Learn to use Frames

Frames is a RAW editor and catalogue for macOS. Use Browse to find photographs, Choose to review a shoot and Develop to edit. This chapter covers the trial, adding sources and the main controls.

What it does

1. Four-phase culling

   Review a shoot in four phases: Sweep, Rate, Inspect and Cleanup.

   Modes, views and phases

2. Verdicts and ratings

   Keep or reject photographs and rate them from one to five stars using separate controls.

   The ideas it is built on

3. Originals on demand

   Browse local previews and load originals when you pause in Loupe, zoom, edit or request them.

   The ideas it is built on

4. Non-destructive editing

   Edits are stored in Frames’ catalogue and leave original files unchanged.

   The ideas it is built on

5. Committed dark

   The interface stays dark in every system appearance to keep viewing conditions consistent.

   The ideas it is built on

6. Source setup

   Add Apple Photos or a folder from the source picker, with guidance through the first scan.

   Adding your first source

7. Getting started

   Follow in-app guidance through adding a source, choosing photographs and making an edit.

   Getting started

Pages

• 1.1What Frames is

  Frames is a RAW editor and catalogue for macOS, with support for Apple Photos and folders.

• 1.2The trial, and buying Frames

  Try every feature free for 30 days, then buy Frames for $99.99 with a single payment.

• 1.3The ideas it is built on

  Frames keeps selection, editing and file deletion separate, and uses local previews to browse your library.

• 1.4Adding your first source

  Add Apple Photos or a folder to start browsing photographs in Frames.

• 1.5Getting started

  Getting Started explains the current view and its controls as you work, from adding photographs to exporting an edit.

• 1.6Modes, views and phases

  Use B, C and D to switch between Browse, Choose and Develop.

Add Apple Photos, folders or mounted drives as sources to catalogue photographs where they are. Import from a camera card to copy photographs into Apple Photos or a folder.

What it does

1. Photos in place

   Catalogue your Apple Photos library without copying or relocating originals.

   The Photos library

2. Folder sources

   Browse folder and drive sources alongside Apple Photos in one catalogue.

   Folder and mounted-volume sources

3. Library sync

   Sync source changes while preserving ratings and verdicts for missing photographs that may return.

   Library sync

4. Folder sync

   Folder sources refresh on launch, mount and manual scan, with automatic change detection on local drives.

   Folder and mounted-volume sources

5. Card import

   Import card photographs grouped by session, with duplicate checks and RAW+JPEG pairing.

   Card import

6. Folder destinations

   Import to a folder using date and sequence patterns, with existing-file protection and source-coverage information.

   Card import

7. Original downloads

   Fetch iCloud originals as needed, share matching requests and cache completed downloads locally.

   Downloads

Pages

• 2.1The Photos library

  Add Apple Photos as a source to browse its still photographs using locally available previews.

• 2.2Folder and mounted-volume sources

  Add a folder or mounted drive to catalogue its photographs without copying the files.

• 2.3Card import

  Import photographs from a camera card into Apple Photos or a folder on disk.

• 2.4Library sync

  Click ⟳ beside a source to sync it, or let changes in Apple Photos trigger an automatic sync.

• 2.5Downloads

  Frames downloads originals from iCloud when an action needs them, and uses local proxies for the grid.

Press B to find photographs across your sources. Browse has a collection tree and its own filters, independent of Choose phases. Use it to organise Photos albums and folders, and export finished photographs.

What it does

1. Sets

   Group related photographs into sets and fold them to a cover photograph when needed.

   Sets

2. Batch edit

   Paste a treatment onto a selection after reviewing affected treatments and downloads.

   Developing a selection

3. Browse

   Find collections and photographs with search, filters and a configurable sidebar.

   The collection tree

4. Library organising

   Create and organise Photos albums and folders from Browse, with changes synced through Photos.

   Organising the library

5. Search

   Find photographs by detected content, visible text or keywords you add.

   Searching photographs

6. Explore drawer

   Choose detected words, cameras and lenses from the search drawer, with matching counts.

   The Explore drawer

7. Scene tags

   Detected words describe photographs and can be clicked to filter the library.

   Searching photographs

8. Photographs like this one

   Press S to find up to 100 visually similar photographs, subject to active filters.

