Set Photo Stream up on your Apple devices

Now that your account is created you'll need to give applications permission to use it before any photos will be able to download.

Again, this is every simple. If you're using an older version of OS X than the most recent Yosemite update, you'll still have iPhoto. Launch it on your Mac and look in the left hand column where you'll find the Library, Recent and Sharing categories.

Under the latter is iCloud, click on this and then select the Use iCloud option.

If you've updated to the latest version of Yosemite, you'll find that there is a new icon in your Dock that looks just like the Photos icon on your iPhone. That's the new Photos app that replaces both iPhoto and Aperture. (Find out more here).

Launch it and if you want to set up just My Photo Stream and not iCloud Photo Library (you can always change your mind later), click skip when Apple asks you to sign up.

Now, go to Photos > Preferences in the navigation bar at the top of your screen, and click iCloud, then tick My Photo Stream.

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As the iPhone is likely to be the device you use most for photography, having a working Photo Stream is important.

To do so, you'll need to go to Settings, then iCloud, then Photos. Here, you'll want to make sure My Photo Stream is turned on.

If you own one of Apple's newer iPhones, you may also see the Upload Burst Photos option, which will transfer only your favourite photos from Burst Mode if you enable it.

This is something we'd recommend, otherwise your library would be swamped with duplicates of essentially the same image.

Read: How to set up Photos for OS X, tips for using Photos for Mac

As the iPad is running the same software as the iPhone, the setup is pretty much identical. The one omission is the Upload Burst Photos option because this is a feature the iPad doesn't have yet.

So to enable Photo Stream go to Settings > iCloud > Photos and then ensure that the My Photo Stream button is green.

Now that all of your devices are in sync it's time to see just how easy Photo Stream is to use.

With your iPhone or iPad, take a picture of something. It needn't be high art, just a quick shot to test that everything is working properly.

One the picture is taken go to the Photos app on your Mac (or iPhoto if you're still using it) and, as long as you're connected to WiFi, you should see the photo arrive shortly after you snapped it on your iOS device.

It's that simple. As you continue to capture moments, the photos will now sync quickly and quietly in the background.

While Photo Stream is very easy to use, understanding how the storage works can be a little more challenging.

Essentially you are entitled to one thousand photos, which is a large amount, and none of these count against your iCloud storage.

One thing to note though is that the photos are only held on the iCloud servers for thirty days. This means that if you buy a new iPhone or iPad and setup Photo Stream, you’ll only see photos from the last four weeks.

Existing devices will hold all one thousand as they’ve already synced them from the servers before they were deleted.

If you want to use My Photo Stream to back up iPhone photos to your Mac don't forget to download the images regularly.

First off you'll also need to check that Photo Sharing is enabled by navigating to Settings > iCloud > Photos on your iPhone or iPad and switch on iCloud Photo Sharing.

Then go to the Photos app on your device and tap the Shared icon at the bottom of the screen. After the library has updated you'll see the option to Create New Stream. Tap this, name the Stream, and then add the contacts you wish to share your photos with.

Bear in mind that the recipients will need to have Apple IDs and iCloud accounts to access the Stream.

Now tap Create and your Stream is ready. You can create multiple Streams and add different photos in each. We'll do that next.

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Tap on the Stream name you’ve created and you’ll see the folder is empty. To remedy this tap the plus box in the top left corner then select the photos you wish to share in the Stream.

You can do this individually or tap on the Select option on the right which will highlight all the images in that particular group.

When you’re happy tap Done, add a note if you want to, and the Stream is now accessible to those you invited.

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