Newbie?: IPhoto verses Picasa storage question

[Cheeseliz]

Obviously I'm a newbie to Mac - had it all of two days now and am trying to understand the basics of IPhoto - which seems like a really cool program.

My question is this: I store all my photos on an external server / hard drive accessible to multiple computers with our family. When I import them into IPhoto, am I actually copying them onto my Mac (thereby having two copies of my photos - one on the external HD and one on my Mac) or is it like Google's Picasa that just stores thumbnail info for organizing, etc?

Also, I like to use Adobe Photoshop Elements to edit, play with the photos, and thus, when I save a changed copy of the photo to this external hard drive (while keeping the original), do I then need to import the copy over to IPhoto or does IPhoto have a scanning feature similair to Picasa that will scan the drive and pick up new additions?

Thanks!

 

[angelwatt]

iPhoto is copying the images. Picasa won't. That's the primary reason I don't use iPhoto.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

iPhoto is copying the images. Picasa won't. That's the primary reason I don't use iPhoto.

You can set iPhoto up not to copy the images, but just to refer to them in their original locations, its a single checkbox somewhere.
However, given your requirements for multiple users to access I'd say Picasa would be the way to go. I have just got PSE8 and its a bit of a PITA to edit out of iPhoto with it, I suspect it would be easier if you are using Picasa (though I dont use that), because iPhoto doesn't have the scanning feature you mention, you have to explicitly import a photo into it (even if that import is just a reference to an external location)

 

[Ashka]

Just remember that if you use Picasa you are handing over all the rights to your photos etc to Google.
Check their Terms and Conditions.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

Just remember that if you use Picasa you are handing over all the rights to your photos etc to Google.
Check their Terms and Conditions.

Source? I see nothing like that on their Ts&Cs especially for local use on a computer, rather than uploading to web albums.