Confused about iPhoto & Aperture

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Sorry but after 25 years in Dos and Windows I feel like a fish out of water. Just got a MacBook Pro and iMAC 24. Trying to set them up. I have all of my pictures on an external drive. From it I copied the my main picture folder with about 20 subfolders (i.e. family, baby, etc) to my Mac under "pictures". Then I opened iphoto and imported the whole folder. I then opened Aperture and imported from iPhoto. Now I assume I have three separate copies of each picture which I don't want.

How should I set this up so I don't have multiple copies?

I like iPhoto so I can share photos, and Aperture to group edit (I use PS for more complex editing) so when I want to import new pics from my compact flash, how and where do I import them to?

I went to the pictures folder in Macintosh HD and looked under iPhoto and Aperture and can"t find the basic files for any of the pictures. So how do I copy some of them to say a compact disk or back them up to my external HD?

Thanks.
 
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I haven't worked with Aperture, but isn't it sort of integrated with iPhoto in that you can access the iPhoto library without copying and such? I think I remember that to be one of the highlights of aperture. I use lightroom so I can't say for sure.

Now to check where all your pictures are, go to youraccount > Pictures and there will be a file name "iPhoto Library". Right click and then "Show package contents. You can then navigate your iPhoto library from there. however, don't change ANYTHING in there, cause it might disrupt your iPhoto library.

To backup, just write the iPhoto library to DVD....
 
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here a good article which has some really great info

http://www.macworld.com/2007/05/secrets/2407digitalphoto/index.php

Buy a card reader and import your photos from your flash card you can do this also direct from your camera.Both can be done via Image caputre (Applications folder)

Stay out of the folders in finder this only leads to tears....
 
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I think Aperture can share the iPhoto library. Also it has some sharing ability too. For instance you can generate web pages and there are plugins to upload to sites like flckr. I only test drove Aperture so am not that familiar with it.

iPhoto copies imported images to it's own folder structure "~/Photos/iPhoto Library". You can right click on that name and "Show Package Contents" to dig deeper. (oh that tilde means your home directory in Unix speak)
 
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Let me ask another question. In Windows, I had a folder named pictures and I had all of my pictures grouped in sub folders. Now in Mac, I import them into iPhoto and Aperture and when I go to the pictures folder, I see a folder named iPhoto. I click on it and the program opens. Where are the individual jpegs stored? I prefer to back up my pictures manually on an external HD but can't find them in iPhoto nor Aperture to do this.
 
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That 'iPhoto Library' file is a special folder that you need to right (or control) click and choose Show Package Contents. You'll find all the iPhoto content in multiple folders in there.

I think you are able to drag and drop the iPhoto Library onto your external drive and everything will be copied. I say think, because I still have to figure out if the hidden files (dot files) are also copied. (I'm not in a position this instance to figur that out.)
 
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Don't touch anything in the iPhoto folder. That was made to be a folder only because people screw up some files in there or something. Access them through iPhoto or get a media browser of some kind.
 
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Let me ask another question. In Windows, I had a folder named pictures and I had all of my pictures grouped in sub folders. Now in Mac, I import them into iPhoto and Aperture and when I go to the pictures folder, I see a folder named iPhoto. I click on it and the program opens. Where are the individual jpegs stored? I prefer to back up my pictures manually on an external HD but can't find them in iPhoto nor Aperture to do this.

It's probably under users/library. Something like that.

I don't like iPhoto. I stick to Photoshop and Lightroom for the most part.
 
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^^ Whatdoyoumean? The photos are stored in the 'file' iPhoto Library inside the Pictures folder. To access them, you got to right-click and "show package contents". iPhoto is an amazing app for managing photos of a family nature. It stores events and is good for making slideshows and such. Lightroom, a pro app, is where I keep my stock photos and such...
 
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^^ Whatdoyoumean? The photos are stored in the 'file' iPhoto Library inside the Pictures folder. To access them, you got to right-click and "show package contents". iPhoto is an amazing app for managing photos of a family nature. It stores events and is good for making slideshows and such. Lightroom, a pro app, is where I keep my stock photos and such...

All photos imported into iPhoto would go into a roll folder in some obscure place under 4-5 other levels of folders. That was in the previous iLife. I've since deleted iPhoto.
 
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This is the new iLife... things are different...
 
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^^ Whatdoyoumean? The photos are stored in the 'file' iPhoto Library inside the Pictures folder. To access them, you got to right-click and "show package contents". iPhoto is an amazing app for managing photos of a family nature. It stores events and is good for making slideshows and such. Lightroom, a pro app, is where I keep my stock photos and such...
The posted simply wanted to know where there were. I stated it and how you could get to them. I didn't say that is how you manage them. Of course you use iPhoto, and do not mess with the contents any other way.
 
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I was referring to village's post... your post is fine.
 

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