15 Things You May Not Know You Can Do In Mac Photos

macmost.com/e-2418 The Mac Photos app has some deep functionality and even regular users may not know some of these tips. Learn how to search by photo contents, convert Live Photos to long exposure pictures, export contact sheet PDFs, adjust and filter videos, create multiple libraries and much more.
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[@jasonmiller3638]

I am new to Mac, and I absolutely rely on your videos to learn everything that is computer is capable of. Thank you

[@nicomonkeyboy]

I have had Macs since 1988 and there was new stuff in there for me!!

[@emmgeevideo]

I came back to the Mac after 5 years away. I got back up to speed thanks to Gary. I decided to sign up for Patreon because I wanted to say thanks for enhancing my productivity.

[@rayflanagan9970]

I've been a mac user since 1989 and STILL learn tons everytime I watch these videos.

[@carolinemyddelton580]

Great collection of tips! I've used Photos for years and years, and it was only in watching this tutorial that I learned about exporting contact sheet PDFs! I always learn something new from your videos-thanks, Gary!

[@loisskiathitis8926]

I knew nothing , but I learned a lot! Thank you, Gary! ❤️👍🏻

[@gregf9160]

Every one of your videos is a fantastic learning experience. I was unaware just how sophisticated Photos had become.

[@Macvriendin]

I can't stop watching your video's! They are so educational. Thank you so much!

[@ScottHouston1]

All that good information in 11 minutes. Thanks that was very helpful!

[@andrewelland9902]

OMG, Gary: such a wealth of information. I'm looking at Photos in a whole new light. THANKS.

[@Roberto-REME]

Outstanding Gary. You are an excellent teacher and mentor. Thank you,

[@mhouslay7281]

Wow !! That was crazy useful and clear. I’ve been blown away with the cameras on my iPhone 15 Pro Max and so have been using it more and more rather than my mirrorless SLR. So I’ve been playing around more and more with this App. Your video has really inspired me - various things that I never realised as my mindset of the apple photo app is from a ‘historic’ version. Thanks so much 😊

[@PeterGregg]

Any tools to make skin better for a head shot, like a clarity slider?

[@macmost]

Yes. In Adjustments you have the retouch tool. You can also use Noise Reduction, Sharpen and others.

[@Larry77777]

Hey Gary: Thanks for showing Markup under the ... P.S. "Revert to Original" is a wonderful feature, but it necessitates two files. On edited videos, that adds up fast, so I am happy to see the Mac Photos app has the option to save the edited video as a new video, THEN I can delete the original video when I'm satisfied.

[@ubequity]

I just removed an ugly electrical wire hanging in the front of a shot with the retouch tool thanks to seeing your video!! Thank you very much.

[@Johnthetripper]

Using another library, not synced, for work stuff is a great idea. I have a work phone that I can use for unlimited personal use, but don't want to mix my work and personal photos up. Fantastic, thanks Gary.

[@charlesmillar]

Excellent, very well explained, delivered, and informative.

[@DGianfredi]

I like your videos. Good information without complicating things.

[@debreale5236]

This is so helpful. Thank you for your unbelievably good videos!

[@elpopposupreme8178]

Wow! I did not realize how many functions this app has. Thanks!

[@curiosityintrigue]

Helpful tips - Thanks! I’m in the process of creating reference files that I don’t want in iCloud (to save iCloud storage). I thought I would need two libraries. I’m glad to learn I can use the same library I use for iCloud on my Mac.

[@marqdx]

Thanks, Gary. Another excellent video by an excellent instructor.

[@chaosncheckt9356]

How did I just find this channel. Huge mac user and use photo all the time and didn't know any of this. You just got a new subscriber.

[@TomalBhattacharjee]

I’ve been watching all your videos. And they are very informative. Regarding photos app have questions -1. After editing how do I share the edited version through WhatsApp ? I couldn’t find the saved location. 2. I have photos in the my local drive arranged into a way I prefer, do I transfer all of them to photos app?

[@macmost]

I don't use WhatsApp, but I'm sure there is a way to select a photo inside of that app. Look and see. It is up to you if you want to move your photos into the Photos app.

[@ric-carol]

Love your videos Gary, thank you once again.

