Photos for Mac and iOS: The Missing Manual

Chapter 5. Improving Your Pictures

One of the coolest things about digital photography is the fuss-free manner in which you can edit your pictures. Editing film photography required a high tolerance for the color red, locking yourself in a closet laced with smelly chemicals, and sheer bravery—after all, there’s no undo command in a darkroom. Happily, bringing out the best in your pictures in Photos is easy and non-toxic—and if you change your mind, you can always undo what you’ve done.

This is great news because digital photos that don’t need correcting are as rare as kids who impulsively clean their rooms. When you stop and think about all the variables that come into play when you’re snapping pictures, it’s a miracle any of them turn out halfway decent (though the high quality of today’s cameras—even the ones in smartphones—certainly tip the odds in your favor). Most of your pictures will benefit from some quality time spent in Photos’ Edit mode, and there are lots of ways to get creative.

You’ll find that Photos’ powerful editing tools are suitable for any skill level, so don’t be afraid to jump in and start playing around. Most of the controls are slider-based, so they’re incredibly easy to use. Let’s dive in!

Note

Photos is no Adobe Photoshop, so you can’t use it to do advanced stuff like combine photos into a spiffy collage, swap people’s heads, add text, or remove anything much bigger than a blemish. And because you can’t tell Photos what part of a photo you want to change, the ...