Like many other ‘home’ apps from iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, Photos also has a lot of innovations. We’ll dive into it for you here!
One of the new things in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 (where the screenshots come from this article) is the possibility to easily zoom in and out on the photo overview in an album. This is now very easy: make a pinch or spread movement to zoom out or in. In this way you can quickly create a ‘helicopter view’ of your photos in an album or a very detailed overview.
Also within apps
This trick also works in apps where photos can be opened and imported. Normally you will see a long list of thumbnails in the form of square thumbnails. This has a number of drawbacks. First, of course, that you cannot see the original aspect ratios and the orientation of the photo (portrait or landscape). The photos are also cut off, which can make recognition difficult. All solvable by making a spreading movement with your fingers that goes so far that you get a list of photos under each other. First of all, they are clearly recognizable, but they are also shown in the correct aspect ratio and orientation. Furthermore, it is possible to tap the photo import dialog on Albums, so that you can also browse through targeted albums and quickly find your – hopefully well-sorted photos – again.
Filter
Also new in Photos under iOS 14 is the ability to filter. To do this, tap the button with the three dots at the top right of the screen and then Filter. You can now choose to show, for example, only edited photos or only videos. Combining filter items is also possible. In this way you can quickly and efficiently suppress ‘disturbing elements’ in your photo overview, which makes targeted viewing easier.
Hidden album, just in case
Another practical feature introduced in iOS 14 is the ability to place photos in a hidden album. However, that works somewhat ‘strange’. We will therefore go through the procedure with you. First start the app Settings and tap on it photos. Check the switch behind the option Album ‘Hidden’ turned on (and turn it on if it turns out not to be the case). Then start Photos and open a photo. Tap the share button and then the option Hide. You can also select multiple photos in an album at the same time and then click the share button and Hide to tap. At this point, the photos (or the selection of photos) will be moved to the album Hidden. You can find this on the iPad by swiping to the right from the left side of the screen: a sidebar will open. Underneath the head Services you will find the album in question. In iOS, tap Albums and scroll down a bit. To that album Hidden then really hide it, tap again in the Settings app photos. Now put the switch behind Album ‘Hidden’ from. From that moment on, the photos you have hidden will no longer be visible.
Not everything, but handy
In itself, this is not the ultimate security measure. Anyone with a little knowledge of an iPhone or iPad can of course make the hidden photos visible again with the said switch. However, by hiding photos you may prevent red cheeks if you want to show some photos from the camera roll during a presentation and there appear to be some overly privacy-sensitive copies. In short: not everything, but useful in some cases. If you want to make photos visible by default again, you first make sure that the switch in the Settings app Album ‘Hidden’ turned on again. Select one or more photos and tap the share button. In the opened menu, tap Unhide. The relevant photo or selection of photos will then be restored to its original location.
Improved and deeper zoom
It is nice that the zoom function in Photos has been significantly improved. You can now use a spreading movement to zoom in on a photo much further than in previous versions of iOS. This is useful, for example, to quickly check whether there is a good focus when taking the photo. But also zooming in on details that you may not have seen when taking the photo is now a breeze. The quality of the ‘deep zooms’ is good, you don’t have to worry about blockiness. When zooming in extremely far, some blur occurs, but that’s logical of course.
Evolution, not revolution
All in all, the innovations in Photos under iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 are not so much shocking, but much more evolutions and fine-tuning. Very nice, because it prevents you from having to diligently search for all kinds of functions: your old familiar working method is largely retained. Apple has followed the same approach with the Camera app in iOS 14. We have a separate article about this with some tips and tricks. .