Photos using mass amounts of hard drive and duplicates

Hello
I am helping my friend organizing her iPhoto Library. I do not use iPhoto for myself so I am not familiar with it too much. I organize my photos using Bridge and keep them on my external drive.
My friend takes a lot of photos and organizes them on iPhoto on her Macbook. I noticed that iPhoto saves the images in 3 separate folders. I think one is for the original and then the other one is saved for editing and then it saves a lower res file. Is there a way to have it only save it once? She uses a back up system for her computer to save everything on it so we are more concerned about space. I have been telling her to get a separate external drive to save her photos on because she takes so many. That is how I archive them for my photography business.
on another note, I have also noticed that she has several duplicates of videos from her camera on her computer as well. I think it could be because she refuses to format her memory card on her camera after every use. and so the video downloads again every time she downloads the card. does that seem plausible?
or does all of this have to do with an import setting that I just cant figure out on iPhoto or on her computer?
All I have been helping her do is delete the duplicates to help her with space issues. I have tried to fix this for her like 3 times. Please help!
Thanks, Julie

I noticed that iPhoto saves the images in 3 separate folders. I think one is for the original and then the other one is saved for editing and then it saves a lower res file.
The lower res file is tiny and is what you see in the iPhoto Window.
Is there a way to have it only save it once?
No. The difference between iPhoto and Bridge is +version control+. All operations are carried out on a copy of the photo. iPhoto will always preserve the original file.
She uses a back up system for her computer to save everything on it so we are more concerned about space. I have been telling her to get a separate external drive to save her photos on because she takes so many.
HD space is cheap. You can run an iPhoto Library from an external disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
on another note, I have also noticed that she has several duplicates of videos from her camera on her computer as well. I think it could be because she refuses to format her memory card on her camera after every use. and so the video downloads again every time she downloads the card. does that seem plausible?
Yes.
Regards
TD

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