Photo Storage - iPhoto / Aperature / Library

[Blue26]

I'm a new Mac user and just would appreciate someone helping me understand this.

I copied all my photos into 'Photos' when I set up my iMac.

Then I later imported all of them into iPhoto, to sort / organize etc.

Recently I purchased Aperture and imported my images from iPhoto.

So here's what I want to confirm. I now have 3 separate copies of all my photos (Library, iPhoto, Aperture) ?

I'm used to a PC environment, were I'd be working with everything from My Pictures (as example) .. then using whatever application, I could open a source image .. manipulate it and over-write the original or save it somewhere else.

It seems this way is discouraged. Maybe it's just something fundamental I'm missing, but it doesn't seem with iPhoto or Aperture, that I use these programs to organize or manipulate the source images .. they only work if I can import the entire library. (I hope I'm describing this correctly)

If someone can offer some advice or steer me in the right direction I'd really appreciate it.

 

[scarred]

Well I don't have aperture, so won't have a complete answer for you...

I was in a similar situation last year. Coming from windows, I had a bunch of picture files in folders all organized. It was painful to keep sorted, but I had a system that I was comfortable with. When I got this Mac, I was terrified of losing that control. But I'm happy to say, I feel a bit more free now that I've adjusted. I really like not having to worry about files. I just import into iPhoto, organize into Albums, and done. The original photo is always there (even after editing, you can revert to original).

I'd recommend backing up your original files for sanity sake. You shouldn't need to go back to them though, but might as well be safe then sorry. You can then delete them from your mac. You don't need that extra copy. Let iPhoto handle the file organization.

As for Aperture, I'm surprised it doesn't work with the iPhoto library. I would have assumed you could leave all your pictures in the iPhoto library, and only when you want to edit one in Aperture would it make a copy...

Also, I should add, you can have multiple iPhoto libraries. I have one iPhoto library per year. Some things like faces and locations don't work as well like this, but that is fine with me. Hold down the option key when launching iPhoto, and you'll see the option to have multiple libraries. You only have to hold the option key when switching between libraries.