   Searching photographs

9. Keywords you type

   Add keywords to a photograph and search them alongside detected words.

   Words of your own

10. Captions and credit

    Add photograph captions and shared creator and copyright details for export.

    Captions and credit

11. Saved searches

    Save queries and filters under a name in the sidebar, with counts that update as the catalogue changes.

    Saved searches

12. Monochrome filter

    Filter Browse to photographs whose selected treatment uses Monochrome.

    Working in Browse

13. Export

    Press E in Browse to export to a folder or the macOS share sheet. Choose format, size, metadata and naming, with download and space estimates.

    Export

14. Browse filters

    Narrow photographs by rating, RAW files, edited treatments and Monochrome, alongside search.

    Working in Browse

15. Export formats

    Save JPEG, HEIF, 16-bit TIFF, or PNG at 8 or 16 bits.

    Export

16. Export colour spaces

    Choose sRGB, Display P3 or Adobe RGB, with ProPhoto available for 16-bit output.

    Export

17. Resize and sharpen

    Resize by long edge or percentage and apply output sharpening after resampling.

    Export

18. Watermarks

    Add text or image watermarks with nine positions, size, inset and opacity controls.

    Export

19. Export presets

    Save, rename and reuse export settings, including the destination.

    Export

20. Metadata controls

    Choose whether exports include camera information, capture date, location and copyright.

    Export

21. File naming

    Build folder and filename patterns from dates, sequence numbers and photograph metadata.

    Export

22. Existing-file handling

    Choose Replace, Skip or Keep both for files already at the export destination.

    Export

Pages

• 3.1Working in Browse

  Browse shows photographs from the selected collection, with search, filters, organisation and export controls.

• 3.2Sets

  Sets group related photographs, such as bursts, bracketed exposures or several attempts at a composition.

• 3.3The collection tree

  The collection tree lists folders, albums and saved searches from your sources in Browse’s sidebar.

• 3.4Searching photographs

  Search finds photographs using words Frames detects and keywords you add.

• 3.5The Explore drawer

  The Explore drawer groups refinements into Keywords, Date, Gear and Rating & Status tabs.

• 3.6Words of your own

  Add keywords to individual photographs, then search for them in Browse or include them in exported files.

• 3.7Captions and credit

  Add a caption per photograph and set creator and copyright details for exported files.

• 3.8Saved searches

  Save a Browse query and its filters to run it again in any collection, with an updated library-wide result count.

• 3.9Developing a selection

  Copy a treatment and apply it to selected photographs in Browse or Choose, with a summary before you start.

• 3.10Organising the library

  Create, rename, move and delete Photos albums and folders from Browse’s collection tree.

• 3.11Export

  Press E in Browse to export selected photographs, or all photographs in the current view when none are selected.

Press C to review a shoot in four phases: Sweep undecided photographs, Rate those kept, Inspect the highest rated and review rejects in Cleanup. Each phase supports Grid, Loupe and Compare.

What it does

1. Grid

   Browse adjustable thumbnails with range selection, four sort orders and rating and verdict marks.

   Grid

2. Loupe

   View one photograph from fit to 400%, with a filmstrip and info panel.

   Loupe

3. Navigator and glass

   Use the navigator above fit or press G at fit to inspect a detail at 100%, 200% or 400%.

   Looking closely

4. Compare

   Compare up to six photographs with linked panning and individual alignment offsets.

   Compare

5. Develop prewarm

   Frames prepares the editing render while you pause on a photograph in Loupe, with progress in the control band.

   Loupe

6. Safe delete

   Delete photographs only from Cleanup, with confirmation before files are removed.

   Deleting, in Cleanup only

7. Honest histogram

   Measure the histogram from original decodes and click clipping indicators to highlight affected pixels.

   Loupe

8. Native macOS

   Frames uses native macOS controls and Metal-backed photograph views.

   Grid

9. Review controls

   Use the control band to change phase, rate photographs and track review progress.

   Working in Choose

10. Review rail

    Use phase-specific controls for keeping, rating and rescuing photographs, with position and verdict in the status bar.

    The rail

Pages

• 4.1Working in Choose

  Choose helps you review a shoot through four phases, with keyboard controls for keeping, rejecting and rating photographs.

• 4.2The rail

  Choose’s left rail shows the current phase and its main controls.

