If i backed up my iPhotos on an external hard drive can i delete them off my mac?

I recently backed up my Macbook pro on to an external hard drive. I was wodnering if i could delete my photos from my iphoto library to save space, and if so can i then get them back on my computer from my external hard drive?

Depends on exactly what you did
And if you delete the information from your main computer then you do not have a backup - to have a backup you need hte original on your computer and an exact copy on another disk
What format is the external drive? It must be Mac OS extended (journaled) to have your iPhoto library on ti
What did you copy to the external drive? The iPhoto library or your photos?
What you probably need to do is to run your iPhoto library on an external drive and to have a second external drive to backup to - Time Machine is a good choice
To run your iPhoto library on an external drive verify that the drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) and drag the iPHoto library to it intact as a single entity - depress the option and command keyus, launch iPhoto and select the new location - fully test the library on the external drive and after one successful backup cycle verify that the external drive is being backedup - then delete your iPhoto library on the main drive - test one more time before emptying the trash
LN

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