If you're an iPhone user, you know how useful and versatile your phone's primary app (Photos) can be. It's also available on Mac computers and includes many powerful features to help you organize and export your photos to files on your Mac computer, or share them with others via email and other applications right from your computer.
You can also edit them using the photo editing tools built into the app, along with other features that you may not have used before. Here are some tips for getting the most out of the Photos app on your Mac:
1- Hide hidden albums:
Sometimes you want to keep your photos in a safe place so that they remain private and no one can access them. The Photos app offers a feature called Hide Album that allows you to add all your private photos so that no one can access them.
However, since anyone can find hidden albums easily, there is a hidden albums feature that you can use on your Mac computer as well by following these steps:
- Open the Photos app on your Mac computer.
- Click View in the sidebar.
- Select Hide hidden albums.
- Hidden albums disappear instantly. To view them, repeat the same previous steps and select "Show hidden albums".
2- Add a password for the hidden album and the recently deleted album:
If you want to protect all your private photos and videos, you can password protect your photo albums so that only you can access them.
Hidden and Recently Deleted albums should be password protected on your computer by default. To be sure, follow these steps:
- Open the Photos app, then tap Photos in the sidebar.
- Click (settings) to set.
- On the General tab, tap Use Touch ID or Passcode.
The next time you want to reopen a hidden or deleted album, you'll need to use Touch ID or enter your Mac's passcode.
You'll find that once you open a password-protected photo album, it stays open for a few minutes before the Photos app closes it automatically. However, if you want to lock it manually, just click the lock icon next to the album name in the sidebar.
3- Find photos easily with the Spotlight tool:
Using the Spotlight tool on a Mac computer is the best way to easily find the files you need. You can also use it to search for images by following these steps:
- Open Spotlight by pressing the spacebar and the command key on your keyboard
- Type something so your Mac can find the photo. For example, you can write the text of the photo, the name of the person (if the Photos app knows that), or say where the photo was taken.
- If Spotlight finds something, it will display all images that match your description. However, if the image you are looking for does not appear in the results, you must click on the Show More option to see more images.
4- Export the image to a file on your Mac:
Aside from having all your photos in the Photos app, you can also export them to any file on your Mac computer and access them from the Finder. There are several ways to export your photos. The quickest way is to open the Photos app and select the photos you want to export. Then drag and drop the image from the Photos app into the file of your choice. Or you can follow these steps:
- Select the photos to be exported.
- Go to the File button on the menu bar and select Export.
- Choose the option (Export Single Image) or (Export Single Image Original Unmodified).
- Edit the name and format of the image, then click (Export) when done.
- Select the folder you want to export the photos to and click Export again.
- You can also send photos via email, messages, AirDrop, etc. All you have to do is select the photo and click the Share button at the top of the Photos app window.
5- Edit photos directly in the Photos app:
In the Photos app, you can edit any photo, add different filters, or let your Mac automatically enhance it. To do this, follow these steps:
- Locate the image you want to edit and double-click it.
- If you want your Mac to automatically enhance the image, click the Auto Enhance button.
- If you want to make changes manually, tap the Edit button on the top left of the Photos app and start editing the photos to your liking.
- When you're done editing, tap Done in the top right.
If you don't like the changes you made, click (revert to original) to return the image to its original location. To compare your changes to the original image, click View Unchanged Image in the upper left. Corner of the Photos app.