• 4.3Grid

  Press ⌘1 to view photographs as thumbnails at an adjustable size.

• 4.4Loupe

  Press ⌘2 to view one photograph with zoom, a filmstrip and an optional info panel.

• 4.5Looking closely

  Use the navigator to move around a zoomed photograph, or the magnifying glass to inspect detail while the whole photograph stays visible.

• 4.6Compare

  Press ⌘3 to compare up to six photographs side by side with linked zoom and panning.

• 4.7Deleting, in Cleanup only

  Use Cleanup’s red delete button to remove selected rejects, or all rejects in the phase when none are selected.

Press D to edit one photograph. Frames saves adjustments as a recipe in its catalogue and leaves the original file unchanged. Each photograph can have up to five treatments alongside ORIGINAL.

What it does

1. Recipes

   Frames saves adjustments automatically as recipes, including when you leave a photograph or quit during a drag.

   Entering Develop

2. Copy and paste edits

   Use ⇧⌘C and ⇧⌘V to transfer a treatment, with a report of settings omitted for the destination photograph.

   Undo, RESET, bypass and copying

3. RAW 9 decoding

   Frames uses Apple’s on-device RAW 9 decoder for files that support it.

   How a RAW file becomes a picture

4. Per-camera controls

   Develop shows the RAW controls supported by each photograph and its decoder.

   How a RAW file becomes a picture

5. White balance

   Adjust temperature and tint, or sample a neutral area with the RAW white-balance picker.

   White balance

6. Tone sliders

   Adjust exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, whites and blacks.

   The controls

7. Tone curve

   Edit composite and RGB point curves directly, or drag on the photograph to adjust a sampled tone.

   The tone curve

8. Focus peaking

   Press K to highlight sharp edges measured from original pixels in green.

   Focus peaking

9. Colour mixer

   Adjust hue, saturation and luminance across eight colour bands, selected directly or from the photograph.

   The colour mixer

10. Looks

    Apply one of 23 included looks at adjustable strength, save your own or import Lightroom presets.

    Working with looks

11. Monochrome process

    Switch to Monochrome for black-and-white conversion controls and toning.

    Monochrome

12. Lens filters and bands

    Choose a monochrome filter and adjust eight bands to control how original colours become grey.

    Monochrome

13. Toning

    Tint monochrome shadows and highlights with presets or hue, strength and balance controls.

    Monochrome

14. Vibrance and saturation

    Adjust overall colour intensity with two controls in the Colour group.

    The controls

15. Presence

    Adjust clarity, texture and dehaze across the photograph or within a mask.

    Presence and effects

16. Vignette and grain

    Add a crop-relative vignette and film grain. Choose a stock and format in the grain popover, with a preview strip below.

    Presence and effects

17. Halation

    Add a warm highlight glow in Colour or a neutral glow in Monochrome.

    Presence and effects

18. Grain of its own

    New grain edits use a photograph-specific pattern that remains stable between renders.

    Presence and effects

19. Lens corrections

    Apply a saved lensfun profile or manual distortion adjustment before other edits.

    Lens corrections

20. RAW detail controls

    Use the sharpness, noise, moiré and other Detail controls supported by the current RAW file.

    The controls

21. HDR gain map

    Adjust HDR strength on supported RAW files with a gain map, starting from zero.

    The controls

22. Crop and straighten

    Crop with eight aspect choices including Free, five composition guides and four ways to set the angle.

    Crop and straighten

23. Auto-level

    Detect and level a horizon automatically, with a message when no horizon is found.

    Crop and straighten

24. Spot and stroke repairs

    Press Q, then click to heal or clone a spot. Option-drag paints a longer repair; drag an empty area to pan.

    Repairing a photograph

25. Found repair source

    Frames finds nearby source material for each repair. Drag the source grip to choose a different area.

    Repairing a photograph

26. Dust maps

    Save sensor spots and apply them to a selection or camera date range, with a summary and one-step undo.

    Repairing a photograph

27. Find dust

    Press ⇧K in Develop to highlight possible sensor dust and adjust the detection threshold.

    Repairing a photograph

28. Snapped repair stroke

    Enable Snap to extend a repair stroke over detected objects it crosses.