[@jamescraig3345]

One of the slickest tricks in Photos is the ability to enter Edit, correct an exposure, copy the corrections. and use the arrow keys to move to similar exposures and paste the corrections. This saves me a lot of time over a long shoot with a large number of exposures - especially if indoors without flash.

[@deborahtroeller6237]

How do you copy the corrections?

[@randyking3691]

Good show, I'm new at Big Sur and I want to go through and edit some wedding pics for prints. Your video a Big help, Great timing.

[@barrytipton1249]

Excellent tutorial, Gary! Thanks for sharing your extensive knowledge.👍🏻

[@wardausman2795]

Amazing versatility. I had no idea. Thanks for this video!

[@ingeborgkolar8795]

Great info, Gary!!! Just what I need to know right now. THANK you.

[@fivegumtrees6251]

Love your work. Great tutorials !

[@carlupthegrove262]

WOW, that was very helpful... some of the things I knew but many were new to me.... well done

[@Ukuleleal]

Awesome video. Thank you so much. :)

[@FLYBOY123456789]

you are a brilliant person - thank you...

[@knockshinnoch1950]

Superb channel! The missing Mac handbook!

[@sekaf4125]

Amazing. I learned so much even being a long time max user. Well done!

[@pressrepeat2000]

This was super useful. Incredible what you can do with the Photo app now, glad I found this video as didn’t know any of it!

[@rhettshipley4593]

Brilliant as always. Just edited 4300 photos and labelled them. They all look great. Took a while.

[@desertpatient]

Thank you for doing this video as it was very helpful to your written help.

[@wernervienna]

What a treasure trove! Many thanks

[@pratapseshachalam2859]

Thanks dude . I have been learning great info from your channel:)

[@jeffagoddard]

This video is the BEST! One problem I'm having is when an app like Mail, Keynote or iMovie open Photos to select content, it can take 4 - 10 minutes to load for browsing pictures. My Photos library file is 192 GB. I was considering creating 2 separate libraries - a 'Complete' and a 'Recent' where I've deleted all the older photos - just to speed up opening from within another app. Any ideas?

[@macmost]

Splitting your library will make things more difficult to find, which may be a bigger problem. My library isn't that much smaller and it comes up in about 1 second. Do you have a lot of videos in your library? Maybe consider storing videos outside of your library and leaving the Photos library for just photos. That's what I do. Otherwise, maybe just have your Photos app open and drag and drop from there instead of using the Insert Photo function. I never use that.

[@jeffagoddard]

@@macmost Wow! Thanks for the quick response. Yes, I have 1200 videos. I often just keep the Photos app open and just copy/paste or drag and drop - when I get tired of waiting for the "Insert Photo" preview to load. I really don't want multiple libraries as it introduces complexity. I'll try your suggestion and store videos outside the Photo's library.

[@Muhammed.Yaseen]

Those photos tips were great! Do you have a separate video just on how the whole Photos and Files work in combination? Like that weird folder name photos.library or something. Many things to learn there, I believe. Huge fan of your work! Just found you yesterday. Appreciate it!

[@macmost]

A .photoslibrary file is your Photos library. There's nothing you need to do with it. Interact with your library in the Photos app. Don't mess with the .photoslibrary file as it is not meant to be accessed directly.

[@Muhammed.Yaseen]

@@macmost I'm just worried of having copies of my photos in the Photos app and in Finder. So I was wondering if that file is like a pointer. I haven't messed with the file itself. I do a lot of editing; videos and photos, and I just switched to Mac.. so I'm learning..

[@macmost]

@@Muhammed.Yaseen It depends on your settings and what you are doing to bring photos into the Photos app.

[@JandeBloois1952]

Great! I use iPhoto (and now Photos) since 2002, a lot has changed since then, but I heard some things now that I didn't know! Thanks, Gary!

[@MikeOrazzi]

Nice tips. Do you know of a way to rate images in this app? Using numbers, 1,2,3... etc? If you're familiar with Apple Aperture, it was a way to quickly edit down a batch of photos.

[@macmost]

Use keyword tags. You can do 1 Star, 2 Stars, etc. But since keywords can be anything, you can do better like "scenic," "colorful" or "for submission" and so on. Depends what your goal is here in doing this.

[@jackraves7363]

🙏 this is a very informative post, thank YOU!!!

