Photos Workbench is a companion application to Apple Photos. Photos Workbench helps you organize, rate, and compare your photos.

Batch Change Titles

Descriptive titles make your photo collection "readable." A photo titled "Hawaii vacation 2022 - Maui #018" is much more telling than "IMG_9781.jpg". Photos Workbench takes the effort out of naming your photos.

Batch rename photos. Include date, camera make and model, image dimensions, and custom counters.

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Keyword Sets & Keyboard Shortcuts

Keywords are a potent and flexible tool to file and organize photos. When used wisely, keywords will allow you to find all photos made at a "wedding," all "outdoor" photos, or all "outdoor" "portraits" shot at a "wedding." Adding keywords is an investment in your photo library that will pay off later.

Ready-made keyword sets maximize the benefits you'll get from keywords: these keep your keyword vocabulary concise and consistent. Customizable hot keys allow you to set and remove keywords with the press of a key.

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Star Ratings

Use star ratings to classify photos by their relative quality or relevance. Star ratings translate to keywords in the Photos application.

Within Photos Workbench, the stars help you identify the photos you liked best. You can, for example, filter albums to see only the top-rated photos.

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Locations: Map & GPS Coordinates

Photos Workbench makes adding location information to your photos easy. Location information will allow Apple Photos to show your images on a map. It will help you to look up photos that you did not otherwise file or tag.

Photos Workbench has a large map where you can drag and drop photos onto the location where they were taken. Geocode photos in bulk using a track log from a GPS device or app.

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Compare Photos

Photos Workbench helps you pick the best photos: it shows you photos in pairs. At every step, you only need to decide which of the two photos you prefer. You will quickly find the best shot in a series of photos.

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Organize

With Photos Workbench, you can file photos into albums, move photos between albums, and find misfiled photos.

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Photos Workbench lets you browse and organize your Photos library.

With the Name Format option, you set up a format for all selected photos to follow. A format comprises text you type and tokens that can provide values like date, time, camera make and model, image dimensions, or a sequence number.

For example: "{Year Created} - {Month Created} {Camera Model} #{Counter}" can translate to "2021-12 iPhone 13 mini #863"

Click the three dots to insert tokens into the name format. Tokens show a blue background.

Some tokens have options. These show an arrow. Click a token to reveal its menu of options. For example, a "year" token will let you choose between a two- and a four-digit year number.

Use the gear menu to pull up and save name formats. Select Manage Presets to edit and organize your saved name formats.

Name formats that include a counter allow you to specify a start value for the counter. The first photo in your selection will be assigned that start value.

Note: Add your photos to an album where you can sort and manually rearrange photos. The photos are renamed and numbered in the order you have set.

With the Replace Text option, you can change photo titles by replacing text in the current titles. Photos Workbench will work from the original file name for photos with no title.

Enter the text you want to find and the text you want it to be replaced with. You can

You can, for example, replace the IMG_ prefix with a more telling name.

Drag and drop lets you add location information with close to no effort: Drag a photo from the main viewer and drop it onto a location on the map.

In Grid and List mode, you can drag multiple photos to assign them to the same location.

The incremental method achieves the highest possible precision in manual geocoding.

This method takes advantage of the fact that the distance traveled between two photos is often rather short and easy to retrace. Once you have determined the location of the first photo, you only need to make incremental adjustments to geocode subsequent photos. It takes but a nudge to the map and a click for each photo.

Crosshairs mark the location at the center of the visible map. Click the Set Photo Location button to apply that location to selected photos. Click the Center Map on Photo button to move the crosshairs to the location of the selected photo. The crosshairs follow the map center as you move the map.

The Incremental Workflow

• Select the first photo in a series. If the image has location information, the map can jump to that location
• Drag the map to adjust the location of the crosshairs
• Click the Set Photo Location button to apply the adjusted location to the first photo
• Select the next photo. Unless that photo has location information, the map will remain at the previous location
• Make the adjustments needed to reflect the distance traveled between the two photos
• Click the Set Photo Location button to apply the adjusted location to the second photo
• Repeat to apply locations with incremental adjustments to a series of photos

Options

Enable the proceed to the next image after setting location option for Photos Workbench to automatically select the following image after you click the Set Photo Location button.

Disable the automatically center the map on selected photo option to prevent Photos Workbench from adjusting the map position when you come upon a photo that already has location information.

A GPS track logger records where you have traveled. A track log is a list of times with one record added every few seconds. For each record, the log notes your GPS position in latitude and longitude coordinates. GPS track loggers come in the form of dedicated devices, an optional feature of a GPS device, or an app on your phone.

Photos Workbench can use GPX track log files to assign locations to photos taken along the recorded route. GPX is a standard format. Most devices use a proprietary file format that you will have to convert to GPX.

Photos Workbench can geocode your photos by matching the times on your photos to the times in the track log.

Photos Workbench thus needs to know when you took the photos. The GPS track log has exact times. Your camera does not. The camera clock may be off or may have been set to a different time zone. Photos Workbench takes an educated guess at your camera clock settings. It then asks you to check and correct the settings.

