Sort Downloads by Kind. Select the group of photos. Double click. They will all be opened in one Preview window and you can scroll through all the photos.
Or, select the first, touch the space bar and you will see the Quick Look preview. Use the arrow keys to move between the different files.
Not really seeing the messssss, but to each their own I guess.
You can group files in Finder by kind, all image files will then appear together. In list or column view clicking on one will preview it directly in finder in a side panel. You make this preview panel bigger. Tapping Space will open a preview window and you can use the arrow keys to navigate the files behind in Finder. Or select them all and tap space and use the arrows to browse them.
Create Smart Folders and sort by date, type, location, etc... Whatever you want. Then open the folder. You can tell Finder to use View as Gallery in those folders.
You can also just continue to use Grid view and tell Finder to use large preview icons in that folder.
4. scroll down to the images section, hit the 'show all' at the top right of this section
5. drag the icon size slider at the lower right to make icons huge, scroll around
Alternatively
1. open the downloads folder
2. view>as list/column
3. view>use groups, view>group by>kind
4. scroll down to the images section
5. select an image, hit space to bring up Quick Look, use up/down arrows to move through the images
You can use Quick Look from the icon view too but it's a bit confusing to try and navigate through a 2d grid that's hidden behind the Quick Look.
You could also use either of these methods to isolate all the images quickly, then select them and open them with Preview if you explicitly wanted them in that app, but big icons/Quick Look is usually gonna be a lot faster for uses like "finding that one image in a messy directory".
In fairness you’re being really obtuse and not explaining what you want clearly. You refuse to change the way Finder shows pictures. Double clicking (or CMD o) will show the photos in Preview just like Windows. Tapping Space will show them in Quick Look.
How can I find the image I'm looking for in a folder of 100+? On Mac it's just Spacebar + down arrow until you find it. If you're aware of a way to do this on Windows without installing anything you'll be a lifesaver.
Have you tried switching that folder to "Gallery" view? It display a list of all images and then a large preview along with an info panel to the right. Seems like it should give you everything you need. You can then switch back to your normal view when done so it doesn't mess up how your folder is setup.
Use Quick Look. Simply press Space to instantly preview almost any file you’ve highlighted in Finder. You can use the arrow keys to move to the next file in the finder window below. For multiple files selected you get a film strip in Quick Look.
Lots of extra options are surfaced in MacOS when Option is held. Press option while any menu is open and you’ll see new options. The context menu will show that quick look becomes full screen preview in this case. Lo and behold simply pressing Option Space will do the same thing.
How I would do it is go to Downloads in Finder (Command shift g), filter file type to images, select the first one (down arrow), and press spacebar to open in Quick Look, and just use arrow keys to move around - no need to open an app at all for quick viewing. If I did want to use Preview to view all the files, select them (eg shift down arrow) and drop on the Preview icon.
On Mac, if you want to find something it's Command-F. In Finder this opens up a dropdown, set Kind: Image, now you see all images in the folder, and nothing which is not an image. Command-A for select all, drag or right click to preview.
I explain it the way I do because I had never had occasion to try "let's find all the images in a folder of mixed file types" on Mac, so I started with "Find" and yeah. Quite simple indeed.
Osx UX is a messsssss