Manual For Mac Photos

ICloud Photos gives you access to your entire Mac photo and video library from all your devices. If you shoot a snapshot, slo-mo, or selfie on your iPhone, it’s automatically added to iCloud Photos — so it appears on your Mac, your iOS devices, Apple TV, iCloud.com, and your PC. Apple's Photos for Mac app is great, but it can be limiting. If you want an alternative photo editor for the Mac, here's our pick of the best free or low cost photo editing software for the Mac.

The Photos app for Mac lets you easily and conveniently organize and search for your images and videos, and the People album and Places let you find the folks you live in the places you love. Here's how to use People and Places in Photos for Mac! If you don't see a profile that you want to add, you. ICloud Photos gives you access to your entire Mac photo and video library from all your devices. If you shoot a snapshot, slo-mo, or selfie on your iPhone, it’s automatically added to iCloud Photos — so it appears on your Mac, your iOS devices, Apple TV, iCloud.com, and your PC.

Photos in macOS Mojave helps you keep your growing library organized and accessible. Powerful and intuitive editing tools help you perfect your images. Memories displays the best images from your photo library in beautiful categorized collections. And with iCloud Photos, you can keep a lifetime’s worth of photos and videos stored in iCloud and up to date on your Mac, iOS devices, Apple TV, and even your PC.

iCloud Photos.
One convenient home for all your photos and videos.

iCloud Photos gives you access to your entire Mac photo and video library from all your devices. If you shoot a snapshot, slo-mo, or selfie on your iPhone, it’s automatically added to iCloud Photos — so it appears on your Mac, your iOS devices, Apple TV, iCloud.com, and your PC. Even the photos and videos imported from your DSLR, GoPro, or drone to your Mac appear on all your iCloud Photos–enabled devices. And since your collection is organized the same way across your Apple devices, navigating your library always feels familiar.

Learn more about iCloud Photos

Make an edit here, see it there. When you make changes on your Mac like editing a photo, marking a Favorite, or adding to an album, they’re kept up to date on your iPhone, your iPad, and iCloud.com. And vice versa — any changes made on your iOS devices are automatically reflected on your Mac.

Fill your library, not your device. iCloud Photos can help you make the most of the space on your Mac. When you choose “Optimize Mac Storage,” all your full‑resolution photos and videos are stored in iCloud in their original formats, with storage-saving versions kept on your Mac as space is needed. You can also optimize storage on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, so you can access more photos and videos than ever before. You get 5GB of free storage in iCloud — and as your library grows, you have the option to choose a plan for up to 2TB.

The moment you’re looking for, always at hand.

The Photos app uses Moments, Collections, and Years views to organize your photos and videos by when and where they were taken. With People, you get powerful face recognition capabilities that group photos by person. Places lets you see all your photos on a beautiful world map. You can even search for photos by what’s in them, like strawberries, sunsets, and surfboards.

Quickly find what you’re looking for with the always‑on sidebar. You can go right to your favorites, or view your library organized by people or places. There are albums that automatically collect your videos, selfies, panoramas, and other media types. You’ll find all the albums you create in My Albums. Moving your content around is as simple as dragging and dropping, with a handy selection counter that shows you how many items you’ve selected. And you can filter by criteria like favorites, edited, videos, and keywords.

The Moments view groups photos and videos taken around the same time and place, like an afternoon hike. Collections are made up of distinct Moments taken at the same place, such as on a trip. And Years lets you view your entire library in a beautiful mosaic of all the photos and videos you’ve taken each year.

It’s easy to find just the photo you’re looking for with Search in Photos. You can search for photos based on who’s in them or what’s in them, like strawberries or sunsets. And if you’re looking for photos you imported a couple of months ago, you can look back at each batch in chronological order with an expanded import history.

You’ve spent years capturing moments worth remembering. Photos can automatically turn them into unforgettable experiences called Memories — shareable collections of your best photos — based on people, places, holidays, pets, kids, favorite activities, weddings, anniversaries, nights out on the town, and more.

