2025-09-02

On a recent Europe trip I didn't bring a separate camera: I used my iPhone. (I hac been using a Sony Alpha, nice little camera.)

Advantages of iPhone

• pocket size
• pretty good at low light
• easy to share pictures im mail/messages
• lighter, faster to take pictures
• less obtrusive
• photos are GPS tagged
• one less item to manage batteries on
• easy upload

The photos I took did not have as many pixels as my Sony, but were good enough for:

• display on the living room TV using the Mac Mini screensaver
• display on my private website
• printing in large format, e.g. Kinkos posters
• preserving photos, backing them up to the cloud, organizing to find them again

My iPhone is pretty old: it is an iPhone 11. Newer ones have better cameras and more features. My phone has a Lightning cable: starting with iPhone 15, iPhones use USB-C cables.

iPhones can take videos with sound: I didn't use this feature.

Results

• It was easy to take many pictures
• I took some great pictures
• I was unable to take other photos I wanted (no zoom/telephoto)

Another page describes how I use the Photos app.

How to Use the iPhone for Photobraphy

1. Shoot pictures on the iPhone using the Camera app.
   • Do not "zoom in" by spread gesture (crappy picture)
   • Apple had a "my photo stream" feature but it went away in July 2023. It was low res anyway, never used it
2. After shooting, when you have access to your computer, import your iPhone photos into the Mac's Photos app.
   • By AirDrop: turn on Bluetooth on Mac and iPhone.
     • on the iPhone, in the Photos ap, open the Recents album and Select the photos you want to send to your computer
     • Click the little "up elevator" icon
       
     • Click on AirDrop
     • Click on your device in the "devices' list
     • It should say "done."
     • On the Mac, check that the photos have been received in the Downloads folder.
     • On the Mac, open the Photos app.
     • Click File ► Import...
     • Navigate the popup window to Downloads
     • Select the files to be added to Photos
     • Click Import All New Photos
     • Delete images from iPhone
     • this puts all new images in Photos folder "Imports" ordered by date
     • delete bad and duplicate photos
   • By wire: connect the phone to a Mac via lightning to USB cable or USB-c cable.
     • open Photos on the Mac (you can set Mac to open Photos when phone is connected, but it stupidly keeps asking)
     • The left sidebar of Photos should show the your iPhone
     • click on the iPhone in left sidebar and click "Review for Import" .. either import all photos or select and import
     • images are added to Photos Library
     • can delete from iPhone automatically once imported: I do this by hand
     • this puts all new images in Photos folder "Imports" ordered by date
     • delete bad and duplicate photos
3. In Photos, process each imported image -- this edits the Library copy on the Mac, and syncs to iCloud. My standard processing is
   • Straighten, correct vertical/horizontal distortion
   • Crop landscape photos to 16:9 for HDTV display, if the image allows
   • Adjust
     • Magic Wand
     • decrease Brilliance -- I prefer to increase Exposure instead
     • increase Shadows and Contrast
     • increase Color a little: this will also increase Saturation
     • See if increasing Definition a little helps, don't overdo
4. Go through the newly imported photos in Library and name any Faces that are "unnamed" -- unless they are strangers or not faces.
5. Once all images are corrected, add them to an Album for the trip if desired, and also to the album "screen" if wanted for screensaver. (photos terminology: Folders and Albums are different. https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-use-albums-folders-apple-photos-iphone/ )
6. Making a slide show in Photos: to create an album named after the trip ..
   • find Albums >> My Albums in sidebar and hover. This will display a plus sign; click it, and name the album.
   • put all the trip's pictures from Library into the album, and order them as you wish
   • delete weak, uninteresting, and redundant pictures
   • in sidebar, click the new album to select it; then right click on it and select New Slideshow; it will have all the images from the album in the order of the album. (gotcha: In old versions of iPhoto, e.g. High Sierra, if you hover on Projects >> My Projects and select new Slideshow it creates one, but slides are in random order.)
   • The default music provided by the Photos app annoys me. (If I want music I will run the Music app.) I click on the new slideshow, click on the music note on the right, and in selected music, hover over the music title to display an x-in-a-circle, and click it to delete the music.
   • If you choose a picture in the slide show and Edit it, this edits the Photos Library copy. Deleting a picture in the slideshow deletes it from the slide show and source album but not from Library.
   • slide shows are not synced to iCloud or other Macs.
7. Set Photos on the Mac to export its photo Library to iCloud+ for backup and sharing between Macs.
   • I turn ON  ► System Settings... ► AppleID ► iCloud >> Photos >> iCloud Photos ; I pay iCloud for 200GB
   • Set the Photos app's Settings ► General ► iCloud Photos to ON, download originals to Mac
   • My iPhone has iCloud Photos OFF because my iCloud photos are way more than my iPhone can hold.
   • I have 2 Macs that use the same AppleID connected to iCloud with Photos On. editing a photo in the Photos app on either Mac updates iCloud and then updates the other Mac. deleting a photo on either Mac deletes it on iCloud and the other Mac. (can undelete on iCloud.)
8. Photos has a feature called "Shared Albums." (i have not tried it.) (This is different from having multiple Macs using the the same iCloud account.)
   • see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202786
   • you turn on the feature and then create a Shared Album.
   • size is limited to 2048 on longest edge .. ie files are recompressed, lose detail
   • you can invite any number of people to a particular album, or create a Public Album that anyone can access.
   • you can let subscribers post things to shared albums.
   • https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202299 describes this
   • does not count against your quota
   • (the similar iCloud/iPhone feature My Photo Stream went away in July 2023)
9. Photos also has a feature called "iCloud Shared Photo Library" which works different from Shared Albums. (iOS 16)
   • https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/230035/icloud-shared-photo-library-vs-shared-albums-in-photos
   • you turn on the feature and then create a Shared Library. (i have not tried this yet.)
   • you can invite up to 5 people to a Shared Library
   • you can only have one Shared Library
   • it moves files out of your regular Library into the Shared Library
   • images are full resolution
   • other people can edit your Shared Library and add or delete pictures
   • the contents count against your iCloud quota
   • https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-use-apples-new-icloud-shared-photo-library/

