reassure me about iPhoto

[Mr Downtown]

When it first came out, I remember some grumbling that iPhoto saves multiple copies of photo files. Because my home computer is a MacBook Air with an SSD, efficient storage is still relevant to me. Before I jump in: When I put a picture in three albums, is it making three copies or just saving a database pointer? Is there a way to use an external drive to reduce how much storage iPhoto uses?

[davester]

Albums are just database pointers. However, when you edit a photo, iPhoto saves both the original and the edited version. however, I think this is true of all programs like this.

[celliott]

I believe Aperture only saves data when you edit a pic. It keeps the original and then creates data "versions" of the edits. Supposed to take up less room.

[jdc]

You can put your iPhoto library on an external drive.

What you are referring to is non-destructive editing -- no matter how much your crop, color or tweak a photo in iPhoto -- it will always save the original file for you. So the only way for iPhoto to "take up a ton of space" is that if you modify all of your photos after importing. Then you will have 2 versions of every photo.