Canva has just announced a raft of expansions to its Professional Suite, but as a photography expert, it’s the seemingly smallest release that caught my eye: integrations between its Affinity creative software and both Capture One and DaVinci Resolve. That means the latter two pieces of software now support Affinity’s proprietary .af file type. And if you ask me, that’s a much bigger deal than it initially seems.

This integration will make it easier than ever to work between Affinity and Capture One and/or Affinity and DaVinci Resolve. And let’s not forget, Affinity is the best Photoshop alternative on the market, and Capture One is the best Lightroom alternative on the market; buddy them up with seamless file transfer makes them an even more viable alternative to Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom than ever before.

And while Capture One is admittedly rather expensive, Affinity balances the scales by being (almost) completely free. I thought Affinity and Capture One combined to deliver the best Adobe alternative workflow for photographers on the market before, and this news has only bolstered that opinion. The DaVinci Resolve integration won't be quite as ground-shaking for most creatives, but it’s still big news, made all the more interesting by Blackmagic’s news this week that DaVinci Resolve 21 is debuting stills compatibility for the very first time.

Canva's headline announcement is that its professional motion-design software, Cavalry, which Canva acquired earlier in the year, is now free. That’s right, Cavalry is taking a leaf out of Affinity’s book in that its full range of features is now free to use.

On the subject of Affinity, Canva has revealed that over five million users have adopted the free-to-use design suite since its Canva relaunch in October 2025. It’s getting a boost, too, with AI-powered assistance courtesy of Anthropic’s Claude AI, said to automate time-consuming tasks.

Finally, Canva has launched Brand Systems within Affinity. This allows users to build branded elements such as logos and photos within Affinity and publish them directly into Canva’s Brand Kit. Brand Kit is designed to help creatives retain control of branded assets, where approved assets are housed in one place for other teams to access, allowing for greater control of asset use and branding consistency.

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I’ve been using Adobe Photoshop for more than 20 years, which feels like a lifetime in the world of digital photography. Over that time, it has become second nature - a constant in my workflow, evolving quietly in the background as my own shooting style changed.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t use Photoshop anywhere near its full potential, but every update still manages to surprise me with a clever new tool or refinement that reminds me just how powerful it really is. And yet, despite all that history, I’ve found myself seriously questioning whether it still deserves its place at the centre of my editing life.

The reason is simple: the way I actually edit photos day to day is far more modest than the software suggests. I try to get things as right as I can in-camera, whether I’m shooting digital or film, which means my editing is usually light-touch. Exposure tweaks, a bit of contrast, gentle curve adjustments, the occasional spot or heal when dust sneaks onto the sensor, and a crop if the framing needs tightening. That’s about it. Increasingly, I’ve realised that this kind of workflow doesn’t demand a sprawling subscription ecosystem - it just needs solid, reliable tools that stay out of the way.

This is where Affinity enters the conversation. The latest Affinity photo editor offers a full suite of image-editing tools that comfortably covers everything I actually do, and then some. Exposure, curves, retouching, cropping, layers, masking – it’s all there, alongside graphic design features that blur the line between Photoshop and Illustrator. Crucially for me, it also supports DNG raw editing, which means it can handle my files properly without compromise. On paper, at least, it ticks every box I genuinely need ticked.

What makes this feel like more than idle curiosity is the growing sense that my reliance on Adobe is largely habitual. I’m paying for depth and complexity that I admire, but rarely exploit. Affinity, by contrast, feels leaner and more purposeful – built for photographers who know what they want to do and just want to get on with it. For someone whose editing philosophy is rooted in restraint rather than rescue, that’s an appealing proposition.

That said, there is a hesitation I can’t ignore. At the moment, Affinity doesn’t offer the same kind of seamless, native app workflow across iPad, iPhone, and Android that Adobe Lightroom does.

I use Lightroom almost exclusively to edit images taken on my phone, and I do a surprising amount of editing that way these days, even from files taken from my camera too. Going cold turkey from Adobe would mean shifting all of that work back to a desktop or laptop – something that won’t bother many readers, but for me would feel like a definite step backwards in convenience.

And yet, the numbers are hard to ignore. Walking away from Adobe would mean a saving of around $240 or £240 a year – money that could be far better spent elsewhere. In real terms, that’s personal breathing space, or even something tangible like film photography supplies, which would translate to roughly 500 feet of film. So am I mad for even considering it, or is this a quietly genius move? Right now, it feels like a genuine crossroads between comfort and clarity – and I’m not entirely sure which path I’ll take.

When thinking about processing your Raw files you might automatically go for the one supplied by your camera manufacturer, or Adobe Camera Raw, DxO Labs PureRAW and so on, but you can actually do it all in Affinity. Simply drop your Raw file into the interface (or use File> Open if you want to be traditional) and it will switch to the Develop persona. Don’t click on Develop in the top left until you’ve made all your adjustments, which is what we’re going to look at here. The palette to the right has everything you need from lens corrections to noise reduction and exposure/colour enhancement.

1 Correct lens distortion

It’s tempting to start with the Basic tab, but resist that and click on the Lens tab instead and then put a tick in Lens Correction. If Affinity can’t automatically find the right profile it will say so and in that case, click on the drop down list and find the nearest one. There are options to manually make distortion corrections as well. If shooting against a white sky you’ll want to put a tick in Chromatic Aberration Reductions and also consider Remove Lens Vignette.

2 Light and contrast

Click on the Basic tab now. There’s a lot to tweak here at once, as the Exposure and Shadows & Highlights palettes affect each other. In this photo the highlights are being lost, so reduce Highlights to bring detail back into the sky. The Shadows need lifting a little as well. Under Enhance, increase the Clarity for more micro-sharpness. Now move the Exposure slider to the right so that the Histogram data is in the middle.

3 Color options

Whilst on the Basic tab, open the White Balance palette and tweak the setting if required. Here the Temperature was increased to 5600K to represent mid-day. In the Enhance palette increase the Vibrance – these are the colors that are most muted. Then increase the Saturation, but no more than 20% as it may start to introduce noise. At this point there’s not enough contrast, but don’t use the Contrast slider in the Enhance palette.

4 More contrast please

Click on the Tones tab and then on the Curves palette. Add control points to that you can create an S-shape which adds enough contrast. However, while the mid-tones look okay, the shadows are a little too dark under the boats so jump back to the Basic tab and increase the Shadows there. There are also options in Tones for Split-Toning and mono conversion. Once happy, click on Develop, top left, to apply and move into the Photo persona.

You can now do any final editing and save the image.

When Canva announced that Affinity Photo had been relaunched as part of a completely free Affinity Studio suite, the photography community's response was a mixture of delight and scepticism. After decades of paying hundreds, or even thousands for professional editing software, many simply couldn't believe that a Photoshop-class application could genuinely be free forever.

