I can't find my photos on the iMac

[ebesp]

Hello, I am a new iMac user, I always used PCs before this. I have spent the last two weeks exploring how to use the iMac and I am getting the hang of it (I feel so dumb, lol). But I cannot figure out a few things:

I synched the iMac to my old iPhone X. My photos show up in "photos" on the iMac except the entire "Recents" folder. That folder doesn't show up at all. How do I get it to appear on the iMac?

When I uploaded photos from my canon camera to the iMac (the reason why I bought this is for photo editing), it gets transferred to the iMac but... I can't find out WHERE it goes??? On my old PC, I would have each batch of images go to certain folders, ie "The Smiths" and "The Jetsons" but I don't know how to do that on here because I can't even find WHERE the images go?! I know this is a stupid question and I have tried to look it up before asking.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

 

[NoBoMac]

If you used the Photos program, they wind up in a library under the Pictures folder: Photos Library.photoslibrary

Under there is a folder, "originals", where the imports go. They get an unique ID and saved under a folder corresponding to the first character of the unique id.

For example, here are three RAW pictures I took this past weekend, their name/location in the library.

originals/F/F2A8E8FE-0DBF-434A-BBEB-BE4829FFFFB5.orf
originals/4/42FB9FC4-8143-4DBB-B721-00D61106425F.orf
originals/E/E8DE385B-4EA6-4C8E-B2CD-7D62EFC8FEF5.orf

So, they are there, just not in a easy to decipher name/location.

Re: iPhone Recents: follow these instructions to import those. (EDIT: but will wind up in same place and with unique id name).

Transfer photos and videos from your iPhone or iPad to your Mac or PC - Apple Support

Learn how to transfer photos from your iPhone or iPad to a Mac or PC.

support.apple.com

 

[Slartibart]

When I uploaded photos from my canon camera to the iMac (the reason why I bought this is for photo editing), it gets transferred to the iMac but... I can't find out WHERE it goes???

Open Apple Photos.
Connect your camera to your Mac (or take out e.g. the SD card and use card reader).
On the left in Photos under Devices you should see your camera/sd card.
Select the photos you want and import.

EDIT: just remembered that I got the picture above from the more elaborate guide by Apple here - includes links to where to find imported photos/pics, etc.

 

[NoBoMac]

Forgot to add: can also use Image Capture for import, can specify where you want the imports to go.

Transfer images in Image Capture on Mac

In Image Capture on your Mac, transfer images and video clips from a camera, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or other device.

support.apple.com

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Go to:
home/pictures

Locate the icon "Photos Library".
RIGHT CLICK on this and choose "Show Package Contents" from the contextual menu.

Now you can see where Photos "stores" pics locally.

HOWEVER:
Even though the originals are kept in the folder named "Masters", they're going to be almost impossible to locate individually, because of Photos' somewhat odd way of cataloguing them.

Go into this folder and you'll see what I'm talking about.

This doesn't apply to images that are kept "in the cloud".
I don't use the cloud -- AT ALL -- so I don't know what goes on there.

 

[ebesp]

Thank you so much everyone for your kindness and assistance. I've never felt so dumb in my life as when I am using this computer. Lol.