Affinity Photo 2 offers powerful editing capabilities at a fraction of Adobe's subscription cost, making it an increasingly popular choice for photographers looking to break free from monthly payments without sacrificing editing power.
Coming to you from Anthony Morganti, this practical video walks through the basics of editing a raw file in Affinity Photo 2's develop persona. Morganti clearly demonstrates how the interface differs from Photoshop and Lightroom, highlighting that Affinity functions more like Photoshop with its persona-based approach rather than Lightroom's module system. The control layout might feel familiar to photographers who used Lightroom 3, as some adjustments like exposure, brightness, and contrast work similarly. However, you'll need to adapt to the absence of dedicated whites and blacks sliders, instead working with exposure, black point, and brightness controls to achieve similar results. The clarity, vibrance, and saturation sliders function predictably, offering familiar adjustments to your images.
The lens corrections in Affinity Photo 2 work automatically with native camera-lens combinations but require manual selection for third-party lenses. Morganti shows how to navigate the extensive lens profile list when using a Sony camera with a Sigma lens, pointing out that unlike Lightroom, lens corrections don't automatically remove vignetting – you'll need to apply that separately. The noise reduction and sharpening tools in the details tab perform impressively, with Morganti noting that the sharpening algorithm provides realistic results without the oversharpened look that can plague edited images. The overlay tools allow for targeted adjustments using brushes or gradients, similar to Lightroom's local adjustment tools but with a different workflow.
When finishing an edit, Affinity Photo 2 provides three output options that affect how you can revisit your work later. The pixel layer option creates a standalone file with edits baked in, while raw layer options (embedded or linked) preserve editing flexibility. Morganti demonstrates how to move from the develop persona to the photo persona, which opens up Photoshop-like functionality for further editing. The non-destructive workflow preserves your original files while creating new files that can be significantly larger than the originals, especially when using the embedded option. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Morganti.
For all those whining about LRC and PS and there not being any alternatives (even though there are), here's another option for you.
While it's true that Affinity's an alternative, there's a reason that Photoshop costs many times as much.
Such as????
It would be nice if people didn't keep comparing Affinity Photo with LRC or trying to lump the two together. Affinity Photo and PS are pixel editors even though both can edit RAW images. LRC is a RAW developer - and not the best of its kind.