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Simple ways to edit and share photos and videos

Updated: Feb 27

Introduction

This article assumes that you have used Apple Photos before and that you’re using the latest version. It will give links to Apple’s own support about some basic features. This is a guide for iPhones but also applies to iPads which have a similar layout for Apple Photos. Apple Mac’s will be covered in future. This guide focuses on practical tips for everyday use that you won’t generally find in Apple Support. It is always kept up to date.


Basic editing

There are hundreds of apps you can use to edit your photos but I’m only going to cover the default Apple Photos app here as it’s free and has got all the features that most people need. Here is Apple’s guide to editing photos and videos.


Before you edit a photo, you should delete any semi-duplicates. Semi-duplicates are similar photos that aren’t different enough to keep. More on this in a future article.


You can spend a long time editing photos but as we take so many photos I’d suggest just a two key edits that you can do in a matter of seconds;

  • Auto-Adjust. The first button you see when you edit a photo is “Auto” in the Adjust menu. I was click and see how it does. Often it improves things. Now drag the slider below the button left and right to see if you get any better results.

  • Crop: The default photo dimensions are 4:3 (landscape) or 3:4 (portrait).  iPhone screens are much narrower and iPad screens are a bit narrower at 3:2 / 2:3. If you crop a photo to be narrower - I choose 3:2 - then they make the most of the screen you view them on. It may not seem much but it makes a difference. If you’re planning to display photos on a TV screen, create an album with photos cropped to 16:9 (landscape only) to fill the screen. You can change the Camera app settings to take all photos in 16:9 but not 3:2 unfortunately. Finally, it’s often good to zoom in on the subject and crop off the edges (or just two of edges).


These 2 simple photo edits often make a big difference and you can always revert back to the original in the edit menu. I will discuss other photo editing features in the future.


For video editing, you often want to keep just a small portion of the whole video. Here is Apple’s guide how to trim a video.

When you tap ‘Done’, you can ‘Save Video’, or ‘Save Video as New Clip’. I recommend saving the video as a new clip and then deleting the original longer version of the video. This will save you lots of storage space.


File formats and sizes

By default, Apple photos uses a format called HEIC (although sometime you’ll see them labelled HEIF). You can change the default in your camera settings. Apple chose this format because a HEIC photo takes up about half the space of an equivalent quality JPEG file.  However, because JPEG became an international standard first, this is what is normally used when sharing photos. By default, Apple automatically converts your HEIC photos to JPEG when for example you add a photo to a Shared Album or shared them on WhatsApp. As well as converting them, they also compresses them at the same time so the quality goes down slightly. This doesn’t normally matter as most people are viewing the photos on a small screen such as an iPad screen and it’s hard to tell the difference unless you zoom in a lot. If you want to keep the original quality you need to Airdrop, Export or Email the file.


Using Airdrop, Export or Email

If you’re not familiar with Airdrop, here is Apples guide to it.

In a photo or a selection of photos, you’ll the share icon in the bottom left corner. This will give you lots of ways to send. It also shows an Options button at the top if you don’t want to share the photo location for example.

Airdrop, Exporting to a folder and sending via iMessage will keep the original file size and quality by default. The recipient will need to be an Apple user to receive it.


When you send a photo via email you get a choice of size to use (after you press the ’send’ button). Whatever the size Apple will convert it to a JPEG format by default. I’d suggest using the medium size unless the recipient wants to print or display it large.


Using Shared Albums

Shared Albums are a good way to share your photos and videos, but their main disadvantage is that non-Apple users cannot add photos to the album, they can only view and download from them. Here is the Apple guide on how to create one.

I find that people asked to join a Shared Album can get confused because the message they receive says ‘Subscribe’ and not ‘Join’ the album. They think they’re being asked to subscribe to a paying service! To avoid this when setting up a Shared Album you can click the ‘Public website’ box which will give you a web link that you can copy and paste into any messaging app. However, this will make your photos public (if anyone can find them).


A shared album can hold up to 5,000 photos and videos combined. Videos can be up to 15 minutes in length and are delivered at up to 720p resolution, regardless of the original resolution. This is generally plenty. Shared Albums don’t use your iCloud storage - more on this in ‘Saving money / iCloud storage’.


Using WhatsApp

WhatsApp is a great way to share photos quickly. Photos are automatically compressed when you send them and if you want to send a less compressed (better quality) version you can tap the ‘HD’ button before you send it.


A few things to watch out for;

  • Don’t automatically save photos that you receive. They will clutter up your Photos library and use up storage. To switched this off: In WhatsApp, tap Settings (bottom right), then Chats and switch off ‘Save to Photos’

  • Save the photos you want to keep. Photos won’t stay forever on WhatsApp and so don’t forget to save the ones you want to keep.

  • Don’t auto-download videos. Downloading them doesn’t put them in your Photos library but it does use up your phone’s storage. To switch this off; In WhatsApp, tap Settings (bottom right), then Storage and data’. Under Media auto-download, choose Video and select ‘Never’

  • Photos that are saved normally use the date they were posted and not the date the photo was taken. It may therefore end up on the ‘wrong’ place in your library. You can adjust the date & time afterwards. Here’s how;

  • See photo and video information on iPhone – Apple Support (UK)


Using Google Photos

You need a Google account in order to share photos via Google photos. Therefore non-Google account holders cannot add photos to the album, they can only view and download from them. Here is the Google guide on how to create a Shared photo album.

A shared album can hold up to 20,000 photos and videos combined. However, unlike with Apple, the photos/videos uploaded count towards the storage of the person who uploaded the files.


Alternative Sharing Apps

There are lots of sharing apps / sites that you can pay for but here are a few popular ones with a free option;

  • Dropbox. Limited to 2GB. Shared users can only view.

  • Flikr. Limited to 1000 photos.

  • 500px. Limited to 2000 photos (7 uploads per week)

  • Facebook. Unlimited but photos are considerably compressed

  • Instagram. Unlimited number but limited to square format


Using Apple Shared Library

Apple Shared Library was introduced in 2022 and allows up to six people to share and contribute to a single photo library. So this is mainly one for sharing with family rather than friends. If your partner / family use iPhones then I’d recommend trying this out. Here is the guide on setting one up.

The great thing about Shared Library means that it doesn’t matter who takes the photos at a shared event, because the photos can be shared (automatically if you like) and you can pick the best ones from all the pictures taken. Shared Library also saves you storage space overall as you avoid duplicate photos different devices. And don’t worry, you can still keep your personal library alongside it.


You can even ask a trusted contact to tidy up your own photo library by giving them access to it via a Shared Library. We cover this in ‘Saving Money / iCloud Storage’.


In summary, I’d recommend;

  • for non-admin photos, delete semi-duplicates and do two quick edits: auto-adjust and crop

  • choose the sharing methods based on a) what app recipients can or like to use, b) how many files you’re sharing, c) if recipients need high quality versions

 
 
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