What’s New in Apple Photos with macOS Big Sur
When macOS Big Sur launched, most of the attention went to the redesigned interface and system-wide visual changes. Photos didn’t receive a complete overhaul, but Apple did introduce several meaningful improvements that make everyday photo and video editing more flexible.
This post walks through the specific changes to Apple Photos in macOS Big Sur, focusing on what’s new, what stayed the same, and which updates are actually worth using.
🎓 What You’ll Learn
How the Photos interface compares to earlier macOS versions
What video editing tools were added in Big Sur
How the new Vibrance adjustment works
How photo captions function and sync across devices
What changed with filters and retouching
How Memories were improved
🖥 Photos Interface in macOS Big Sur
At first glance, the Photos app layout in Big Sur looks very similar to earlier versions like Catalina and Mojave. The sidebar structure remains largely unchanged, with access to Library, Memories, People, Favorites, and Albums.
Media Types and Shared Albums continue to work the same way, providing automatic organization for videos, selfies, panoramas, and more. While the overall layout didn’t change dramatically, the visual styling aligns more closely with Big Sur’s refreshed system design.
🎬 Video Editing Improvements
One of the most noticeable updates in Photos with Big Sur is expanded video editing support.
Videos can now be edited using many of the same tools available for photos, including:
Trimming the beginning and end of clips
Applying adjustments and filters
Cropping and rotating video frames
These tools are not a replacement for dedicated video editors like iMovie or Final Cut Pro, but they are useful for quick edits directly inside Photos.
🎨 Vibrance Adjustment Tool
Big Sur adds a new Vibrance control to the photo adjustment tools.
Vibrance enhances colors more selectively than saturation, boosting less dominant colors without oversaturating skin tones. This allows photos to appear more vivid while still maintaining a natural look.
The before-and-after preview makes it easy to see how the adjustment affects the image.
🏷 Photo Captions
Photos in Big Sur introduces the ability to add captions directly to images.
Captions are stored as metadata and:
Appear when viewing photo details
Sync across devices using iCloud Photos
Can be searched later using Search
While captions may not be practical for every photo, they can be helpful for organizing important moments or searchable descriptions.
🖌 Filters and Retouch Enhancements
Apple refined the filter and retouch tools in Photos with Big Sur.
Filters now allow more control over intensity, letting you fine-tune the effect rather than applying a fixed look. Retouching also benefits from improved image processing, making object and blemish removal more accurate.
These are incremental improvements, but they help streamline basic edits.
🧠 Improvements to Memories
Memories continue to be an automatically generated feature that groups photos by time, location, people, and themes.
With Big Sur, Memories feel more polished and appear more frequently with relevant collections such as:
Events and holidays
Trips and locations
People and pets
Memories can surface older photos and create highlight collections without any manual organization.
🧾 Final Thoughts
Apple Photos in macOS Big Sur didn’t receive a full redesign, but the updates focus on usability and polish. Expanded video editing, better color tools, searchable captions, and improved Memories all contribute to a more capable Photos app without adding complexity.
If you already use Photos regularly, these updates are subtle but useful additions.