Add your Pro’s images to Apple Photos

Photo by Pedro de Sousa on Unsplash

I was at a local library talk and happened to sit next to one of my wife’s portrait clients. She went on and on about how wonderful the photo session had been and that she loved looking at the resulting photo book every single day. 

Color me the proud husband.

Being a photo manager, I asked if she enjoyed them on her iPhone as well. 

Her response was that, “Oh, well, they’re on the flash drive she gave me.” 

I cringed. 

These days, a professional photo session generally includes a flash drive or download of the image files from the shoot. That can be just a couple photos for a head shot to hundreds of photos for a big event like a wedding or reunion. 

Sadly, too many of those precious photos end up languishing on a flash drive in a drawer or in an online gallery that doesn’t get a second or third look. And if they are downloaded, the images may be saved in some obscure folder on the hard drive that rarely sees the light of day. But what’s worse than not being enjoyed is the real risk of losing those special photos altogether. 

Photo by Sebastiaan Chia on Unsplash

A flash drive is convenient because it’s small, but it can easily get buried in the back of a drawer or used to transport your kid’s science project video. That online gallery may be a handy way to view and share your event, but it’s generally not permanent storage unless you’ve paid for that. And even so, having your own copy of the photos and knowing where they are is the foundation of good photo management. 

So here’s the thing. If you have any photos from a professional photo session that aren’t part of your managed photos - as in, you KNOW where they are - then hop to it and find the flash drive/CD/download link/website where you can get them into your collection. These can be: 

• - School photos

• - Resort photographer photos

• - Travel guide photos

• - Wedding photos

• - Bar/Bat Mitzvah photos

• - Engagement sessions

• - Family portrait sessions

• - Headshots/business photos

• - Real estate photos

• - Party/event photos

Any photos that came from a hired photographer and are a part of your life story. 

Once you have access to those photos, I recommend adding them to your master collection. For Apple Photos, that means choosing File > Import from the Photos Menu and selecting the device or folder of photos you’ve downloaded. Apple Photos will show any images that have already been imported to the Library, but be aware that those may have been saved from email or texts which can be of lower quality. Importing from the download/delivery source is generally the best choice. 

Now you have these photos saved as part of your photo collection. They will be backed up along with the other photos (you ARE backing up, right?) and will be part of the Memories albums that Photos creates to surprise and delight you every day. The photos will also be scanned for People tagging. 

Then there are 2 optional steps you can take. 

1. Add your own metadata - The photos should come with proper date stamps so they sort correctly within your library collection, but they probably won’t have a GPS location or notes about the photo session that you can search on. Those can be added in the pictures’ info panel to make the photos more accessible.

2. Edit the photos - Every pro photographer has their own standard of editing, if they edit at all, but it’s likely you’ll get versions of a shot (b&w/color/cropped) or extra images of attendees (events) or groupings (family) that you don’t want. There’s nothing sacred about these unwanted/unneeded photos so feel free to delete them. Treat yourself to a clean, edited collection. If you just can’t bear deleting the shot where Uncle Tom photo bombed the cake smash, then at least export it out to a “slush” folder so you can remove it from your master group. 

Like all photo management, you are ultimately responsible for keeping your most precious pictures safe and accessible. Chances are good that the professional photography you arrange for is some of that, and you can’t assume the photographer keeps the images indefinitely anymore. 

Find those pictures.

Add them to your Library.

Enjoy them every day.