how can I export a full sized, full resolution photo from Photos?

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Level 1

5 points

how can I export a full sized, full resolution photo from Photos?

Background:

I am a very literate Mac user but have NEVER used iPhotos or Photos - initially because I didn't like how they seized my photos and hid them in a location that it took an expert user to show me where they were.

Meanwhile, my cousin who is 77, has all her photos in Photos. They were originally in iPhoto but after its database became corrupted and all the photos "disappeared": she spent several hundred $$ at an Apple store for them to create a new database as well as find and restore all the photos, (of course all her events and albums had "disappeared" in the process) She ended up with 6 to 7 duplicates of many of her photos and was told to go home and delete the duplicates which she has been attempting to do. (her original 3000 photos became 15,000 photos after the "repair")

Meanwhile, she would now like to export a couple of full-sized, full-resolution photos to her desktop so that she can upload them to be printed. Could someone guide me PLEASE to a quick and easy tutorial on how this might be done? I will go over to help her do this tomorrow and could probably figure it out - but it would be very nice if some kind person could just tell me how to do this for her.

thanks you and Season's Greetings to all of you.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Dec 7, 2015 11:50 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

HD

Level 5

4,933 points

Dec 7, 2015 1:46 PM in response to pariseau

Hi Pariseau,

This is what I do, there are no doubt other ways.

1) In Photos, click on the picture to select it, click in the "invisible" box below it and type in a recognisable title:

2) Press Enter, leave the picture selected and pull down the File menu:

3) Choose Export> then Export 1 Photo... (or Export Unmodified Original... if you've edited the original and want to export an unedited version.)

You'll get this dialog:

You can switch between different file formats, but choosing a Maximum quality JPEG and Full Size will give you the largest and least compressed file.

Under File Naming, choose Use Title so that your exported file will have the name you gave it in step 1. Click Export.

4) You'll then get a dialog that lets you choose which folder you want to export to, but crucially (and wrongly IMHO) does not let you name the file at this stage:

But you're good to go because you gave the picture a title in step 1, so choose a folder (Desktop here) and go ahead and click Export.

That's where your picture will end up, and it should be the same size as the original:

Hope this helps, season's greetings to you too.

H

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Answer 2

HD

Level 5

4,933 points

Dec 7, 2015 12:57 PM in response to HD

Couple of post scripts:

If you don't give the picture a title, it ends up named whatever it was called in the camera software, which makes it difficult to identify if you're exporting several pictures.

You can select and export multiple pictures. If you give them all the same title, there's a Sequential option under File Naming which will number the individual files.

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Answer 3

Dec 7, 2015 1:48 PM in response to HD

Good answer, but I guess that you aren't allowed to title it when selecting the folder since you usually export more than one image at a time.

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Answer 4

HD

Level 5

4,933 points

Dec 7, 2015 1:23 PM in response to Keith Barkley

True enough Keith, although I usually do export one image at a time which is probably why it struck me as annoying. 😉

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Answer 5

pariseau Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 7, 2015 1:47 PM in response to HD

thank you so much!! Lynne

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Answer 6

Old Toad

Level 10

207,409 points

Dec 7, 2015 2:45 PM in response to pariseau

Another method is to Option-drag the thumbnail from the Photos window to the Desktop to obtain the original, full resolution version of the photo.

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Answer 7

pariseau Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 7, 2015 5:37 PM in response to Old Toad

thanks -- I had wondered about that and had read on a forum somewhere that this method didn't always get the full high resolution....something to do with whether or not the photos had been imported directly into Photos or...... I didn't understand the difference having never used either iPhoto or Photos. But thank you - I will try both methods for her so she can decide how she wants to do it.

cheers

Lynne

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