Photos Field Guide

Take Advantage of Apple Photos

The Photos Video Field Guide is a 2.5 hour screencast that teaches you how to install and use Apple's Photos Application and sync all of your photos between your Mac, iPad, and iPhone using iCloud Photo Storage. Managing your photos with multiple devices has, over the years, come to feel like chasing a mythical white whale. Not anymore. Photos delivers the goods and this screencast teaches you how.

Topics Include:

1. INITIAL SETUP

While Photos attempts to make your initial setup simple and easy, there can be complications. What if you have more than one existing photo libraries? What if you've got folders of photographs sprinkled all over your hard drive? All of these can be imported into Photos but you've got to know the ropes. This video screencast shows you all tricks to run Photos on your Mac, iPad, and iPhone.

Photos also can use iCloud Photo Library to make sharing photos between your Mac, iPad, and iPhone easier than anyone ever thought possible. The Video Field Guide walks you through the initial iCloud setup, including advice on which cloud storage to use and how to get the initial upload of your photo library done with as little pain and suffering as possible.

2. PHOTO MANAGEMENT

Photos uses an intuitive organizational structure that lets you see your pictures grouped by years, collections, moments, and individual photos. This Video Field Guide shows you exactly how it works and sprinkles in several power tricks to make managing your library even easier. Once you've sorted that out, Photos also has options to create custom and smart albums, where the program seeks out photos for you pursuant to your instruction.

Photos also has specialized libraries that can identify the faces of your family and friends. You can even search you library so if someone says, "Hey! Quick! Find me that picture of Uncle Ralph from April 2007 wearing that ballerina tutu!", you can deliver the goods. This stuff sounds complicated. It's not. By the time you get to the end of this video, you'll be able to embarrass Uncle Ralph in no time flat.

3. PHOTO EDITING

Photos also has a surprisingly large toolset to make your photos better. You can do simple edits, like cropping and rotating, but you can also make complex adjustments to color and light. On the Mac there are even more tools including a histogram, sharpening, definition, noise reduction, vignette and level adjustments. If all of this sounds like greek to you now, that's okay. After watching the video it won't.

The video also explains Photos built in filters and how they can be an excellent jumping off point for making your photos look great. It also covers has the semi-magical "enhance" button. If that's not enough, there are workflows to get your photos out of the Photos app and into an external editor for further work on the Mac, iPad, and iPhone.

4. PHOTO SHARING

With the new Photos app, there are many ways to share your images with friends and family from something as simple as an email to full-blown shared iCloud albums. This section of the video covers all of the sharing options from the Mac and iOS. The Photos Video Field Guide also demonstrates how to make books, calendars, and cards from the Photos application on the Mac.

5. VIDEO

Believe it or not, Photos can manage your video files too. This section covers the best practices for managing video files in Photos and its limited editing capabilities.

6. BACKUP

No photo management system is complete without a thorough backup system. The Photos Video Field Guide concludes explaining backup strategies and techniques. This section also demonstrates how to export images from Photos for additional backup.

The screencast is two and a half hours.

Did you ask for a sample video? I thought so. Here you go


Your Instructor


David Sparks
David Sparks


David Sparks was lucky enough to grow up alongside the computer revolution. He programmed his first computer in 1980, and since then, he’s been on a never-ending quest to be more productive with his Apple technology.


David is a past speaker at Macworld, the American Bar Association’s TechShow, and many other technology events. David publishes the popular MacSparky Blog and has been making The MacSparky Field Guides since 2012, and he authored several books about productivity and Apple technology before that. David is also a co-host of the popular Mac Power Users, Automators, and Focused podcasts. David also produces the MacSparky Labs, where he goes even deeper on workflows and the productive use of technology.


Since the beginning, getting your technology to work for you instead of against you has been David’s North Star. He’s honed those skills over his 28-year career as an attorney and 15-year career as MacSparky, where he has conducted countless experiments and interviews.


In a world where technology is increasingly conspiring to steal our focus and attention, David aims to teach you how to be more productive with Apple technology. David wants to help you achieve what is most important to you and simultaneously enjoy your life. Everything he makes points at that destination.



Frequently Asked Questions


When does the course start and finish?
The course starts now and never ends! It is a completely self-paced online course - you decide when you start and when you finish.
How long do I have access to the course?
How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.
What if I am unhappy with the course?
We would never want you to be unhappy! If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we will give you a full refund.

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