In the Preview app on your Mac, if the Markup toolbar isn’t showing, click the Show Markup Toolbar button, then click the Instant Alpha button (or use the Touch Bar). Drag over part of the background. Preview selects the area you dragged over and any pixels adjacent to it that have the same colors. To delete the selected area, press Delete. Tap a photo or video thumbnail to view it in full screen. Tap Edit, then tap on the left side of the screen. Choose a filter on the right side of the screen, then drag the slider to adjust the effect. To compare the edited photo to the original, tap the photo. To start editing with extension, right click on the photo and find 'Edit with' option in the drop-down menu: Alternative photo editor for Mac If you’re looking for alternative editors with the same beautiful design and ease of use as Photos, Luminar might be a perfect choice for you if you want to edit photos on Mac. View mode in Luminar. On your Mac, choose Apple menu System Preferences, then click Users & Groups. Why we love it: While not truly a free photo editor, Photoshop Elements does have a free trial, and it’s far and away among the best photo editing software for Mac and Windows. The suite of automated editing tools — including for exposure, color balance, and reducing the effects of camera shake — make short work of the most common photo.
Many people assume they need an Adobe subscription to edit photos, even semi-professionally, but that’s not true. Photos for Mac is the answer for anyone who wonders, “Does Mac come with a photo editor?” Moreover, the good-old Preview you use to open PDFs and images has enough basic tools for editing an image on your Mac. In this guide, we’ll take a closer look at what you can do with Mac’s native photo editors and exactly how to do that.
As you start editing your pictures, it’s common to start accumulating duplicates of the same image—the original, an edited one, and perhaps any other version you might crop or resize later. So, it’s best to use an app like Gemini 2 to help you find and eliminate duplicate files wasting space on your Mac.
With Gemini 2, you can scan your entire hard drive, your photo library, or just a specific folder for duplicates. Then, you can choose to review all of the copies it found to select which version to delete. Or you can let Gemini 2’s AI decide, and you can remove your duplicate photos with just one click of the Smart Cleanup button. And the best part is that you Download and try Gemini 2 for free.
How to edit pictures on Mac using the Photos app
As an editing app, Photos comes with everything you need to adjust the quality, light, color, sharpness, and other qualities of the pictures you take. It may lack the editing power of professional software like Photoshop, but it’s the perfect tool for aspiring and amateur photographers. It’s equally useful for the millions of us who take pictures every day and want to make them look good before posting online and sharing with friends. With this free photo editor for Mac, you’ll be able to adjust, resize, crop, rotate, and enhance your photos, as well as apply filters to them — all without spending a penny.
To edit a picture, go through the following steps:
- Launch the Photos app.
- Find the image or group of images you want to edit in your library.
- Double-click on the photo you want to edit (or press Command-Return).
- Click Edit in the toolbar. Now you’ll see three tabs above the image: Adjust, Filters, and Crop. Clicking on one will unveil further editing options in the right-hand menu.
- Another way to open a picture to edit is to press Command-Return to open in Edit view.
How to adjust pics in the Photos app
There’s a whole range of ways to use the Adjust feature to make significant or subtle changes to your pics. (And remember, if you aren’t happy with any of them, just click Revert to Original in the top left-hand corner of the editing window).
The Photos Adjust feature can be broken down into several specific tools.
- Light: everything from shadows to brightness to contrast.
- Color: make it warmer, colder, or adjust specific colors in a small area of a picture.
- Black & White: make the shot monochrome.
- Retouch: improve sharpness and other aspects of the picture.
- Red-eye: remove red eyes on a pic.
- White Balance, Curves, Noise Reduction, and many more.
Each of these settings can be adjusted with a series of sliders. Simply move one or more and watch the photo change. Click Done once you are happy with the edits you’ve made.
How to crop photos on Mac using Photos app
When you crop a picture, you can adjust the ratio or remove the parts you don’t want to improve its composition. With Photos, you can also flip it from horizontal to vertical, or the other way around.
Here is how you crop an image using Photos:
- Launch Photos.
- Find the photo you want to edit and double-click on it.
- Click Edit and go to Crop in the top toolbar of Photos.
- Click on Aspect on the right to choose an aspect ratio, or click Auto In the bottom right-hand corner of the screen to crop automatically.
- Click Done once you are happy with the picture.
Another way to crop or resize is to make these changes manually. Go through steps 1 - 3 above, then select Aspect. Now you can adjust the aspect ratio according to a series of pre-set parameters.
Once you’re satisfied with the result, click Done, or revert to the original if you want to start over.
