Iphoto 09: How to merge the "Original" and "Modified" libraries to save space?

[hdsalinas]

Inside my iphoto library my "modified" folder weighs 4GB. Is there a way to fuse both Originals and Modified folders?

And dont need the originals since most of the modification I do my pictures is to change orientation. That way I could save more space.

I love iphoto. I use Aperture, bridge and photoshop for work but for my family pictures, iphoto is great. What makes me nervous about iphoto is the possibillity of losing my 36GB worth of pictures (like HDD dying or the library getting corrupt). I manually backup the iphoto library to an external drive and keep a copy in my imac at work. Does Time machine backs up the iphoto library.

 

[skybolt]

Stay out of the library in finder!!! Doing what you are asking will render iPhoto unusable! iPhoto organizes things so that it can work for you, and if you mess with its organization, it can't find what you want.

If size is your problem, I'd suggest getting an external hard drive and storing your photos there. Here are the instructions for that: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1229 You can simply leave the library on the external and work from there. If you want to keep some of you photos on your internal, I suggest a program like iPhoto Library Manager. It helps you create multiple libraries, and helps you merge them later on if you want.

Seriously, if you want to use iPhoto, you MUST stay out of the library in finder. iPhoto keeps the originals so that you can always go back. You said you didn't care, but iPhoto does.