Why Not Just Connect the iPhone to iCloud?

• Bandwidth. When traveling,
  • bandwidth may be scarce or expensive
  • I may not want to have the phone busy for a long time trying to upload pictures
  • I take multiple pictures and keep only the best, inefficient
• Legacy pictures. I sync pictures from my Mac to picture folders on the iPhone. These photos are much smaller than full size iPhone images. These pictures conflict with other ways of moving photos to the Mac. I really need to figure out the right way to do this.
• on the other hand, if the phone gets lost or broken, it would be nice to have photos safe on my Mac and its backups
• Is there a way to connect the iPhone to iCloud without tryihg to download the entire iCloud Photo Library? I don't have enough room on the iPhone for all my iCloud pictures. I would like to have pictures I take on the iPhone be tremporarily backed up to iCloud.

iPhone OS 18.3.2 Problems

Updating to Sequoia went so well that I decided I should also update my iPhone to iOS 18.3.2. After updating, Find My had forgotten that leaving my Mac behind at home should not alert me. That was easy to fix.

Then I discovered that the iPhone Photos app was changed a lot, in ways inconvenient for me. It took a lot of twidding with the new version of Photos, and it is still unsatisfactory.

Problems with iOS 18.3.2's Photos App

Background: I had been syncing folders of photos from my Mac onto the iPhone (using Finder on the Mac), sending smaller photos in order to conserve storage on the phone. This process had worked great for years. Each folder of synced photos from my Mac appeared in a separate folder in iPhone Photos app under the heading "From my Mac." Photos taken on the iPhone were in the main list of images in the iPhone Photos app... these recent photos were over twice as big as the ones from the Mac. Occasionally I would AirDrop photos from the iPhone to the Mac, remove them from the iPhone, generate smaller photos on the Mac and put them in a Mac folder, and sync the iPhone and Mac with the Mac Finder. The small photos would be synced to folders in Photos on the iPhone: they looked fine on the phone's small screen.

