Plus, if Photos still falls short for your image processing needs, Apple now lets you kick an image out to your editor of choice - Photoshop, Pixelmator, etc. And similar to iOS 11, the app’s built-in filters have gotten more natural and subtle. A new “Compare” button in the upper left corner makes it easy to reference the before and after of each adjustment you make to be sure you’re not ruining everything. The edit view has been totally reworked and now offers a wider selection of tools including curves (for finer adjustments) and selective color, which lets you change the color of a specific thing in your shot without affecting the entire image. You can view your photos based on media type (burst shots, selfies, panoramas, slow-mo, etc.), and GIFs are finally supported, too. The sidebar is now persistent and displays your library, Memories, Live Photos, and albums. But with High Sierra, it’s once again starting to feel like a capable, robust piece of editing software. Over the last couple years, Photos has focused largely on simplifying the hassle of managing your photo library and syncing your pictures across devices through the cloud. Photos is the app that’s received the most attention from Apple in macOS High Sierra, and the payoff for that work is significant. You can install the public beta for High Sierra as of today. And even if you’re unlikely to notice all of them, some are pretty monumental for the operating system’s future. This time, the most important changes are all happening under the hood. But even Apple’s other refinement-focused macOS releases - such as El Capitan or Mountain Lion or Snow Leopard - contained more new stuff. Mail, Safari, Notes, Spotlight, and Siri are all slightly better on High Sierra, too. If you’re a photographer, you’ll certainly appreciate the revamped Photos app and its more powerful editing tools. There’s a whole new file system underneath everything! But feature-wise, High Sierra lacks any new apps or consumer-facing changes that will make it all that exciting for Mac users.

It’s full of foundational refinements and new technologies that will prepare your Mac for very cool things that are coming over the next few years.

There’s no avoiding it: High Sierra, the next major release of macOS, is going to feel like a somewhat boring update to most people.

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