iPhoto’s a really neat little application for organizing images, and for quick image editing. However, my friend Scott pointed out an aspect of iPhoto that will cause it to eat disk space like crazy.

By default, when you import images into iPhoto, it adds them to it’s proprietary library file in their entirety. If you also keep your original images on the same hard disk, that means your images effectively take up twice as much space! That’s pretty inefficient. However, there are at least two strategies for dealing with this.

Once your images are inside the iPhoto library, it is possible to export the photo again in a number of formats -- including the original format. So, if you’ve shot RAW images and imported them to iPhoto, it’s an easy matter to get your RAW files back out. Simply highlight the images in question, click File then Export... and select Original from the drop-down box. You can select any valid drive or folder as the export destination -- including your iDisk.

Another strategy is to not use iPhoto to copy images from your memory card or camera. Instead, use the Finder to copy images off the card to a separate hard drive or to a DVD-ROM. Then, import the images into your iPhoto library from there. That way, you have a backup of your original files from the get-go.

Yet a third way is to go into the Advanced tab of the iPhoto preferences, and un-check “Copy items to the iPhoto Library.” This option will force iPhoto to retain only the information about the changes you make to an image, and a small thumbnail for previewing, which will greatly conserve disk space. The drawback to this option is that it is more difficult to move the iPhoto library to another computer, since you have to set up the same sets of folders on both computers and be sure to move everything -- both the Library and the individual picture files should you need to migrate images from one computer to another.