Question about importing into iPhoto

I have noticed that when I import photos into iPhoto it (apparently) does not import them into my pictures folder - just into iPhoto. Is there a way to change this? I find it irritating to have to, in effect, copy each picture twice. I have been using HP's photo program but it does not seem to allow me to import pictures from my flash drive which I am beginning to use more and more frequently. Thanks in advance.

Where are you copying the photos from? Do you already have them on your Mac or are you importing them from another computer over a network?

They'll be in the iPhoto library folder in pictures, you could always use spot light to find them, or if you want to edit them just drag them out of iPhoto which creates a copy

Kash said:

Where are you copying the photos from? Do you already have them on your Mac or are you importing them from another computer over a network?

Click to expand...

Most are from my digital camera, some from a flash drive and a few from scanning them in. I have no trouble getting them into iPhoto, but to place them into my Pictures folder I must copy them over a second time. I would prefer all pictures go into my Pictures folder and iPhoto simply show what that folder contains without having to import them. I cannot get HP photo program to "find" my flash drive to import them. The HP program imports all pictures directly into my Pictures folder.

What you need to do is go to Preferences -> Advanced and uncheck 'Copy files to iPhoto folder when adding to library'. Then, copy the files to your Picture folders first and then import them from there. You'll end up with iPhoto using the copy in your pictures folder like you want.

cazabam said:

What you need to do is go to Preferences -> Advanced and uncheck 'Copy files to iPhoto folder when adding to library'. Then, copy the files to your Picture folders first and then import them from there. You'll end up with iPhoto using the copy in your pictures folder like you want.

Click to expand...

Ok will play with that for awhile - thanks! Is it possible to get iPhoto to just work with my Pictures file without having to "import" them into iPhoto. When you get as many pictures as I have it is hard to remember which ones I have imported and which ones I have not imported. I would rather work (carefully) out of my Pictures folder.