With Shared Albums, you can get an overview of the photos and videos you’ve shared with friends and family, and the ones they’ve shared with you. And it’s easier than ever to see Likes and Comments that have been posted.

Download third-party project extensions from the Mac App Store to create print and digital projects like books, cards, calendars, photo albums, websites, and more.

Perfect your best shots with powerful editing tools.

Create standout photos with a comprehensive set of powerful but easy-to-use editing tools. Instantly transform photos taken in Portrait mode with five different studio-quality lighting effects. Choose Enhance to improve your photo with just a click. Use a filter to give it a new look. Or use Smart Sliders to quickly edit like a pro even if you’re a beginner. With Markup, you can add text, shapes, sketches, or a signature to your images. You can turn Live Photos into fun, short video loops to share. And you can make edits to photos using apps like Photoshop and Pixelmator, and your changes will automatically be saved back to your Photos library.

Light
Brilliance, a slider in Light, automatically brightens dark areas and pulls in highlights to reveal hidden details and make your photo look richer and more vibrant.
Color
Make your photo stand out by adjusting saturation, color contrast, and color cast.
Black & White
Add some drama by taking the color out. Fine-tune intensity and tone, or add grain for a film-quality black-and-white effect.
White Balance
Choose between Neutral Gray, Skin Tone, and Temperature/Tint options to make colors in your photo warmer or cooler.
Curves
Make fine-tuned contrast and color adjustments to your photos.
Levels
Adjust midtones, highlights, and shadows to perfect the tonal balance in your photo.
Definition
Increase image clarity by adjusting the definition slider.
Selective Color
Want to make blues bluer or greens greener? Use Selective Color to bring out specific colors in your image.
Vignette
Add shading to the edges of your photo to highlight a powerful moment.
Editing Extensions
Download third-party editing extensions from the Mac App Store to add filters and texture effects, use retouching tools, reduce noise, and more.
Reset Adjustments
When you’ve made an edit, you can judge it against the original by clicking Compare. If you don’t like how it looks, you can reset your adjustments or revert to your original shot.

Bring even more life to your Live Photos. When you edit a Live Photo, the Loop effect can turn it into a continuous looping video that you can experience again and again. Try Bounce to play the action forward and backward. Or choose Long Exposure for a beautiful DSLR‑like effect to blur water or extend light trails. You can also trim, mute, and select a key photo for each Live Photo.

Add filters for striking effects.

With just a click, you can apply one of nine photo filters inspired by classic photography styles to your photos.

Share your favorite photos in more places than ever.

Use the Share menu to easily share photos via Shared Albums and AirDrop. Or send photos to your favorite photo sharing destinations, such as Facebook and Twitter. You can also customize the menu and share directly to other compatible sites that offer sharing extensions.

Turn your pictures into projects.

Making high-quality projects and special gifts for loved ones is easier than ever with Photos. Create everything from gorgeous photo books to professionally framed gallery prints to stunning websites using third-party project extensions like Motif, Mimeo Photos, Shutterfly, ifolor, WhiteWall, Mpix, Fujifilm, and Wix.

Photos helps you keep your growing library organized and accessible. Powerful and intuitive editing tools help you perfect your images. Memories displays the best images from your photo library in beautiful collections. And with iCloud Photos, you can keep a lifetime’s worth of photos and videos stored in iCloud and up to date on all of your devices.

Before you begin

Update your Mac to the latest version of macOS.
If you use iPhoto or Aperture to manage your photos and videos, upgrade to the Photos app.

Photos App For Mac

Access all of your photos from anywhere

iCloud Photos automatically keeps all your photos in iCloud, so you can access them on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, Mac, iCloud.com, or on a PC. When you edit and organize images in the Photos app, your changes are kept up to date and visible everywhere.

Manage your iCloud storage

The photos and videos that you keep in iCloud Photos use your iCloud storage. Before you turn on iCloud Photos, make sure that you have enough space to store your entire collection. You can see how much space you need and then upgrade your storage plan if necessary.

