I was working with a client yesterday and she asked how to batch edit images in Apple Photos on her laptop. Perfect information for a blog post for everyone. This process will look completely different if you are working in iOS on your iPhone or iPad. I’m using the latest update in Mac Monterey and Apple Photos 2022.
Apple Photos does not have the ability to edit a batch of photos at the same time (please make this a reality in the next big update, thank you). What you can do is edit one photo of a batch and apply that edit by copy and pasting onto multiple photos. The trick is that you have to stay in the EDIT screen in order for the correct menu options to be available to you.
Open Apple Photos and select the group of photos you would like to edit in the same manner. You can use shift+click to select the first and last in a group or command+click to pick and choose. The images will be highlighted in blue around the edges
Double click on the first photo to enter into EDIT mode. You will be editing the FIRST photo in the group (because later, you will use the right arrow key to move through the selected photos)
Make your chosen edits to the image. ( I increased the brightness and upped the color just a bit)
** All of these next operations need to be done when in the “EDIT” mode…. It’s an Apple quirk but you can only copy and paste adjustments (edits) while in edit mode. So If you click “done” after editing the first image, Photos takes you back to the library screen and you are no longer able to paste your copied edits.
WHILE STILL IN EDIT MODE: Go up to tool bar and select IMAGE>Copy Adjustments OR use keyboard command, SHIFT+COMMAND+C .
WHILE STILL IN EDIT MODE: Use your arrow key to move to the next image. Go up to tool bar and select IMAGE>Paste Adjustments OR use keyboard command, SHIFT+COMMAND+V
Continue arrowing through your images until you have applied the adjustment (edit) to all of your selected photos.
To underscore the fact you can pick and choose images to apply edits to within your library, I selected every other image to change to black and white.
A few extra pieces of info:
In Apple Photos, you can always go back to the original state of any image by selecting the “revert to original” button in the top left corner while you are in EDIT mode.
As for what you can and cannot batch apply for edits in Apple Photos… You can apply any of the built in edits or filters that are native to Photos. You cannot apply cropping or third-party app edits in a batch situation. Those operations will have to be done individually.
I hope this helps you streamline your editing process on your Mac desktop or laptop. If you have any questions or need help with your photos, please get in touch at sue@modernmemorykeeper.com
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