iPhoto ’11: The Macintosh iLife Guide to using iPhoto with OS X Lion and iCloud

File It Your Way

Since the dawn of time—well, since the dawn of version 1.0—iPhoto has always stored images in the iPhoto Library. Generally, that’s exactly what you want: when you copy photos from a camera or memory card, you want them stashed safely in your iPhoto Library.

But under some circumstances, iPhoto’s “do things my way” approach to organization can work against you. When you add photos that are already stored on your hard drive—for example, images that you’ve scanned and saved—iPhoto makes additional copies in the iPhoto Library.

After adding photos to your Library that are already on your hard drive, you might want to delete the originals. That isn’t exactly a sweat-breaking chore, but it does take time. And you might prefer to stick ...