Google Photos

Viewing Your Photos

Getting Comfortable with Google Photos

A great introduction to Google Photos is understanding how your photos are stored. In this lesson, we'll learn the following:

  1. Introduction to simple navigation in Google Photos

  2. Exploring options for viewing your photos

  3. Learning initial photo review steps

Where Are My Photos?

Once you start copying your pictures to Google Photos, your next question may be, "How are my photos stored?" Thankfully, it's simple to see precisely what you have stored online.

Your camera automatically stamps your pictures with the date you took the photo. Computers use these dates to help you organize and find your images.

The system stores your pictures in a large "bucket" called "Photos." Press the Photos button to view all your photos in reverse chronological order based on the date taken.

Navigating the Photos View

Here are some features of the Photos view:

  • Over time, Google Photos will automatically curate memories for your enjoyment. These collections appear as a top row in the Photos view.

  • If you scroll on the right side of the view, you can access an index letting you quickly jump to a previous month or year.

  • On a smartphone, pinch to zoom the view in or out.

  • Pressing on a photo will open the photo viewer.

Reviewing Your Photos

Press any picture to view a single photo in the Photos Viewer. Here, you can begin reviewing your photos using these features:

  • Press Delete to remove duplicates, poor quality, or content not essential to the story. Do this early and often. Deleting is the most important activity for maintaining a high-quality photo collection. Bad photos will drag down your entire collection, making it challenging to quickly find great content in the future.

  • Press the Star icon to mark a photo as a favourite.

  • Pinch zoom to view more or less detail.

  • Swipe right or left to go to the following or previous picture.

When you've finished, you can return to the Photos view by pressing the back arrow at the top-left of the screen.

Selecting Multiple Photos

Sometimes, you want to work with several photos at once. You can select one or more pictures on the Photos view by:

  • Long-pressing a photo on your smartphone, then pressing on other images.

  • Clicking the top left of your photo on your computer.

Once you've selected multiple photos, you can quickly delete the selected batch. You can also share multiple images or add them to an album. We'll cover these details in a later tutorial.

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