Now, Cameron Adams, Canva's co-founder and chief product officer, has responded directly to those concerns in a YouTube video addressing what he calls "one big question that's being asked: how the hell is that even possible?"

His answer is unequivocal. "Let me be absolutely clear," Adams says in the video. "There is no catch. We don't sell your data. We don't train AI features on your files. We don't monetise your creativity behind the scenes. Your work stays yours always."

The announcement represents a seismic shift in the creative software landscape. The new Affinity combines what were previously three separate paid applications – Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher – into a single unified platform offering photo editing, vector design, and page layout capabilities. Since its launch, the software has already attracted over a million downloads in its first week.

So why, exactly, is Canva forgoing all the revenue that Affinity was previously bringing them?

Why make it free?

Adams frames the decision as both philosophical and strategic. "We believe every designer deserves access to tools that respect their craft," he explains. "Because the industry needs a shift from gatekeeping to generosity. And because we've built a sustainable business model at Canva that allows us to support this kind of access without compromising on product quality or user trust."

He's keen to emphasise that this isn't temporary. "This isn't a marketing stunt," Adams insists. "It is a long-term bet on creative freedom." He describes it as an extension of Affinity's founding principles: "Affinity has always stood for fairness, choice, independence, and program power."

For photographers worried about privacy and data usage in an AI-driven age, Adams offers specific reassurances. Your creative work in Affinity remains secure, runs on your device, and is not accessed to train AI features. This addresses a growing concern among professionals about how their images might be used by software companies to develop machine learning models.

The business model explained

The free model hasn't emerged from altruism alone, of course. Adams is transparent about the commercial logic underpinning the decision. "Everyone with a Canva premium plan will be able to access Canva AI and other select Canva features within Affinity," he explains. "But the Affinity app that you all know and love with all of its professional-grade features and updates will be free forever."

The strategy revolves around what Adams calls a "craft and scale" approach. Professional photographers and designers create high-end work in Affinity, then those projects often need to be scaled and distributed across organisations using Canva. "When more pros use Affinity, more teams end up using Canva," Adams explains. "Pro designers lead the visual workflow. If they build in Affinity, they're more likely to scale in Canva. And when they do, marketing, sales, and the rest of the business will follow. That is how it grows."

This model represents a fundamental departure from traditional creative software economics, which typically charged individual professionals substantial fees for desktop applications. Instead, Canva is betting that giving away professional tools will drive adoption of its broader collaboration platform at the enterprise level.

What photographers get

Above: see Cameron Adams' full YouTube video for yourself

The core Affinity offering includes all the professional-grade tools photographers need: comprehensive raw processing, advanced adjustment layers, sophisticated masking, HDR merging, panorama stitching, focus stacking, and even astronomical image stacking. The interface has been redesigned around customisable "studios" for pixel editing, vector work, and layout, allowing photographers to configure exactly the workspace they need.

The only features requiring a paid Canva premium account are AI-powered tools like Generative Fill, Expand & Edit, and Remove Background, accessed through the new Canva AI Studio. For many photographers who prefer traditional hands-on editing without AI assistance, this limitation is irrelevant.

The software works offline once activated with a free Canva account, addressing concerns about constant connectivity requirements. While help documentation, stock libraries, and Canva AI features need an internet connection, core editing functionality doesn't.

Trust through transparency

Adams acknowledges that Canva and Affinity face a challenge in winning over a sceptical professional community. "We know trust is earned," he says. "So ask questions, kick the tyres, hold us to a high standard because that is exactly what we would do."

This direct appeal to professional scrutiny reflects an understanding that photographers who've spent years mastering Adobe workflows won't switch lightly. The software needs to prove itself not just as capable but as trustworthy, particularly given widespread concerns about how AI companies handle creative work.

For photographers considering the move, the pitch is compelling: professional-grade photo editing with all the power of applications that previously cost hundreds, now available at no cost.

The million downloads in the first week suggest that message is resonating. Whether Affinity can convert those downloads into long-term users – and whether those users eventually drive Canva adoption in their organisations – remains to be seen.

But for now, as Adams emphasises, the core promise is simple: "Affinity for creatives by creatives." And it's free. Honestly.

Affinity Photo was one of our favorite Photoshop alternatives, doing almost everything that Photoshop did at a fraction of the price with no subscription. We wondered what would happen when the program's developer Serif was bought out by graphics giant Canva, especially when the Affinity website went ‘dark’ prior to the relaunch. But we needn’t have worried. Affinity Photo is back, reborn as part of an all-in-one Affinity application, which combines photo editing with vector drawing and page layout tools. It’s like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign all rolled into one.

Let’s be clear about the direction it’s taking, though. Even though it's one of the best photo-editing software applications, Affinity is a powerful photo editor, but, like Photoshop, it’s also a design tool. Photography is not the only thing it does, and Affinity is also about design projects where photography is simply a component – and this is true of new owner Canva, too.

So what’s the catch? How come a program like this is completely free, in perpetuity, with no strings? There is an upsell, but it will be a very minor one for many photographers – you can download Affinity with a basic free Canva account, but if you want to access Canva’s more advanced AI tools, such as AI object masking, generative AI or upscaling, then you’ll need to take out a paid Canva subscription. But don’t worry – Affinity is quite powerful enough for most photographers without these extras.

Affinity system requirements

Affinity: price

Affinity is free, with no watermarks or restrictions on time or features. All you need to do is sign up for a free Canva account, and then you can download the application. If you want more advanced generative AI features, though, you will need to subscribe to a paid Canva plan. That’s the only limitation – though for photographers not really interested in generative AI, it’s not a limitation at all.

Affinity: Interface and usability

Affinity Photo had a logical but sometimes complex layout thanks to its use of ‘Personas’ for different processes. In Affinity, these different tasks – Develop, Tone Map, Liquify – have been absorbed into the Pixel > Filter menu. Along the top toolbar you now have tabs for ‘Vector’, ‘Pixel’ (photo editing) and ‘Layout’ to reflect this software’s three principal roles. You can swap freely between them as you work, since they all share the same file format.

Affinity can work with both raw files and JPEGs/TIFFs. Unlike Lightroom, though, it can’t work on both seamlessly. Like Photoshop, it has to pass raw files through a Develop process first. The tools available are close to those you’ll find in Adobe Camera Raw. You don’t get AI masking tools, perspective corrections or AI noise reduction, but you do get lens corrections, tonal and color adjustments and basic gradient and brush masking tools. It’s not quite Adobe Camera Raw, but it’s a decent substitute. The raw processing is also non-destructive too, because you can embed the result as a re-editable layer after processing.

