Especially in today’s world where social media is a big influence on our daily lives, snapping many photos and uploading them or syncing them to your Mac is a common happening. If you are not well organized when managing your photos, the chunk of media will quickly turn into a clutter of mess. Apple is constantly releasing great tools to ease such processes and in this guide, we will help you learn how to take full advantage of what they have to offer. With a Mac in hand, Mac photo management has never been easier!
Mac Photo Management – Sharing Photos on Social Media Platforms
If your Mac is running on OS X Yosemite 10.10.3, which was released recently this year, you will find that it comes with an all-new Photos app that replaces Aperture and iPhoto on your computer. This app is equipped with a plethora of new features and it allows you to easily share photos with family and friends as well. Before you begin, you will have to import the photos that you want to share into the app.
Once they are in, select an individual photo or perform a multiple selection, and then select the Share button (upper right and just below the search bar) – it should look like an arrow sticking out from a box. From there, a drop-down list will appear and you can choose Facebook, Twitter and many more platforms to share your photos on.


Mac Photo Management – AirDrop Some Images Today
AirDrop is an Apple utility that allows different Macs (connected to the same Wi-Fi connection) to share files. It’s certainly a pain to have a certain file on one of your Macs but you can’t access it from another computer even though they are in the same house and using the same connection. Emailing the file or transferring with a USB and flash drive may work, but the process can be slow if it’s a big file. Hence AirDrop is a great way to be able to simply send a file right over to another computer over your Wi-Fi network. It is easy, very fast and simple to use!
To make the Mac photo management process easier, shift the files you want transferred to your desktop first. If you have a lot of files you want to share at once, you can create a temporary folder so that it’s neater and more organized. Now click File > New Finder Window, and then select AirDrop which is located on the left side.
If you are using an iMac, you should see the other device such as a Macbook (make sure it’s already switched on) in the same window. If it’s not there, it means the laptop is not on the same AirDrop. Simply repeat the steps above for your laptop and wait for it to load. Now, you will notice that your iMac shows that your Macbook is connected, and your Macbook shows that your iMac is connected.

The whole process is a simple drag-and-drop procedure, so go ahead and drop the file you want to send from your iMac to the Macbook’s icon in the finder window. Your iMac will now ask you if you are sure about sending it – click Send. Now your iMac will wait for the laptop to accept it as this is a security measure, courtesy of Apple. You won’t want to start receiving random files without your knowledge, would you?
If your laptop is on the receiving end, it will ask you whether you want to Save and Open, Decline or Save. At this point, the file transfer rate will depend on the strength of your current Wi-Fi connection so the total time taken varies under different conditions. Transferring files with AirDrop is that simple, so why not try it out now?
Mac Photo Management – Creating Albums in iPhoto or Photos app
Proceed to launch iPhoto from the dock and you will be presented with a library of all your existing photos. You might want to create albums to organize your photos and there are a couple of ways to go about it. The easiest way to create an album is to:
- Click the Create button, which is usually located at the bottom right (a + button top right for Yosemite Photos)
- Select Album. If you choose to click File > New Album, you will be prompted in a new window to confirm that you’re sure about creating an empty album
- Click Continue if that’s true
You may also check “Don’t ask me again” if you don’t want this message to appear in the future. When an empty album is created, it will be called “untitled album” by default, thus rename it according to your preferences. Return to the library and start dragging all the photos that you want grouped together into the album you’ve just created – fast and easy, right? If you select multiple photos before creating the album, these photos will be automatically included and you won’t need to drag them into the album again.
Mac Photo Management – Importing Photos from Your iOS Devices
Before you begin, ensure that your other iOS devices such as the iPhone or iPad is connected to your Mac. Next, click Finder in your dock and click Applications when the window opens. Now, scroll up or down to look for Image Capture.
When you select it, a new window will open and displays all the photos that can be imported to your Mac. Select the photos that need to be imported and ensure that you’ve also clicked “Delete after import” at the bottom left. This will help to free up some space on your device. However if you want to keep the photos on your device make sure this is NOT selected.
When you are ready, you can click Import Selection or Import All. If you want to save the photos on your Mac’s desktop, select Desktop from the “Import To:” option. And there it is right there! Your photos will appear on your desktop in a matter of seconds.
Well, that’s all there is to it as far as handling photos on your Mac. Also, with the availability of iCloud, you no longer need to finagle or depend solely on other third party programs such as Dropbox or Flickr to create and manage a full online library.
Read the rest of the Mac Article series here:
Get to Know the Pre-Installed Programs on Your Mac
How To Set Up The System Preferences On Your Mac
How to Sync Your Mac With Your iPhone or iPad
How To Keep Your Mac Secure & Updated