Deleted Photos don't seem to be freeing up hard drive space

Hello mknj,

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Community. I know how important it is to keep your Mac organized and your storage space free, and I'd like to help. Just to be sure, after deleting the photos in question, did you also remove them from the "Recently Deleted" album in the Photos app? This acts like the Trash on your mac but specific to photos, giving you an extra chance to save photos you may not have wanted to delete. Until they are removed from that album the space on your Mac will remain full.

To locate that Album open the Photos app and click the "Albums" tab at the top and click to open it. To empty that album click "Delete All" at the top or select the photos you want to remove and click the delete button.

If you have already done so, try restarting your computer and checking the storage again. Let us know if you run into any other trouble, and the whole community will be here to help.

Best Regards.