TauCeti Technology, OXENFREE, Dirt Bike Unchained, and Touchdown Master to check out today

 Photos is not a new application in the Windows system, as Microsoft created it to replace the old photo viewer, Windows Photo Viewer, since Windows 8. However, with the release of the latest version, Windows 11, the application has undergone a comprehensive redesign and numerous improvements that make it more than just a regular photo viewer or organizer for photo and video libraries. Rather, it is capable of enriching the user experience by eliminating the need for external tools and programs to perform simple tasks such as converting image formats or cropping video clips. In the following paragraphs, we shed light on a range of these features and functionalities that the enhanced Photos application in Windows 11 performs, in order to fully understand and benefit from it.

Compare images (multiple view mode)

If you wish to compare two images side by side to find differences in quality or any other aspect, you can take advantage of the new "Multi-View" mode in the Photos application to do so. Simply ensure that the images you want to compare are in the same folder, then double-click the first image to open it in the Photos app and place the cursor at the bottom of the screen or press the F key on the keyboard. A bar will appear at the bottom displaying thumbnail images of the other images in the same folder. Here, check the box of the image you wish to compare with the currently open image in the application, and your images will immediately be displayed side by side for comparison within a single screen.

Converting image formats

As we mentioned, the Photos app is more than just a photo viewer, but it has many capabilities that sometimes eliminate the need to install external programs such as adjusting image dimensions, cropping parts of images, and adjusting brightness and contrast levels in images... among others. Additionally, the app recently added the ability to convert image format, which can be relied upon to create a new copy of your image in a different format without affecting its quality.

All you have to do is double-click on the image to display it in the Photos app and then click on the menu button (⋯) at the top and select "Save as." Then, another window will appear where you select the location to save the new copy of the image, and when you click on the "Save as type" menu, you can choose the desired format from among 8 available formats, which are: jpg, jpeg, jpe, jxr, png, tif, tiff, and bmp. Then, after selecting the format, click on Save, and within moments, you will have the new version of the image with the same resolution but in the format you selected.

Video Format Conversion

Windows 11 Photos application has the ability to play videos and save them in a different format than the original format. However, the number of formats that can be converted to or from is somewhat limited compared to external programs, but it is worth trying. All you have to do is right-click on the video and choose "Open with" and select the Photos app from the dropdown menu to play the video content within the app.

As with converting photos through the app, after playing the video, click on the menu button (⋯) at the top and choose "Save as". Then, the usual Browse window will appear where you select the location to save the video in the new format on your device. After selecting the location, click on the Save as type menu and select the format you want to convert the video to. For example, if the video is in AVI format, you can choose WMV or MP4 or any of the video formats listed in the menu. Then, click Save.

It takes about a minute or maybe less for the Photos app to complete the video format conversion process, but once it's done, you'll get a new (separate) copy of the original video in the format you specified earlier, and you can easily play the video on other devices that support this format.

Accessing the iCloud Photos Library

If you are using an iPhone and have a computer running the latest version of Windows 11, you can access the iCloud Photos library directly through the Photos app, with the ability to download and transfer photos from your iPhone to your computer with a single click. First, make sure you have downloaded the latest available version of the Photos app from the Microsoft Store. Once you have done so, launch the app and go to the "iCloud Photos" section in the left-hand sidebar. Then click on the "Get iCloud for Windows" button to download the official iCloud app from Apple, and then run it and enter your Apple ID account information to begin syncing.

After setting up the iCloud app and allowing it to sync your photos, return to the Photos app and go back to the "iCloud Photos" section. This time, all the photos stored in your iCloud library on your iPhone will be displayed in front of you. Previously, the only way to do this was through the icloud.com website on a browser, so accessing the library from the Photos app definitely makes browsing and saving photos to your computer, perhaps for editing in Photoshop, easier and simpler.

Resizing the image dimensions and quality

Sometimes sharing high-resolution images, let's say 4K, can be extremely difficult due to the large file size. Or often you may want to share an image on a particular website, but the website has certain conditions regarding the dimensions of the images that can be uploaded. This is where the resizing feature in the Photos app comes in, which allows you to change the dimensions of any image while also controlling its quality.

All you have to do is double-click on the image to display it in the Photos app, and then click on the menu button (⋯) at the top and select "Resize". After that, another window will appear where you can specify the width and height either in percentage or in pixels. You can also choose the image format, and from the Quality indicator, you can adjust the final image quality. Note that at the bottom of this window, the image size is displayed after any adjustments, so keep an eye on the size indicator to achieve the desired size before saving. Finally, click Save to save another copy of the image (while retaining the original version) on your computer.

Making edits to a video

The Photos app already has many tools for editing photos. While not as powerful as specialized photo editing software, these tools are sufficient for basic edits. However, editing is not limited to photos only, as many edits can also be made to videos using the Photos app (or Microsoft Photos Legacy). After displaying the video within the app, right-click on it and from the drop-down Edit more menu, you can add slow motion effects, 3D elements, or animated text to the video. In addition, if you click the Edit button on the top bar, a tool will appear that allows you to trim part of the video.

Not only that, but Photos also includes a built-in video editing app called Video Editor. It is designed to help users create a video clip from a collection of photos or short video clips, with many tools available to make the video look its best. In fact, we have previously reviewed how to add music to a video, how to rotate a flipped video, how to add filters to a video, how to remove sound from a video, and how to merge multiple videos together, all of which rely on Video Editor. It is a powerful and very useful tool.

Extracting frames from a video

Sometimes, while watching a video on your computer, you may want to save an image from a specific scene in the video. The traditional way to do this is to pause the scene and then use a screen capture tool to take a screenshot and save it on your device, but this method is not practical. Instead, you can use the Photos app, which has a feature designed for this purpose. Simply open the video in the app and stop at the frame you want to extract. Then click on the menu button (⋯) from the bottom toolbar, and select "Save a frame" to be prompted to choose a location to save the image.