that insider perspective, and many of the comments that I don't publish cry out for an explanation of their twisted logic.

However, I try to be very impartial in any tests that I do. I use Macintosh, windows, & Linux. I have no vested interest in one or the other, I just try to use the best tool for the job. Right now for Photos it is iPhoto 8 or Picasa but not iPhoto 9.1.5.

Thanks for your perspective.

[bradisrj]

I did note your masthead and made the assumption that it referred to both your home and a "seasoned" perspective on Apple.

I'm certain I err just as much as you and other for a variety of reasons, without every having worked for any software or computer company. My perspective is colored by having been an partial admin and user of multiple platforms and software over 25 years in newspaper, plus personal use.

The information you relay on iPhoto 9.x is instructive and believe me, I'm paying heed. I'm a relatively light user, 2500 photos on my newest computer, a 3 year old MB Pro with iPhoto 6. I have probably 8-10,000 photos archived elsewhere. I'm one of those who doesn't take "enough" pictures, from a family who never did ...

I'll definitely be visiting your site for the "salt" more in the future.

[bradisrj]

One more thing...

I'm one of those who is "concerned" about Google and what it does with personal information. As a result, my practice is to use Google and its properties as little as possible. I imagine my distrust blinds me to useful stuff on occasion.

I share this to illustrate my lack of knowledge regarding Picasa.

[ocracokewaves]

I don't know that I trust Google more than I do Apple. It just happens their tools work for me right now. The integration between Picasa, Picasa Web albums and the Photo Gallery on my Droid is a dream for me.

As to email, I have a dozen different email addresses, only two are Gmail accounts and two are MobileMe. All but one of the dozen is IMAP based so I can use it with any hardware or software.

I regularly use three and sometimes five different browsers. On top of that I have a serious Linux machine with photos on it. I have been using Linux since 2004, and it has made huge strides, but is not quite what I need for every day yet.

Not long ago I came to the conclusion that if you are on the web, you have probably given up your privacy. That said, there is a lot of stuff worth protecting.

Apple's encrypted disk images are one of my favorite ways of protecting stuff that I store on my computers or in the clouds. It is very, very good stuff. I also use a digital signature with one particular email account. It allows me to encrypt emails to people who have the same type of digital ID.

I also use a smart token with PayPal.

Beyond that I keep my head down, stay as far from Cupertino as I can, and keep plenty of gas in the boat out back.

I did run into a really strange problem with Apple a couple of years ago. One of my credit card numbers migrated to another account of mine where I never authorized its use. I alerted Apple, they quickly fixed it, but the incident convinced to start using single use credit card numbers on almost all my web transactions not just Apple's sites.

[venus]

thank you very much for this post and the others on this topic. i grew up on apple (LC2, then PPC, etc), but for the last 8 years I've been living on a Dell running WinXP. I *just* bought myself a new 13in MBP, and am in the process of migrating all the data from the Dell to the Mac. I've been an avid user of Picasa since its early days, mostly as an organizing and uploading tool for my ~35,000 photos. Occasional photoshop use for editing. I was hoping to find a good comparison of iPhoto vs picasa before making the switch. Your posts make me comfortable with the idea of at least trying Picasa (which I have no problem with at all), even though iPhoto is the "native" and pre-installed solution (new MBP has Lion installed). Thanks again.

[Stunsail]

The most interesting comments here have been the caveats that 'you need to keep in mind your own needs'. Here is my main need: organising data - i.e., face tags and geolocation.

I have been using iPhoto for years and have been largely quite happy with it mainly because I have not needed it to liaise with Google services at all.

However, now I have a Google+ account and want to upload my photos, but the "face" tags don't carry over and neither does the geolocation data, both of which I painstakingly add. Whilst Facebook doesn't have geolocation data, at least the "exporter" iPhoto plugin imports the face tags. The Picasa iPhoto uploader plugin doesn't.

I originally thought this might be Google's fault for not writing a decent exporter. Then after reading some other stuff (including the above) I thought maybe it's iPhoto's fault for storing the tag data in a strange way.

But you know what? They're both proprietary companies and it's nobody's fault really. They both have their goals and that's that. Hopefully some geek will write a iPhoto plugin that uploads face tags and geolocation data to Picasa, but until then, I simply have to weigh it up and make a choice. So my decision is that if I find out that Picasa (app not plugin) exports face tags to Facebook, then I'm switching to it. Apple Computer loses out.