Aperture - new user questions

I'm a new Aperture user as well, so all my answers might not be 100% correct

In iPhoto, when you make a change to a photo, iPhoto will make a duplicate copy. So if you have a file that is 5MB and change it, iPhoto creates another 5MB file. In Aperture, it only stores the Master images. Any changes or new versions of the photo are stored as smaller JPEGs within Aperture. It isn't until you export that version that a full file is created.

So if you made a lot of adjustments in iPhoto, then I think a lot of those duplicates aren't carried over. I think Aperture brings over the Master, and then saves the adjustments as the smaller JPEG.

As far as I know, there is no Show in Finder function from within Aperture. Your files are there.....but I'm not sure Aperture will point you to it (or at least I haven't found a way). Maybe someone has an Applescript?

If you are using a Managed library, where Aperture stores everything, then your edited photos, like I said above, are kind of stored there. The only thing that's stored in Aperture is the JPEG preview. This is to save space. So even if you make 10 versions of a photo, you aren't duplicating that file 10 times.....Aperture is creating 10 JPEG previews for you to adjust. It saves space.

Take a look here:
http://documentation.apple.com/en/aperture/

This has helped me a lot.

Good luck! I'm loving the move from iPhoto '11 to Aperture. With my 100GB library, it is soooo much faster.

-Kevin