Affinity can also create 32-bit HDR merge files from bracketed exposures, and its Tone Map tools are rather good, offering realistic-looking results that don’t look like HDR. It can also stitch panoramas, stack images for focus bracketing, and even stack astro images. It has some serious technical depth.

Once you’re in the regular editing mode, most of your work is carried out non-destructively with layers and masks. Just like Photoshop, Affinity offers a wide range of adjustment layers, so that you can adjust curves, white balance, split toning, and a host of other effects without altering the underlying image.

Affinity goes further. It also offers a wide range of filters, most of which can be applied as non-destructive ‘live filter’ layers. You can add lighting and depth of field effects, sharpening and blur filters, clarity, and a whole lot more, all with the ability to go back later and change the settings. (For those effects that can’t be applied as live filters, you can simply duplicate the image layer and work on the duplicate.)

For old-school photo editors used to these processes, it could hardly be simpler, more logical, or more powerful. Keep in mind, though, that if you’re looking for one-click presets and inspiration, you won’t find it here. Affinity is for creators who know what they want to do and how to do it.

There are workarounds, kind of. You can save preset adjustments in individual panels for re-use another time, and you can record macros for automating multi-step processes – but this does feel a bit like stepping back to a time before presets.

There are no image cataloguing tools either. You’ll need another program to manage your photo library, and since many image cataloguing tools come with quite decent editing tools too, it does narrow the potential audience for Affinity’s excellent but old-school editing approach.

In short, if you want what Photoshop does without a subscription, then Affinity is exactly what you need. But if you want organizing tools and one-click creative presets, you are, sadly, in the wrong place.

Affinity: performance

Affinity’s raw processing is pretty good – but don’t forget to check the Lens Corrections box in the Develop mode, and also the Detail Refinement box in the Details tab, otherwise your raw files are going to look pretty soft. I’m impressed that you don’t just get a histogram but a Scope display too, which gives you rather more information about the brightness distribution across your image.

Once you’re in the regular pixel-editing mode, Affinity is very fast – at least, it is on my base-level Mac Studio with an M2 Pro processor and 32GB of RAM. Affinity Photo was originally written for the Mac, so it’s no surprise that Affinity runs so well on my machine. I haven’t tried it on Windows, however (I don’t have a Windows machine with equivalent spec), so I can’t vouch for the Windows version.

I’m especially impressed by the Tone Map tools. These can be used on merged HDR images, but also single images that need a little rebalancing of the shadows and highlights without losing contrast and ‘punch’. I think it’s probably the best HDR tool I’ve used. The focus stacking works well, as does the panorama stitching. Everything works exactly as it should, and I have to give top marks for the quality of the results.

I also want to mention the Object Selection tool, which uses on-device ML (machine learning). It takes a few seconds to analyze the image, but after that, you can hover the mouse over any object or area in the scene, and it will recognize and select it. The selections it creates are really good, too, generally with no visible edge artefacts or haloes – it works so well that you start to wonder if you really need Adobe-style AI subject selection after all.

Affinity: verdict

Affinity is a brilliant Photoshop alternative, not least because it’s free! It’s true that Photoshop does now have some AI gadgets that Affinity doesn’t, at least not without a Canva subscription plan, but not everybody needs or wants these.

But, while Affinity does what it does brilliantly, the market has changed, as have the needs of photographers. There’s no image cataloguing, no one-click presets, and little help or ideas for beginners. It’s a photo editor that’s also a design tool. It shares a lot of photo editing tools, but it’s headed in a different direction than programs like Lightroom or the Nik Collection.

I know a lot of photographers who like to work on a single image at a time, and who know exactly what they want to do and don’t need the distraction of showy presets and effects. Affinity is for them – it’s just not for everyone.

Alternatives

It’s been a huge few days for video and photo editing software, what with the annual Adobe Max having been brought to a close last week and then the bombshell announcement that, under new owners, Canva, Affinity Photo has been reborn as the free-for-everyone Affinity Studio. 

I’ve always been a fan of Affinity Photo 2. I still think it’s the best like-for-like alternative to the juggernaut that is Adobe Photoshop, but it was definitely time for an update.

With Affinity Studio situating all of the brand’s design programs under one roof, not to mention the promise of a fully customizable interface, and no payment plan, sort of (I’ll get to that in a minute), I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think of dropping Creative Cloud altogether and launching myself at Canva with open arms. But that thought didn’t last long, because my Creative Cloud account isn’t going anywhere for the time being, and the reasons are twofold.

Firstly, I’ve been using Adobe software for the past 15 years, and during that time, I’ve gotten extremely used to it. And while I moan about price increases, pricing structures, and bits and bobs that never seem to get fixed, I’ve got a soft spot for Adobe. I feel at home using Photoshop and Lightroom Classic, and if I’m entirely honest, I love the heritage. It might seem odd to talk about a modern software company’s heritage, while it might not be Rolex or Jaguar, it is the editing-software OG, and 1990 was millennia ago in the tech industry.

The second reason why I’m in no hurry to move on from Adobe is that it’s still the industry standard. And that means it’s unrivalled as a platform for plug-ins. If you buy into Photoshop or Lightroom, you’ve got the ability to access a plethora of plug-ins from the likes of DxO, Skylum, and more, whereby Adobe software acts like a hub for more specialist types of photo-editing software. And as the industry standard, you're more likely to come across Adobe users if you collaborate, too.

All that said, the next few years will be a testing time for Adobe. It’s enjoyed several decades, largely unrivalled, at the top of the image-editing food chain, but the rise of generative AI has presented the industry giant with its biggest challenge, arguably since its inception. It’s no longer vying for supremacy against other image-editing software, but Big AI, too. And as we know all too well, the AI industry moves fast, very fast. I’ve no doubt that the image-editing landscape will look very different in just a couple of years’ time. Heck, it’s already changing. Affinity Studio is a case in point.

It seems like it was just yesterday that Canva acquired Affinity, and now, all of a sudden, with the might of a multi-billion-dollar company behind it and an unusual free-for-all model, Affinity has emerged as one of Adobe’s biggest competitors. What a difference a day makes.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Affinity’s free model, though, and while I think it’s great, I do see a way that Canva can introduce payment plans while saving face. You see, to access Canva’s AI models within Affinity Studio, you need a premium Canva account. With that in mind, I can only presume there’s nothing to stop the design-software company from adding more features by way of Canva that require a premium subscription to be accessed within Affinity Studio. Technically, Affinity would still remain completely free...

I digress. My point is, as things stand, there’s more than enough room in the industry for Adobe Creative Cloud and Affinity Studio. I dare say I’ll be using both. But in the words of Bob Dylan, the times they are a-changing, and it seems to me as if Affinity Studio is just the beginning.

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I won't beat about the bush: I have a huge soft spot for Affinity. I was one of the first journalists shown the original Affinity software way back in 2014, along with Digital Camera World’s editor Chris George. And at the time, I was flabbergasted.

