Sets

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

Use these shortcuts in Browse or Choose, in Grid or Loupe’s filmstrip:

Action	Shortcut
Stack two or more selected photographs into a set	⌘K
Fold or unfold the current photograph’s set	⇧K
Use the current photograph as the cover	⌥K

Bare K still controls focus peaking.

Create and edit sets. The Photo menu has Stack into Set, Use as Cover and Dissolve Set. The grid context menu also has Split from Strip and Merge with Next when applicable. The status bar reports each change, and ⌘Z restores membership and cover choices.

On iPhone and iPad, the collection’s name leads the bar over the grid, and the one menu at its right end holds Select Photos, the views, the grid’s size, Slideshow and Export. Tap Select Photos in that menu, then tap photographs to add or remove them. Each selected photograph wears a blue square holding its place in the order you chose it. Drag sideways across the grid to select a run of photographs in one stroke; drag back to give some up, and hold near the top or the bottom to keep going. While selecting, the bar across the top counts the selection and offers Select All or Select None, and the bar along the bottom offers Share, Album, Export, Present and More, which holds Share as Contact Sheet, Paste Treatment, Compare, Stack into Set and Show in Album or Folder. Share makes a full-size JPEG of each photograph with its edit and opens the share sheet. Share as Contact Sheet lays two or more photographs out as proof sheets, up to 36 frames a sheet, and opens the share sheet over them; Export below describes a sheet. Cancel returns to opening photographs with a tap. Touch and hold a photograph, in or out of Select, to see it large with the loupe’s caption under it: the filename, the capture date, and the focal length, aperture, shutter speed and ISO. The same actions sit under it for that photograph, or for the selection when it is part of one.

Touch and hold any grid photograph for Open photograph and Select or Deselect. A selection of multiple photographs offers Compare selection. Browse and Choose also offer verdict and rating actions, with the verdict and rating in force ticked. Touch and hold the photograph in the loupe or a compare pane for the same menu. Sets are arranged in Browse: a set’s photograph offers Fold Set, Use as Cover and Dissolve Set; a photograph inside a stackable selection offers Stack into Set.

A set must belong to one source. Stacking also requires a selection without unrelated photographs between its members. Invalid selections show an explanation in the status bar. Sets have no ratings, verdicts or versions of their own; those belong to individual photographs.

Folding. Click a set’s top band or press ⇧K to fold it into one cell. Repeat to unfold. No set folds automatically. Fold state is shared across Browse, Choose, the filmstrip and Develop’s tray, and persists across sessions.

Clicking a folded photograph selects its cover; double-clicking opens the cover while preserving the fold. Folding a selected member moves the selection to the cover. Below 96 pt, the band is hidden; use ⇧K.

Folding changes the display only. Counts, search results, exports and rawctl still include all matching members. The status counter counts photographs.

Cover selection. A pinned cover takes priority. Otherwise, Frames chooses a kept photograph, then the highest rating, then the earliest exposure. Rating or keeping a member can change the cover. Use as Cover pins it, with ⌘Z to undo. A cover removed from the set is ignored. Pinned covers have no additional badge.

Appearance. Members have the same image size and spacing as other photographs. A warm background groups them, with a stacked-frame icon and count above. A set split across grid rows continues on the next row with a dimmed icon and ellipsis. Folded sets add offset layers behind the cover where space allows. The top-right D and version count still describe the cover’s development.

Opening and closing sets moves neighbouring cells into place. Reduce Motion makes the transition immediate. Filmstrip changes are always immediate; its set header appears only when tall enough.

Sort and filters. Set members appear together at the position of their earliest member. This does not change underlying sort, counts or exports. In Sweep, a matching member includes its scene’s other members. Collection, source, camera and scene-search filters still exclude photographs outside their scope. Other phases and Browse apply their filters to individual members.

Compare. Press ⌘3 on a set member to compare the set. More than six members are limited to the cover and capture order, always including the starting photograph. Photographs outside sets use capture-time grouping instead.

Automatic grouping. Sync groups photographs by capture time and scene similarity. A gap of 15 seconds ends a run, while visually dissimilar photographs form separate scenes. The pass uses the local catalogue and analysis index without downloads. It skips photographs missing a capture date or analysis result until that data becomes available. After its first pass, Frames regroups only around what changed: photographs that arrived, left or moved in time, new analysis results, and photographs released from a set on another device.

The activity row shows Gathering sets. Click ✕ to stop it. Automatic grouping cannot be undone with ⌘Z. Manual stacking, splitting and dissolving protect affected photographs from regrouping. Dissolve an incorrect automatic set to keep its members separate.

Sets you stack, split, merge, change or dissolve by hand, and the covers you pin, travel with Decision sync. Each device works out its automatic sets for itself.

Drag to change membership. Drag an adjacent photograph to a set’s first or last edge to add it. Valid targets highlight the members in amber. Non-adjacent photographs cannot be added by dragging. Drop an unfolded member on empty grid space to remove it from the set. Drop one folded set onto an adjacent set to merge them; the target set keeps its identity. Other merges are rejected.

Each membership change supports ⌘Z. Dropping a folded set on empty space does nothing; use Dissolve Set to separate all members. Joining flashes the group background and updates its count; leaving shortens the group background.