After I updated my iPhone to iOS 18.3.2:

• My synced Mac photo folders did not appear on the iPhone's Photos app. It showed one enormous list of photos, in no understandable order.
• Some photos synced from my Mac did not appear on the phone at all. Apparently they did not sync. Other photos were duplicated several times. Some were blank.
• I spent hours trying to restore the functions I used to have: restarting Photos, rebooting the phone, and repeated syncing the phone in Finder. Nothing helped.

Other people had problems with iOS 18 features also: Apple gave the Photos app an iOS 18 makeover, and it's a disaster.

Attempts to Repair iOS 18.3.2's Photos App's display

Finally, I went back to the Mac Finder and turned off syncing for all Mac folders, and synced with the iPhone multiple times. Then,

1. Then, on the iPhone, I manually deleted all my synced photos (making sure I first AirDropped any that were only on the phone to the Mac.)
2. Then, in the Mac Finder, I turned ON syncing for a few folders, and synced. My photos appeared in the iPhone Photos app's Library.

I was able to sync 33 folders of small photos from the Mac Finder to my iPhone. In the iPhone Photos app, the "Library" section appears first. It is in chronological order, oldest first. To find the pictures I just took in Camera, I have to open Photos and scroll and scroll. There is no way to put newest photos on top. I would like it better if I could sort the "Library" listing to "Most recent first."

The "Library" section contains all the photos that were synced from the Mac folders, plus photos taken on the iPhone that were not on my Mac. (It can begin with one to four blank images, depending on the total number of photos.) The "Library" section has a subtitle for the visible photos like "Jun 1, 1972 - Jun 27, 2004", which changes as I scroll Library. When I scroll down to the bottom of Library, the last subtitle is "3,212 photos." I would like it better if the photos synced from the Mac were not included or counted in the "Library" listing.

Below the "Library" section is a subtitle "From my Mac" followed by a grid of tiles, one for each Mac folder synced. To find a particular folder from my Mac I have to scroll to the bottom of "Library" and click the folder's tile.

This arrangement was annoying but at least I could find things.

Further Problems with iOS 18.5's Photos App

I installed iOS 18.5, which apparently tried to address some of the problems or 18.3.2. Apple says the 18.5 version of the Photos app has the "biggest redesign ever" but I cannot find any explanation of what was changed or how the new stuff works. The Photos app has different displays and confusing and inconsistent controls.

When I first opened the Photos app, it showed a notification panel that said "SYNCED FROM MY... Photos synced from a Mac or PC can be hidden from the library view by using the View O...". I am not sure what the rest of the ellipses in the message could be: maybe "MAC" and "Options" -- but who knows? It seems like my iPhone 11's screen is too small to hold the message, and nobody checked.

1. 18.5 Photos now displays the legend 6 photos followed by a big blank space, enough for about 19 thumbnails, and then 6 photo thumbnails from recent photos taken with the phone... it is as if the Photos app has a space that can hold the 25 newest images, and just displays blanks if you have fewer.
2. Then it displays the legend Featured photos and one photo. (I don't know why the photo is "featured." Unclicking the "favorite" heart does not affect the section's display.)
3. Then it displays the legend Albums and a panel for the one "album" I set up.
4. Then it displays the legend From My Mac and panels for each folder I synced from my Mac. Clicking any panel displays a new view, of thumbnails for the photos in the synced Mac album. Clicking a thumbnail displays a single photo. I can swipe left or right to go through the album. Clicking < goes back to the list of synced albums.
5. Then Photos displays a panel with the legend Customize & Reorder. Clicking it lets me change the order of headings or hide them.

In Customize, I turned off the Recent Days section because the photos displayed were NOT recent, but years old.

In Customize, I turned off the "Utilities section, which had panels for Favorites, Hidden, Recently Deleted, Handwriting... none seemed useful.

This interface is undocumented anywhere, inconsistent, hard to use, and ugly. Was this designed by "AI?" or by a new developer?

I tried killing the Photos app and restarting it. Made no difference. I tried reboting the iPhone. No difference.

Home | FAQ © 2010-2025, Tom Van Vleck updated 2025-09-02 09:03