Ebook: Take Control of Photos

Master Apple’s Photos app in macOS, iOS, and iPadOS!

Version 2.1, updated 10/8/2020


This book introduces you to the many features of Apple’s Photos app on Mac, iPad, and iPhone, with advice on navigating the interface, editing your images, searching your library like a pro, syncing with iCloud Photos, sharing photos with others, and creating photo books.


Get to know Apple’s Photos app and how best to use it to import, manage, edit, sync, and share your photos in Big Sur and iOS 14/iPadOS 14! As the successor to Apple’s iPhoto and Aperture apps, Photos has a more refined interface and deeper connections to iCloud, and it runs faster. 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 161-page book replaces and more than doubles the length of Jason's previous book Photos: A Take Control Crash Course. It's now a full-length Take Control title with much more detail.


In this book, you’ll learn how to:



Import photos from cameras, mobile devices, or memory cards

Use multiple Photos libraries

Navigate the Photos interface, including the sidebar and icons

View, edit, or disable Live Photos

Organize your library by using enhanced search features, adding metadata, building albums, and creating smart albums

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 People features, and get summary views

Sync and share your photos with iCloud

View your photos on an Apple TV

Share your photos via social media, export them out of Photos, or turn them into slideshows

Create printed objects (such as books and calendars) from your photos using third-party services



Jason covers cross-platform changes such as and improved Memories feature, the new sidebar on iPads, and support for captions on iOS/iPadOS; plus changes in Big Sur, including new video tools and an updated Retouch tool.