Until that point, alternatives to Adobe were pretty poor to be honest. Downloaded onto the latest Apple hardware, though, Affinity didn't just look good, it absolutely flew, not to mention boasting sophisticated features like million-times zoom. This wasn't just as good as Photoshop or Illustrator; in many ways it was better.

Better still, it was free on launch, and then you could buy it for a low one-off price after that. At a time when Adobe had switched to a pricey subscription model, that seemed like a lifeline for many people. Exciting times.

Free from the treadmill

Later, Serif told me my article for DCW's sister site Creative Bloq was the spark that lit the touchpaper. Up till then, the number of downloads had been modest; suddenly they rocketed, and the company has never looked back.

This pleased me immensely. Us journalists are often accused of just criticising everyone and everything; the whole 'easier to hate than create' thing. So it was wonderful to champion something that's genuinely good, and make both the company providing it and the people buying it a little bit happier.

That said, being a cynical old hack. I didn't think it would last long. Surely, Adobe would use all their financial might to undercut Affinity, by slashing the prices of their own subscriptions, and bury it alive. That's what big corporations do, right?

And yet, they never did. In fact, Adobe just kept putting their prices up. Because in their hearts they knew that, however good Affinity became, they could largely just coast on being the industry standard.

And so it has proven. While Affinity has gone from strength to strength, recently being acquired by Canva for an eye-watering sum, it's only ever captured a fraction of the market. As a result, most photographers have felt trapped in a Creative Cloud subscription treadmill. Despite this software being expensive, arguably bloated, and increasingly obsessed with AI features that many of us neither need nor trust.

In contrast, Affinity was always the lean, smooth-running alternative that didn’t pretend you had to pay a monthly ransom to edit your images properly. But hey, habits are hard to break, and I'd guess to this day that most photographers still have never actually tried Affinity.

But now? It’s free. Completely free. Forever. For everyone. And so there's absolutely no excuse to dive in.

Give it a go

If you haven’t tried it, know this: Affinity isn’t some “lite” knock-off. It has the tools you need, and it has them in spades. Selection tools, clone stamps, adjustment layers, masks, blending modes; you name it.

The million-times zoom (literally) still works like a dream. Performance? Blistering. Interface? Intuitive. If Adobe is a sprawling Swiss army knife, Affinity is a precision scalpel that still gets the job done on anything from raw photo edits to intricate compositing.

Best of all, Affinity is still largely free from generative AI shenanigans. Sure, Canva has bundled in AI tools for premium users, but you can ignore them entirely and still have a world-class editor on your machine. For photographers who want control over every pixel (not a machine suggesting “creative improvements”), that’s priceless.

I’ve long believed that Affinity deserves the same attention photographers give to Adobe. Now, with the price barrier removed entirely, there’s really no excuse not to give it a proper look. It's professional, powerful and free. For photographers who just want to create without the corporate strings attached, this is the news we've been waiting for.

Almost three years after the launch of Affinity Photo 2, Canva has launched Affinity Studio, which is available to download now. Affinity CEO, Ash Hewson, is calling the new design suite – not just photo editing software – “A fully reimagined professional design app that unites photo editing, vector design, and layout tools in one powerful platform.” And what’s more, it’s “completely free”. I certainly didn't see that one coming!

Affinity looks set to take a leaf out of Canva’s book by implementing a free model. And it really is free. As Hewson told the crowd live from Australia at the Canva Keynote speech: "We're proud to announce that the all-new Affinity is entirely free, forever, for everyone (...) This isn’t a stunt; it is a statement. A commitment to your creative freedom." He continued: “Affinity is free forever because creatives deserve better.”

As it stands, the only paid element is the newly launched Canva AI Studio that lives within Affinity Studio. This AI-powered feature is available to users with a paid Canva account that allows AI access.

That’s certainly a bold new direction for the Adobe alternative, but it’s a direction that’s served Canva very well indeed. While addressing the crowd at the keynote speech, Canva founder and COO, Cliff Obrecht, revealed that the total number of designs created in Canva has now reached 40 billion! That’s 433 designs per second. And with a bold new visual direction comes a bold new brand design and visual identity for Affinity. Hewson is keen to point out that Affinity’s latest iteration was “built in close collaboration with its community of creators”, but also acknowledges the fact that change can raise questions among existing users.

To that, he points out: “While the all-new Affinity has been reimagined, it still feels instantly familiar (...) The tools, workflows, and precision you rely on are all here – refined but not replaced.” That’s great news for the Affinity faithful, but what’s going to attract new users?

For starters, it certainly appears as though Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher have all been resigned to the history book, with Affinity Studio providing an all-in-one solution, putting vectors, photography, and layout tools under one roof.

My first thought was: Great, sounds impressive. My second thought was: Hmm, the interface could get very busy. But it seems like Affinity has thought of that, too, because a headline feature is customization.

“Creatives can mix and match tools from the Vector, Pixel, and Layout studios to build a workspace that fits their unique process,” says Hewson. “Rearrange panels, choose the tools you need, remove the ones you don’t, and save multiple setups for different projects or tasks.” What’s more, you can share your custom studios, which is great news for collaborators and teams.

As you might have already guessed, artificial intelligence has a big part to play in the next generation of Affinity, too. The software is set to include intelligent tools such as Smart Selections, live filters, and batch processing. As previously mentioned, users with Canva premium access can also make use of Canva’s AI tools, such as Generative Fill, Expand & Edit, and Remove Background, all within Affinity Studio’s interface via the new Canva AI Studio.

As always, copyright and privacy are concerns when dealing with AI. Hewson says that “your creative work will always remain yours. Canva AI features are built with privacy and control in mind, ensuring that your creative work in Affinity stays secure, runs on the user’s device, and work is not accessed to train AI features.” Clearly, the worlds of Affinity and Canva are set to collide in a way we’ve never seen before, so it makes sense that you can export Affinity projects into Canva, too.

All these tasty new features aren’t worth much if the software isn’t optimized. To meet the demands of this ambitious new software, I’m told it’s built on a high-performance engine and can handle real-time adjustment updates, instant previews, and detailed edits at 10,000,000% zoom (literally, that's no joke!) to thousands of layers. “It’s ultra-fast, super-smooth, and precise down to the last pixel.”

What about Canva?

Affinity is now intrinsically linked with Canva, and it’s not just Affinity that’s enjoying a revamp. Canva has released a plethora of new enhancements, too. Here’s what I’m most interested in.

Canva has launched Canva Video 2.0, a content-creator-focused video editor with no paywall and no watermarks. A headline new update is a new timeline, but the software also features AI voice-overs, smarter animations, volume balancing, instant edits, as well as access to Canva's creative library of assets.

