Also available: A bundle of Take Control of iPhone Photography and Take Control of Photos for just $20.
Get to know Apple’s Photos app and how best to use it to import, manage, edit, sync, and share your photos in macOS 26 Tahoe and iOS 26/iPadOS 26! Following the expert advice of Jason Snell, publisher of Six Colors and former lead editor at Macworld, you’ll learn how to navigate Photos like a pro!
This version of the book is strictly about Photos in Apple’s version 26 operating systems. However, all owners of this version can also download the previous version of the book, which covered macOS 15 Sequoia, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18.
In this book, you’ll learn how to:
- Import photos from cameras, mobile devices, or memory cards
- Navigate the Photos interface, including the greatly revised single-pane view on iPhones and iPads
- Use Apple Intelligence (on supported devices) to remove unwanted elements from your photos or create movies from your photos based on a text prompt
- View, edit, or disable Live Photos
- Organize your library by using enhanced search features, adding metadata, building albums, and creating smart albums
- Locate and remove duplicate photos
- Search for text, faces, and other objects in photos
- Get information about live events (such as concerts and sporting events) in your photos
- Edit your photos using quick fixes like cropping, applying filters, and fixing red-eye and rotation problems
- Use advanced editing techniques within Photos and edit using external apps like Photoshop
- Manage your photo collection using the Memories and Collections features, and get summary views
- Sync and share individual photos and videos with iCloud
- Use iCloud Shared Photos to share a separate library with up to five other people
- Work with multiple Photos libraries
- Show off your photos on an iPhone or iPad, including customizing your lock screen
- Use the Camera app in iPhone and iPad to capture photos and videos
- View your photos on an Apple TV, and use them for wallpaper and widgets on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch
- Share your photos via social media, export them from Photos, or turn them into slideshows
- Create printed objects (such as books and calendars) from your photos using third-party services
Jason Snell has been writing about Apple since it was doomed—1994, to be exact—and was the lead editor for Macworld for more than a decade. He also oversaw editorial operations for PCWorld, TechHive, and Greenbot. He currently writes about technology at sixcolors.com, and hosts the Upgrade and Download podcasts at relay.fm, and produces and hosts many other podcasts at theincomparable.com.
What’s New in Version 4.2
This update is designed to address changes introduced in macOS 26 Tahoe, iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26:
- Mac/iPad unity. Many interface behaviors between Mac and iPad/iPhone are now the same, so the text has changed throughout and it’s all a lot clearer.
- Camera App changes. In iOS 26, Apple has simplified the Camera app interface, which moved a bunch of stuff previously on screen into submenus. The book has been updated accordingly.
- Collections View. Photos now offers a few different ways to organize the Collections View. See “Customize the Collections View.”
- Live Event Details. Photos has added concert and sports event information to the Get Info window on iPadOS and iOS, making it easier to answer the question, “Who was playing in that game?” See “Use the Info Window.”
- Spatial Scene. Added information about Spatial Scenes. See “Enter Spatial Scene Mode.”
What Was New in Version 4.1
This update was primarily designed to address features Apple introduced with the iPhone 16:
- Styles. Apple replaced the Filters and Photographic Styles features in iPhone 16 models with a new “Styles” system, now detailed in “Adjust Items with Filters and Styles.”
- Camera Control. The iPhone 16 models come with a new Camera Control button, which I’ve added to “Use the Camera App.”
- Books and Calendars. For the first time in a few years, I test-drove a bunch of book- and calendar-printing services that integrate with Photos. See “Build Books and Calendars.” I added more to this chapters based on receiving printed books and building a bunch of sample calendars.
What Was New in the Fourth Edition
In macOS 15 Sequoia, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18, Photos has grown and changed. As a result, I updated this book. Along with many smaller changes, this edition adds the following:
- New interface. On a Mac, things have only changed a little, but on an iPhone or iPad they’ve changed a lot. There’s a new single-pane view with the Library above and Collections below. See “Navigate the Photos Interface.”
- Collections. A bunch of different Photos features—People, Memories, and Days among them—have been combined into a fairly unified interface called Collections. See “Browse and Customize Your Collections.”
- Wallpapers and widgets. Apple keeps adding new ways to show off your photos on the lock screens of iPhones and iPads, and in the Photos watch face on watchOS. See “Show Off Your Photos.”
- Apple Intelligence. Beginning with macOS 15.1, iOS 18.1, and iPadOS 18.1, a few new machine-learning features come to Photos—but only on devices compatible with Apple Intelligence. (That’s M-series iPads and Macs, and iPhone 15 Pro, Pro Max, or later.) Clean Up lets you remove stuff from the backgrounds of photos; see Remove Distractions With Clean Up. You can also now have Photos create a Movie for you based entirely on a text prompt you enter, using Apple Intelligence; see the “View and Make Movies” section in the “Browse and Customize Your Collections” chapter.
Clive Huggan (verified owner) –
Like all Jason Snell’s writings I’ve read over the years, Take Control of Photos is an expert, extremely comprehensive, thoughtfully written book. I frequently recommend it to colleagues, friends and user group members.
The only reservation I have with this particular book is that when I want information about Photos on the Mac, I have to be careful that I’m not reading about Photos on iOS; sometimes I have to look back a page or so to be sure. I’d have to say that I’d prefer a Mac part separate from an iOS part — which shouldn’t be much of a problem with an electronic book; there could be cross-platform links where the reader might want to go between Mac and iOS.
But that’s a minor quiblle; it’s a book that I heartily recommend!
Arlan Smith (verified owner) –
I agree, please keep the Mac and IOS parts completely separate in future versions. Otherwise, there is lots of good stuff here if you can just keep the separate operating system versions sorted.
Joe Kissell –
@Clive, @Arlan Thanks for your feedback. Unfortunately, there’s no practical way to keep the Mac stuff separate from the iOS/iPadOS stuff, because that would require massive amounts of duplicate text. It would make the book vastly longer and even more cumbersome to navigate. Sorry, we realize it’s not ideal either way, but our current approach is the lesser of two evils. —Joe
Christopher Mackay (verified owner) –
This book is the first place I send people with question about Apple Photos. Snell’s approach is pragmatic, thorough, and accessible — not an easy balance to strike, let alone to maintain across this book’s regular updates to keep pace with Apple’s annual updates.