By Graham K. Rogers

Editing photographs in Photos on a Mac is not the same as on the iPhone. Some of the controls are similar but the Mac version has more features. These are likely to increase as the application is developed. For example, we may expect 3rd-party plugins to become available when OS X is updated to El Capitan.

Space on the iPhone screen limits some of the information that can be shown. For example, only one of the Adjustments options (Light, Color, Black & White) can be displayed with its fine-tuning sliders on the iPhone, while all three are usually available on the screen of the Mac.

Adjustments panel in Photos, with additional options added (Sharpen, White Balance)

When one of the adjustments has been used - either by way of the mini images or the fine-tuning sliders - a blue circle above the specific adjustment set is checked. To remove those adjustments, uncheck the circle. This is particularly useful with the Black & White adjustments as once this group is used, the image remains monochrome.

With the iPhone when an image displayed in Photos Edit, it can be pressed and the original seen. Reverting to an original is awkward in Photos on the Mac. At the top of the panel is a Revert to Original button.

Pressing the Control key and clicking on the image reveals a menu where the same command is available. This is also in the Image menu (about halfway down). There is no quick command to then return to the edited state: instead we use the Edit menu, Undo command (Command + Z).

An Add button on the Mac version of Photos - to the right of the word, Adjustments - allows more options to be shown on the screen, such as White Balance, and Sharpen. Clicking on an option adds that to the Adjustments display for the current photograph. If a user wants to have these available always, the bottom option of Save as Default, can be used. Note also that unchecking a specific item, such as Black & White will remove that from the regular display.

Adjustments panel in Photos, with Black & White removed

See also:

• Cassandra: Stepping Back a Little - Editing images in Photos on iOS Devices

• Cassandra: Metadata Displays Within Photos on iOS Devices - Investigator

• Cassandra:Quick fixes in Apple Photos (2) - Rotate

• Cassandra: Quick fixes in Apple Photos (1)

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs. He is now continuing that in the Bangkok Post supplement, Life.