Want to take your photos — and your Photos app — to the next level? If so, Apple has a new solution for you. The company is now offering support for photo editors, and you can easily get it by registering for Apple’s new free one-on-one phone tutorials for iOS and macOS. This may be the perfect solution for photographers and customers who don’t live near an Apple store or can’t make it to their scheduled workshops.
And the premise, is quite simple.
“Our specially trained Apple Support Advisors are experts in using Photos to transform pictures from good to amazing — and they’d love to show you how in a 30-minute guided phone session,” reads Apple’s support document published earlier this week. Currently the Photos training is only available to US customers.
I registered online for the following day at 5PM and received a phone call at exactly 5:02 from a friendly and knowledgable instructor. Choosing to navigate the Photo app on my latest version of iOS, instead of my laptop, we began by allowing access to my images while talking on speaker-phone. I chose a waterfall image from Iceland to adjust and enhance. After complimenting me on my compositions (who doesn’t want to hear that?) we quickly went through the tools as he darted around with a red arrow on my screen, pointing out the options:
- Easy one-click fixes with the Auto Enhance tool, which he referred to as the “magic wand.”
- Detailed light and color adjustments via curve-based editing.
- Scrolling options to explore brilliance, exposure, highlights, and clarity.
- Managing live Photos.
- Cropping and reverting.
We did a quick-tap conversion to compare the original to the newly improved version and the result was inarguably stronger.
One caveat is that users are strongly encouraged to update their devices to the latest version of iOS or macOS before starting, so keep this in mind before scheduling a session. Emphasis is on the tools you are most interested in, so come prepared with questions as the 30 minutes can go by quickly.
These free sessions are perfect for those parents or new photographers who are unfamiliar with editing, but be aware that the tutorial does not include answers to your technical questions. If you’re still finding your way around the Photos app, this was a quick, enjoyable, and efficient way to learn.
Photo by Christopher Burns on Unsplash
