A photo album is a hand-selected set of photos (and/or videos), typically covering a specific event or theme. Although you might send a friend a few photos by email, Messages, or some other means (refer back to Send Photos and Videos to Others), such methods aren’t suited to entire albums. Fortunately, several easy methods exist for broadcasting albums so others can see them (but not change them) and for sharing albums (sometimes called “streams” in iCloud) so that others can add their own photos. I cover a few of the simplest options in this chapter.
iCloud Photo Sharing
With iCloud Photo Sharing, you can set up one or more shared photo albums (or “streams”) that contain a subset of your photos or videos (up to 5 minutes long). You can then invite others to subscribe to those albums, which will be available on any of their devices, or optionally on the Web. A shared album can hold up to 5,000 photos or videos.
Share a Photo Album from a Mac
In Photos, select one or more photos or videos.
Choose File > Share > iCloud Photo Sharing.
Type an optional comment and then click either an existing shared album or New Shared Album.
If you clicked New Shared Album, enter the name(s) or address(es) of the contact(s) with whom you want to share it, enter a name for the shared album and an optional comment, and then click Create.
iCloud notifies the recipient(s) by email of the newly available shared photo album. Once a recipient joins a shared album, it appears on all devices that are signed in with that user’s iCloud ID.
Share a Photo Album from iOS
Open Photos and navigate to the photos or videos you want to use.
Tap Select, select the item(s) you want to share, and tap the Share icon.
Tap iCloud Photo Sharing. Then:
If you haven’t created any shared streams yet, enter the name for a new stream and tap Next.
If you’ve already set up shared photo streams, iCloud defaults to the most recently used stream; to add the photo(s) to this stream, enter an optional comment and tap Post. To add the photo(s) to a different stream, tap Shared Album and either select an existing album from the list or tap New Shared Album, enter a name for the new stream, and tap Next.
Enter the name(s) or address(es) of the contact(s) with whom you want to share and tap Next.
Enter an optional comment (up to 200 characters) ①, and tap Post.
① About to post to a shared album from iOS.
Flickr
Of the many fine third-party services that let you share photo albums online, only one—Flickr—is built into Photos, iPhoto, and Aperture. Here’s how to use it in Photos.
Select one or more photos or videos in Photos. Choose File > Share > Flickr. Then:
To add the photo(s) to an existing set, choose that set from the Select Photo Set pop-up menu.
To create a new Flickr set with the selected items, type a title (and optional description and tags). Choose who can view it from the Public pop-up menu.
Then click Publish.
Dropbox Photo Sharing
Dropbox can automatically import your photos, making it easy to share albums with others, even if they aren’t Mac users. Log in at dropbox.com and click the Photos link ② in the upper-left corner. Dropbox displays photos found anywhere in your Dropbox folder (with some exceptions), organized by month.
② Click this link on the left side of the Dropbox window to share photos.
Share Items without an Album
In the Photos category, select the items and click Share Number Photos (or Videos or Items). In the dialog ③ that opens:
③ In this dialog, you can share photo albums via email (shown here), Facebook, or Twitter.
Copy the URL to your Clipboard: Click Get Link.
Email a link: Type the email address(es) of the people you want to invite, enter an optional message, and click Send.
Share on Facebook: Click the Facebook icon, type a message, and click Share on Facebook.
Share on Twitter: Click the Twitter icon, optionally edit the pre-filled tweet, and click Tweet.
Create or Add Items to an Album
Select one or more photos or videos, then click the “…” button at the top ④ and, from the pop-up menu, choose Add Number to Album. Click an existing album or click Create New Album, type a name, and press Return.
④ This unobtrusive pop-up menu lets you add photos to an album.
Share an Album
Select an album in the list on the left. Make sure no items are selected within it, and then click Share Album and follow the steps for “Share Items without Making an Album,” above.
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