From Photos app to Finder: Command-C or by dragging?

[NewUsername]

I want to copy 300 photos from my Photos library to my internal drive, and I noticed something confusing.

If I select the photos in the Photos app, press Command-C, go to the folder in Finder and then press Command-V, the total size is about 300 MB and the copying happens instantly.

If, however, I drag the photos from the Photos app to the Finder, the copying is much slower and the total size is over 900 MB.

Also, in the first case, some photos are in HEIC and other photos are in JPEG format, despite all being made by the same iPhone. In the second case, all photos are in JPEG format.

What’s the difference between these two methods, and which one should I choose?

 

[Dave Braine]

Using Cmd-C you are just copying the low res thumbnail, in my case a 334KB, 1182x665 pixel as opposed to the full size 1.2MB 3072x1728 pixel image with drag and drop(or using the Export function).

Choose which ever image size suits your purpose.

 

[Brian33]

You might want to consider the export feature of Photos' menu bar: File->Export (if I remember correctly). I believe that dragging from Photos to Finder will give you the unedited original, while Export can export the photo with your edits (e.g., cropping) if any. Depends upon what you want.