Open With...(not Photos)

[Bazza1]

This seems to be a long-term quirk with MacOS, and seems to me a considerable oversight -

Say you have taken a photo or a photo has been sent to you and that you have placed in Downloads or on your desktop. Now say you want to do some basic photo manipulation, or simply want to view it and then add it to an existing album you have already created. You right-click the file, and click 'Open With...'
Now, 'Preview' is there - okay for basic photo tweaks, and there's going to be a list of probably any 3rd Party photo app you installed on your Mac as well as your browsers, but bizarrely, Apple's own built-in 'Photos' app is not there. For that, you need to go to the bottom of the list (past App Store) to Other, click there, and then in Applications scroll down and find Photos.

Click that and (modified 'Voila!') your photo opens in the app for your manipulation and/or moving to an Album you have created with Photos.

Apple does know it has that app in the OS, right?

I mean, I only use Photos for some image tweaking - I never keep my pics inside an album on proprietary software that can change / disappear without warning - and this does certainly underline this decision - but why not include your own app in 'Open With...'?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Can't say this has ever bothered me, but yes, I see the same behavior.

If I want to import something to Photos (which does happen; e.g. if I scan some photos) I tend to do that from Photos itself. But yeah, I am curious why it's not one of the "Default" options in Open With 🤔

 

[bogdanw]

You could create a QuickAction in Automator

 

[Bazza1]

You could create a QuickAction in Automator
View attachment 2586807

Thanks for the suggestion. Still, yet another case of having to build / buy something for Mac that should be just a matter of course.

 

[Slartibart]

you can use e.g., the free RClick and add Photos to the context menu. or you drag&drop the images on the Photos icon 🤓

 

[Bazza1]

you can use e.g., the free RClick and add Photos to the context menu. or you drag&drop the images on the Photos icon 🤓

I'll take a look at RClick.
I knew about drag/drop, but as I don't use Photos for anything but slighty-more-complicated-photo-editing-that-Preview-can't-handle (and again, I don't create / keep albums in it), I don't usually keep its icon immediately handy.

 

[cynics]

You aren't opening your importing. There is a fair bit of overhead Photos is performing for a simple edit. Original will be copied a few times (lossless), Photos is analyzing each photo to identify everything in it to index for later searches, thumbnails are created, modifications live in a database somewhere, original photo is in a database (this is why you can always revert to original), all these individual things are being tracked to give the appearance you aren't working with a file you can't read the name of in a database and finally when you export the modifications are applied

Have you considered photo editing software? I use GiMP, it's free (open source) and is close enough to photoshop for my needs. It can be more complex but that's only because its a lot more powerful.

 

[Bazza1]

You aren't opening your importing. There is a fair bit of overhead Photos is performing for a simple edit. Original will be copied a few times (lossless), Photos is analyzing each photo to identify everything in it to index for later searches, thumbnails are created, modifications live in a database somewhere, original photo is in a database (this is why you can always revert to original), all these individual things are being tracked to give the appearance you aren't working with a file you can't read the name of in a database and finally when you export the modifications are applied

Have you considered photo editing software? I use GiMP, it's free (open source) and is close enough to photoshop for my needs. It can be more complex but that's only because its a lot more powerful.

Oh, I have photo editing software, as well. I just think its extraordinary that a right-click > Open with...will (for me) access Preview (default - System), ColorSync Utility (System), Image Playground (System) Quicktime (System) and Safari (System), but not Photos - while other options in the list are products I have installed: ImageOptim, Luminar Neo (my bigger photo edit app), PDF Expert, Vivaldi and Waterfox.

I get Apple wants users to get all locked-into their proprietary software and create Albums within it, but to not include it in a list of software capable of doing a particular task wouldn't encourage me to do so. And Preview, while satisfactory, just isn't capable of all tasks that Photos can do.

 

[galad]

Maybe that's by design, to avoid adding images to the Photos library when the user wants to just take a Quick Look.

 

[Bazza1]

Maybe that's by design, to avoid adding images to the Photos library when the user wants to just take a Quick Look.

Maybe, but that sounds like an excuse - with Quick Look buried much further down the context menu, its not as if a user is going to get it and the apps available in Open with...confused. And, if it comes to that, Quick Look should probably be in Open with...menu instead of where it is.

But if the intent of Open with...is not to do that, but, in fact, Import to..., then that makes for the argument for the other System apps (and 3rd Party apps) to be there. Still doesn't explain why Photos is not, though.