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Kenny, let's work through a thought problem to explain it. Let's say you took a screenshot of your screen that you want to share on the Internet for some reason. You realize that the picture is not ready for the Internet because it shows something you don't want to show, like your bank account number and password, so you use Photos to edit the image to remove that information by either cropping or blurring it out. Do do that you have imported the picture into Photos from your camera or phone, so it is now in Photos. Great. But the image in Photos is NOT a file on the drive, and the image on the drive that you imported to Photos is unedited. So how to fix this situation? Easy.
From Photos, select the edited image you want to send to the Internet and then click on the top bar on "File" and then on "Export" and you will have an option to export the unedited version or the current version of the image. Export the edited version, go through the options to pick how you want it to be, including name and folder and quality, etc., and then click Export. The image will be exported to a file of the name you wanted at the location you wanted. From there you can then send the file to the Internet however you wanted to do that.
There is also, in Photos, the File/Share option to send the image directly from Photos to some applications, without having to export to a file as an interim step.
So you have options. If you decide to export, and if you want the drive to stay uncluttered, after you use the file for whatever purpose, I would suggest you delete it file. You can always export it again if you need it as a file later on.
Another possible use of this process would be if you attached your iPhone or camera or card from the camera and used Image Capture to put the images directly into Photos. By doing that the images are never on the drive as separate files at all, saving that space. But if you want one, or several, from Photos to use for some purpose, you can select them and export them from Photos to files.
From Photos, select the edited image you want to send to the Internet and then click on the top bar on "File" and then on "Export" and you will have an option to export the unedited version or the current version of the image. Export the edited version, go through the options to pick how you want it to be, including name and folder and quality, etc., and then click Export. The image will be exported to a file of the name you wanted at the location you wanted. From there you can then send the file to the Internet however you wanted to do that.
There is also, in Photos, the File/Share option to send the image directly from Photos to some applications, without having to export to a file as an interim step.
So you have options. If you decide to export, and if you want the drive to stay uncluttered, after you use the file for whatever purpose, I would suggest you delete it file. You can always export it again if you need it as a file later on.
Another possible use of this process would be if you attached your iPhone or camera or card from the camera and used Image Capture to put the images directly into Photos. By doing that the images are never on the drive as separate files at all, saving that space. But if you want one, or several, from Photos to use for some purpose, you can select them and export them from Photos to files.
