Does Importing photos create copies?

[blueduck27]

Hi I just installed Elements 11 with photoshop and premier.. Before Importing, I would like to know does that make copies of my photos? I do not want to take up more space on my hard drive.. If so can I set it to not make literal copies?   Any tips are welcome.. Thanks!

[Peru Bob]

When you import a photo from a card, for example, to your hard drive it copies it to a location on your hard drive and creates a shortcut in the organizer.

If you just open a file already on your hard drive, then it doesn't create a copy of the file, but alters the original when you save it unless you save it to a new file, in which case you will have an additional file.