That might take a little getting used to if you are an Adobe user and must pussyfoot with the presence sliders. The adjustment sliders are gentle in their response compared to LR. Increasing noise reduction in both resulted in a muddier-looking image using Lightroom. If you look at the back of the lapwing in the middle, Affinity, on the left, handles the noise far better than Lightroom does. Each is a 100% crop, and the sharpening and all noise sliders are reduced to zero, as opposed to the default values.
The photo was underexposed and brightened in development to accentuate the noise. The above image was shot at a high ISO with noise control turned off in the camera. Furthermore, increasing the noise reduction didn’t leave the image looking as muddy as it does with some competition. Even at higher ISOs, opening photos into external noise reduction programs was unnecessary. The noise reduction from the Serif Raw Engine is pretty good, far better than Lightroom’s. Regarding sharpening, most raw developers find it hard to compete with AI-based noise reduction software, such as Topaz Denoise AI and ON1 No Noise AI. Furthermore, images shot at higher ISOs were much cleaner with Affinity than LR, even if I reduced Lightroom’s sharpening down to zero. This is good news, as it means less image development and editing time. I opened the same raw file in both Affinity Photo and Lightroom (LR), and the initial results in Affinity were far closer to the image on the rear screen of my camera, which I have set to closely match what my eyes see. The most important thing to me about any software is the results, and the Develop Persona does deliver.
The different functions of the software are split between what Affinity calls “Personas.” The one I spent the most time in was Develop. It's not without a couple of shortcomings, but what software isn't? I am pleased that this has been addressed with Affinity Photo 2, and after hours of fun trying out the features, I found it stable and running smoothly on the computers I tried it on. That was mainly because an annoying glitch ruined my raw developments. I’ll have to start by admitting that I was not a fan of the first version of Affinity Photo.
This means that workflows involving focus stacking, HDR, or creating panoramas are now even more streamlined.I’m hyper-critical of raw development tools, as that’s where most of my work is carried out. In September this year, Serif updated Affinity Photo for iPad to take advantage of the new features made available in iOS 11 and the new Files app for dragging and dropping images. Affinity claims that their selection refinement algorithm is one of the best available, capable of identifying single strands of hair.Īnd for those concerned about Adobe compatibility, Affinity have ensured that they have "unrivalled PSD support" to go alongside all of the industry standard formats, allowing users to import, edit, and export Photoshop files without losing any adjustments. You can dodge, burn, clone, blemish, patch and treat red eye, as well as perform non-destructive editing using Levels, Curves, White Balance, HSL, Shadows and Highlights, and more. If you don't already own one of the compatible devices - iPad Air 2, iPad 2017, iPad Pro 9.7-inch, 10.5-inch, and 12.9-inch - but suspect that Santa might be delivering one to your stocking, you can buy the software now through the App Store and install it on Christmas morning.įstoppers' Alex Cooke played with Affinity Photo when he reviewed the iPad Pro 12.9-inch as a workflow solution in October and found it to be an ideal companion to Lightroom Mobile, especially when using the Apple Pencil, saying, “The combination of the iPad Pro's capable hardware, awesome screen, Lightroom Mobile, and Affinity Photo really makes for a complete editing solution.”Īnnounced as a comprehensive editing package that is comparable to desktop software, Affinity have incorporated a wide range of retouching tools. Apple have just declared Affinity Photo their App of the Year for 2017.