5 Great Features That Make Affinity Photo Your Next Editing Software

-Partner Content-

As everyone with a camera knows, the key to a good photo is getting it right in-camera. However, all the techniques in the world are simply building blocks and getting the most out of your shots is where editing can help. Affinity Photo is not only one of the most powerful editing suites available, it’s also the best pound-for-pound editing software on the market and is guaranteed to take your photography to the next level! The full range of options available to you make it ideal for advanced users, while the intuitive interface is easy to pick up for beginners and enthusiasts alike.

Whatever your genre of choice, be it landscapes, portraits, macro or anything else, Affinity not only has an unbeatable set of tools to help you, but it’s also laid out in an intuitive way that is ideal for newcomers and those switching from other software alike. There are a series of modules, called Personas, that bring you dedicated interfaces, such as Tone Mapping, RAW Developing and even a powerful liquify interface that makes complex reshaping a breeze! Even better, you can take the full functionality of the desktop app on the road, thanks to the iPad version, which is the most powerful mobile editing solution available. With so much on offer for so little, it’s time that you incorporated Affinity Photo into your workflow and moved your photography to the next step. To get you started, we’re going to give you some great tips to get the most from this brilliant software and get you well on the way to creating your own masterpieces.

1 - Develop RAW Files Like A Pro

The first milestone in any photographer’s journey is unquestionably learning to shoot RAW. This image format captures even more data than JPEG and can be tweaked to create the perfect image or a solid base for further editing. To take advantage, all you need to do is open up your RAW file of choice into Affinity Photo and the Develop Persona will load up automatically. From here you can apply exposure adjustments, recover highlights and shadows and even craft a split toning effect. There’s a Curves adjustment for precision tweaks, a savvy noise reduction component and a lens correction module to combat distortion. It has everything you need for that all-important first step to brilliance.

2 - Professional Skin Retouching At The Click Of A Button

If you shoot portraits, you’ll doubtless know about the power of frequency separation. This technique is favoured by many pros to get that glossy high-end look that screams professional. While it may sound complicated, in Affinity Photo it’s as simple as going to the Photo Persona and clicking on Filters>Frequency Separation. Once you’ve done this, you can set your Gaussian Blur amount in real-time, click Apply and the software will split your shot into two layers, one with the colour and one with the detail. From here, you can remove blemishes, add your own dodge and burn and tidy up colours – a game changer!

3 - Ramp Up Your Dynamic Range With Tone Mapping

Amazingly, Affinity Photo has its very own Tone Mapping Persona with a full suite of tools to get your well on the way to high dynamic range images, whether you have a series of bracketed shots – identical photos taken at different exposures – or a single shot as we’ve used. Opening this Persona brings up a toolbar on the right-hand side with the usual exposure and enhancement tools, though also gives you access to Tone Compression, Local Contrast and detail sliders. There’s even a series of presets to get you started. Like most of Affinity, the effects can be seen in real-time and are completely reversible, meaning there’s no such thing as a permanent mistake. What we love most about the Tone Mapping Persona is the subtlety compared to others on offer, meaning you’re able to keep your shots looking natural while still getting the most from your work!

4 - Adjustments Are Plentiful And Powerful

Adjustments refer to a series of functional layers that apply specific effects to your shots. These can be as simple as Exposure, Vibrance or Brightness and Contrast, which do what they say on the tin, all the way up to more powerful options like Gradient Maps, Channel Mixers and Colour Balance for creative effects and colour corrections. Because they’re layers, they can be altered at any time in your editing process and moved around as you see fit. They affect any layers below them in the Layer palette but can be set to cast an effect on only a single-pixel layer by using the brilliant Mask to Below feature. You can also stack as many Adjustments as you wish, giving you a huge amount of flexibility to fine-tune your work in any way possible.

5 - Layers Offer You The Ultimate Creative Freedom

An editing software that doesn’t allow Layers will really set back your creative choices. Happily, Affinity Photo gives you full control over its layer system. This means that you can bring in additional elements into your scene. You can then take advantage of Affinity’s hugely powerful selection engine to select the parts you wish to cut out or scroll through the full list of Blending Modes for a more refined and creative look. To add the birds to our shot, we took one landscape and added in a shot of birds taken against a white sky. From here, it’s as easy as setting the Blending Mode to Multiply and voila, the white sky has gone. Of course, there’s no need to stop there, and you can find yourself creating in-depth composites that are truly only limited by your imagination - set yourself free!
 

Get Affinity Photo Today!

Now that you’ve seen just five of the amazing features on offer, it’s time to jump in and explore the rest, including amazing real-time Live Filters, one-click Macro presets and so much more. To buy Affinity Photo click here.