Microsoft Photos
Carmel Kittell
I've hit a bit of a snag and could really use some help. I've got a bunch of photos in HEIC format, and I'm struggling to view heic files on Windows 10 (and potentially Windows 11) setup. It seems like my current setup just isn't cutting it for these types of files. I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations for a best HEIC viewer that's compatible with Windows 10 or 11? I'm looking for something straightforward and user-friendly since I'm not exactly a tech wizard. Any advice or suggestions would be super appreciated. Thanks in advance!
After a bit of research and trying out a few different applications, I found a couple of solutions that worked well for me. First, I discovered that Microsoft actually offers a HEIC file extension support in the Microsoft Store, which, once installed, it seems doesn't allow me to view HEIC files directly in the Windows Photos app, I don't why.
I also tried out a third-party app called TunesBro HEIC converter. It not only let me view HEIC files seamlessly but also offered the option to convert them to JPG if needed. This was super handy for sharing photos with friends who couldn't view HEIC files or for uploading to websites that only accept JPG.
Google Photos is a popular photo sharing and storage service developed by Google. It allows users to upload, share, and manage their photos and videos from any device. It supports a wide range of photo and video formats, including the High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIC). HEIC is a format used by Apple's iOS devices for storing high-quality images in smaller file sizes compared to traditional formats like JPEG. However, HEIC is not as widely supported on non-Apple platforms, which can create challenges when sharing or viewing these files.
Once uploaded, Google Photos automatically converts HEIC files to a compatible format for easy viewing across all devices. Simply click or tap on an image to view it. You can also use Google Photos' editing tools to enhance your images.
Encouraged by that success, I also decided to give TunesBro HEIC Converter a shot, especially since I often need to convert photos for sharing with friends and family or for use on websites. The ability to easily convert HEIC files to JPG has been a game changer for me. It's incredibly user-friendly and the batch conversion feature has saved me so much time.
Although the interface in Microsoft Photos is simple, it includes a range of options that you will find quite helpful. Not only will the viewer let you open each image on your PC's hard drive, but you can also organize all your content into folders and albums, making it a lot easier to locate any file. There is even the option to turn on the face detection to divide your photos according to who appears in them.
Another interesting feature of Microsoft Photos is the ability to edit the photo parameters. Using a simple editor, it will only take you a few seconds to adjust the brightness, contrast or aspect ratio of any picture. The same goes for videos, as the tool also contains a specific section for the postproduction of audiovisual material.
photo editor and photo sharing application included with the Windows 8 and Windows 10 operating systems as a functional replacement for Windows Photo Viewer and a partial replacement for Windows Photo...
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Photos is a single-instance app that can organize digital photos in its gallery into albums. The default view is Collection, which is sorted by date. Users can also view items by Album or Folder. The album view shows both auto-generated and user-generated albums. The folder view displays files based on their location in the file system or on OneDrive. Users can choose what folders are displayed and which files are placed in albums.
Users can edit with a sidebar similar to the one in Google Photos, which allows them to adjust the photo's shadows, highlights, sharpness, and filters.[5] Further, Photos also allows users to trim, slow down, and save photos from videos.
Unlike Photo Gallery, which autosaves edits, Photos only saves when a user clicks the Save or Save As button. Photos allows users to compare the original file to the file with unsaved changes, and to save the photo with a different name and location.
The video editor was removed from the Windows 11 version of Photos, being replaced by the separate app Clipchamp.[6][7]Video Editor (formerly Story Remix)[8] is a video editing feature built into the Photos app. Intended to replace the older Windows Movie Maker, this feature was added to Microsoft Photos with the Fall Creators Update to Windows 10.[9] Video Editor uses AI and to organize and transform photos and videos into stories. Video Editor allowed users to create videos from pictures and songs. It also contained features to add 3D effects, soundtracks, 3D animations, and styles to the videos.
The Photos app can show individual pictures, display all pictures in a folder as a slide show, reorient them in 90 increments or through a granular control, print them either directly or via an online print service, send them in e-mail or save them to a folder or disc.[5] It supports images in Animated GIF,[11] BMP, JPEG, JPEG XR (formerly HD Photo), PNG, ICO, RAW, PANO, and TIFF file formats.[citation needed] It can also view HEIF images with the HEIF Image Extensions app from the Microsoft Store.
Photos is built from a separate code base from those of Photo Gallery and Windows Photo Viewer. It was first included in Windows 8.0 and had a customizable background and a Facebook photo viewer, both of which were removed in the Windows 8.1 update to the app. It also introduced the ability to view immersive photo PANO files and set a photo as the app's live tile or the Windows lock screen. Like most other apps designed for Windows 8, the controls were hidden until the user right-clicks on the screen.
In Windows 10, Photos originally used a hamburger menu for the photo management interface and to make basic controls visible to users. Unlike most Microsoft apps designed specifically for Windows 10, Photos used round buttons like the ones on Windows 8 for editing. Control categories were listed as buttons on the left side of the app, and specific editing options were listed as buttons on the right side of the app. Folder view and the ability for users to edit albums were added to the app after the initial release on Windows 10 in response to user feedback. Photos includes all features from Windows Photo Viewer except the Burn to Disc feature and may gain more features from Photo Gallery in the future. The original view exclusively featured a dark theme.
