For many iPhone users, it would be far more accurate to call the device an iCamera because the camera function is used much, much more often than the phone function. On the popular photo sharing site Flickr, the top five camera models used for uploaded pictures are all different models of the iPhone. And while iPad users may use that device far less often to take photos, it is a fantastic device for reviewing and editing photos thanks to the large, beautiful screen. Suffice it to say that the Photos app on the iPhone and iPad is a pretty important app.
Apple tries to make the Photos app easy to use, but it has a lot of power in it that you may not see unless you know what to look for. Friends and family who know that I am an iPhone nerd will often ask me to show them something interesting on their iPhone, and there are tons of features that I can show off in Photos that impress people such as Memories, looking at the Places album to see lots of photos taken in an interesting location over the years, and the ability in Photos on iOS to combine search terms (such as searching for a person's name, then adding the search term "snow" to see just photos of that person in the snow).
How do you discover all of these great features? You need a good guide. And one of the best is Jason Snell. Snell has been covering Apple technology as a reporter since the 1990s, and he possesses a skill that many great lawyers use to their advantage: the ability to explain complex subjects in simple, friendly terms. That's why I love reading articles that Snell writes on his Six Colors website and I love listening to him on his numerous podcasts, which range in subject matter from technology to TV shows to even space.
A few days ago, Snell released a new ebook called Take Control of Photos. Take Control ebooks have been around since 2003 and they cover dozens of different topics, all produced with the aim of being "highly practical ebooks that cover much more detail than a magazine article but that are shorter, more focused, and more timely than a typical printed book." I was provided a free copy of this $14.99 book for review purposes, and I read it cover-to-cover last night. I loved this book, and even as someone who considers himself pretty knowledgeable when it comes to the ins-and-outs of the Photos app, I learned quite a few tips that I started to use right away.
When you purchase the book, you can download it in multiple formats. I found it easiest to just download the PDF version, which I read using Readdle's PDF Expert app. (They gray outlines that you see in the pictures in this review are from me taking a screen shot in PDF Expert, not from the book itself.) You can also download in epub or mobi format if you prefer to use a book reader to read the book. The PDF file doesn't have a password or DRM or anything like that, so once you buy it you can read it on pretty much any device that you want.
This book covers Photos on both iOS and the Mac, and you will definitely get the most out of this book if you use both platforms. (I use a PC at work, but I have a Mac at home, which is where I keep my 47,000 photos.) For example, Snell explains that on iOS (but not the Mac) you can use the rich search feature and can see Memory Videos, whereas on the Mac (but not iOS) you can create Smart Albums (although Snell gives advice for creating a Smart Album on a Mac and then transferring it to your iPhone or iPad). But even if you don't use a Mac, you will still get a lot of out of this book because the book covers both and the apps are similar on both platforms.
This book is over 150 pages and it covers all of the important topics, including importing photos, managing your photo library, navigating the Photos interface, finding and naming people in your photos, using the search feature, using the Memories feature and editing Memory Videos, creating albums, syncing with iCloud, editing photos to make them look much better, and sharing your photos. Each chapter is full of pictures so you can see exactly what Snell is describing — and because he is using his own personal photos to show off the Photos app, you will see enough picture of his (attractive) family members that by the end of the book, you may feel like you are part of the Snell family too, or at least a distant cousin.
In addition to walking you through all of the different topics, there are lots of small side articles on narrow topics, much like you see in a magazine. For example, here is a small article on looking at photos on the Apple Watch:
If you want to get a sense of how valuable this book is, I have two recommendations. First, Snell recently took a chapter of this book discussing how to make books and calendars using Photos on a Mac and turned it into an article for his Six Colors website. Now that you can no longer order photo books from Apple, Snell has some good recommendations for what other services to use, so that article is both useful and a good way to get a sense of the book. Second, if you go to the Take Control website page for this book, look at the picture of the cover of the book on the left and you will see the words "Free Sample" on what appears to be a post-it note. Click that to download a generous 46-page sample of the book, with the full index and selections from many different chapters.
One nice feature in all Take Control books is that the author has the ability to update the book after it is published — a nice advantage of ebooks over printed books. There is a link you can tap on the cover of the book that will take you to a website letting you know if there are any updates available. For example, the last time that Jason published a book on Photos in early 2015, it was originally called Photos for Mac - A Take Control Crash Course. Here was my review. Then he updated the book in the Fall when Apple updated the Mac operating system. Then he updated the book again in September, 2016, changing the title to Photos: A Take Control Crash Course and including both iOS and Mac. So after spending $10 in early 2015, I received two major updates for the next year and a half.
This is a brand new book on Photos — part of the full Take Control series, not just a crash course. It is twice as long as Snell's previous book, and this new book covers all of the latest changes to Photos on both the Mac and iOS. Thus, if you purchased the prior book in early 2015, this is a new book to purchase, but considering all that you get, it is pretty cheap at $15. And perhaps this book will also get updates like Snell's last book on Photos did.
I can pretty much guarantee that if you purchase this book, you will learn much more about using the Photos app on your iPhone and iPad, and on your Mac if you have one of those. Thus, unless you are the rare iPhone user who doesn't take pictures, I think that most everyone would enjoy reading this book and find it very helpful.
Click here to get Take Control of Photos by Jason Snell ($14.99)