[@AzizKambali]

Another great video from you Gary 👏🏾 Any idea if the Photos app will preserve the metadata of the photos in case of exporting to Google Photos? I hope I will not have to reorganize my photos from scratch then! #BigFan ✌🏽

[@macmost]

It is probably up to Google Photos, but I can't see why not. Try one and see.

[@pressrepeat2000]

Is there a way to clean up your library and separate screenshots and pictures saved from the web and whatnot from your actual photos? Probably worth a video tutorial… I think a lot of iOS users struggle with huge libraries now that have so much in them, but cleaning it up is a monumentous task.

[@abdulkarimalzadjali6652]

thanks a lot for the information, we really appreciated.

[@hscduncan31]

Great series of videos. One thing Gary missed out, or maybe this is new, is that you can search for text in photos. Take a picture of a signpost/conference title/bar name when you get to a place, later search for that string and voila. Also works for photos of non-digital business cards etc

[@macmost]

That's a much newer feature than this video. And yes, it is awesome!

[@Billy123bobzzz]

Well done! Very useful!

[@eldjswett]

You’re such a good teacher! Is there one of this for the music app? 🙏🏽

[@macmost]

I've done a few videos on the Music app, but no "X Things" video. It depends a lot on if you are using Apple Music. Two different worlds.

[@gillianbc]

I had no idea - what a revelation!

[@bassplayinpapa]

Excellent! Thanks.

[@ahmed_mahrouky]

thanks a lot.you always hav something new for me

[@richyw959]

Great stuff!

[@MarcoFlores-um7cj]

Tim Roth, you are the best mactuber

[@paulalderson6920]

Best of your already great video series.

[@VynZography]

10:03 I seriously did not know this! I was always doubling the storage space needed or having to delete the original files.

[@MichaelD115]

Thank you Gary! this is super useful! It's a shame icloud can't deal with multiple libraries

[@maxflight777]

The contact sheet idea is good

[@AshleyDadaglio]

This is Wild!!

[@robertazurek]

Thanks! You are The Man!!!

[@DameEdnaBrown]

Thanks that was great info

[@Dragonsbaynn69]

I'm a new subscriber that needed some Quicktime advice and I came across this video and holy shit I had no idea you could do any of these things. Ill be going through your whole videography so I can learn all about these subjects. Thanks for all you hard work! Cheers from New Zealand!

[@rhettshipley4593]

Your welcome Bru

[@SkunkWorks2001]

Great - thanks 👍

[@iandouglas9942]

Really useful. Thanks Gary.

[@mikemiles3068]

Great video Gary❗️ Will this work with my Photo’s App on my iPad Pro, I do not have any Computer all I have is 2018 iPad Pro.

[@macmost]

Well, this is specific to the Mac Photos app. Some of these features are in the iPad app, but the steps would be very different.

[@mikemiles3068]

@@macmost Thanks❗️I have never had a Mac of any kind and I do everything on my iPad Pros but I do subscribe to your KZbin channel and I do pickup tips that make me search deeper into iPad OS to find workarounds and while I have been able to find many new ways of doing things on my iPad I am hoping Apple gives us a little more flexibility for the iPad with iPad OS15. You have a 👍Great Channel ✅

[@rimas9684]

Everything is awesome I have a question that bothers me so much. Is there app on a Mac equivalent like MS Paint?

[@macmost]

Depends on what you want to do exactly. Preview on the Mac will do some things (viewing, crop, resize, export, markup). If you want something more look into these apps in the App Store: Seashore, Pixelmator, Acorn. See kzbin.info/www/bejne/nHjKc5ake6ihfM0

[@daviddahl8562]

I love this.

[@michaelpeppersack8599]

great information! you have taught me so much about photo apple app. lately I get a error code 3306 after working with photos for a while? is it the camera? camera card? photos app is broken? its been said to start another library which I did and it worked for awhile but started getting the error code 3306 again?

[@macmost]

No idea about that error. Have you called Apple Support?

[@michaelpeppersack8599]

haven't called yet been on support site and have tried different methods! updates, repair apple photo library, rebuild library, and disk utility still get 3306

[@michaelpeppersack8599]

@@macmost haven't called support yet been on the website and tried different methods of repair and read other peoples comments about the 3306 error and nothing works photo app was working so well with external edits then all of a sudden about a week ago I get 3306 error

[@michaelpeppersack8599]

@@macmost on the website of apple I talked to the community and one said topaz sharpen needed access permission one I did that it works with out the error 3306 so far?