Canva’s AI has been used over 22 billion times. It’s partnered with AI giants OpenAI, Black Forest Labs, Google, and now Leonardo AI. Today, Canva has revealed a world-first AI launch, the Canva Design Model. Canva Founder, Cameron Adams, says, “it can create a fully editable Canva design in seconds.” Once the content generation is finished, you can head in yourself and tweak it manually. Canva Design Model isn’t just accessible in Canva, but also in ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

Other AI additions include AI Where You Work, which is AI integration across Canva itself, so everyday tools that you use are now boosted by artificial intelligence. As it was put in the keynote speech, “AI is being integrated into Canva throughout.”

And in a world first, the design software giant is also introducing Ask Canva. This is essentially an AI agent/chatbot that you can communicate with to give you advice. But what’s most impressive about this addition is that the advice it gives you is specific to the design that you’re working on.

Affinity Studio is available to download now. Stay tuned for the upcoming Digital Camera World review.

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If you’re keeping up to date on the latest photo editing software news, Adobe launches HUGE barrage of AI-powered tools across the entirety of its portfolio. Plus, Adobe teases tools for relighting photos, creating composites, and swapping surfaces. And if you’re looking to pick up new hardware to run the latest and greatest software, take a look at the best MacBooks for photo editing.

Affinity, the software developer behind the popular Affinity Photo, has temporarily halted all sales of its software ahead of “big changes.” In a banner posted on its website and posts to social media, Affinity announced an October 30 launch event while removing all software sales from its website.

“True creative freedom is just around the corner,” Affinity’s post reads. The announcement was paired with a graphic that says “Creative freedom is coming. See it first. October 30.” In an email to subscribers, Affinity adds, “This isn’t just another update. It’s the beginning of something new. A shift in how creative freedom is defined.”

The social media announcement comes with the absence of the option to purchase any Affinity's three key creative software programs –  Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher – on the company’s website. “We’re making space for what’s next,” the company commented on social media. “This short pause lets us transition cleanly without confusion between versions. Existing customers keep full access to their apps. This only affects new purchases and trials.”

The announcement – and missing software from its website – has created a flurry of speculation online among photographers and designers. Several commenters beg the program to stay with its perpetual license format, noting that it's a key advantage over subscription-based competitors. Others have taken to the comments to make requests for anything from Linux support to an After Effects competitor.

Several commenters ask the software not to use AI in the update. Affinity Photo has AI-based selection tools, but in a post back in 2023 said that it was not developing any generative AI tech, noting that the company was “against anything which undermines human talent or tramples on artists’ IP. Any ML/AI features will be workflow-focused.”

Another recurring fear among commenters on the social media announcement ties in to Canva’s acquisition of Affinity in 2024, as Canva uses a subscription-based model and also integrates generative AI tools.

Removing the option to purchase software ahead of a new launch isn’t a common move, although preventing new users from making a purchase only to have a new version out may make sense for perpetual licenses.

Affinity directs fans to watch its social media channels for teasers of what’s coming, along with signing up for email updates to stay updated on the latest.

Check out our guide to the best photo-editing software

The Nik Collection plug-ins are sold as a single unit. You can’t buy them separately, but you do use them separately. And although they are typically used as plug-ins for programs like Lightroom Classic and Photoshop, they also work as standalone programs and external editors for other programs, like Capture One. If you like to shoot raw, though, you will need a ‘host’ program to do your raw conversions before sending processed images to the Nik plug-ins for editing.

So even though Nik Collection is usually described as a plug-in suite, it actually offers a wide variety of workflows. This, and its huge creative range, make it one of the best photo-editing software applications for photographers.

Taking them alphabetically, Analog Efex is perhaps the most interesting for anyone trying to recreate the look of old cameras, primitive lenses, and lo-fi film stocks. It can create bokeh effects, light leaks, borders, dust and scratches, even ‘accidental’ multiple exposure effects, and multi-camera images where photos are chopped up into panels. It’s like a wild analog playground and a world apart from DxO’s rather more sober FilmPack film emulation software. It’s weird and sometimes over the top, but brilliant.

Color Efex is perhaps the central tool in the Nik lineup. It offers more than 50 filters, which can be used individually or in combination, each with powerful adjustments and masking tools. In Nik Collection 8, Color Efex gets preset effects for each filter, so there are even more ready-made starting points for your experiments. It’s aimed at more mainstream photographic effects than Analog Efex but has its own share of striking looks alongside regular tools like levels and curves.

Dfine is the Nik Collection’s noise-reduction plug-in, but it only works on JPEGs or images already converted from raw files, rather than directly on raw files, unlike more modern AI noise-reduction tools. It’s effective in an old-fashioned kind of way, with a good deal of control over noise reduction via ‘noise profiles’ and local enhancements, but these days it’s much more effective to tackle noise during the raw-processing phase. It would be great if DxO could find a way to bring its DeepPRIME AI noise reduction to Dfine, but it’s hard to see how it could fit into the editing workflow if your regular ‘host’ program is doing the raw conversion.

HDR Efex has had relatively little attention in recent Nik Collection updates but remains a very effective HDR tool that can be used to merge bracketed exposures or just to add HDR-style shadow and highlight adjustments to single files. Some of the preset effects are throwbacks to the worst excesses of the HDR craze, though it’s possible to produce strong-but-natural-looking results too.

Nik Sharpener comes in two forms: a ‘presharpener’ to crisp up soft-looking images and an ‘output’ sharpener to optimize sharpening for different output devices and print sizes. The screen sharpening is effective if you publish your images digitally, but for this and the print sharpening to be effective, you really need to resize your images for your output device before you send them to Sharpener. I suspect most photographers will just stick to the sharpening tools in their regular host software.

Silver Efex is one of the stars of the Nik Collection and is perhaps the best-known black-and-white software tool of all. It produces remarkable richness, depth, and tonal subtlety in monochrome images, with a powerful set of adjustment tools, preset effects, and local adjustments for ‘dodging and burning’. You can also produce striking black-and-white images in Analog Efex and Color Efex, but Silver Efex is probably the ultimate digital darkroom for monochrome work.

Viveza is harder to categorize. It’s designed for detailed color adjustments, via both global adjustments and local adjustments, but it does seem to be a bit of a one-trick pony, and three of its key adjustments are now incorporated into Color Efex. No doubt Viveza has its fans, but it does seem much more limited than the Nik Collection’s other creative plug-ins.

DxO Nik Collection 8 system requirements

DxO Nik Collection 8: price

DxO Nik Collection 8 sells for $169.99 / £144.99 (about AU$260) for new users, or for $99.99 / £79.99 (about AU$150) as an upgrade from Nik Collection 6 or 7. Note that DxO’s upgrade offer covers the last two versions, so although the Nik Collection is on an annual update cycle, you can afford to skip a version without losing your upgrade entitlement. If you already have Nik Collection 7, for example, and you don’t need the Photoshop workflow enhancements that feature so heavily in Nik Collection 8, you might want to hang on for next year’s Nik Collection 9 release.

