The photos are best organized on a Mac computer through the built-in Photos app. Through this app, not only can you manage your images in different ways, but you can also sync them altogether through your iCloud account. The application is pretty smooth with its operations and easy to follow through with its different features.
How to Organize Photos on Mac?
Like any other application, you can access the Photos app either from the Finder or your Launchpad. It offers the most convenient way for you to organize your photos. And once you do so, you can view and alter all your pictures directly through this application in an effective and efficient manner.
View Photos From the Photo Library
The library contains all the media files imported into your Photos app. These pictures and videos can be sorted and viewed either in Years, Months, or Days format. If you choose to do so, the application will compile all the images that were taken/edited in the said timeframe. For instance, Years will show you the images and videos you clicked/edited in 2022, 2021, etc., and Months will show you the images and videos that were taken on October 2022, January 2021, etc. But, not all the pictures stored on your Mac computer will not automatically appear on the Photos app. That is because all the media files on your Photos app can be synced through your iCloud account. Doing so will let you view all those media files from multiple devices that have the same Apple ID. You can also enable or disable the iCloud sync can at your will. So, taking this into consideration, here’s how you import images to the Photos app:
Switch Your Photo Library
The Photos library might not be the only library on your system. For e.g., images taken from your system webcam are stored in a different library and different locations on your computer. You can, however, directly switch the main photo library on your Photos application through its preference settings. Here’s how to do so:
Group by People & Places
On the Photos application, you have the option to group your images in terms of People and Places. These options can be accessed from the left sidebar of your application. The People feature of the Photos app automatically scans the faces of all the people in your photo library and group the images respective to the faces in them. You can further name these image groups by clicking on Unnamed and typing the desired name. Places is another feature of the Photos app that groups the images respective to the place the image was clicked on. However, all images dont have a place/location assigned to them automatically. So, you can manually add location information to the photos in your library. Here’s how you do it:
Get Creative With Memories
Memories offer a fun way to view and organize your media files. It shows a slideshow of the selected images, along with music in the background. The slideshow can be altered to move at a faster or slower pace as well. The Photos app automatically creates memories depending on certain image information, such as the time or location the image was clicked on. However, you have the option to manually create memories of the selected images from your photo library as well.
Create New Memory
To create a new memory, follow the steps shown below:
Organize Your Memories
You can further organize your memories by placing the selected ones on a separate tab. That is, if you play memory from the Photos application and click on the Favourites icon from the ribbon menu, the particular memory will be assigned to the Favourite Memories tab. To remove memory from the Favourite Memories tab, right-click on it and choose to Remove from Favourite Memory. And to delete a Memory entirely, go to the Memories tab and click on Delete Memory. You can alter the pace of your memory slideshow as well. Here’s how you can do it:
Manage Your Albums
Albums are collections of your photos, videos and other media files. Albums offer the best way to organize the images on your Mac computer. Making separate albums for images clicked on different occasions makes it easier for you to navigate through your library and find the required image.
Create New Album
Unlike Memories, People and Places, albums are not automatically created by your Photos application. You can create a new album and organize them by following the steps shown below: Smart album is a feature of Photos that lets you specify certain image conditions for that particular album. Once you pick the conditions, the system automatically creates a (smart) album consisting of all the images that match those conditions. All the albums you create on the Photos app can be accessed through the Photos sidebar. You can change the order of these albums by holding them and dragging them up or down on the sidebar album list. When you drag an album and drop it on top of another, you’ll get an option to Merge those two albums.
Add Pictures to an Album
To add pictures and videos to an album, follow these steps:
Create Shared Albums
Shared Albums lets you share your albums with your friends. You can create a shared album and invite your iCloud contacts to view the images inside the album. The invitees can also add their images to that album. Here’s how you can configure a shared album on your system:
Manage Your Photo Catalogue in a New Folder
Folders contain albums inside of them. By default, you’ll see four folders on your Photos application sidebar; Media Types, Shared Albums, My Albums and My Projects. Media Types breakdowns your media files into Videos, Selfies, Portrait, Time-lapse, and Screenshots. You can view the required media file from these independent breakdowns. Shared Albums and My Albums contain all the respective albums you manually created. Similarly, My Project groups every project you’ve made. However, you can create your own new folder as well. You can then add the required albums to this folder to better optimize and manage your photo catalogue. Here’s how to do so:
Create New Projects
Projects in Photos come in the form of photo extensions. These extensions let you print out a physical copy of Books, Calendars, Cards, Wall Decor and Prints of your selected photos. The final ‘printed’ product will be physically delivered to your location. To get this option, simply click the ‘+’ sign beside My Projects and select a project from the Photos sidebar. The process will take you through multiple steps to choose your image(s) and its layout. Once the final layout is decided, you have to confirm the order, pay a certain amount of price and wait for the product to arrive at your location. There is one virtual project that you can create from the My Projects menu. That is, the Slideshow project lets you create a slideshow for the selected images along with music in the background. These slideshows are presented on Photos in the form of a Project and not as a Memory. So, here’s how you create a Slideshow project:
Sync Your Photos Through iCloud
When you sync Photos on iCloud, your media library is copied to the iCloud servers. You can then view the library from multiple devices that are connected with the same Apple ID or from the iCloud website. If you are running out of space on your Mac, you can delete the media library completely from the system, as the entire catalogue will get uploaded to the iCloud servers. So, here’s how you sync your photos through iCloud:
title: “How To Organize Photos On Mac” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-09” author: “Bryan Dunkin”
The photos are best organized on a Mac computer through the built-in Photos app. Through this app, not only can you manage your images in different ways, but you can also sync them altogether through your iCloud account. The application is pretty smooth with its operations and easy to follow through with its different features.
