How to Share an iPhoto Library on a Network in iLife ’11

By Tony Bove from iLife '11 For Dummies

If you have a Mac with iLife '11 in every room connected by a wireless or wired network, you can share your iPhoto library, including all photo albums and keepsakes, with other computers in the same network. To share your iPhoto library with other Macs on a network that are also running the current version of iPhoto, follow these steps:

Choose iPhoto→Preferences and then click the Sharing tab.
Select the Share My Photos check box.
Select the Share Entire Library option to include everything (including all albums and keepsakes), or select the Share Selected Albums option and then choose albums and keepsakes to share.
Enter the name of the iPhoto library in the Shared Name field.

The shared library appears with this name in the Shares section of the iPhoto Source pane on other Macs on the network.
Add a password if you want to restrict access to the shared library.

Pick a password that you don’t mind sharing with other users; for example, your name is a good password because you want to share it with people you know. Your ATM PIN is not a good password because you should keep it secure. The password restricts access to only those people who know it.
Click the OK button.

To turn off sharing your iPhoto library, deselect the Share My Photos check box in the Sharing pane.

Before turning off sharing for your library, first notify anyone sharing the library to eject the shared library. Otherwise, iPhoto displays a warning dialog that allows you to continue (and break off the connection to the shared library) or to leave sharing turned on for the moment.

You can access the shared library from other Macs on the network that are running the current version of iPhoto by following these steps:

Choose iPhoto→Preferences and then click the Sharing tab.
Select the Look for Shared Photos check box.

The shared libraries appear in the Shares section of the Source pane. After the shared library loads, you can browse its contents. You can also click the triangle next to the shared library in the Source pane to see albums in the shared library.
To unload the shared library, click the tiny Eject button that appears to the right of the shared library name in the Source pane.