Photos

Photos now allows you to edit videos, add new effects, and much more

Photos in Big Sur received a few handy improvements. You can now crop videos, and add filters and adjustments to them. There’s a new Vibrance effect and you can adjust the intensity of Portrait Lighting effects. And the Retouch tool has been improved, along with the Memories feature. Here are a few tricks to get the most from Photos.

1 Change the key photo for an album

This only works for albums you have created. Open the album, ≈-click on the photo you want to make the new album cover and choose ‘Make key photo’.

2 Add a caption

You can now add captions to photos, as well as add keywords and location information. ≈-click on any photo and choose ‘Get information’ or select a photo and press the ‘i’ in the toolbar. You’ll see text boxes where you can add a title, caption, and keywords. You can also start typing a location in the Location box to see a list of options. Choose one to see it on the map.

3 Sort thumbnails in albums

In any album, click on View in the menu bar, choose Sort and pick an option. Alternatively, you can click and drag any photo to any position in the album view. Use the slider above the album title to adjust the size of thumbnails.

4 Store your albums in a folder

If you have a lot of albums, finding the one you want can be tricky. To make it easier, group albums in a folder. You could have one for, say, family holidays, and one for day trips. Click on the File menu and choose New Folder. Give it a name and drag it anywhere in the list of albums. To add an album, just click on it, and drag and drop it on to the folder.

5 Move your Photos Library

If you’re running short of space on your boot drive, you can move your Photos library to an external drive. Copy your Photos library file from your Pictures folder to the external drive. Hold down the å key and launch Photos. In the window that opens, choose Other Library and navigate to the version on the external drive. Click Open. If you get a message telling you that you need to download items from iCloud, click ‘delete incomplete items’. In Photos, choose Photos > Preferences > General and choose ‘Use as System Library’.

The Info window allows you to add a caption to a photograph, as well as a title, keywords and location information, which is really beneficial when you’re searching for a specific shot.