My Photos Are So Large! Is this why I am running out of room on iPhoto so fast?!

[Kre8ivOne]

I just downloaded some pictures to iPhoto. Some were 3.5 MB and others were 6 MB 3456 x 5184 (even pictures that are right next to each other and are almost the same shot). Why is this? And is there a way to change the settings on my camera to automatically take slightly smaller pictures without significantly decreasing the quality or size so much? (to where if I want to go back to that photo down the road and do something different to it or enlarge it, I won't be able to, or it won't look as good) 

It's getting the point where I probably have room for only a few more pictures on iPhoto. And I am HUGE into taking daily photos of my family! So the fact that I am having to keep my photos on my camera instead of being able to download and erase them, is really stressing me out! PLEASE HELP! 

[Skirball]

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@Kre8ivOne wrote:
Anyone: And is it possible to resize the images already in iPhoto (preferably resizing a large group at once, vs one-by-one) to create room for more photos??? Or would that be a bad idea seeing as how hsbn mentioned that JPG's are small to begin with? Would I risk messing with the quality of the photos or editing possibilities later?

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Most likely it is, resizing is a pretty simple and standard feature.  Unfortunately I'm an Anti-Apple kinda guy, so I can't help you with the software.

And yes, you do not want to edit on your originals, you want to edit copies that you save seperately.  Most [good] editing software will do this for you, and make you "export" your edits.  Something that confuses new users.  This exporting makes you save a separate file, encouraging you to save it in a seperate location.  Organization is the key.  I use a program called Lightroom to organize my files (and edit), but before that I used to make folders by the year, then within that folders by date with a description of the shoot (e.g. "2013-02-27 Billys Birthday").  Within that I would have a folder called "RAW" that had my photos straight from my camera, but I would save my edits in the main folder.  Organization, organization, organization.  It only takes a moment, but after a few years as a photographer it's the only way to ever find anything again.

[Skirball]

Here you go, resizing in iPhoto:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4508528

Edit:  I forgot to add.  Often time the software that you use to upload to the web will allow you to resize then.  Doing it this way won't allow you to review the resize before uploading, but you won't have duplicate files on your hard drive for the resized photos.