Photography Follow-up Answers

Android Photos (Google) Questions

Q. How can I 'flatten' a "motion photo" taken with an Android Phone?

A. Motion photos can take up a good deal of space on your phone and on your cloud storage.  These photos are actually brief movies that provide Google Photos with multiple options for sharing and using that image.  These pictures can be twice as large as regular or non-motion ones.

On your phone, view the picture that has "motion photo" option.  Put your finger on the picture and swipe up.  This will show you the "Shots in this Photo."  You can scroll through the individual pictures (or frames) and see which one you want.  When you find it, you will see "save copy" in the upper right.  Do that and it will save just that slice.  Then you can delete the original.  Remember that when you delete a picture, you typically have 60 days of it in the "trash can" before it is gone.  

To turn "motion photo" off - it should be the second icon from the right.  It should be white.  If it is yellowish, then you will be shooting in that mode.  

Q. Is there a way to view pictures that are not in an album?

A. I do not believe there is a way to do this at present.  (as of March 2024)

Q. Is there a way to hide pictures from my main Camera Roll?

A. The Camera Roll is the main batch of pictures that shows up chronologically listed at this site - https://photos.google.com/.  There might be lots of reasons why you want to hide pictures.  What if you bought your spouse or partner a present, but did not want that person to see it in your pictures.  Click on the photos you want to hide and send them to the Archives (by following the menu under the three dots in the upper right hand corner or by typing Shift+A).  This will not delete them, but will remove them from your list of regular pictures.  If the pictures are in an album, they will remain there.

Apple Photos (iOS) Questions

Q. How can I 'flatten' a "live photo" taken with an iPhone or iPad?

A. Live photos can take up a good deal of space on your phone and on your cloud storage.  These photos are actually brief movies that provide you with multiple options for sharing and using that image.  These pictures can be twice as large as regular or non-motion ones.  Here is information on how to use Apple's Live Photos - https://support.apple.com/en-us/104966

Furthermore, under iOS, you can toggle a picture between "live photo" and still photo.  To do that, you have two basic steps involved.  First, you need to set the "key frame."  This is the image that will be shown when you 'flatten' the picture.  When looking at the photo, click Edit across the top.  The click on Live across the top so that it turns yellow.  THEN, click Live on the bottom and you can select the frame that you want to set as the "key frame."  When that is done, you can use the menu in the upper left hand corner of the screen while looking at a picture - and choose "Live Off."  This will likely not reduce the amount of space that is taken up on the phone or the cloud, but may make for a easier download.  I do not believe that this is something that can be done in batch.

Portable or Physical Storage Questions

QUESTIONS

Cloud Storage Questions

OneDrive (Microsoft) - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onedrive/online-cloud-storage

Q. How much storage do you get for no charge?

A. Only 5GB.  That is not a great deal and can be filled up quickly with pictures on your computer.  So if you have the basic package, you will fill it up in no time.  You can see other plans here - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onedrive/compare-onedrive-plans

Q. Why is it backing (or trying) everything up?

A.  This is the way that it is typically setup.  If you have the free version, you will not get that far before you end up running into problems.

Q. How do I log on to OneDrive?

A. You need your Microsoft or Office365 Account.  It is not very intuitive - and you might have only logged on when you installed the program.  This is not the same as your computer PIN for a home PC or laptop.