Problem with iPhoto 08

[jayess]

Hi! everyone,
I am fairly new to Apple having acquired an iMac only a year or so back with the Leopard OS.  I have been transferring my photo collection from my old PC to iPhoto and have a problem with one of the images as follows.

The image appears in iPhoto as a thumbnail as normal, but;
 1. Double clicking it produces a black background with a white circle containing a black exclamation mark.
 2. Clicking the "Full Screen" button produces a momentary flash of the image then a blank screen.
 3. Clicking the "Edit" button results in just a white, blank window.

I also have this image file in the Pictures folder in Finder and the image displays perfectly if opened in Preview or GIMP.  This indicates that the problem is only with iPhoto.  Can anyone spot where I may have gone wrong?

[socrates]

Jayees,

You've taken some good troubleshooting steps thus far.

Since the file does open in GIMP and preview, you're probably correct in that it's an iphoto issue.

Try removing the photo out of iPhoto altogether, and then adding it back in.

If that doesn't work, try this:
Remove from iPhoto completely
Open the photo in GIMP or preview, and choose "save as."  Save the photo under a different name, and bring it back into iPhoto.

Let us know how this turns out!

[jayess]

socrates,
I did, in fact, rescan the photograph and imported it to iPhoto successfully as a new file and it behaves normally. 
I found I was unable to remove the original file, the one giving all the trouble, from iPhoto, because when I tried to export it a dialogue box came up saying "unable to create...", and if I tried to "Cut" using the Edit menu and paste it into GIMP another box came up saying there was nothing on the clipboard.  After trying this paste into GIMP I reopened iPhoto and found the thumbnail of the file was back in place!!?
The only way I could get the file out of iPhoto was to trash it and empty the trash.  The recalcitrant file is therefore irretrievable and I suppose, now, the reason for it's behaviour will forever remain a mystery.  Thank you for your reply and suggestions.
jayess

[socrates]

No problem at all.

It does sound like the photo was corrupt (in the iPhoto database, at least).

Let me know if anything else comes up.