IPhoto keeps automatically shrinking my photos?

Importing your photos to iPhoto should not actually edit, compress or change the photo files in any way. It merely copies your photos to a specified place on your Mac’s hard drive, and creates a thumbnail of the photo.

One possibility is that you are accessing the thumbnails that iPhoto creats rather than the actual file. How are you accessing the files?

If you want to stop iPhoto from opening automatically every time you connect your camera, go to iPhoto in the top menu, then Preferences. Under “Connecting camera opens:” select “No application.”

I normally pull them up from the upload page on Facebook. When I upload them to Facebook, it downsizes them a lot. But when I upload something that is not from iPhoto, the picture size/quality is fine.

It’s possible that you are uploading the thumbnails, not the actual photos. How do you navigate to the photo files that you want to upload when you are at the Facebook upload page?

You can also use a small program on your Mac called “image capture” to transfer images to a folder. Most ppl don’t even know the program is there.

@netgrrl – Yup, Image Capture is a good, lightweight program as well. @lawlipop, if you want to use that instead, go to “Connecting Camera Opens:” in iPhoto’s preferences and select Image Capture.

@xxii I went to the iPhoto preferences and clicked “Connecting Camera Opens.” All that came up was iPhoto, or no application. Image Capture was not an option.

I do not have the newest version of the Macbook, so can I just download the program? Or is that not an option?

@netgrrl Feel free to answer this question as well.

@lawlipop – Is there an Image Capture application in your Applications folder?

@xxii I looked, and there’s not. So, is the program downloadable?

@lawlipop – I’m still looking for download locations; haven’t had any luck but I will post if I find something.

@xxii Alright, thanks.

@lawlipop – Everything I’ve found says that there’s no way to download or reinstall Image Capture, save getting out the install discs and re-installing OSX all over again. There is an application you can download that will allow you to install individual apps instead of the whole operating system but that might be rather painful. It might be easier to resolve your issues with iPhoto instead.

Otherwise, you can bypass iPhoto altogether and just use the Finder and folders within to arrange your photos – that’s what I do. When you connect your camera, don’t open any application; just open Finder, click on your camera under “Devices” and navigate through folders till you find your pictures; then copy them to a folder on your hard drive.

@xxii That sounds like my best option. Thanks for all your help, I will just cancel out iPhoto all together.

The last time I got a CD-R full of pics from a Mac user that used iPhoto, I wound up with not one, not two, but three different copies of each, and I had to do a little digging to find the 5 mega-pixel originals. Thumbnails look horrid on a 1600×900 screen!

Accordingly, I strongly second @xxii‘s advice about bypassing iPhoto and using the Finder instead!

Personally, I prefer XnView , but the OS X and Linux versions are still Beta-ware.