Camera Clock Settings

Photos Workbench shows you the first photo in your selection. Next to it, it shows the date and time the photo was taken. Use the arrow buttons to locate a photo for which you know exactly when you took it. You can prepare for this by taking a photo of your watch or cell phone at the start of the trip.

Confirm or correct the date and time shown next to the photo. The adjustments will apply to all selected photos.

Note: Photos Workbench will not actually change the times on your photos. It uses the adjusted times only to match the photos to the GPS track log.

Double-check your settings using the map. Once Photos Workbench can match the current photo to the track log, it drops a red pin onto the map. Check that this matches the location where you took the photo. Use the arrow buttons to check the locations of a few more photos.

Note: With incorrect settings, Photos Workbench may not be able to match the photo to the track log. No pin will show on the map. Instead, a message above the map explains why it could not match the photo to the track log.

Photo Location

Rather than telling Photos Workbench when a photo was taken, you can tell it where you took the photo. Photos Workbench will work backward from the GPS recording to determine the exact date and time.

Use the arrow buttons to locate a photo for which you know exactly where you took it.

Next, find that spot on the GPS track log. Click the red line that marks the track log. Photos Workbench will drop a purple map pin. Next to the pin, you will see the exact date and time you passed at that point. The time is expressed in the time zone you have selected above. Click the camera button to match the image to the track log. Photos Workbench will know that the current photo was taken at that place and time.

Geocode

Once you have confirmed the clock settings, click the "Geocode" button to apply locations to all selected images.

Copy and paste location information from one photo to other photos taken at the same location.

In Grid and List mode, right-click or control-click photos to bring up the context menu. From the menu, select Copy Location.

Select the photos you want to apply the location onto, bring up the context menu, and select Paste Location.

The context menu also has the option to Clear Location from the selected photos.

The Info sidebar shows the keywords for the currently selected photos. Keywords shared only by some of the selected photos show a lighter blue background than those shared by all.

Photos Workbench will suggest existing keywords as you type. While you may want to stick to the existing "vocabulary" and select from that list, you can continue typing to add new keywords.

Keywords added or removed from the list are added respectively removed from all selected photos.

Photos Workbench provides groups of related keywords in sets you can easily select and use. You can select a keyword group whenever you need it, and you can create your own keyword groups that include keywords you frequently use.

The buttons in the Keyword Palette display the keywords in the selected keyword group.

Select View > Show Keyword Palette from the menu or click the Keywords toolbar button to reveal the Keyword Palette below the main viewer.

A pop-up menu in the palette lets you switch between preset keyword groups. Select Edit Buttons… to edit and manage keyword groups.

You can cycle through preset groups by pressing the ⌃-, (comma) or ⌃-. (period) keyboard shortcuts.

Click a button in the keyword palette to add the keyword to the selected photos. Hold the shift key as you click to remove the keyword.

Photos Workbench will confirm the change by briefly showing a notification with the name of the keyword.

The first eight buttons of the keyword palette respond to the keyboard shortcuts ⌃-1 through ⌃-8 as well as ⌃-⇧-1 through ⌃⇧-8 to add or remove keywords. Hold the ⌃ to reveal the shortcuts.

Note: The keyboard shortcuts may not show when space is tight.

You can type a new keyword in the Add Keywords field and press Return ↩ to add it to the selected Photos. Press Shift-Return ⌃-↩ to remove the keyword.

In Photos Workbench, you can set up single-key shortcuts for keywords. For example, you can set the "s" key to add or remove the "Share" keyword to your photos. As you browse and evaluate photos, you can decide which images you plan to share and toggle the "Share" keyword with the press of the "s" key. Photos Workbench will confirm the change by briefly showing a notification with the name of the keyword.

You can access the Keyword Manager by selecting View > Manage Keywords from the menu. Use the Keyword Manager to add, remove, and rename keywords from your Photos library. You can also assign shortcuts. These are shared with the Photos application.

In Photos Workbench, you can enable or disable keyword shortcuts as needed. Toggle the shortcuts by selecting View > Enable Keyword Shortcuts from the menu.

You can add photos to an album by dragging the photos to the album name in the left sidebar.

Alternatively, you can right-click or control-click photos in Grid or List view to bring up the context menu. In the menu you will find option to Add to Album or Move to Album.

In the Photos library, a photo can be filed in more than one album. Thus adding a photo to another album does not remove it from the current album. However, the move option does remove the photo from the current album.

Note: Photos Workbench cannot add to shared albums. Nor can it copy photos from shared albums to your local library.

You can create a new album dragging photos to the My Albums header in the left sidebar.

Alternatively, you can right-click or control-click photos in Grid or List view to bring up the context menu. In the menu you will find option to Add to Album > Create New Album

You can rename albums in the left sidebar. Click an album title and wait for it to become editable.

Note: Photos Workbench cannot create nor edit Smart Albums.

In the Photos library, you can - and may want to - file the same photo into several albums.

Sometimes, this happens accidentally, and you will find photos in unexpected places. Photos Workbench allows you to check where else a photo can be found and helps you correct mistakes.