Can I force a drag from Photos into another app to do so at full resolution?

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Can I force a drag from Photos into another app to do so at full resolution?

I have been trying to work out if dragging and dropping a photo from Photos into another app (or the Finder) does so at full resolution or not.

This came up because I was trialling use of an AI-upscaling app (Topaz Gigapixel) to restore old poor quality scans. (Unfortunately, as far as I can see, they don't have a Photos plugin to allow me to do it in the Photos app itself).

I noticed when I dragged a photo from Photos into the app it was actually accepting a lower-resolution version. A search here suggested drag-and-drop was actually using preview / reduced size images.

However some testing suggests to me that dragging to the Finder drops a full-size image. I also notice if I drag from Photos into Final Cut Pro the latter accepts a full-resolution image. I wonder if this behaviour has changed over time (which would make sense, since there is less need these days to spare us handling full-resolution files).

Given some apps seem to accept a drag-and-drop at full resolution, is this an app-dependent behaviour? Is there a way to influence tis? Some older post suggest holding option while dragging but in my trials this doesn't affect behaviour.

If it is the destination app stripping out resolution, I appreciate I need to raise it with those developers. However I would like to be sure I understand the native behaviour too, as I have always dragged and dropped into FCP and only recently questioned if I was getting reduced resolution photos this way.

iMac

Posted on Jan 5, 2023 8:27 PM

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Answer 1

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léonie

Level 10

197,273 points

Jan 5, 2023 10:18 PM in response to sterow

It depends on your system version, how drag&drop will be handled, and also on the particular app. The app has to be updated for full compatibility with the version of Photos you are using to support drag&drop properly. It will also depend on the size of the photo. If the photo is small and does not have adjustments applied and is a JPEG, the original may be used as the preview, but if the original is large or has adjustments, Photos will create a Preview image.

Even if the app you are using does not offer a photo editing extension, you should be able to call any app directly from Photos using the menu item "Image > Edit with". If Topaz does not appear in "Edit with" menu, use the "Others" option at the bottom of the menu.

I am using the "External Editors" extension from the App Store, for more control about the format of the image file that is passed to an external editor. It allows me to call any Image Editor as an external editor and to select the file format, which is nice for HEIC or RAW files. Also, the result will be paired with the image as a new version.

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

197,273 points

Jan 7, 2023 1:24 AM in response to sterow

Have you already sent feedback to Apple with a feature request to improve the drag-and-drop? Feedback - Photos - Apple

Apple will read all suggestions for improvement, even if we usually do not get a reply.

I would also like more control over drag-and-drop. Perhaps Apple is no longer giving drag-and-drop a high priority, as Apple is trying to unify graphical user interface across all platforms, and drag-and-drop is not much use on the mobile devices, where we are mostly limited to full screen apps. One reason why I prefer to work on my Macs, where I can arrange several windows freely to drag and drop between them.

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Answer 3

léonie

Level 10

197,273 points

Jan 6, 2023 8:16 AM in response to sterow

sterow wrote:

...

I am not quite clear - what format does the "edit with" option hand over? Does it need the extension you mention to force it to use the original?

The "Image > Edit with" menu entry will pass the image to the external editor at the original resolution, usually as a TIFF, for the highest quality. "Image > Edit with" is a standard command in the more recent versions of Photos and does not require a photo editing extension.

The "External editors" extension used to be bargain priced, and definitely worth the money. I am not sure about the current price, as the App Store does no longer show the price for the apps we already own. In external Editors I can select the format for the file to be passed to the external editor. And add any file as the externally edited version to a photo in Photos, using the "Replace with ..." command.

For example, after calling the external Editors extension in Photos I am seeing this dialog:

I never use drag&drop to pass images to other apps, if the size and quality matters, only if a small preview will suffice.

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Answer 4

sterow Author

Level 1

39 points

Jan 6, 2023 3:49 AM in response to léonie

Thanks Leonie, this is most helpful.

I am not quite clear - what format does the "edit with" option hand over? Does it need the extension you mention to force it to use the original? It sounds like it, but then I am not sure what the extension you mention adds (though the idea of pairing it to the original seems very attractive).

I don't understand why it is not at least an option to natively make the drag and drop use the original (either as a preference, or perhaps selectable by holding down option or similar while dragging). Having it use a reduced quality file seems a holdover from older less capable systems, and effectively silently sabotages what will for many be the intuitive workflow.

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Answer 5

sterow Author

Level 1

39 points

Jan 6, 2023 4:19 PM in response to léonie

Thanks leonie this is extremely informative.

I just bought External Editors for AUD 1.49 so yes, still very cheap.

I was wondering how further edits get layered on the replacement of the image (as the AI editor is generating a truly new image, not juts a set of changes), but some trial and error suggest it must keep both the new and old image, and the "revert to original" button always cascades back to the original file. So that's good behaviour!

I maintain the drag and drop functionality isn't very well set up, but I appreciate that's not your fault and this is a good workaround, so thank you.

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Can I force a drag from Photos into another app to do so at full resolution?

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