Setting up Photoshop

[keaglin1]

New to Photoshop. Was I supposed to import all of my photos and store all photos in Photoshop, or just import photos that I want to edit or use in a project? I imported all of my photos and I am thinking that was a mistake. Also, if I am supposed to keep and store all of my photos in Photoshop, should I delete the photos in the other programs? Are all the photos now stored on my computer twice?

[hatstead]

The photofiles are stored on your hard drive wherever you put them. The Organizer is just an index. Think of it as a card index in a municipal library.

[keaglin1]

So the pictures are not stored on my computer twice?

Sincerely,
Karen M. Eaglin

[Greg_S.]

Karen said:

So the pictures are not stored on my computer twice?

Importing the photos into the Elements Organizer does not store a second copy of the photos on your computer.  All it does is create a database of your photos and videos which are already stored there.  The Organizer simply gives you an easy way to find the files on your computer. 

However, having said that, you may want to create a second copy of certain photos.  For example, if you edit a photo in the Editor, you are given the opportunity to store the edited photo as a copy of the original.  You are also given the opportunity to import that edited copy into the Organizer where you can easily see the original and the edited copy.   In that case, there will be two files stored on your computer. 

If you edit a photo and only want to have the edited photo stored on your computer, then you can overwrite the original by saving the file with the original name.  The edited file will still be available in the Organizer but you will no longer have the original to edit again.

[keaglin1]

Thank you so much for all the info. That really helped me understand it.

Sincerely,
Karen M. Eaglin