From RAW to RICHES - RAW Photo Editing MASTERCLASS for AFFINITY Photo 2

[@s.j.stuart]

I want to highlight a correction to my video: The Crop + Geometry corrections are NOT destructive edits as I stated near the beginning of this video. You need to tick a checkbox titled "Reveal" to show your crop and geometry adjustment relative to the original geometry of the image... and it can be edited at any time. I was unaware of this when I recorded the video, and discovered this by pure (fortunate) accident. Download the project file for this Masterclass here: buymeacoffee.com/s.j.stuart/e/317817 (Please feel free to leave a voluntary contribution if you find my Masterclasses useful) And follow along with me, or just mess around with the adjustment settings to create something different.

[@Markoz87]

You can add correction at your video. Here's link to video how to do that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZTSeYCGYpaeaLc Btw. Great but challenging to watch video in times of shorts if you know what I mean ;) But it's need to be that if you want to explain everything. For me your video is very helpful, because I left Adobe for Affinity. Now I know much more. Thanks one again!

[@stuartcarden1371]

You're one of the few youtubers who know how to explain this stuff so simpletons, such as myself can understand. Thank you!

[@dt..retired8462]

Superb tutorial. Its lengthy, so not for a single session. But Simon is one of the best tutors I've enclountered. Thank you very much.

[@adityakmr1361]

An absolute treat of a tutorial! As a relative beginner in the professional photo-editing environment, I definitely have learnt things such as the curves adjustment, white balance and others in more detail, as opposed to the previously superficial idea i had about these concepts. Thank you so much for making such quality content available to us for free!

[@DaveEdmundson1948]

Brilliant tutorial, many thanks for demystifying the use of layers and masks and revealing the true power and potential of Affinity Photo.

[@ElsasTips]

Thank you for the insight into Affinity Photo 2. My adjustments were all over the place with no continuity. I can’t wait to begin editing photos. ❤

[@flashfilms8587]

One of the best, if not THE best editing tutorials I’ve seen on yt

[@s.j.stuart]

Sincerely appreciate the feedback :)

[@barfootSmitty]

Most excellent. I was a 3D lighter and texturer and I used paint on masks all the time. This was the eureka moment about how the same workflow can work for 2D.

[@TheGhost13X]

Thank you and hello from Czechia! :D

[@fenraven]

I was doing just fine before you hit the lighting section. Then I was overwhelmed by what you did but in a good way. :) Lighting in night shots has always been obscure to me, so I'll have to watch this several times to grasp it. I'm also new to Affinity, having ditched PS. I enjoyed this tutorial very much and look forward to more from you.

[@ShrimpTurtle]

in one word, ALL IN ONE TUTORIAL. we newbies know some functions and how to use it. but we actually dont know the Procedure(a.k.a workflow). 3h recordings have right workflow, why we should do A rather than B, what is the difference between function A and function A' which looks quite similar to novice.(like distructive vs nondestructive arguement of adjustment layer.) If I had chosen to learn all functions, workflows and comparisons seperately, It would took 300 hours at least. thank you for saving my time.

[@garythomas6034]

This video was by far the best Afinity tutorial I’ve come across to date, thank you 🙏 is there any chance you could make more of them?

[@s.j.stuart]

I already am! Next two videos are in production right now (masterclasses take a long time to produce, as you can imagine). If you haven't already, you might want to subscribe and hit the bell thingie so that you get notified automatically when I publish the videos.

[@ShrimpTurtle]

Second replay. I think I've watched this video for about 10 hours in total. It's still useful. As you want feedback, to leave a personal comment, it seems like this clip is enough to edit city nightscape photos with a strong outline. Looking forward to editing for natural scenery and portrait pictures as well. It will take over 30 hours of effort to make 3 hours of video, but I believe you can since you are my Jesus of photo editing. Amen.

[@s.j.stuart]

Appreciate the extremely kind words there, and yes, I'm producing the second Masterclass session right now, which includes both landscape and portrait editing processes (portrait is interesting because there are multiple alternative approaches with their own pros and cons to consider... I may have to separate it into its own masterclass, even)

[@iFab7]

Hello! Thanks for this super tutorial, it’s detailed and I discovered a lot of things. The beauties are the details and in fact when you jumped at 1:52:39 I didn’t catch what happened…and I think this phase is crucial!

