Explore Affinity
Photo’s Personas
1
RAW FILES
Developing raw files in Affinity is like using Lightroom. Go to
“File > Open” and choose your file. If a raw image is detected,
Affinity opens it in the Develop Persona. The tools are similar to
those in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw, but if you ever wonder
how something works, there’s a handy tip at the bottom-left.2
DEVELOP TABS
Apart from cropping, you can largely ignore the tools on
the left. The real action is on the right, where you’ll find
sliders—as in Lightroom. But there’s a neat difference between
Serif’s and Adobe’s products—adjustments are organized into
groups that can be switched between via tabs, which can also
become free-floating windows. The “Basics” and “Enhance”
sections contain tools such as “Exposure,” “Shadows,” and
“Highlights.” There’s a lens corrections tab, with profiles for
one-click correction of popular lenses, plus check boxes for the
removal of chromatic aberration, colored fringing, and vignetting.
Sharpening (or “Detail Refinement”) and noise reduction live in
the “Details” tab, while controls for monochrome conversion and
split-toning live under “Tones,” along with the curves graph.3
OVERLAYS
You can paint an adjustment on to your raw image using
the “Overlays” tab, and the three Overlay tools on the left:
paint, erase, and gradient. Creating a new Overlay enables youSERIF’S AFFINITY SUITE of creativity apps, recently completed with the release of Publisher,
has a quirk not found elsewhere. Each app is divided into sections, known as Personas, which
are tailored toward a specific task, and which change the layout of the controls when you
enter them. Affinity Photo, for example, has the Photo Persona, for carrying out most image
editing; the Liquify Persona, for pixel-bending effects; the Develop Persona, for processing raw
image files; the Tone Mapping Persona, for creating HDR images; and the Export Persona, for
busting down file sizes and fine-tuning compression ratios. Vector graphics app Designer has
something similar, while Publisher acts as a keystone, tying the others together, integrating
them into its Personas, so you don’t need to leave one app to use another.
That’s a lot for one app, but they’re functions that, in other programs, would be filters or
complex dialog boxes. It’s an intelligent use of the space afforded to the interface to split them
up, enabling you to focus on the task at hand, and perhaps even saving time, because you can
organize them into a seamless workflow. Here’s how they work. – IAN EVENDENYOU’LL NEED THIS
AFFINITY PHOTO
Grab a free trial from
http://bit.ly/AfPhotoTrial.to select an area you want to adjust separately from the
rest of the image using the Overlay Brush or Gradient,
using the eraser to tidy it up, selecting it in the “Overlay”
tab, and making an adjustment in another tab. Blend it
in with the rest of the image using an opacity slider. To
edit the entire image, switch back to “Master” [Image A].4
PHOTO PERSONA
To finish developing a raw file, press “Develop.”
After some processing, you’re taken to the Photo
Persona, Affinity’s main image-editing interface. This is
a layered image-editing app akin to Photoshop, but most
of the simple tweaks, such as levels or color saturation,
could have been taken care of at the Develop stage.
In Photo, these are added as Adjustment Layers, or
there are auto versions hiding in the “Filter” menu. The
“Adjustment” palette on the right houses edits such as
“Brightness/Contrast” or “Hue and Saturation.”
>> Yo u c an al s o a d d tex t to y o ur p h oto, sp l ice in s e c tio n s
from other images, or run filters on it. We chose to run
the “Haze Removal” filter on our seascape, opening up
Affinity’s split view to see the difference the filter was
making with a before and after view [Image B].5
LIGHTING
We can also play with the impressive “Lighting”
filter to change the way the hazy fall sun dapplesBA72 MAXIMUMPC DEC 2019 maximumpc.com
R&D