    Repairing a photograph

29. Interactive rendering

    Most adjustments use a cached RAW decode, while RAW white balance and Detail trigger a new decode.

    The controls

30. Before and after

    Hold / in Develop to view the unedited photograph through the current crop.

    Versions

31. Edited previews

    Saved edited previews let Grid display the selected treatment and its edited mark.

    Entering Develop

32. Version picker

    Switch between up to five saved treatments and ORIGINAL for viewing and export.

    Versions

33. Moving a treatment

    Copy and paste between treatment segments, with confirmation before replacing edits and undo when full restoration is available.

    Versions

34. Publish to Photos

    Allow publishing to send edited renderings to Photos, with Revert available and iCloud Photos sync supported.

    An edit reaches Photos.app

35. On-device AI

    RAW processing, mask detection and horizon detection run on your Mac.

    How a RAW file becomes a picture

36. Auto tone

    Set a starting point for the six Tone sliders with one click and undo it in one step.

    The controls

37. Soft proofing

    Preview sRGB, Display P3, Adobe RGB or ProPhoto and highlight out-of-gamut colours.

    Soft proofing

38. Undo and reset

    Undo edits to the current photograph, reset an adjustment group or bypass it temporarily.

    Undo, RESET, bypass and copying

Pages

• 5.1Working in Develop

  Press D to edit a photograph, with adjustments in the sidebar and the current selection in the filmstrip.

• 5.2Entering Develop

  Press D to open the selected photograph for editing and load its original if needed.

• 5.3The controls

  Develop’s sidebar groups adjustments by purpose and shows only controls supported by the current photograph.

• 5.4Learning to develop

  Learn Develop’s controls beside the photograph, with a field guide that explains what each adjustment does, what to try and how the processing works.

• 5.5Crop and straighten

  Press R to crop or straighten a photograph, then press it again to view the cropped result.

• 5.6White balance

  Adjust temperature and tint with sliders, or press W on a RAW photograph to sample a neutral area.

• 5.7The tone curve

  Use point curves to adjust overall tone or individual red, green and blue channels.

• 5.8The colour mixer

  Adjust hue, saturation and luminance for eight colour ranges, or press H to select a range from the photograph.

• 5.9Monochrome

  Choose Monochrome at the top of Develop’s sidebar to convert a photograph to black and white and adjust its colour-to-tone response.

• 5.10Presence and effects

  Use clarity, texture, dehaze, vignette, halation and grain to adjust detail and finishing effects.

• 5.11Lens corrections

  Use a lens profile or manual distortion adjustment to correct lens distortion before other edits.

• 5.12Repairing a photograph

  Press Q to remove spots or paint longer repairs using source material from the same photograph.

• 5.13Focus peaking

  Press K to highlight sharp edges in green in Loupe, Compare or Develop.

• 5.14Soft proofing

  Preview a photograph in an export colour space and highlight colours that fall outside its range.

• 5.15Working with looks

  Apply a look to give a photograph a starting treatment, then adjust its strength and individual settings.

• 5.16Composition review

  The Composition panel helps you explore framing from your intention for the photograph.

• 5.17Versions

  Save up to five treatments of a photograph and switch between them or ORIGINAL in the version picker.

• 5.18Undo, RESET, bypass and copying

  Use ⌘Z to undo edits, RESET to clear a group and bypass to preview a photograph without that group.

• 5.19An edit reaches Photos.app

  Allow Photos publishing to send a full-resolution edited rendering to Apple Photos when you leave a changed photograph.

• 5.20How a RAW file becomes a picture

  Frames selects the newest RAW decoder supported by each file and shows the adjustments that decoder provides.

Use layers to apply adjustments to part of a photograph. Draw a mask, select colours or tones, or use detected subjects and objects. Refine individual shapes with colour and brightness selectivity, then soften the combined mask with Diffusion.

What it does

1. Mask layers

   Apply adjustments through named layers with colour, visibility and opacity controls.

   What a mask is

2. Drawn masks

   Draw Radial, Linear and Brush masks that remain aligned through crop and straighten.

   Drawing a mask

3. AI subject masks

   Create layers from subjects, background, sky, people and objects detected on your Mac.

   Masks the photograph offers

4. People by part

   Create separate or combined masks for available face parts, hair and clothes.

