Just switched to a MacBook Pro. Using CS4. Out of iPhoto I open my pictures into Photoshop. Once done there back to iPhoto.

Here's the problem: When I burn a cd with any shots that have been altered in PS the file size is enormous. It appears that iPhoto is retaining all the info on the changes in PS and putting that on the cd. (I won't even begin to ask about my Epson 2200/Snow Leopard issues!)

I went to the Mac store and showed the tech support people what was happening. They were at a loss for why. They are researching the problem and are going to get back to me but if anyone has had this problem and knows the solution I would greatly appreciate it.

What file format are you using? Are you shooting RAW or jpeg? Once processed, what format are you saving to? PSD, TIFF, JPEG?

I'm shooting large jpegs, generally flatten the images after I'm done in PS and then closing them.

Well, sounds like you're doing the right thing. Time for a Mac/iPhoto user to step up. I thought those things just worked?

My suggestion would be to use Bridge instead for downloading from CF card and organizing your files. Its a better tool for that job IMHO. You can set ImageCapture to use Bridge as the default app. It will allow you to rename and apply custom metadata. It allowing viewing and "scoring" files several different ways (star ratings / labels) which assists in the selection process. Bridge4 also has export options which were in Photoshop in previous versions.

When I use iPhoto for specific tasks like creating photo books I import copies of the files I've edited with the Bridge>ACR>Photoshop workflow.

I note you are using JPG. Shooting RAW is just as simple with ACR allowing most of the "global" corrections I formerly did in PS with levels and curves much faster with better results. I shot RAW + JPG for awhile but found once I got accustomed to the RAW controls I seldom used the JPG. Its easy to do a batch conversion from RAW > JPG when needed from Bridge.

Chuck