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How to View and Edit Live Photos in macOS Sonoma’s Photos app

The Live Photos feature of iPhones is a lot of fun. It captures 1.5 seconds of movement surrounding a 12-megapixel still image (think the “moving newspaper” photos in the Harry Potter films). If you want to play or make changes to the video portion of a Live Photo in macOS Sonoma, here’s how:

° Open the Photos app.

° Look under the Albums list and click on Live Photos.

Albums > Live Photos
Albums > Live Photos

° Open any Live Photo by double-clicking on it.

° A Live Photo is signified by the little concentric circle and “Live” text in the corner of the picture.

Live Photo
Live Photo

° Hover the mouse cursor over the Live Photo icon to play the video portion of the picture in Photos on Mac.

You can even turn your Live Photos into fun videos you can share. To edit Live Photos:

° Find the Live Photo you want to edit and select it.

° Click the Edit icon.

Click Edit
Click Edit

° Go to the bottom of the screen and click the “Live” button. Now, in addition to the editing effects for “normal” photos, you can choose from Loop, Bounce, or Long Exposure.

Live button > see effects
Live button > see effects

For example, you can use Long Exposure to create a still photo with a blur effect. 

Long Exposure
Long Exposure

What’s more, if you took a Live Photo, but someone is blinking, you can change the still image. Just click a frame under the photo, then click Make Key Photo. This allows you to rewind time to get the perfect still shot.

Make Key Photo
Make Key Photo
Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Contributing Author
Dennis has over 40 years of journalism experience and has written hundreds of articles. For the past 20-plus years, he's been an online journalist, covering mainly Apple Inc. He's written for MacCentral, MacWorld, MacMinute, Macsimum News, Apple Daily Report, and is now contributing editor at Apple World Today.
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1 Comment

  • How do you convert one frame to a jpg?

    Too often accidentally use Live. In fact I never want to use Live, but AFAIK you can’t make it go away. If I want video, I’ll use video.