How to apply filters in Photos app
In Photos, you have a series of nine filters designed to copy classic photography styles. Filters have been a part of taking photos — professionally and for fun — for generations before Instagram and Snapchat, so Apple made it easy to apply these with a few clicks.
Here’s how you apply a filter in the Photos app:
- Launch Photos.
- Find the photo you want to edit and double-click on it.
- Click Edit and go to Filters in the top toolbar.
- Choose from the Vivid, Dramatic, and Black & White options.
- Once you’re happy with the changes, click Done, or revert to try again.
Because you’ll probably edit your photos one or two at a time, you might not notice the duplicates your computer has accumulated over time. So, you should regularly use Gemini 2 to scan for copies of your pictures that are just wasting space on your hard drive.
How to edit photos with Mac’s Preview
Another way to make changes to photos using a native Mac tool is to use Preview. Although most people use it to view and make some changes to PDFs, it can also help make quick changes to images. It isn’t as feature-rich as Photos, but if you need a quick adjustment before sending or publishing a photo, it can get the job done. Let’s start with the basics: resizing an image.
How to resize an image with Mac’s Preview
Resizing an image doesn’t have to be a guessing game. Do the following to make a proportional resize and avoid the image looking squished or too stretched:
- Open the photo with Preview.
- Go to Tools in the Apple menu.
- Click Adjust Size.
- This will open a window where you can adjust the size of the pic either in pixels or in inches/centimeters.
- Make sure you keep the Scale proportionally box checked. That way, the image will preserve its original aspect ratio.
- Click OK when you’re done.
![Pro Pro](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1GnKLWqCCuo/maxresdefault.jpg)
To rotate a photo, there is a rotate button on the top toolbar of the app (it looks like a square with an arrow). Click once or more, depending on how many times an image needs rotating to get in the right position. From the Apple menu, click File > Save once you’re done.
If you want to undo any changes, click Edit, then select Undo. You can also revert to the original to start again before making further edits. To do that, go to File > Revert to > Last Opened.
Now, if you want to crop an image, that’s also easily done with Preview, although the app lacks the more robust options available in Photos.
- Click and drag your cursor on the area of the picture you want to crop
- Click the Crop button in the top right-hand corner
- Now click File > Save to save this image, or revert or undo to start again
And finally, you can also adjust the color using Preview. Here’s how:
- Click Tools in the Apple menu
- Go to Adjust Color
- A range of sliders will appear, giving you the tools to adjust any of the following: exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, saturation, temperature, tint, sepia, and sharpness. Although not quite as many options as Photos offers, this is a decent selection of edits that you can make quickly and easily without any third-party apps.
Edit photos with third-party Mac photo editors
Of course, if you’re looking to do more advanced edits to your photos, there is no shortage of third-party apps for you to use. Apps like Lightroom that allow you to make lighting adjustments and do some minor cleanup to your photographs. Or Photoshop that will allow you to change the composition and create entirely new images. While apps like this aren’t necessarily cheap or easy-to-use, they are powerhouses for editing photos on your Mac.
But between Photos and Preview, every Mac user has two robust, easy-to-use native photo editors to edit pictures to perfection before posting them online, sharing with friends and family, or sending to a client. You don’t have to spend weeks mastering Photoshop or other heavyweight photo editors — any change you need is a few clicks away.
These might also interest you:
Photos in macOS Catalina has an immersive, dynamic look that showcases your best photos. Find the shots you’re looking for with powerful search options. Organize your collection into albums, or keep your photos organized automatically with smart albums. Perfect your images with intuitive built-in editing tools, or use your favorite photos apps. And with iCloud Photos, you can keep all your photos and videos stored in iCloud and up to date on your Mac, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, and even your PC.
A smarter way to find your favorites.
Cookie 4 3 3 – protect your online privacy. Photos in macOS Catalina intelligently declutters and curates your photos and videos — so you can easily see your best memories.
Focus on your best shots.
Photos emphasizes the best shots in your library, hiding duplicates, receipts, and screenshots. Days, Months, and Years views organize your photos by when they were taken. Your best shots are highlighted with larger previews, and Live Photos and videos play automatically, bringing your library to life. Photos also highlights important moments like birthdays, anniversaries, and trips in the Months and Years views.
Your memories. Now playing.
Memories finds your best photos and videos and weaves them together into a memorable movie — complete with theme music, titles, and cinematic transitions — that you can personalize and share. So you can enjoy a curated collection of your trips, holidays, friends, family, pets, and more. And when you use iCloud Photos, all edits automatically sync to your other devices.
The moment you’re looking for, always at hand.