Turn on iCloud Photos

It's easy to get started. Just turn on iCloud Photos in your Settings and make sure that you're signed in with the same Apple ID on all of your devices. On your Mac, go to System Preferences > iCloud and click the Options button next to Photos. Then select iCloud Photos.

Keep your photo library organized

On your Mac, your photo collection is separated into four main categories: Photos, Moments, Collections, and Years. The Photos tab shows all your photos and videos in chronological order. In Moments, Collections, and Years, you'll find your photos and videos grouped together based on the time and place they were taken.

The Photos app sorts your photos into Memories, Favorites, People, and Places in the sidebar under Library. The sidebar also shows what you and your friends have shared, your photo albums, and projects that you've created.

Do more with the Photos app

Your Mac is the place that you go to get things done. That’s why the Photos app makes it easier than ever to create a stunning slideshow, share with anyone you like, and quickly find the moment you’re looking for. All with a few clicks.

Play a slideshow

Instantly prepare a slideshow directly in Photos. Open any album and click Slideshow. Customize the theme and music, and you're ready to go.

Or you can click the title of a Moment, Collection, or Year. Then click .

Share with friends

Use to share photos in Shared Albums, Mail, and more. Or send photos to your social media accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Select multiple photos

The Photos app makes working with multiple photos and videos from your library quick and efficient. Just select more than one photo or video, and immediately see how many you've selected in the upper-right corner of the Photos app. Then you can move them into an album, hide, delete, get info, and more.

Search your photos

Find the photo or video you're looking for in no time. Just use the search bar that's built directly into the Photos toolbar. You can search for photos using names of family and friends, locations, or what appears in the photos, like cake or balloons.

Manual For Mac Photos And Images

Or try the filter in the upper-right corner of the Photos app. Next to Showing, click All Items. Then choose to show only Favorites, Edited, Photos, or Videos.

Delete photos and videos from your library

If there are photos and videos that you don't want anymore, you can delete one at a time, or several.

Apple Photos Manual

Delete one photo

Select the photo that you want to delete.
Press the Delete key.
Confirm that you want to delete the photo.

Delete multiple photos

Press and hold the Command key.
Select the photos that you want to delete.
Press the Delete key.
Confirm that you want to delete the photos.

When you delete a photo, it goes into your Recently Deleted album, where it stays for 30 days. If you use iCloud Photos, the photos that you delete are moved into the Recently Deleted album on your other devices too. After 30 days, Photos deletes the photos permanently. You can permanently delete photos right away when you click Delete All in the Recently Deleted album.

When you delete photos directly from an album by pressing the Delete key, you only remove them from the album and not your entire photo collection. If you want to delete photos from both the album and your collection, press Command-Delete.

Edit your photos

Photos includes powerful, easy-to-use editing tools. You can apply adjustments to your photos and make them look exactly the way you like. Then if you want to start over, you can always revert to the original photo. Here's how to get started:

From the Photos view, or from within an album, double-click the photo you want to edit.
Click Edit or in the upper-right corner of Photos.
The editing tools appear along the right side of the window. Click the tool you'd like to use.

After you edit your photo, click Done. Want to start over? Click Revert to Original. If you use iCloud Photos, you'll see the changes on all of your devices.

With Photos for macOS High Sierra and later, you can also send a photo to most third-party photo apps for editing, then save the changes right back into your library. Learn more about editing your photos with third-party apps and extensions.

See and add information about a photo

You can also add details to your photos, like a description, keywords, or a specific location. You can even Add Faces to name your friends and family in each photo.

Manual For Mac Photos And Pictures

To view the Info window, double-click a photo to open it and then click in the upper-right corner, or select a photo and use the keyboard shortcut Command-I. Once you add information, you can use the Search bar to find photos by keyword, title, description, faces, or location.

iCloud Photos.One convenient home for all your photos and videos.