[@s.j.stuart]

Nothing happened at the cut exactly... I had to take a short break to rehydrate (my throat was very dry after talking for so long) The reason a few things appear to jump around a little is because I needed to "find my place" in the editing process, so I had just hidden and unhidden some layers and masks etc, which is why the screen jumps a little bit. I can assure you that nothing was actually altered from the instructions at the point of the cut.

[@iFab7]

@@s.j.stuartOf course, your break is essential for 3 hours of video and I thank you for the opportunity to learn a lot of things. Take into account that for a newbie like me, a simple skip is catastrophic 😅. In fact i cannot understand why my mask layer is on the right of the level and not below! (This was the moment i have indicated) 🫶🏻

[@christian-schubert]

Even though this is geared towards novices, I still enjoyed watching this. I love your all-encompassing yet concise teaching style! Just when you compare before and after by turning layers on and off (especially with subtle changes), it would be really helpful if you vocalized it accordingly ("on" / "off") so that your audience can fully concentrate on the image itself without having to check whether the layer is currently toggled on or off.

[@rampageking5009]

It is a MasterClass Indeed... Waiting for your curves video now and thanks for sparing your time to make this long tutorial for us

[@Lightsmith_UK]

Thank you for an excellent tutorial video. I have just started the free trial for Affinity photo and you have convinced me of it's value as a photo editor. You have provided clear instructions together with the reasons why you should follow this workflow. Thanks 😊

[@s.j.stuart]

Thank you for the feedback... and welcome to Affinity Photo! The "why" is something I consider to be the most important part of educating. People can quite easily forget the "what" and the "how", but once they understand the "why"... that knowledge tends to stick. I'll be uploading additional tutorials for Affinity Photo soon, including my techniques for handling Batch Edits (which I tend to do for "base processing" a large number of images from the same location and time... so I hope you'll find those useful too.

[@travelguideofficial]

Very impressive video, in fact this is the best editing video with Affinity Photo. Thanks for creating and can’t wait to see more videos on Affinity photo. Perhaps it will be a good one to create one with an iPhone photo (night photo)as there are more people using iPhone as their day to day camera.

[@s.j.stuart]

Thanks for the feedback… I am in the process of preparing for a street photography shoot in Vienna, where I’ll be doing a tutorial covering everything from camera selection, "phonetography" and even editing on the go with Affinity Photo for iPad 👍

[@travelguideofficial]

@@s.j.stuart thanks a lot. looking forward to that

[@giuseppec4963]

This is great, please do more editing tutorials like that, maybe one on curves in depth, and one on colours adjustment. I guess if you focus more on affinity photo tutorials your channel will become popular in a very short time

[@s.j.stuart]

I have more tutorials like this in the works, though my client schedule is keeping me very busy currently. Hopefully after September I should have a lot more time to invest in completing them.

[@julietcollins8892]

Yes please to more Affinity Photo edits, you are an excellent teacher!

[@kolkmeiester]

I recently started using Affinity Photo 2. This masterclass is amazing, thank you for this tutorial!

[@s.j.stuart]

Thank you very much for the kind words :)

[@avananana]

Incredible tutorial, honestly. It's very dense with information regarding available tools within Affinity Photo 2 as well as how to use them. Compound masking is genuinely remarkable and I hadn't even thought about its existence up until now and it's mind-blowing how you can denoise specific luminosity ranges with the click of a button. Greatly looking forward to future videos by you on the topic of photo editing. Given this was a night-time shot, maybe you next one could be of a day-time photograph! :^)

[@s.j.stuart]

Yes, my next video (editing currently) includes multiple daylight shots ✌🏼

[@normanevans2474]

Excellant one of the best I have followed very clear and not rushed {which is the most common fault] Thank you cant wait for more tutorials.

[@s.j.stuart]

Thank you for the kind words 👍🏼 Working on more tutorials currently, not sure when the next will be complete (busy schedule) but I've got 4 in the works currently.