[@magicmanj32]

Great Video, Thanks Gary

[@Annalorraine67]

Thanks i am learning so much with your info!!

[@GfxDsgn]

Gary, Thanks for making these videos. I'm not able to find an answer for this in apple support. if you think there is a solution pls help. 1) I import photos from HDD (as a referenced file, coz my mac's internal memory is very less and don't want to sync using iCloud) 2) So in this situation, if I delete multiple files from the HDD which is referenced here on photos, Photos app shows an icon to indicate that's missing, but is there any way to remove those thumbnails in one go, right now I have to delete each of them one by one.

[@floydthorne6444]

I use a small Handheld camera taking pictures while riding a motorcycle. When I get home I pull the SD Card and with a Reader on my MacBook Pro I can open up and see the photos and also copy them from the SD Card but I only seem to have two option, Download folder or my Library. Can I create a TEMP Folder to place them as I generally discard them anyway after Uploading them to my Flickr Account.

[@macmost]

So are you importing them into Photos, or copying over the files to a folder in the Finder?

[@georgelewisray]

Wonderful yet again . . .

[@truckertrev4579]

Please could you make a video showing how you can put a face on one photo to the body on another photo in the Photo section on the mac? Thanks

[@macmost]

You would edit the photo in an External Editor to do that. You can do it in Preview if you have nothing else. kzbin.info/www/bejne/noOxhaKAq5xrnZI

[@r.a.monigold9789]

Nice. Thanks

[@PLANETWATERMELON]

Thanks for the videos. Can photos fix lens distortion like barrel distortion form a wide lens?

[@macmost]

No, there's no tool for that in Photos.

[@PLANETWATERMELON]

@@macmost thx. That’s too bad. 😩

[@janicebrionesweers6411]

gold mine!

[@normesmonde5332]

That was great, thanks Gary

[@marinetimelapsetv9794]

good job done.

[@johncooper3171]

Hi Gary How do I import old Aperture projects files from a hard drive to photos? Thanks Jc.

[@larryb0315]

Great video, Gary! I have a ? is there a way to pause the Raw photos from syncing to my iPhone & iPad when I am editing them from a DSLR? I would like to do my edits on Apple Photos and then when I'm done export them in a JPEG format. The RAW files can be 50-75mb each

[@macmost]

If you are using "Optimize" on those devices then all that should "sync" is the thumbnail unless you view the full photo or edit it on that device.

[@larryb0315]

@@macmost Ok, I'll check that out Gary. Thanks for the reply

[@alaaadel3133]

Thank you, dear creator

[@SYPCWAK]

Thanks for the video.

[@photographybymadeline]

Thank you for the great info I have a question when I go to photos and select View Metadata Titles I don't see any titles. I have turned all metadata off and only selected title I still don't get the photo title or number ?? What am I missing?? Thank you in advance

[@macmost]

Maybe you have square thumbnails turned on? Try clicking the button at the top (to the left of the zoom slider) or using Option+T to toggle that.

[@photographybymadeline]

@@macmost thanks I can see the image file # in library but not in the library is this how it is supposed to function ??

[@photographybymadeline]

@@macmost thank you I can see the file # in library but not in albums is this by design?

[@macmost]

@@photographybymadeline Not sure what you mean. If you have titles turned on, and you are viewing them the same way, you should see them.

[@photographybymadeline]

@@macmost thank you I figured it out, the square button to the left of the slider was turned off for albums. The square works independently for each area, My Albums, Media Types and Library. It was on for the library but not for the others I now know I need to toggle it on or off for each area. Thank you

[@carlosprovyrivera8522]

As always excellent overview! I assume the adjust portrait photo background is iPhone specific. I have an iPhone 8 Plus, a multitude of portrait photos, running Big Sur on an M1 and I do not see a portrait adjust slider when editing photos.

[@macmost]

Are these photos taken specifically using the iPhone Portrait mode? (In other words, not just "portrait-style" photos?) If so, those controls should show up. Is you iPhone 8 using the latest iOS? I don't remember if the iPhone 8 supported Portrait mode. Maybe not?

