There is no directed support for special print formats or contact sheets, however.ĭEVELOP/OVERLAYS. There is a separate Print option, listed under File-in all modules but Develop. In fact, you’ll already find Export in the Photo menu, under File-to be used when saving files. The two other modules-Liquify (which is discussed briefly below) and Export-are extraneous, in the sense that they belong under the main Photo menu, at least in the eyes of this reviewer. And, keep in mind, unlike Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw, all these modules are housed under one roof, facilitating back-and-forth movement, as needed. All the pixel-level editing is housed under the Photo umbrella (pun intended). With that said, we’ll be focusing on the two modules that do most of the work, outlining important features and offering targeted critique and suggestions for use.įor Raw development, there’s the (you guessed it) Develop Persona, which is essentially non-destructive. If you’re new to photo editing, you’ll see nothing wrong with them, of course. I may not agree with it all, such as the use of “persona” in place of module or workspace, but you may find these touches endearing. All rights reserved.Īffinity Photo sought to make itself distinct from Photoshop and the Photoshop-wannabe’s out there with a unique language and working methodology. It would have been nice if I’d had the option for automatic cropping (they’re considering it). I then corrected converging verticals in the Lens panel, added a grid, and engaged cropping. In this image, I used the WB picker icon (on the far left, looks like Saturn) to read white balance, and the app responded nicely. Open a Raw file and you’re immediately taken to this module, where you’ll find all the classic Raw processing tools.
Full support for Wacom and other graphics tablets, including pressure, tilt and shortcut buttons (not tested).Third-party plug-in support (still buggy).Healing and clone tools numerous brushes graduated filters (called “gradients”).Support for layering, blending, selections, masking, and hefty photo compositing.Complete Photoshop-like, pixel-level editing environment.
Raw file development, plus support for all popular file formats.This is just a short and crisp list of key features of Affinity Photo:
Affinity Photo is available from the Mac App Store-currently (and likely for the foreseeable future) Mac OS X only, 10.7 or later, 64-bit processor-courtesy of Serif Labs. First of all, it’s available at a one-time price, and a very inviting one at that: for $49.99, you get not only the software, but also all future updates and releases. Well, Affinity Photo from Serif Labs is here to address the naysayers among us. Even some pros I know prefer to stick with the tried-and-true, standard desktop versions to the Cloud-based subscription versions.
This is especially true in light of Adobe’s recent and controversial subscription-based Creative Cloud service, which many photographers balk at. However, for the many photo enthusiasts who have yet to dabble in Photoshop or who find it too unwieldy or intimidating, or downright too expensive, something new is always an enticement.
And no pro photographer I know would consider abandoning Photoshop in favor of a fledgling software application.
It’s a robust package with an array of tools that far surpasses what many of us would normally use-although, granted, it’s nice to know they’re there when needed. In fact, Photoshop has led the field among image editors for as long as I can remember. While it wasn’t my favorite image editing software initially, Photoshop grew on me as its capabilities grew, and it has become my go-to editor outside Lightroom. I’ve worked with Adobe Photoshop since it was first introduced.