Where are my Photos that I imported using IPHOTO?

Question

I am using IPHOTO 9.  I have about 15,000 pics/videos that I have imported using IPHOTO.  That much stuff takes an enormous amount of my hardrive space on my Macbook Pro, which is only 500GB.  Yesterday I purchased a 2TB Time Capsule.  My intention was to use this as storage for all those pics.  But, I'm reading that isn't a good idea.  I do have a 650 GB external WD HDD that I have moved the Iphoto Library to.  My questions are:  Where are all the original phtos stored that I imported from my camera, and other places into IPHOTO?  How do I access all of those files without stepping through dozens of folders within the Master folder under Iphoto Library?
I purchased PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 11 and Photoshop Elements Organizer.  I wanted to organize all my photos utilizing Photoshop Elements Organizer but I can't seem to find them.  When I go to Import pictures/videos from "Iphoto" under Elements Organizer it takes an extremely long time.  In fact, the dialogue that shows how much time is left and what picture it is on indicates like around picture number 50 of 15,000 after an hour or so.  Just way too long.  So, I don't know what to do?  Anyone that has an idea of how I can better utilize these two programs or just one or the other, would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Answer 1

This may be of interest to you:
Using Photoshop or Photoshop Elements as Your Editor of Choice in iPhoto.
1 - select Photoshop or Photoshop Elememts as your editor of choice in iPhoto's General Preference Section's under the "Edit photo:" menu.
2 - double click on the thumbnail in iPhoto to open it in Photoshop.  When you're finished editing click on the Save button. If you immediately get the JPEG Options window make your selection (Baseline standard seems to be the most compatible jpeg format) and click on the OK button. Your done. 
3 - however, if you get the navigation window
that indicates that  PS wants to save it as a PS formatted file.  You'll need to either select JPEG from the menu and save (top image) or click on the desktop in the Navigation window (bottom image) and save it to the desktop for importing as a new photo.
This method will let iPhoto know that the photo has been editied and will update the thumbnail file to reflect the edit..
NOTE: With Photoshop Elements  the Saving File preferences should be configured as shown:
I also suggest the Maximize PSD File Compatabilty be set to Always.  In PSE’s General preference pane set the Color Picker to Apple as shown:
Note:  to switch between iPhoto and PS or PSE as the editor of choice Control (right)-click on the thumbnail and select either Edit in iPhoto or Edit in External Editor from the contextual menu. If you use iPhoto to edit more than PSE re-select iPhoto in the iPhoto General preference pane. Then iPhoto will be the default editor and you can use the contextual menu to select PSE for your editor when desired.
OT