how do I retrieve photos from trash

Recover Files in The Trash

If you simply put files in the Trash you can restore them by opening the Trash (left-click on the Trash icon) and drag the files from the Trash to your Desktop or other desired location. OS X also provides a short-cut to undo the last item moved to the Trash -press COMMAND-Z.

If you empty the Trash the files are gone. If a program does an immediate delete rather than moving files to the Trash, then the files are gone. Recovery is possible but you must not allow any additional writes to the hard drive - shut it down. When files are deleted only the directory entries, not the files themselves, is modified. The space occupied by the files has been returned to the system as available for storage, but the files are still on the drive. Writing to the drive will then eventually overwrite the space once occupied by the deleted files in which case the files are lost permanently. Also if you save a file over an existing file of the same name, then the old file is overwritten and cannot be recovered.

If you meant in iPhoto's Trash, then select the Trash sidebar entry in iPhoto. Select the photo(s) you wish to get back, CTRL- or RIGHT-click on the selection and then select Put Back from the context menu.

If your Photos are still in the iPhoto Trash, then you can right click on the iPhoto Trash and click recover

If your photos are in the main Trash, then open the trash, select the photos (with the cmd key to select multiple), right click and click on "put back in place".

If you deleted the photos from the main trash, then you need to go in your Time Capsule Backup (if you have set it up) and recover them from there.

f you deleted the photos from the iPhoto trash, you will need to recover your entire backed-up iPhoto library (see post: Restore single photo from Time Machine?)

If you haven't set up a backup, you will need to use a recovery software to recover for your deleted photos.