Not In An Album.
FINDING A PLACE FOR ORPHAN PHOTOS
I’ve found there are two kinds of people in the world. The ones who need everything to be well organized and the ones who don’t.
In the world of photo management, it all comes down to Albums and the way we use them to arrange our pictures.
Albums have evolved over time. In iPhoto, Albums were the essential way for us to organize. iPhoto tried to identify groups of photos by time and location, but nothing more.
If we wanted to create a collection of our own for a vacation or that milestone birthday party, that was on us, and Albums was the tool.
A benefit of iPhoto, and the newer Photos App, is the ability to add a picture to multiple Albums without creating duplicates. This is a key advantage of any photo database over organizing in the Finder.
One image can be viewed in many places, just like movies in your Netflix menu.
A photo can be assigned to Favorites, a vacation, your yearly ‘Best Of’ Album, and a photo book. Same photo different places. This is why Albums have always been an easy way to document our life moments in the same way we used to create physical photo albums.
But these days, with the increasing volume of pictures we take, staying on top of Album management is a challenge, even for the most dedicated organizers. Not only do we have to stay ahead of our collection, but there are a lot of photos we take that no longer belong in an Album at all. As utility and reminder photos creep into our Photos Libraries, the clutter adds a whole new layer to the task.
People are overwhelmed and don’t know where to start.
One great place is in your Library view. When you select the Sort button at the top of the screen and choose Filter, you’ll see a relatively new option - ‘Not in an Album.’
When you check that, you can see all the pictures in your Library that aren’t in any Album. If you are someone who loves to tidy up your collection, this is an excellent way to start. You can even restrict the filter to videos, photos, or just images Shared With You if you want.
Remember to uncheck these filters to see your whole Library again once you’re done.
And speaking of the Library, don’t expect that adding a picture to one or more Albums will remove it from the Library view. Apple Photos is the container for all your photos and the app lets you view them in multiple ways, Albums being just one of them.
It’s also worth noting that with the advances in object recognition, facial IDs, time-based Collections, and A.I., the need to create Albums as a search tool is not as essential as it used to be. We can find any of our photos in several ways that are built right into Apple Photos without Albums.
Where Albums and Folders stand out is for curating a moment or event in your own style. The Trips Collection, for instance, will automatically find the 500 photos from your Paris trip, but you may want to select just the 50 best ones to share with friends. People & Pets will gather all your pictures of your dog Buster, but you have 20 favorites you want to choose from for Wallpaper.
If you are feeling uncertain about your Photos organizing try out the ‘Not in an Album’ filter as a sense check. Skimming through your pictures, find ones that get your attention and consider how you might find it without an Album. If you can’t, then it’s a good candidate. If you can, then add it to an Album or make a new one.
And remember that Albums need not be permanent. Like photos, they have an expiration date and can one day become clutter.
‘Not in an Album’ isn’t a judgement. It’s just information to help you organize your photos in the most useful and efficient way that makes sense for you.
Paul,
Your fellow Photo Managers need to be subscribers to your Substack channel and liking and sharing your posts. You produce quality content and I’ve also heard you on several podcasts that PM peers have had you on as a guest speaker, so they are definitely aware of your talents . Best, Todd