GetIntoGear
132 PRACTICALPHOTOGRAPHY
SERIF
Affinity’sv1.6is theversionthat
br oughtit to prominence,and
th e recentv1.7freeupdate
makesit morepowerfulthan
ever. Itdefinitelyerrson the
si de ofphotomanipulation
more thanlibraryorganisation,
but thanksto theDevelop
Persona,it’sgreatforimporting
and editingRAWfiles.Youcan
se amlesslyswitchbetweenthe
Personas,suchas Liquifyor
To ne Mapto fine-tuneyour
edits,andcreatesomeof the
most powerfuleffectsin test
It’sthecheapestone-off
paymentsoftwarein test,
and it’salsooneof themost
powerful,andgivesPhotoshop
a goodrunforits money.The
la testfreeupdatebringsmore
re finements,newfeaturesand
animpressivespeedboostto
th e mix.TheLayerspalettehas
beenrevampedto be more
in tuitive.Livefiltereffects–
whicharecomparableto the
in dustry-leadingexamples
and evenbetterin somecases
- now havean improved
performance,andbothmacros
(actions)andbatchprocessing
ha vereceiveda majorupgrade.
Asidefromtheupdates,
th e originalfeaturesareall still
pr esent,suchas thewide
ra ngeof Adjustments,including
Curves,SoftProofandColour
Balanceforcreativeediting.
The improvedLiveFiltersare
amongthebestin thearena,
and offera real-timepreview,
soyoucanseeyourapplication
asyoumakeit. Thisall addsup
toallowforcomplexeditingon
th e samescaleas Photoshop.
Whilenottheonlysoftwareto
of ferlayersandLayerMasks
in test,it’simplementedin the
sa mewayas Adobe.
Af finityis alsoavailableas
aniPadapp,whereit carriesan
id enticalfeatureset,makingit
th e firstandonlyfully-featured
editingsoftwareformobile
devices– a hugeboon.
Thisis an excellentpiece
ofeditingsoftware,andthis
wouldbe thecaseevenif it
weretwicetheprice.At under
£50,andwithAdobe-rivalling
fe atures,AffinityPhotostands
headandshouldersabovethe
re st.Anddoublyso whenyou
considerthatit has an iPad
app whichoffersan unrivalled
editingexperiencethat’seven
comparableto thedesktop
ve rsion’sfunctionality.
PROS
Verypowerfuland
fu ll creativefreedom
Containsmanytools
rivallingthoseof
Adobepackages
Majorupdates
arefree
CONS
Interface can be
daunting for beginners
R ATING
AboveAffinityhasa rangeof dedicatedPersonas,whichofferspecificworkspaces,andcover
RAWdeveloping,ToneMapping,Liquify,ExportandthemainPhotoeditingpersona.
AboveAffinityhasa well laidoutinterface,anda rangeof powerful
to olsthatwill pleaseimageeditingprofessionals.
MINIMUMSPEC
OS:Windows7,
Mac OS 10.9 64-bit
RAW conversion: Yes
System requirements:
2GB RAM, 2GHz
dual-core processor
AFFINITY PHOTO £49
LIVE FILTERS
Affinity’s Live Filters
are ahead of the curve
when it comes to
previewing creative
effects. Not only can
you see the edits in
real-time, but the
speed is incredible.
ADJUSTMENT
The Adjustment Layers
are as numerous as
they are powerful,
and allow you to make
advanced edits with
tools such as Curves,
Colour Balance and
Gradient Map.
#1
BEST
IN
TEST