A major update in October 2016 replaced the hamburger menu with a ribbon, replaced the radial editing tools with an editing sidebar, and added a full-screen view, ink editing for photos and videos, and a light theme.[12]
In 2022, a new version of the Photos app was released for Windows 11 with changes in the user interface matching the design of Windows 11. This version has significantly different photo editing features. Many features were removed, including the video editor, face grouping, searching things, and browsing by year.[7] The former Photos app from Windows 10 has been renamed to "Photos Legacy" in Windows 11, and can be redownloaded on the Microsoft Store.[13]
Generative Erase
The well-known Spot fix tool has received a boost with the help of AI and is now known as Generative erase in the app. This feature allows you to fix and remove distractions from your photos, like background objects or miscellaneous visual clutter. Compared to Spot fix, Generative erase creates a more seamless and realistic result after objects are erased from the photo, even when erasing large areas.
To use Generative erase, go to [Edit Image] and select the [Erase] option. Brush over the objects or areas you want to remove. Adjust the brush size to get the right level of precision you need.
For even finer control or removing multiple objects at once, you can disable [Auto Apply] to add or remove masks, where each mask represents an area that will be erased.
For more information about Microsoft Photos, please refer to below website:
Windows Photos with AI editing features
Windows Photos gets improvements
AI-powered features in Windows 11
Microsoft Windows Blogs
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- [Instructor] The Photos application in Windows 11 is where you can store, organize and edit your library of pictures. New AI tools in the Photos app let you manipulate the backgrounds in your pictures. So in my library, I will double click on a photo, then I'll click the edit button up at the top to edit it, and I'll just maximize this window so we can see it better. The different editing options at the top include the crop tool, adjustments, filters and so on. But this background option is a new feature that uses artificial intelligence. I'll click on that. And at the bottom, it tells me that it was able to identify the background. In the picture, it has highlighted the background with this diagonal line pattern. In my testing, the AI has identified the background perfectly in nearly every picture I've tried almost immediately. If for any reason it does not identify the background perfectly, you can use the background brush tool to make manual adjustments, and we'll see that in a moment. But in most cases, it will pick out the background. Then you can choose one of these tools on the right. If you choose the blur tool, it will blur the background, which makes it look like I shot this photo with a nice portrait lens on a professional camera. Photographers refer to this blurred background as the Bokeh effect, and it can really make a picture feel much more polished. And you can use this blur intensity slider to change how much of a blur you see. Next, let's go over to the replace option, and this will let you replace the background with a solid color. So you can choose whatever color you want here. Then I'll go to the remove option, and that will just remove the background, leaving a transparent background. I'll show you how useful that can be. But first, we need to save this. So I'll click the apply button, and when you have the changes you want, you can click this save options menu up at the top. If you choose save, it will replace your original picture with the edited version. That might be what you want if you blurred the background of a portrait. But when removing the background, I think it's important to keep the original and the edited version. So I'll choose save as copy. And since it's saving a new file, it prompts me to choose a storage location and give it a name. If you store this new picture in your standard pictures folder, it will be visible in your Photos library, along with all of your other pictures. Also, it's going to save this new file as a PNG file. A PNG file can have a transparent background, a JPEG or JPG file cannot. So I'll click save and I'll close this window. And now I have the original photo and the version with the transparent background in my library. Also, I'll go over to my pictures folder on my storage drive, and I can see that new picture here. If you're building a webpage or making a layered graphic, you can use this file with the transparent background. When I make a thumbnail graphic for a YouTube video, I like to include a picture of people without the original background. Okay, let's look at one more option back in the Photos app, and I'll open up this picture of a windmill. I'll double click to open it. Then I'll click the edit button up at the top. And I want to use this picture so that you can see these tools work on different types of pictures. I think the blurred background is great for portrait photos, but if I wanted to remove or change the sky in this windmill, I can. So I'll go to the background tool, and again, it identified the background, but this is the only picture I've tried where it did not identify the background perfectly. I want you to notice that part of the windmill's wall here has that diagonal line pattern, which means the AI thought that that wall was part of the background. That's where we can use the background brush tool to make manual adjustments. So I'll click okay here. I'll turn on the background brush tool. Then you need to choose whether you want to add content to the selected background or subtract. I will choose subtract. Then I can change the brush size here. Then I can brush over the part of the picture that I want to subtract from the background. And that will restore the wall, removing it from the background. Also, there's a bit of a car over here that I want to fix, and I'll take a look at any other parts of the picture that need a little bit of adjustment. So it's really not hard to fix the parts that the AI misidentified. Now I'll choose the background replace option, and I can choose a different color for that background, which gives me a different look for this picture. Or I could remove the background if I wanted to use this on my website or in a PowerPoint presentation. So that's how the AI and the Photos app can blur, replace or simply remove backgrounds from your pictures nearly instantly.
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