With Search, you can look for photos based on who’s in them or what’s in them — like strawberries or sunsets. Or combine search terms, like “beach 2017.” If you’re looking for photos you imported a couple of months ago, use the expanded import history to look back at each batch in chronological order. And in the My Albums tab, you’ll find your videos, selfies, panoramas, and other media types automatically organized into separate albums.
Fill your library, not your device.
iCloud Photos can help you make the most of the space on your Mac. When you choose “Optimize Mac Storage,” all your full‑resolution photos and videos are stored in iCloud in their original formats, with storage-saving versions kept on your Mac as space is needed. You can also optimize storage on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, so you can access more photos and videos than ever before. You get 5GB of free storage in iCloud — and as your library grows, you have the option to choose a plan for up to 2TB.
Make an edit here, see it there. When you make changes on your Mac like editing a photo, marking a Favorite, or adding to an album, they’re kept up to date on your iPhone, your iPad, and iCloud.com. And vice versa — any changes made on your iOS or iPadOS devices are automatically reflected on your Mac.
All your photos on all your devices. iCloud Photos gives you access to your entire Mac photo and video library from all your devices. If you shoot a snapshot, slo-mo, or selfie on your iPhone, it’s automatically added to iCloud Photos — so it appears on your Mac, iOS and iPadOS devices, Apple TV, iCloud.com, and your PC. Even the photos and videos imported from your DSLR, GoPro, or drone to your Mac appear on all your iCloud Photos–enabled devices. And since your collection is organized the same way across your Apple devices, navigating your library always feels familiar.
Resize. Crop. Collage. Zoom. Warp. GIF. And more.
![Air Air](https://photo.wondershare.com/images/en/photo-editor-on-different-system-device/edit-photos-macbook-fotophire-step3.jpg)
Create standout photos with a comprehensive set of powerful but easy-to-use editing tools. Instantly transform photos taken in Portrait mode with five different studio-quality lighting effects. Choose Enhance to improve your photo with just a click. Then use a filter to give it a new look. Or use Smart Sliders to quickly edit like a pro even if you’re a beginner. Markup lets you add text, shapes, sketches, or a signature to your images. And you can turn Live Photos into fun, short video loops to share. You can also make edits to photos using third-party app extensions like Pixelmator, or edit a photo in an app like Photoshop and save your changes to your Photos library.
- LightBrilliance, a slider in Light, automatically brightens dark areas and pulls in highlights to reveal hidden details and make your photo look richer and more vibrant.
- ColorMake your photo stand out by adjusting saturation, color contrast, and color cast.
- Black & WhiteAdd some drama by taking the color out. Fine-tune intensity and tone, or add grain for a film-quality black-and-white effect.
- White BalanceChoose between Neutral Gray, Skin Tone, and Temperature/Tint options to make colors in your photo warmer or cooler.
- CurvesMake fine-tuned contrast and color adjustments to your photos.
- LevelsAdjust midtones, highlights, and shadows to perfect the tonal balance in your photo.
- DefinitionIncrease image clarity by adjusting the definition slider.
- Selective ColorWant to make blues bluer or greens greener? Use Selective Color to bring out specific colors in your image.
- VignetteAdd shading to the edges of your photo to highlight a powerful moment.
- Editing ExtensionsDownload third-party editing extensions from the Mac App Store to add filters and texture effects, use retouching tools, reduce noise, and more.
- Reset AdjustmentsWhen you’ve made an edit, you can judge it against the original by clicking Compare. If you don’t like how it looks, you can reset your adjustments or revert to your original shot.
Bring even more life to your Live Photos. When you edit a Live Photo, the Loop effect can turn it into a continuous looping video that you can experience again and again. Try Bounce to play the action forward and backward. Or choose Long Exposure for a beautiful DSLR‑like effect to blur water or extend light trails. You can also trim, mute, and select a key photo for each Live Photo.
Add some fun filters.
Edit Pictures On Mac
With just a click, you can apply one of nine photo filters inspired by classic photography styles to your photos.
Share here, there, and everywhere.
Use the Share menu to easily share photos via Shared Albums and AirDrop. Or send photos to your favorite photo sharing destinations, such as Facebook and Twitter. You can also customize the menu and share directly to other compatible sites that offer sharing extensions.
Turn your pictures into projects.
How To Edit A Photo On Macbook Pro
Making high-quality projects and special gifts for loved ones is easier than ever with Photos. Create everything from gorgeous photo books to professionally framed gallery prints to stunning websites using third-party project extensions like Motif, Mimeo Photos, Shutterfly, ifolor, WhiteWall, Mpix, Fujifilm, and Wix.