In nearly all my photos, all I want to keep is a cropped bit. When I export my edits to the Desktop and import them to Photos, then trash the originals, I get a message that I can't edit them. What I have to do is make Screenshots and import them. It used to me much simpler. Why has Apple done this?
MacBook Air (2020 or later)
How can I edit photos and discard the originals?
By not using Photos, which is an app expressly designed to do exactly the opposite of what you want: namely preserve the originals.
So, don't use a parametric editor like Photos, use a pixel editor like Photoshop, Graphic Converter, Preview et al.
Why not a photo programme that does what the consumer wants? I'm a poor photographer and usually, if I can save a crop, that's all I need. When you mention Preview is that the Preview on a Mac? I thought that was part of Photos.
That's excellent! I can roughly crop and rename my photos in Downloads and then import them to Photos from there to twiddle further with them. Problem solved. Thanks. My motive is Memory management as I don't want my laptop to fill up with the large backgrounds to eBay items when I keep a couple of snaps of each item.
Why not a photo programme that does what the consumer wants?
You're not the only consumer and what you want is not necessarily what other consumers want. So there are two photo apps on your Mac. One for the folks who like non-destructive editing called Photos and one for folks like you who prefer to trash their original files. That's called Preview. There are advantages to both systems but you'll find most photographers prefer non-destructive. It means there's opportunities to fix mistakes :)
My motive is Memory management
I suspect you mean disk space management. For the ones who prefer non-destructive editing then there is the fact that disk space is inexpensive and running a Photos library from an external disk is simple.
In any event, the moral of the story is to use the right tool for the job :)
So if I go to Downloads and open a photo there , it's in Preview, and edit it, I can then import the edit to Photos and discard the Download?
How can I edit photos and discard the originals?