How to Organize Photos on Mac?
Like any other application, you can access the Photos app either from the Finder or your Launchpad. It offers the most convenient way for you to organize your photos. And once you do so, you can view and alter all your pictures directly through this application in an effective and efficient manner.
View Photos From the Photo Library
The library contains all the media files imported into your Photos app. These pictures and videos can be sorted and viewed either in Years, Months, or Days format. If you choose to do so, the application will compile all the images that were taken/edited in the said timeframe. For instance, Years will show you the images and videos you clicked/edited in 2022, 2021, etc., and Months will show you the images and videos that were taken on October 2022, January 2021, etc. But, not all the pictures stored on your Mac computer will not automatically appear on the Photos app. That is because all the media files on your Photos app can be synced through your iCloud account. Doing so will let you view all those media files from multiple devices that have the same Apple ID. You can also enable or disable the iCloud sync can at your will. So, taking this into consideration, here’s how you import images to the Photos app:
Switch Your Photo Library
The Photos library might not be the only library on your system. For e.g., images taken from your system webcam are stored in a different library and different locations on your computer. You can, however, directly switch the main photo library on your Photos application through its preference settings. Here’s how to do so:
Group by People & Places
On the Photos application, you have the option to group your images in terms of People and Places. These options can be accessed from the left sidebar of your application. The People feature of the Photos app automatically scans the faces of all the people in your photo library and group the images respective to the faces in them. You can further name these image groups by clicking on Unnamed and typing the desired name. Places is another feature of the Photos app that groups the images respective to the place the image was clicked on. However, all images dont have a place/location assigned to them automatically. So, you can manually add location information to the photos in your library. Here’s how you do it:
Get Creative With Memories
Memories offer a fun way to view and organize your media files. It shows a slideshow of the selected images, along with music in the background. The slideshow can be altered to move at a faster or slower pace as well. The Photos app automatically creates memories depending on certain image information, such as the time or location the image was clicked on. However, you have the option to manually create memories of the selected images from your photo library as well.
Create New Memory
To create a new memory, follow the steps shown below:
Organize Your Memories
You can further organize your memories by placing the selected ones on a separate tab. That is, if you play memory from the Photos application and click on the Favourites icon from the ribbon menu, the particular memory will be assigned to the Favourite Memories tab. To remove memory from the Favourite Memories tab, right-click on it and choose to Remove from Favourite Memory. And to delete a Memory entirely, go to the Memories tab and click on Delete Memory. You can alter the pace of your memory slideshow as well. Here’s how you can do it:
Manage Your Albums
Albums are collections of your photos, videos and other media files. Albums offer the best way to organize the images on your Mac computer. Making separate albums for images clicked on different occasions makes it easier for you to navigate through your library and find the required image.
Create New Album
Unlike Memories, People and Places, albums are not automatically created by your Photos application. You can create a new album and organize them by following the steps shown below: Smart album is a feature of Photos that lets you specify certain image conditions for that particular album. Once you pick the conditions, the system automatically creates a (smart) album consisting of all the images that match those conditions. All the albums you create on the Photos app can be accessed through the Photos sidebar. You can change the order of these albums by holding them and dragging them up or down on the sidebar album list. When you drag an album and drop it on top of another, you’ll get an option to Merge those two albums.
Add Pictures to an Album
To add pictures and videos to an album, follow these steps:
Create Shared Albums
Shared Albums lets you share your albums with your friends. You can create a shared album and invite your iCloud contacts to view the images inside the album. The invitees can also add their images to that album. Here’s how you can configure a shared album on your system:
Manage Your Photo Catalogue in a New Folder
Folders contain albums inside of them. By default, you’ll see four folders on your Photos application sidebar; Media Types, Shared Albums, My Albums and My Projects. Media Types breakdowns your media files into Videos, Selfies, Portrait, Time-lapse, and Screenshots. You can view the required media file from these independent breakdowns. Shared Albums and My Albums contain all the respective albums you manually created. Similarly, My Project groups every project you’ve made. However, you can create your own new folder as well. You can then add the required albums to this folder to better optimize and manage your photo catalogue. Here’s how to do so:
Create New Projects
Projects in Photos come in the form of photo extensions. These extensions let you print out a physical copy of Books, Calendars, Cards, Wall Decor and Prints of your selected photos. The final ‘printed’ product will be physically delivered to your location. To get this option, simply click the ‘+’ sign beside My Projects and select a project from the Photos sidebar. The process will take you through multiple steps to choose your image(s) and its layout. Once the final layout is decided, you have to confirm the order, pay a certain amount of price and wait for the product to arrive at your location. There is one virtual project that you can create from the My Projects menu. That is, the Slideshow project lets you create a slideshow for the selected images along with music in the background. These slideshows are presented on Photos in the form of a Project and not as a Memory. So, here’s how you create a Slideshow project:
Sync Your Photos Through iCloud
When you sync Photos on iCloud, your media library is copied to the iCloud servers. You can then view the library from multiple devices that are connected with the same Apple ID or from the iCloud website. If you are running out of space on your Mac, you can delete the media library completely from the system, as the entire catalogue will get uploaded to the iCloud servers. So, here’s how you sync your photos through iCloud:
