Show figures two at a time by default

Question

I'm writing a document that has a lot of figures, and as a result is quickly growing in size. I want to bring the page count down if possible, and I'd like to do it by placing the figures side by side.

I know I can do it manually by using two minipages inside a figure, but I want latex to place them for me, since I don't really care what figures are placed side by side.

Setting width=0.45\textwidth made it smaller, but it didn't get the figures to go side by side, even without centering them.

Is there any way to set this up by default?

The environment I'm using:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}
    \begin{figure}[htbp]
        \includegraphics[width=0.45\textwidth]{example-image-a}
    \end{figure
\end{document}

I don't want someone to write code for me, I just need a starting point for where to look.

Answer 1

Something like this, i.e., a macro named \twofigures?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx} % for "\includegraphics" macro
\usepackage{caption}

\newcommand\twofigures[6]{%
\begin{figure}[htbp]
\captionsetup{skip=0.5\baselineskip}
   \begin{minipage}{0.45\textwidth}
     \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{#1}
     \caption{#2}\label{#3}
   \end{minipage}\hfill
   \begin{minipage}{0.45\textwidth}
     \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{#4}
     \caption{#5}\label{#6}
   \end{minipage}
\end{figure}}

\begin{document}
\twofigures%
     {example-image-a}       % name of image file
     {Left-hand-side figure} % caption
     {fig:left}              % argument for "\label"
     {example-image-b}
     {Right-hand-side figure} 
     {fig:right}
\end{document}