[@jean-claudemuller3199]

At 6:43 you develop the RAW file without having done any RAW data editing, and then you continue working only on the RGB datas ! But as you choose the embedded RAW layer option you can every time go back to the RAW editing, what is not possible with the pixel layer option. I'self make always first the best possible RAW editing before developing and starting RGB editing. (with version 1 the RAW layer option did not exist)

[@greghenton8632]

Very creative video, I hope your channel grows.

[@TanBraeDesigns]

Excellent! Thank you for this wonderful tutorial! Do you, by chance, have one for blending (edges) of images?

[@s.j.stuart]

If you can describe what you mean by "blending the edges of images" I may be able to help you.

[@AlessandroErega]

W8ing on the Curves video

[@s.j.stuart]

It's in the works currently. Suffered a broken microphone, which I've just replaced so I can continue production shortly.

[@alansetchell3118]

I have to say your explantions are around the best I have come across after hours of watching affinity photo vidoes. Most vidoes tell the viewer what they are doing but no explanation of why or what is happening. To your credit your explantions are very thorough. The only comment I would make is it is a real shame you do not provide a link to the master raw file to enable viewers to follow along with you on their computer. Many of your layer effects make very small changes (right thing to do in the real world) but when switching layers on and off I can see no change in you tube becuase the changes you have made are so slight. With the raw file I could try the small changes you are making and see in reality what the effect is then try different settings to compare.

[@s.j.stuart]

@@alansetchell3118 your wish is my command! I’ll update it when I get home and reply again

[@s.j.stuart]

Just FYI I’m still away on assignment… which is why this isn’t done yet

[@s.j.stuart]

I am sorry it took so long for me to get to it, but I've now made the project file available for everyone who wants to download it and follow along (or play around with the adjustment layers for themselves to make modified versions of this photo: buymeacoffee.com/s.j.stuart/e/317817

[@ipb1966]

Superb video covering many of the Affinity concepts I struggle with - thank you. The only thing that didn’t look realistic to me is the red lights on the back of the tram. The lights look as if they’re in a cowling so not sure if they would light up the back of the tram. To me it’s now lit as if there was the back of another tram to the right, out of shot, lighting up this one.

[@s.j.stuart]

Absolutely agree with you. The idea with this edit was to be more "creative" (in order to showcase more technique with Affinity Photo in the one end-to-end tutorial). If I were doing a more realistic edit (rather than "surrealistic") I would have further masked the lighting enhancement on those tail lights to ensure that backsplash only came from the wall immediately behind the tram. The fact that you recnogized the unrealistic appearance means you would most likely have corrected a similar issue in your own editing, and that either means you already know the technique, or I've actually explained it so well that you now do :)

[@Docmakesfotos]

Thank you!

[@s.j.stuart]

My pleasure!

[@AlfredoCampuzano]

Great tutorial!

[@s.j.stuart]

@@AlfredoCampuzano Thank you 🙏

[@rolex-js9nk]

brilliant. learnt a lot.. even about things i thought i knew.

[@s.j.stuart]

Thank you for the feedback... glad you found it useful 😀

[@vladimirstoimenov6945]

Superb! Many Thanks!

[@s.j.stuart]

You've most welcome :)

[@JemenJ]

Great video, thanks!

[@paulmarbach6447]

Cours magistral ! Thank you

[@s.j.stuart]

Vous êtes les bienvenus

[@joerphotodesign]

I want to see professional retouching portrait photography in Affinity

[@benjfischer]

Very impressive! Thanks!

[@s.j.stuart]

Thanks for the comment 😃

[@tsotnekhetsuriani4987]

Thanks!

[@itsallgoodbaby152]

How can I mask the background and apply color grading only on the background?

