Using External Editors With the Mac Photos App

While Photos has a lot of adjustment and cropping tools, you can also use your favorite image editor directly with the Photos app. You can choose to edit the photo in an editor and have the results saved back to your library, or you can use an editing extension for even tighter integration. See examples using Affinity Photo and Pixelmator Pro.

Comments: 6 Responses to “Using External Editors With the Mac Photos App”

    Patrick Mc Namee
    2 years ago

    Gary great movie and for me Affinity Photo is really all I need

    Michael
    2 years ago

    Thanks Gary. This was a revelation. I didn't know this was possible. I managed to switch over to Adobe Lightroom Classic and carry out the edit. However, I cannot find a way of closing the photo in LR and switching back to the edited photo in Photos. Any thoughts? Thanks Michael BTW there does not seem to be an integrated extension for LR within Photos?

    2 years ago

    Michael: Not sure if Lightroom will work like that as it is also a photo organizer like Photos is.

    Michael
    2 years ago

    Gary, you are absolutely correct regarding the interaction with LR. I think the best summary on the web regarding this subject that I found after your reply was: "Both are image organising databases with a parametric (nondestructive) editing module. Neither is an all-purpose, pixel-based image editor. Because of the way they're designed, you can't use Lightroom as an external editor for very much the same reasons that no other program can use Apple Photos as an external editor"
    Thanks Michael

    Robert Bailey
    2 years ago

    Although I have (and have used) Affinity Photo for over 3 years now, my Photos app (Monterey) does not give me the extensions your screen shows. Is this something I need to do in the Affinity app itself?

    2 years ago

    Robert: Are you using the latest version of macOS and the latest version of Affinity Photo? In System Preferences, Extensions, Photos Editing do you see them there and are they checked?

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