Understanding Albums In Photos

The Photos app uses the term Albums to refer to a grouping of photos that you create. But unlike physical photo albums, you do not create a copy of the photo each time you add it to an album. Only one copy of the photo exists in your library, even through you can place it in as many albums as you like.

Comments: 28 Responses to “Understanding Albums In Photos”

    Daniel McNeil
    8 years ago

    When editing a photo, that edit shows in all areas that display the photo, but what if you want the edited photo in only 1 album, for example? I take lots of photos of my granddaughter and with some of the better portrait types of pics, I like to create a B&W and put them in their own album, but I don't want the original portrait to be B&W in All Photos.

    8 years ago

    Daniel: You have two options, depending on what you really want. Remember that the editing is non-descrutive. You can always "revert to original." So you can keep it as the edited version knowing that you can always go back if you want. The second option is to simply duplicate the photo. Then edit only one of the two. This will create an actual copy of the photo, so now you have two photos stored on your drive. You can also combine these ideas and leave it as one edited copy for now, then if you wan too keep that edited copy and also get a copy that is the original you can duplicate the photo and "revert" one of the two.
    One thing to keep in mind that you can also always export either the edited version or the original (File, Export).
    I should probably do a video on how edits are non-descrutive at some point.

    Brian Dameier
    8 years ago

    This was "must see". If you loved events, then you must learn the new definition of "album". Very helpful

    Jim Bean
    8 years ago

    Just what I needed Gary, more like this please.

    Pharfel
    8 years ago

    More tutorials on photo organization. I've been lost since iPhoto. Thanks for this one. Verrrry helpful.

    Linda
    8 years ago

    Gary, your make it so easy to follow all your videos. Keep it up!

    Scott Griswold
    8 years ago

    When I move Pictures to albums, I sometimes end up moving the same bunch more than once... Without having to deleting every other one is there a way to find and remove extra's? also is there a way to open photos twice so I can view all photos and also one of the albums enabling me to see whether I have already moved a picture to that album? Thank you..

    8 years ago

    Scott: Not sure what you mean by "extras." You can only have a photo in an album once. If you try to add it again it won't change anything.

    Al Bruce
    8 years ago

    If I build an album with many pictures and later decide to delete some of them will the pictures just be deleted from the album or from the entire library?

    8 years ago

    Al: If you delete (remove) a photo from an album you are not deleting it from your library. You are just removing it from that album.

    Paddy Zoller
    8 years ago

    Thanks for the great video. Just want to verify something. Photos shows photos by the date they were IMPORTED to the computer/photos program, right? While All Photos has them in the date order based on on the camera or phone date/time. Would love to know if you can verify this. It was a significant difference that I recently struggled with as I coordinated photos from 4 sources (not all with correct time settings on the devices). Made a big difference for the iMovie I was creating.

    8 years ago

    Paddy: both views should show them in date order by the date embedded in the photo.

    Barbara H.
    8 years ago

    Hi Gary, Let's say I create various albums, and my view looks comparable to your sample. I want to export (to save on the desktop and to email) and to print photos. Does it matter where I go or which photo I use to do that--the specific created album or the all-photos album or the all photos? (I'm still using Yosemite.)
    And by the way, about the date, mentioned by the previous person, I noticed that there was the difference he mentioned, and it was annoying.

    8 years ago

    Barbara: No, it doesn't matter where you drag from or where you select when you do actions like printing or exporting.

    8 years ago

    Barbara and Paddy: Seems you are right. If you go to View, Sort when viewing All Photos it looks like "date added" is the only option... for now.

    Linda DesGroseilliers
    8 years ago

    Great info on this one. I've been struggling with the new "Photos" app as opposed to the iPhoto before. One question - is it possible to add captions to photos?

    8 years ago

    Linda: Depends on what you mean by captions. You can add a title to every photo, certainly.

    Barbara H.
    8 years ago

    Thanks a lot, Gary. I have another Photos/Album question. I can't figure out how to name (not caption) the photos, especially when I export them to the desktop to use. Unlike easy iPhoto, I just don't see it happening...?

    8 years ago

    Barbara: If yo use File, Export then you get a File Name option that includes by title.

    jerry
    8 years ago

    One of the things I desperately miss using the mac is to open 2 folders at once. i.e. the photos folder and a folder I named. That way, I can see if I have already added a certain photo to the new folder and see if I am missing photos I want in there. Hopefully you can understand what I'm talking about

    Frank
    8 years ago

    Is there a way to see which pictures in 'all photos' are NOT in any album? I feel that pictures get lost if there are not in an thematic album otherwise there are thousands pictures in 'all photos'. Thanks.

    8 years ago

    Frank: Yes. Create a Smart Album. Set it to "Album" "is not" "Any"
    Then you can look in that Smart Album to see what is not in any album.

    Bill (William)
    8 years ago

    Garry, should I expect albums created on, say, my iPad to be duplicated on my iMac. As far as I can see this does not happen.

    Bill (William)
    8 years ago

    PS, both are logged in to iCloud.

    8 years ago

    Bill: You should see the same photos, albums and other things on both your iPad and Mac if you are using iCloud Photo Library. Are you? Being "logged in to iCloud" is not the same thing. You can be logged in, but not using iCloud Photo Library.

    Bill (William)
    8 years ago

    Thanks very much.

    John
    8 years ago

    Hi Gary. The location data shown in photos is presumably obtained from the GPS info in the metadata. I added a photo from South Africa recently but it has come up in photos with my home address as the location. Is there any way to change this?

    8 years ago

    John: Yes. Select the photo, choose Window, Info. There you can assign a location to the photo.

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