Overview of Apple Photos on Your Mac
Apple Photos is the central hub for managing pictures and videos on your Mac. Whether your photos come from an iPhone, camera, or external drive, Photos brings everything together in one place. This overview explains how the app is organized, how to browse your library, and where key features live so you can feel comfortable navigating Photos from day one.
🎓 What You’ll Learn
What Apple Photos is and how it works on the Mac
How the Photos sidebar is structured
The difference between Photos, Moments, Collections, and Years
How Memories highlight photos automatically
How Favorites, People, and Places help you find pictures faster
Where imports, albums, and projects live
How to use filters and basic editing tools
📚 Understanding the Photos Library
The Library section is where all photos and videos live. This is the master collection, and everything else in Photos references content from here.
At the top of the library, Apple provides built-in views:
Years groups photos by year
Collections groups related events
Moments breaks events into smaller segments
Photos shows every individual image
These views help narrow down large libraries quickly.
⭐ Memories and Favorites
Photos automatically creates Memories by grouping photos based on time, location, and activity. These often include slideshows and highlights without any manual setup.
Favorites allow you to mark photos with a heart, making them easy to find later using the Favorites section or filters.
👤 People and 📍 Places
The People feature uses face recognition to group photos by individuals. Once people are named, Photos becomes even more powerful for searching.
Places uses GPS data to display photos on a map. Photos taken with phones and GPS-enabled cameras appear automatically, making it easy to browse photos by location instead of date.
📥 Imports and Media Types
The Imports section shows recently added content, making it easy to confirm new photos were successfully imported.
Photos also automatically organizes media into categories such as:
Videos
Selfies
Panoramas
This saves time when browsing specific types of media.
📁 Albums and Projects
Albums allow you to organize photos manually, while Projects provide options for creating slideshows, prints, calendars, and books using third-party extensions.
Albums and projects reference photos from your library without duplicating files.
🛠️ Toolbar and Editing Tools
The toolbar includes options to:
View photo information
Share photos
Mark favorites
Rotate images
Search your library
When editing a photo, Photos provides built-in tools for:
Auto enhancement
Adjustments
Filters
Cropping and rotation
These tools allow for powerful edits without leaving the app.