Now you see them, now you don’t.
Credit where credit is due and heavy sighs where they belong as well.
No doubt, the new Photos app (running on a New M series Mac) and newer iPhones and iPads has a magic feature. It also has a terrible new layout… but more on that later.
Specifically, I want a touch on the amazing and Family Album changing feature you can now use to enhance your photos… the Clean Up Tool.
You may remember a few months ago, I wrote a post about editing photos in the old version of Photos and how you could use the healing tool to take out imperfections. Well, as good as it was back then, this new iteration blows it away by a country mile!
It’s like comparing a spluttering scooter to a Performance Model 3 Tesla.
So, picture this, you were at St. Mark’s Square, chasing all these pigeons, and you had this vision of an epic Instagram post—only to find out later you photobombed your own shot with a sea of floating heads and floppy hats. Instead of letting that photo rot in your library, let’s unleash the sheer awesomeness of Apple’s new Clean Up Tool.
Here’s how you zap those randos out of your frame and make your photo sing.
Open the Photos App. In these examples I am using a Mac.
Find that once-photo-bombed-now-will-be-masterpiece from St. Mark’s—a potent mix of grand architecture and tourists looking flustered. Now, hit the Edit and this is, as the dreamy eyed Apple employees at the Genius Bar say, where the magic happens.
In most cases the AI figures out what you want removed. Most of the people in the shot are now shimmering like they are about to be beamed aboard the Enterprise.
By simply tapping on these glittering images they just disappear.
Some, for reasons best known to the AI itself, are left unmolested, but you can counter this by simply moving the cursor over the offending body in a painting motion.
And voilà! You’re left with a photo so immaculate, it might as well have been taken on a deserted island instead of the bustling piazza. Kiss those awkward bystanders goodbye.
Now sure sometimes where the body once was it can distort the building and look a little odd. You can always undo this using the edit menu and sometimes going over it manually can fix this. In most cases it’s the kind of distortion you wouldn’t see if you weren’t looking for it – unlike the sea of gormless faces ruining your photo.
And now for the heavy sigh… I’m wondering why, given Apple now have this awesome removal tool, they haven’t included a cloning tube as well. That would render Photoshop elements useless – and that would be a good thing.
And I did promise that I would mention the awful layout of the Photos app on the iPhone and iPad. The good news is, majority of these issues can be solved and, unlike the Clean Up Tool, you don’t need the latest hardware to do it.
The biggest gripe seems to be the over loaded interface with Library, Memories and God knows what else on the screen.
However, if you scroll all the way to the bottom of this long list you will see a Customise & Reorder button.
Tapping on this and and deselecting everything will render the home screen more akin to the older version than before.
Mind you, once you realise this, you can add the features that best suit you and even reorder them, reimagining the Photos app in your own image.
Happy Editing!
