iPhoto confusion

[Appletvgk]

I recently purchased a Mac Mini (long time PC user). The best move I've ever made.
I'm a little confused as to how iPhoto operates in terms of utilizing my storage. I had 27GB of photos on my desktop (imported from an external HDD) and added them to iPhoto. Does this mean that I now have 27GB of photos on my desktop and 27GB in iPhoto for a total of 54GB taken up, or does iPhoto simply just access the photos from my desktop, so only 27GB would be taken up? If the prior is true, I have a 1.5TB external that I'd like to use with iPhoto, is this possible?

 

[philipma1957]

you have 2 copies the desktop and in iPhoto. so you are using 54gb not 27gb. i keep all my photos in 3 places

iphoto on my main osx drive .
a nas that all my macs can use.
and an external clone of my osx

 

[Appletvgk]

Got it. Thanks
So is iPhoto limited to my Mac Minis drive? I.e. if I wanted to store photos on an external drive but wanted to add them to iPhoto, without using space on my mac mini drive, is this possible? Or have iPhoto use my external drive for storage?

 

[beauregard]

Your iPhoto Library Can Move

Open help in iPhoto and look for the topic "Move iPhoto library to new location". You can move it to an external drive if you like.

 

[gooberlx]

If you wanted, you could also consider using a referenced library.

 

[noteple]

If you wanted, you could also consider using a referenced library.

Thanks for the link
It made the process a lot clearer.

 

[Sackvillenb]

Since you're new to Macs, I'll point out that many Apple programs work this way, just so you know. For example, iPhoto, iTunes, and iMovie will usually all copy your media into their own libraries, so you'll have duplicates unless you erase the originals. But, like with iPhoto, you can usually change this behaviour if you want.