[@sigmundklaus]

Epic work is what this video is :) - what I don't get is why the need to "jump out" of the Develop module (which kind of does what any RAW developer free or paid does) for stuff like white balance, clarity, curves, levels, HSL, etc etc that can be easily done in any RAW developer without all the drawbacks of creating huge project files and all the layers and all the complicated manoeuvring (versus just moving a slider in Capture One, Lightroom, Darktable etc) - to me it seems a huge time waster - it must take days to edit a handful of photos

[@s.j.stuart]

Actually, there are features in Affinity Photo not covered in this video that massively speed up batch editing work... and I'll be sharing separate tutorials on these over time. This video intentionally walks through a full manual editing process because it's targeting people new to Affinity Photo whom wish to learn processes in detail.

[@sigmundklaus]

@@s.j.stuart no, I get it and I am grateful for all the effort you invested in this video :) I am just coming from the perspective of a Capture One user who feels the need to star using Photoshop and/or Affinity Photo and I am trying to figure out the things that can be done in these... and was just wondering if there is any benefit of doing the stuff I usually do in Capture One (color balance, color grading, dodge and burn, sharpening, noise removal, curves levels etc etc etc) ...so to do these in Affinity Photo or Photoshop. I had the impression that Photoshop/Affinity is more for cases when you need to remove something, replace, HDR merge etc.

[@sigmundklaus]

@@s.j.stuart ...maybe I should look into some sort of a "what is best to do in RAW editor and what is best to do in Photoshop/Affinity for photographers" sort of video first :)

[@s.j.stuart]

@@sigmundklaus It really depends on your preference for workflow. While you can achieve in Affinity Photo everything you can in Lightroom/Capture One/Dx0 etc... you can't do in those programs everything that you can do in Affinity Photo. Capture One can do HDR merges, by the way. Much like how you can create and use Presets in Capture One/Lightroom etc, you can create your own Presets and Macros in Affinity Photo to massively speed up the editing workflow. I have a Macro which applies all of my base edits for a given Camera as non-destructive Adjustment Layers in my AP project. This saves me a considerable amount of time on its own. To answer your original question: why do we leave the Develop persona so quickly? It's because certain changes made in the Develop persona are destructive (all of them if you choose "Pixel Layer" as the "Output")... whereas applying the same changes with non-destructive Adjustment Layers and Live Filter Layers means we can tweak and change everything at any time, without having to revert all the way back to the unaltered RAW file each time.

[@jerbear197]

New to Affinity. Just purchased version 2.5.5. Trying to follow along and have already come unstuck 5 mins in. It will not allow me to change the Pixel Layer. It's greyed out. I'm assuming there has been change of some sort since you released this video.

[@s.j.stuart]

@@jerbear197 if the option is grayed out, it means you’re trying to load an image that isn’t in RAW format (e.g. a JPEG file) You only have other options when loading RAW format files. In your case, leave it as Pixel Layer and understand that by not shooting in RAW, you may notice things like Colour Banding when editing (because non-RAW images don’t retain colour information that isn’t directly visible.

[@jerbear197]

Actually that's what I thought but when I checked it was definitely a raw file I loaded.. I shoot with a Nikon and always shoot both raw and jpg.

[@dwavyofficial]

I can’t change the output 😢

[@voice-of-oblivion]

When does the "absolute masterpiece" come?

[@kingsolo7001]

There's no exercise files!

[@s.j.stuart]

There are now (sorry it took me so long) buymeacoffee.com/s.j.stuart/e/317817

[@stevenholt824]

Im sorry but this is way too much time to spend fiddling around with tiny adjustments , just hit it with orton and some contrast or over do it on the detail enhancement and then orton it back , if it works then mess with the highlights n shadows. If doesn't work then move on . This is what always put me off photoshop and its why i love NEO .

[@s.j.stuart]

@@stevenholt824 this is a creative photo editing class… where demonstrating the effects of each adjustment is essential. My speed and batch editing process I will go through in another video I hope to publish before Christmas. The point of this video is to give a detailed demonstration of lots of different adjustments and techniques combining to produce something good. Also, I have made an Orton Glow macro for AP that works in one click AND can be easily adjusted… I’ll demo that in a shorter video and make my macro available to download as well 👍

[@Ezrabastian]

Sony has the ugliest looking digital noise. Nikon and Canon noise looks natural.

[@nukaspider]

+rep

[@s.j.stuart]

+thanks :)