Multiple sets of markup in iPhone Photos? The nature of images in iOS?

Question

Level 1

8 points

Multiple sets of markup in iPhone Photos? The nature of images in iOS?

In an old book, an ancient page had faded text. I took a photograph, so I could edit the image and increase the legibility of the print. With my iPhone 13 (iOS 17.0.3) in the Photos app, I adjusted several factors. This was not enough, so I re-opened the image with the editing interface, but the controls still bore my first set of adjustments, there was no way to make further changes. To work around this, I used the Duplicate command, so I had a new copy of the edited photo. I went to edit it, and I beheld that the editing controls still had the settings which had been applied to the original, so I was yet stuck with no way to make further changes.

I've two questions, although I look seek an answer to the practical first (the second is merely contemplative, and this place is probably not the venue for a discussion of its implications).

How might I apply another set of modifications to an image with the iOS Photos app, after one set of edits has already been applied?
When I take a photograph, and I have thus created an image which is absolutely at my disposal, why would a duplicate of that image preserve the changes of variable characteristics that I have applied to its original, since that seems at odds with my sovereign control of the new, duplicated, image—especially since this behavior is vulnerable to effects which might impede or compromise my purpose or activity?

iPhone 13

Posted on Mar 23, 2025 10:45 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

muguy

Level 10

91,928 points

Mar 23, 2025 10:53 PM in response to catsmoke

Edits are non destructive. If you have applied an edit, you cannot apply it again. Eg. You cannot blur to maximum and then blur again. However, you could export the photo and then apply edits again. Although, I’m not sure you’ll like the results.

if you wish to remove your edits, select the revert option in the edit tools.

Reply

Answer 2

Mar 24, 2025 9:08 AM in response to catsmoke

Just to add a bit to muguy's discussion of non-destructive editing: first-- this is very cool! No matter how you edit or crop an image, you can't destroy it-- you can always revert to the original-- it's like going back in time! On learning new things, or finding new tools, I have several times gone back to improve the looks of old pictures I've edited. This is great!

What Photos does is, it remembers all the settings you apply to the pictures, and it applies those when it displays the picture for you. The edited picture doesn't actually exist anywhere until you look at it! Photos creates the picture on the fly! So there's two versions of the picture--the original and the edited version-- but only the original takes up space in storage. When you export a picture, you can choose to export either the original or the edited version. If you export the edited version, Photos creates it just then.

If you duplicate a picture, it's really duplicated-- the original and its settings. You can revert the duplicate to its original version, and the first picture will keep its settings.

muguy suggested that you export your edited picture and then re-import it. Then the edited version becomes an original, and you can edit it further. But, as he suggests, Photos puts limits on the editing because things begin to look crazy when you go too far.

I hope this helps make sense of what's going on…

Reply

Multiple sets of markup in iPhone Photos? The nature of images in iOS?

Similar questions