[@carlosprovyrivera8522]

@@macmost Yes, using iPhone portrait mode on an iPhone 8 Plus. I also checked my iMac 27 and also the adjust portrait option doesn't appear. Thus my assumption that it's for newer iPhones.

[@macmost]

@@carlosprovyrivera8522 Portrait mode has changed on the iPhone over the years, so it probably only works for the more recent variations.

[@osama966x]

Hi What is the best and safest way to sort Photos content by size? (Videos and photos) I would like to free some space out of my iCloud storage

[@macmost]

Most photos should be about the same size, unless you have some that are RAW. Instead, maybe focus on exporting and archiving video files. They can be huge. See kzbin.info/www/bejne/bKm3l3xmmNxqZqs

[@wrc1717]

Can you use Lightroom and photoshop as external editors without messing up LRC catalog system?

[@johnphillips519]

Thanks Gary, i thought i knew photos, looks like i didnt

[@nunocorreia5570]

Very interesting and helpful

[@mikejduk]

I would love to use Apple Photos, Gary. It makes so much sense to be able to access my photos and videos from all my devices. However, there's a huge drawback that I take issue with. In a word, 'STORAGE". Apple allows a measly 15 gigabytes of storage and I have found, they are constantly pushing you to purchase monthly subscription storage. 15 gigabytes, when it comes to Photo and Video storage is miniscule. I wouldn't class myself as a prolific photographer but already, not even half way through the year, and my photos library is on 85 gigabytes. I would like to use it on my iMac, which is where I do my editing and cataloguing, and though I have searched, I can't see where I can check my storage. Before I know it, they would be advising me I need more storage and how much it will cost me. It's a shame Apple haven't addressed this differently. I have a contract with Amazon, for instance, that gives me unlimited storage space for my photos, as well as all the other benefits I get for less than £10 or $12 a month. The downside of cloud storage is, unless someone else has access to your account, once you leave, you lose your storage and all the library you have stored there. External Hard Drives, even the Solid State type, which are more reliable and faster, are so much cheaper these days and can, of course, be used on any computer. And they can be passed on to family or friends after your demise.

[@dant.6364]

I wish there was a Macmost audio podcast.

[@jacktinga3581]

great vid

[@davemengle4961]

So if you have a second (or more) photo library(ies)... that's not backed up to iCloud?

[@kfishhypnotist]

I just took a couple of photos from my iPhone and I can't open them on my iMac even though they're there. I recently upgraded the storage on iCloud but I still can't open them?

[@wilpercyjpn]

Thanks for the video. I'd like to ask if Photos can run slide shows as flexibly as Aperture could? If not, what do you recommend as a substitute for that feature?

[@macmost]

I can't remember what old Aperture did for slideshows, but you can easily test out the Photos app slideshows for yourself and see if that is what you need. You can also create much more versatile and interesting slideshows on your Mac in iMovie and Keynote. See kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmWonJSpfNNgg5Y and kzbin.info/www/bejne/rIeZgpyZor6HkKc

[@wilpercyjpn]

@@macmost Thank you for the links. Certainly Keynote and iMovie have many features which allow users to put together a polished slideshow for presentational purposes. By flexible in reference to Aperture I meant the ability to select a folder of photos and simply get them to play in a random order without text or music and using the simplest of transitions. That's how my family enjoys looking back at old photos. I see that if you run a slideshow in Photos there is no way to randomize the order the photos appear and so for the purpose I seek it would quickly become boring. Perhaps you or other subscribers know of a nifty hack?

[@macmost]

@@wilpercyjpn You could always use the Mac's screen saver for that.

[@wilpercyjpn]

That’s a thought. I’ll look at setting that up. Thank you.

[@wilpercyjpn]

Gary, it's working well. Am I right in thinking you can't select a folder held within Photos/Aperture and have to export photos to a separate location so that Screensaver knows what to draw on? Thanks for all you help.

[@PromotingTheBeat]

7:33 That statue caught my eye, where is that from? ( the lady looking back )

[@macmost]

Mirabell Gardens in Salzburg, Austria.

[@akashrevanna5327]

Very useful 🙏

[@jacobkilgannon6059]

Thankyou brk

[@janders7372]

You are an Apple treasure

[@riadmatqualoon943]

in my photo app and under adjust I do not see the option for portrait in order to change the depth of field why please? Thank you!