New to Photos? Some Considerations on How to design your first Photos Library

This user tip has been written for Photos 4.0 on macOS 10.14 Mojave. For Photos 5 on Catalina see: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250002326

Photos for Mac is a combination of a photo editor and a relational database, a digital assets management system. The database keeps track of where the photos are stored and how they are related. And if we adjust a photo, the Photos Library will store the editing history and how the different versions are related. When we design our Photos Library we have to consider how we are going to use it. I found it will help to consider these three main tasks - storing photos, retrieving photos, maintaining the library. Photos is also a photo editor with support for frequently needed editing tasks, but this user tip is focussing on using the library features of Photos.

• The basic storage structure is fixed in Photos, imported photos are grouped by moments, collections, years.
• The basic retrieval structure offers different views of the photos, based on the date, the location, the people in the photos and recognized objects or the media kind, see the section below. We can built on this structure by adding a thematic structure by defining thematic relations between the photos by adding albums and metadata (titles, keywords, descriptions, ratings). The thematic structure should allow us to find the photos for the projects we are working on.
• We will also need a maintenance structure to quickly find the photos we are currently working on or photos that still need some editing or organizing.

Use the Predefined Views in Photos

Photos is already trying to add some structure to your library automatically by providing different views. The available views will depend on the version of Photos. If you are switching from Aperture or iPhoto you had to manage the basic storage structure on you own by grouping the photos by iPhoto events or Aperture projects. Photos is doing this grouping automatically. The good news is, we do no longer have to bother with the storage structure, the bad news is, that we can no longer control the storage structure. If we need the old iPhoto events or Aperture projects, we can replicate them as albums in a limited way, see: Moments in Photos are the New Events

Use the sidebar in Photos to navigate the library in Photos 4.0 on a Mac: Browse and view photos in Photos on Mac - Apple Support

• The "Library"
  • The Photos View: Photos 4.0 is showing the library for quick access in the Photos view with the Moments, Collections, Years. These views are organizing the library by the capture date and the location. To get the most out of the Moments and collections it helps to assign locations to your photos.
    • Moments are containing all photos taken at the same time at the same location. Moments are named by the date and the location.
    • Collections are groups of related Moments, for example pictures taken during a vacation. Collections are named by the date range and the state.
    • Years are showing all photos taken during the same year and are named by the year and the countries. If the number of countries exceeds seven, the name will only be the year.
  • The Imports view is showing the photos sorted by the date of import, not the date the photos have been taken. You will find your most recently imported photos at the bottom of "Imports"
  • Places and People are grouping the photos thematically by the persons in them or the place they have been taken.
  • Memories are grouping some photos by the kind of event. If Photos detects images related to special occasions or places, it will create a Memory album.
  • Recently Deleted: This album is keeping the photos you deleted for a month, so you can recover them, if need be. It will automatically be emptied after a month. Do not let his album get too full. Otherwise you may not be able to spot photos easily you accidentally deleted and need to recover.
  • Hidden: You can hide photos temporarily. They will only be shown in the Hidden album or smart albums with the rule "Photo is Hidden". Use the Hidden album to remove photos and videos temporarily from the view, if you do not want to delete them outright. The locations are hidden for hidden Photos as well, so they do not show in the Years or in the Places.
• The "Albums" section of the sidebar: What are albums in Photos on Mac? - Apple Support
  • Media Types: Here you will find your photos and videos organized by the media kind:
    • Photos (Selfies, Panoramic, Screenshots),
    • Portrait Mode Photos, Live Photos (Long Exposure, Animated) ,
    • Videos (Slow Motion, Time Lapses).
    • and many more ...
  • My Albums: Here you can add your own albums to structure your library thematically.
    • Create albums or smart albums for thematically related photo.
    • Group related albums or folders by folders. Folders can be nested.
• The Projects section is holding the projects you create: Slideshows, books, calendars, and other project.
• The Shared section is holding shared albums and the Activity Stream

Add your own Thematic Structure using Metadata

The second way to add your own structure are metadata. Use the metadata to document, what the photo is showing, the circumstances, how you took the photo, projects, you need it for, the quality, and your rating, the copyright notice, the history of the photo.