Either way, while the Nik Collection is not exactly cheap, you do get an awful lot for your money. Analog Efex, Color Efex, Silver Efex, and perhaps even HDR Efex are easily good enough and different enough to be sold as standalone products, and here you’re getting all the plug-ins for a single price.

DxO Nik Collection 8: interface and usability

They have different jobs, but all the Nik creative plug-ins share the same basic design. The left sidebar displays preset effects and individual filters for building your own effects, while the right sidebar displays panels for each filter so that you can make further adjustments. This right sidebar can get a little busy once you start combining effects, but the panels can be collapsed to save space.

You can also apply a wide range of highly customizable local adjustment masks via DxO’s trademark Control Points, Control Lines, and – now – Polygon masks. These work in a unique way, targeting only specific tones and colors within the mask area, so they are highly selective. The Nik Collection does not offer AI object masking, but this system is equally effective in a different way.

If you want to, you can dive very deep indeed into the Nik Collection’s filters, masks, and controls to create some stunning effects. Or, if that’s just too much to take in initially, you can pick from a long list of excellent preset effects and work back from there.

Improved Photoshop integration is a key feature of this Nik Collection 8 update. It comes with a new-and-improved Nik Collection palette displayed directly within the Photoshop interface, including the ability to save interim edits in Nik plug-ins and return them to Photoshop as layers when you’re done.

Silver Efex gets some updates too, including a color reference image display, interface improvements and local adjustments for ClearView (a bit like Lightroom Dehaze) and Selective Tone adjustments. Also, each filter now comes with pre-defined presets.

Overall, the Nik Collection workflow has been refined to a point where it’s as quick and seamless to use as possible, and you can just click a preset if you don’t want to get bogged down in tools and settings. It also has special features and options for Photoshop users.

DxO Nik Collection 8: performance

The Nik Collection plug-ins offer such a huge variety of image-editing effects, tools, and inspiration that it’s hard to know where to start. If you like a lo-fi analog look, then Analog Efex does it spectacularly well. Color Efex is like a photo editor and effects generator rolled into one, and is like a giant box of filters with endless permutations. Silver Efex Pro is capable of wonderful black-and-white imagery with comparatively little effort – though you can dig as deep as you want with the adjustment and masking tools. HDR Efex does look a little dated in parts, but is still very good at creating classic HDR Effects.

Dfine is less impressive because it’s starting from images that have already been processed once. It can reduce noise very effectively, but you can easily lose detail at the same time, so it’s some way behind the latest AI noise-reduction tools. Sharpener is interesting but perhaps a little specialized for the average user – it’s handy if you want to optimize detail carefully for screen or print, perhaps. It’s also hard to warm to Viveza, as it doesn’t do much that programs like Lightroom or Photoshop can’t, though its masking tools are effective in a different way.

DxO Nik Collection 8: verdict

You probably won’t get equal value out of all the Nik Collection plug-ins, since Dfine is somewhat dated, Sharpener is quite specialized, and Viveza’s color adjustment capabilities are neither unique nor particularly valuable for Lightroom or Photoshop users.

So, does the Nik Collection still deserve a 5-star rating? I think so, because Analog Efex, Color Efex, Silver Efex, and HDR Efex offer such a rich and varied set of image effects that, in my opinion, they easily justify the cost of the Nik Collection on their own.

It’s not just a unique set of photo effects that you’re getting here, but a practically bottomless source of inspiration and ideas. If you’re getting stuck in a rut with your current photo editor – and we all do from time to time – the Nik Collection will bust you out of that rut in a big way. We all need fresh ideas now and again, and that’s exactly what the Nik Collection delivers.

Alternatives

Summer is over, which means an end to the lovely warm weather and vibrant lighting conditions, but what if you’re working on a project that requires a summery look? Well, I’m going to show you how you can inject some mid-June vibes back into your outdoor portraits. In fact, with the right gradients in Affinity Photo, you can theme your portraits for any season you like.

One of the problems with shooting outside is that you don’t want the subject squinting in the light. You can remedy this by backlighting them, but then you have the problem of the subject looking dull. Don’t worry, though, I’ll also show you how to fix that with lighting effects to go with the color gradients.

How to use gradients in Affinity Photo to fake seasonal lighting

1. Make a gradient

Load the image you want to make summery and then duplicate that layer, calling the new one ‘Lighting’. Then go to Layer > New Fill Layer and click and hold in the top-left corner of the image. Drag and release near the bottom corner. You will now have a new layer called ‘Fill’ that’s a black-and-white gradient.

2. Add some color

On the top-left are the details for the gradient. Click on the mono gradient patch and then click on the control point at the white end to select it. Then click on the Color box and select a nice yellow, which will go in the sky area. Repeat the process for the black control point and use a warm red colour.

3. Blend and Lighten

Change the blend mode of the ‘Fill’ layer to Overlay and reduce the opacity to 50%-75%, depending on how much of an effect you want. Then select the ‘Lighting’ layer and go to Filters > Lighting. Change the Type to Point and place it just on the shoulder of the subject – in your images, either put it on the brightest point or on the subject.

4. Tweak the settings

There are a lot of parameters to play with here; the important thing is to overexpose the light. Also, add yellow as the Specular color and a reddish-pink as the Ambient light. Keep the main light color as white. Use the Distance slider to increase the coverage over most of the subject. Click Apply and reduce the layer opacity if required.

5. Finish up and try a different season

Merge your layers and save to finish. Now, as mentioned, this is fine for bringing back summer, but how about adding a green-yellow gradient for spring, or a brown-orange one for fall and a blue one for winter? Just change the gradient to give a seasonal feel to your outdoor portraits.

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There are some things you always tweak when editing landscape photos. Sure, you’ve straightened the horizon and cropped that dodgy looking bloke out of the corner of the photo, but the color, contrast and sharpening adjustments tend to be very similar, making them ideal to implement as macros. That’s just the start though, because whatever ideas you can come up with, you can create and save a macro of it to use later. That’s what we’re doing here, starting with those basic landscape edits, which are all created as adjustment layers so they can be tweaked for each individual image.

1 Work it out

Rather than loading a photo, correcting things and then deciding you want to create a macro halfway through, it’s best to have a clear plan of what filters or adjustment layers you’re going to use and write down the settings used. Then go to Window> Macro and move it from the left side to a more useful size.

