Pick a folder
Point LightPhotos at a folder that is already on your disk. There is no import step to sit through.
Shortcuts are written the macOS way — on Windows and Linux, read Cmd as Ctrl. Press ? inside the app for the list as your own machine shows it.
An empty window has one button: Choose Folder. Pick the folder holding the shoot you want to work on. LightPhotos scans it and fills the grid right away — and there is no import step, nothing to copy into a library, no catalog to wait for. The files stay exactly where they are.
- The web build asks for permission. Your browser wants confirmation before any page may read a folder. Grant it for the folder you picked; that is the only access LightPhotos gets, and it covers one folder, not your whole drive.
- Switch folders whenever you like. Click Open in the header, or press Cmd+O. Work on one shoot, then point it at the next.
- Your settings live next to your photos. Ratings, labels
and edits are written into a
.lightphotosfolder inside the folder you opened. Move the folder and the edits travel with it; delete that folder and you lose the edits, never the photos. There is no database somewhere else holding your work hostage. - Only some files show up. The grid lists the formats LightPhotos can open — see supported formats for the full set and for what else gets written to disk.
The scan happens in the background. Thumbnails decode as they scroll into view, so you can start rating the first frames while the rest of the folder is still being worked out — how browsing works.