Raw editing with Affinity Photo

James Paterson demonstrates how to enhance landscapes with this Photoshop alternative

- James Paterson

Sometimes a scene might seem disappointing, only to reveal hidden delights when you edit it. A while ago I headed to this beach in South Wales with high hopes, only to be met with flat light, grey skies, and relentless drizzle. I didn’t hold out much hope for the raws after viewing them on the back of the camera. But after opening them into Affinity Photo, I realized I may be wrong.

This is often the case with raw files – they hold more detail than you think. The trick is knowing how to tease out the details. Affinity Photo offers all the tools you need to perform these edits. You can enhance tones, convert to mono, and apply to sharpen. There are also powerful Overlay Paint and Gradient tools to carry out selective adjustments.

The raw editor in Affinity Photo is called the Develop Persona. When you open a raw file, it switches to this automatically; but if you want to edit a JPEG or any pixel layer in your document, you’re also able to open the Develop Persona and use the raw tools within.