2 Begin recording

Click on the red button in the Macro panel to start recording then go to Layer> New Live Filter Layer> Sharpen> Unsharp Mask. Enter values of Radius: 30px, Factor: 0.5, Threshold: 1%. Then click on the X in the corner of the palette to close. Next is colour so go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Vibrance.

3 Finish the edits

Enter value of Vibrance: 40% and Saturation: 20%. Close and then go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Curves. Put in three control points and create an S-shape to boost the contrast. You should now have three basic adjustments that can be edited later. Click on the Stop Recording icon.

4 Save your macro

In the Macro palette, click on the Add to Library icon. Enter a name for the action that reflects what it does then click on OK. It will now appear in the Library where it can be activated with one click. The adjustment layers can all have their parameters tweaked so if something causes highlight clipping you can reduce the effect.

Loading and saving macros

To export the macro that you’ve created, click on the Export Macro icon which is next to the Add to Library icon. In the file browser that appears, give the macro a descriptive name and save in a notable location. Next to this is the Load Macro icon. Click on this, navigate to the macro you want to load and click on it and then on Open.

See more Affinity Photo tutorials

There are some things you always tweak when editing landscape photos. Sure, you’ve straightened the horizon and cropped that dodgy looking bloke out of the corner of the photo, but the color, contrast and sharpening adjustments tend to be very similar, making them ideal to implement as macros. 

A macro is simply a series of commands, keystrokes, and mouse actions that are recorded and can be played back to automate repetitive tasks. On a Mac, macros are known as Actions.

Basic image adjustments are just the start though, because whatever ideas you can come up with, you can create and save a macro of it to use later. That’s what we’re doing here, starting with those basic landscape edits, which are all created as adjustment layers so they can be tweaked for each individual image. 

I'm using Affinity Photo 2 - but macros will work with whatever photo editing software you use.

1. Work it out

Rather than loading a photo, correcting things and then deciding you want to create a macro halfway through, it’s best to have a clear plan of what filters or adjustment layers you’re going to use and write down the settings used. Then go to Window> Macro and move it from the left side to a more useful size.

2. Begin recording

Click on the red button in the Macro panel to start recording then go to Layer> New Live Filter Layer> Sharpen> Unsharp Mask. Enter values of Radius: 30px, Factor: 0.5, Threshold: 1%. Then click on the X in the corner of the palette to close. Next is color so go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Vibrance.

3. Finish the edits

Enter value of Vibrance: 40% and Saturation: 20%. Close and then go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Curves. Put in three control points and create an S-shape to boost the contrast. You should now have three basic adjustments that can be edited later. Click on the Stop Recording icon.

4. Save your macro

In the Macro palette, click on the Add to Library icon. Enter a name for the action that reflects what it does then click on OK. It will now appear in the Library where it can be activated with one click. The adjustment layers can all have their parameters tweaked so if something causes highlight clipping you can reduce the effect.

5. Loading and saving Macros

To export the Macro that you’ve created, click on the Export Macro icon which is next to the Add to Library icon. In the file browser that appears, give the Macro a descriptive name and save in a notable location. Next to this is the Load Macro icon. Click on this, navigate to the Macro you want to load and click on it and then on Open.

Sometimes the photo you take just doesn't live up to the dramatic spectacle that you experienced when you took it. Fortunately Affinity Photo has a range of color grading tools that can bring the drama back and give an image much more impact. How much you use of each one largely depends on the qualities of the image that you are processing, but put them all together and any image can be significantly enhanced. In this tutorial, weíll be looking at color balance, HSL shifts and split toning.

1. Adjust the brightness

The first step is to get the brightness right across the image. Here the shadows are a bit too dark so needed brightening. All these adjustments are in the Photo Persona so firstly go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Shadows/Highlights. Increase the brightness of the shadows. Then use a Curves adjustment layer to add more contrast using an S-shape.

2. Start coloring

Go to Layer> New Adjustment Layer> Color Balance. Select the Shadows from the Tonal Range list. Now, increase the cyan and blue tones to give those areas a much more cooler feel. Then select the Highlights from the Tonal Range list and increase the red and yellow elements. As these are adjustment layers you can always come back later and tweak them.

3. Increase the saturation

Time to boost individual colors with a HSL adjustment layer. Select a specific color and use the color Picker tool to click on the precise color itself. Increase the Saturation Shift to give it more saturation but be careful not to introduce color noise. If you want to change the colors, such as making the white more yellow, then use the Hue Shift slider.

4. Use split toning

The final adjustment can have the most dramatic effect. Add a Split Toning adjustment layer and then use the Highlights Hue to tweak the overall coloring of the highlights and use the Highlights Saturation to add more red/yellow. Do the same with the Shadows Hue and Saturation sliders for more cyan/blue. Use the Balance slider to weight the image to one or the other.

Final look and feel

All of these adjustments are editable layers so if you're not quite happy with the overall effect, or you want to try different styles, simply go back in and click on the adjustment effect icon in the layers palette to tweak the settings. If you save the project as an Affinity file you can create more variations later. Simply export the ones you like as JPEG/TIFs.

Architecture photography thrives on detail – whether you're capturing the clean lines of a modern skyscraper or the weathered textures of a centuries-old façade. While a single exposure might seem sufficient at first, it often fails to do justice to the full dynamic range and complexity of the scene. That's where advanced editing techniques like HDR (high dynamic range) come into play.

That said, HDR has a bit of a notorious rep; we've all seen those overcooked, surreal images online that give you goosebumps for all the wrong reasons. When pushed too far, HDR can ruin the subtlety that makes a photo compelling. But when applied with care and restraint – especially in black-and-white architecture photography – it can add incredible depth, texture, and tonal range that a single exposure simply can't match.

Tools like Affinity Photo 2.0 make it easy to merge exposures and reveal the hidden character in both contemporary and historical structures, without falling into the trap of over-editing.

HDR architecture photography: before and after

Tutorial

1. Prepare and select

After shooting your images, connect your memory card to your device and create a folder with the image series you want to merge. Open Affinity Photo 2.0 and open the File option from the bar along the top. Select the New HDR merge option and add the images you want to merge.

2. Control the merge

Affinity offers a few supporting functions to help you create a clean merge process. Activate Automatically align images on Perspective, Automatically remove ghosts, and Tone map HDR image. When working with JPEGs, tick the Noise reduction box if there is image noise evident.

3. Choose a preset

Affinity will now automatically create an HDR merge. When the program has finished, you will find some preset suggestions in the left bar, click through the options to see the differences. Here, I selected the high-contrast black-and-white option as it highlights the architectural details.

4. Fine-tune settings

To the right, there are various sliders you can use to fine-tune the result. Start by adjusting the Tone Compression and Local Contrast. Next, focus on Shadows and Highlights, followed by Detail Refinement and Curves. The HDR effect is strong in itself, so take care when adjusting these settings.