• Assign titles to photos. Titles will be shown below the thumbnails. If a photo has no title, Photos 4.0 will show the filename instead of a title below the thumbnails.
• Assign descriptions for longer comments.
• Assign locations to find your photos by the location you have taken them. The locations will help to make the moments and collections more useful, because the moments are named by the location and the date.
• Assign names to recognized people.
• Assign keywords to tag the photos
  • according to the projects you want to use them for - for example use keywords "Slideshow", "Book", "Private", "Work", "Web", etc.
  • or the categories (flowers, cars, landscape, birthday) or similar. Photos 3.0 and 4.0 are assigning categories automatically, but there are a few false positives, so I am still assigning keywords for categories to correct classification errors. But Photos's categories are a very good starting point.
  • I am also using keywords to flag the photos temporarily or to add a rating (How to Simulate Star Ratings in Photos).
  • Some of my keywords describe the source of the image - raytracing, drawing, scan, panorama stitch
  • Some of my keywords describe the photographer who owns the copyright
  • Some of my keywords describe the quality - if the photo has a corruption or is blurry or too grainy or noisy or needs retouching
• The favorite mark. Check this mark for photos that should be showing the favorite heart on the thumbnail.

• Categories: Photos is classifying your photo, when you add new photos. It analyses the photos for objects and screens and classifies them into categories. After that, you can find photos by typing the category into the search field. Try to enter "flower" or "Beach" or "Car". Photos can recognize more than 2000 categories (How to get a list of the known categories for Photos).

The Metadata can be used with Smart Albums or with Searches and filters.

• The Search field: You can search for photos by typing a search string into the search field:
  • enter a category, a keyword, or any text to search for.
• The Showing Filter: The "Showing" filter in the upper right corner of the browser let you filter the list of displayed thumbnails by keywords or favorites or the media type. It is only available in Photos 4.0 or newer.

The Maintenance Structure: 

Smart albums can help us to keep track of the work that needs to be done. Photos has already plenty of different views, but we cannot sort the predefined views. Smart albums and standard albums can be sorted.

I found these smart albums useful for maintaining the library:

• An All Photos Album that can be sorted: Use a rule "date is before 1.1.3000". This album should contain all your photos and you can sort them.
• A smart album of all photos not in any album: Use a rule "Album is not any". This will contain all photos, that are not in any standard album. The "Album" rule cannot search in other smart albums.
• The Backup status: To see all photos that have been imported after you made the last backup in one place, make a smart album with "Match Any": Date Captured is after ... and Dated Added is after ... . Replace the dots by the date of the last backup. "Date Added" ifs finding the photos by the date of Import, and "Date Captured" is finding the photos by the date the photo has been taken.
• Smart albums based on the media kind:
  • jpeg, tiff: Use a smart rule to search for the filename extension : "Filename ends with tif" or "Filename ends with tiff", for example
  • RAW, HDR, Screenshots: Use a rule: "Photo is ...". You can search for HDR, RAW, and many more
• Smart albums based on the state of editing and tagging:
  • Edited: Use the rule "Photos is edited".
  • Missing GPS: Use a rule: Photo is not tagged with GPS".
  • Missing faces: see: Searching for all unnamed people in Photos 3.0 and 4.0
• Create separate smart albums for each camera. Use a rule "Camera Model is ..." and select your camera from the drop down menu of camera models. This menu can be scrolled. Without scrolling, you will only see a few camera models.
  • Separate albums for the iPhone back camera and front camera: The iPhone cameras can be separated by the Lens tag: I am using the rule "Lens is ..." for my iPhone X photos
    • Lens is iPhone X front TrueDepth camera 2.87mm f/2.2
    • Lens is iPhone X back dual camera 6mm f/2.4
    • Lens is iPhone X back dual camera 4mm f/1.8
• For an iCloud Photos Library these two smart albums are essential for finding referenced photos, that are excluded from iCloud Photos or photos with an incompatible file format
  • • Photo is Referenced
    • Photo is unable to upload to iCloud Photos
• Smart albums to organize the Hidden photos. The Hidden album is quickly getting a mess as it is filling up, because all photos are going to the same Hidden album. We can make hidden photos visible in other smart albums, if we combine the rules with "Match all" and add a rule "Photo is Hidden".

You can combine several rules either with "Match all" or "Match any", but not both.

Metadata can only be assigned in Photos on a Mac. Photos iOS on Mobile devices cannot show them, but if you use a Mac to assign metadata, they will sync with iCloud Photos to the mobile devices, and you can search for them on the iPhone or iPad, provided you sync with iCloud Photos.

Good luck for your first Photos Library!