Affinity Photo 2 - Next Level Photo Processing with Selections and Masks

[@chriswright.photography]

Apologies for the extreme length of this video! I couldn't make up my mind about it because it seems if you are new to this selection/mask/layer based editing then there are building blocks to understanding that and so the first half consists of Selections 101. If you're a seasoned veteran you may want to go to the chapter headings in the description and start at one of the more advanced topics?

[@MrMartin246]

I love this series on Affinity Photo 2. Please keep going. I am standardizing my workflow on DXO Photolab 8 for processing and general editing. I use Affinity Photo 2 for specialty needs (pano merge, focus stacking, astrophotography, HDR and other kinds of blending), so I like to be able to complete those edits in Affinity. This series of videos is very useful to me. Thanks again.

[@chriswright.photography]

Thank you so much! I came to Affinity looking to extend the capabilities of PL, having come form a LR/PS background. I'm impressed by what I'm discovering. Really pleased the videos are proving useful!

[@stefanmarch]

Many thanks for making such a comprehensive video. I'm a reasonably competent Photolab and Affinity user but found your video useful. I normally do most of my editing in photolab just using Affinity where i need layers or inpainting. It would be interesting to see a video showing your workflow when you'd feel it an advantage to take a photo from Photolab into Affinity. What you think Affinity does better.

[@chriswright.photography]

Good idea, thanks for the comment, I’m pretty certain Affinity is better than PhotoLab in both Luminosity and Hue masking but there are other things I’m liking a lot, focus stacking, tone mapping and so on. Need to compare more “scientifically”!

[@osomax]

The selections are perfect, the BIG PROBLEM is that they can't be applied while the image is in RAW format, so a simple highlight adjustment becomes impossible because the image lost all dynamic range. Is there a solution to this? or am I missing something? Unfortunately Affinity's masking options in RAW format are very limited. Thank you very much for your videos, they are really excellent!

[@chriswright.photography]

You're not missing anything, this is a built in problem when adjusting highlights in all RAW processing software to an extent. The masking options in the Affinity RAW editor are limited, but because Affinity doesn't use sidecar files, that's probably a good thing! The problem occurs because highlights are a "slice" of the whole spectrum. This is why I generally prefer to use the curves tool rather than the highlights and darks sliders. Another way around it is to select based on luminosity or color. The idea is to limit the effect to the part of the spectrum that you need, rather than letting the app dictate how much of the spectrum you adjust (Darks, Mids, Lights).

[@michael-m9y2p]

Just bought Affinity 2 and tbh slightly overwhelmed. Can it replace Lr and Photoshop?

[@chriswright.photography]

In a word, yes. There is no catalog management and it is a lot to get on top of, but think of it like this - The Develop Persona is a base RAW Processor, like Lightroom. It lacks the sophisticated masking you'll find in Lightroom, but similar functionality exists in the Photo Persona which is more like Photoshop. Build a workflow that looks a bit like this - 1) Shoot in RAW, 2) Devise a file system to store your RAW files and your processed files. I pinched mine from the days I used to use Capture One, I call the parent directory after the name of the shoot and include a data so I can find them later, make two directories underneath that one, one called RAW, the other called Selects. In the first directory copy your RAW files, save your edits in the Selects directory. 3) Open the RAW file - it will default to the Develop Persona, do your basic edits (see the first tutorial I did on Affinity a couple of weeks ago) 4) Commit these changes and open the image in the Photo Persona where you can do more advanced editing (like photoshop) 5) Export the image to your selects directory. (4 might be optional, some photos look good after basic editing) (you may want a third directory for Affinity, to save the "Work in Progress" files) There are three videos, this one and two more in the previous weeks. Watch them in order and it will make more sense (I hope) Good luck, its a lot easier than it first appears!

[@michael-m9y2p]

Brilliant. Thanks