Master the finer points of Photos

1. Add adjustments

When editing a photo, the Adjust tool initially provides three options: Light, Color and Black & White. For more, click Add and choose one; click Save as Default in that list to use your chosen adjustments by default in future.

2. View fine details

Adjustments are first presented as a single bar that you can drag across to change the effect’s strength. Put the pointer over the adjustment and click the downwards-facing arrow that appears to reveal more settings and to access an auto button.

3. Search with smarts

We’re not quite at the point Photos can easily pinpoint a specific snap within many thousands, but the version that comes with Sierra now enables you to search for places, people, and even objects; try searching for ‘tree’ or ‘food’.

4. Reduce motion

Sierra introduced accessibility settings that reduce motion in the system and apps. They don’t affect everything they should; Photos, though, has its own item in its General preferences, which removes the jarring-to-some animation that plays when you change sections by clicking the buttons in its toolbar.

5. Save some memories

The Memories section essentially shows automatically generated albums; Photos can be inspired in what it pulls out of your library. Scroll to the bottom of a memory to add it to your favourites, which appear in the Albums section.

6. Share your photos

Select some photos, click the Share button and pick iCloud Photo Sharing. You can invite other people to subscribe to a shared album. While viewing one of your shared albums, click the toolbar’s People button to: set whether others can post; toggle notifications; and turn the album into a web page.