   People, part by part

5. Hover to mask

   Press M, hover over a detected object and click its highlight to create a mask layer.

   Masks the photograph offers

6. Select tool

   Click or draw a box to select an object, then click to include areas or ⌥-click to exclude them.

   The Select tool

7. Snapping brush

   Enable Snap to include detected objects crossed by a brush stroke while retaining the painted line.

   Drawing a mask

8. Mask components

   Add, subtract, reorder or disable individual shapes within a mask layer.

   Seeing the mask

9. Mask overlays

   Press V to cycle hidden, tint, zebra and matte views of the selected mask.

   Seeing the mask

10. Portable masks

    Copied detected masks are recalculated for the destination photograph.

    What a mask is

11. Range masks

    Select a brightness band with Low, High and Falloff, or sample a colour and set its tolerance.

    Range masks

12. Layer invert

    Choose Invert to apply a layer outside its combined mask.

    What a mask is

13. Mask selectivity

    Limit individual mask shapes to matching colour and brightness, including subtracting shapes.

    Narrowing a mask to a colour

14. Mask diffusion

    Soften the combined layer mask with Diffusion, alongside individual shape feather controls.

    Narrowing a mask to a colour

Pages

• 6.1What a mask is

  A mask defines where a layer’s adjustments apply.

• 6.2Drawing a mask

  Press M and drag on the photograph to draw a Radial, Linear or Brush mask.

• 6.3Range masks

  Create a mask from a brightness range or a selected colour.

• 6.4Narrowing a mask to a colour

  Use Selectivity to limit a shape to matching colours and brightness, and Diffusion to soften the finished layer mask.

• 6.5Masks the photograph offers

  Create masks from detected subjects, people, sky and foreground objects in Develop.

• 6.6People, part by part

  Create masks for a person’s face, skin, eyes, eyebrows, lips, teeth, hair or clothes.

• 6.7The Select tool

  Click an object or draw a box around it to create a mask, then refine the selection with further clicks.

• 6.8Seeing the mask

  Press V to cycle the selected mask through hidden, tint, zebra and black-and-white matte views.

• 6.9Global adjustments and masks

  Crop, Lens, RAW Detail and other whole-photograph controls cannot be applied through a mask.

Find keyboard shortcuts, on-screen help, activity details, storage controls and command-line tools.

What it does

1. Own catalogue

   Frames stores its data locally and backs up the catalogue before schema migrations.

   Catalogue

2. Undo

   Undo up to 100 catalogue actions, including supported batches in one step.

   Catalogue

3. Storage panel

   Inspect and clear six rebuildable caches while keeping the catalogue intact.

   Storage

4. Metadata backfill

   Read missing camera, lens and exposure data from originals through the Photos source panel.

   Storage

5. Keyboard-first

   Use shortcuts for reviewing and editing photographs, and press ? for contextual help.

   The keyboard

6. Activity queue

   Track library, photograph and output work in one panel, with progress, errors and recent history.

   What the application is doing

7. Progressive loading

   Photographs appear from available previews and improve as better renditions become ready.

   The interface gets out of the way

8. Manual in the app

   Press ⌘? or choose Frames Manual from Help to open the bundled documentation.

   The pointer, and the help overlay

9. Accessible controls

   Controls have accessibility labels, grouped star rows and phase announcements for VoiceOver.

   The interface gets out of the way

10. rawctl

    Import, inspect, render and troubleshoot through a command-line tool using the same catalogue.

    rawctl

Pages

• 7.1The keyboard

  Use keyboard shortcuts to switch modes and views, review photographs and edit.

• 7.2The pointer, and the help overlay

  Press ? or choose Help › Help Overlay in the photograph window to show keyboard shortcuts and pointer gestures over that window.

• 7.3What the application is doing

  Click the activity ring in the control band to see progress, errors and recently completed work.

• 7.4The interface gets out of the way

  Frames uses a dark interface, adjustable panels and accessible controls around the photograph.

• 7.5Storage

  Choose Derived Data… from the Frames menu to inspect and clear caches shared across the catalogue.

• 7.6Catalogue

  Frames stores ratings, verdicts, recipes and other catalogue data in SQLite and backs it up before schema migrations.

• 7.7rawctl

  Use rawctl to import, inspect, render and troubleshoot photographs from the command line.