5. Crop and retouch

In some instances, the merger may leave ghosts, especially if there were people present in the frame. We used the Automatically remove ghosts feature, but it didn’t completely eliminate them. Use the Inpainting Brush Tool or the Crop feature to clean up those areas for a more focused result.

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Shooting in low light can create magical, cinematic photos – but it also comes with editing challenges. When your image relies on just a few small light sources, getting the right contrast, mood and subject focus can be tricky.

In this step-by-step tutorial, you'll learn how to enhance low-light photos in Affinity Photo 2 using powerful targeted editing tools like Curve Adjustment Layers or Detail Refinement & Noise Reduction.

Whether you're working with a candelit portrait, a neon-lit street scene or ambient twilight, you'll learn how to guide the viewer's eye, deepen the atmosphere, and make every pixel count.

Before and after

Editing steps

1. Change Tonal Curve

Open your RAW file and the Development Persona will open. Affinity automatically sets the Tonal Curve to Apply tone curve, which enhances highlights and contrast. To start with a more neutral base, set the Tonal Curve to Take no action by clicking on the seventh symbol in the headbar.

2. Basic edits

Go to the Basic option and increase the Shadow slider while also decreasing the Highlight slider. Navigate to the Detail option and use the Luminance sliders to reduce image noise. Use the Detail Refinement slider to bring back sharpness. Don’t overdo these settings as it may start to look unnatural.

3. Select midtones

After clicking on the Develop option, it’s time to start working non-destructively on the major edits. Go to the headbar and click on Select. Next, enable the Select Midtones option under the Tonal Range category. This will enable Affinity to autoselect all midtones for you to work on.

4. Bring back midtone contrast

Create a new Pixel Layer above the Background Layer. Add a Curve Adjustment Layer and adjust the anchor points to modify the curve as per your preference. Keep in mind that, for now, you’re only working on the midtones. For the best results, focus on enhancing the contrast.

5. Fine-tune exposure

To adjust the exposure of specific image elements, add a Pixel Layer. Change the Blend mode to Overlay and decrease the Opacity to 20%. Select the Brush tool with a soft setting. In the Color Panel, choose White to lighten or Black to darken elements and paint over them.

Key tip

Edit exposure and add colour

Using a soft brush with a White or Black color on a pixel layer above the background layer can do more than simply adjust the brightness of image elements. Using a light or dark shade of the color pink, for example, can enhance the tone of the image, making the colours pop.

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Watch video (above): Up in smoke

There are several tools for pushing and pulling pixels around in Affinity Photo, but none can rival the Liquify Persona. This dedicated workspace offers a range of features that allow you to reshape objects and people. As such it has all sorts of uses. Here it lets us craft a smoky shape from a series of simple photos of smoke.

An effect like this might look complicated but it’s really very easy to carry out and encompasses many key features in Affinity Photo. We begin by making a new black background and bringing in a shape to use for our smoky structure. We’ve used a bat shape here but you could experiment with all sorts of different things. Once done, we copy in pieces of smoke and blend them in. This is where Screen – one of the most useful layer blend modes – can help us by only allowing the lighter pixels to show through. 

After blending smoke, we can head to the Liquify Persona to gently push and pull it around until it roughly conforms to the shape of the bat. It’s best to do this in stages, using different pieces of smoke for each part of the shape. We can speed it up by choosing a symmetrical shape. This way, we only have to fill half of it with smoke, then simply copy, flip and blend one half to make the other. Download the free bat_shape.jpg and bat_background.jpg start images and your free smoke textures to follow along here.

1. Prepare the shape

Open the bat shape image into Affinity Photo then duplicate the layer (Cmd/Ctrl+J). Highlight the background layer and go to Edit > Fill. Choose fill, set colour to black and hit Apply. Next highlight the shape layer above and lower the layer opacity to about 7% so you can only just see the shape.

2. Blend the smoke

Open the smoke images. Grab the Lasso tool and make a selection around part of the smoke. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+C to copy, then go to the shape image and hit Cmd/Ctrl+V to paste. Go to the Layers Panel and set the blend mode to Screen. Grab the Move tool and drag the bounding box to position and resize the layer.

3. Liquify the smoke layer

Click on the Liquify Persona icon at top left. Grab the Liquify Push Forward tool and use it to reshape the smoke to fit the outline of the bat shape. Use the ] and [ keys to resize the brush tip as you go. Once you’re happy, hit Apply at top left. Next copy in more smoke.

4. Build up the smoke effect

Continue blending and liquifying pieces of the smoke until half of the bat shape is filled in. You might want to hide parts of the smoke. If so, add a layer mask, grab the Brush tool and paint with black to hide parts of the layer, or white to reveal them again.

5. Mirror the smoke

Once half of the bat is done, highlight the bottom smoke layer, hold Shift and click on the top smoke layer to select them all. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy all the layers. Grab the Move tool, right-click on the image and choose Transform > Flip Horizontal. Hold Shift and drag the layers to the side to make a mirror image.

6. Add a backdrop

Go to the bat_background.jpg start image (or use one of your own night-time images. Copy and paste it in, then drag the layer just above the bottom layer. Use the Move tool to resize it to fit. Finally, hide the smoke shape layer and make any colour adjustments you like to finish things off.

• See more of our Affinity Photo tutorials

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Look Up Tables (LUTs) have traditionally been used in cinematography to give a film a consistent look from scene to scene. Think of The Matrix and that green sheen that’s covers everything.

LUTs are useful in photography, but not just commercially where you want a set of images to all have the same tone,. They are useful for enthusiasts too, as they can be used as a quick way of giving your images a specific look without spending any time creating it. Affinity Photo 2 lets you save your own custom LUTs that you can then load as adjustment layers on other images.

1 Create the adjustments

Firstly, load an image that you’re going to create a LUT with. It’s best if it has fairly generic lighting conditions so severe adjustments aren’t required. Add your various colour and lighting adjustment layers until you are happy with the overall effect and that it’s one that you want to save to use on other images.

2 Save as a custom LUT

Then go to File > Export LUT. Rename the file that gives an idea of what it will do, select .cube as the file format and move the Quality slider all the way to the right. Click on Export and then navigate to a folder where you want to save your LUT files. Make it somewhere that you can remember. Then click on Save.

3 Use your LUT

Save the image you were working on and load a new image that you want to have the same look and feel. Ensure you are in the Photo Persona. Go to the Layer panel, click on the Adjustments icon at the bottom and select LUT. Then click on Load LUT and select the LUT you have created. Click on Open.

4 Tweak and blend

All those adjustments that you saved are now bundled into one LUT adjustment layer which you can change the opacity of to reduce the impact, or experiment with the blend mode. You are free to make any other adjustments to enhance the image but it will now have the same tones as other images using this LUT. If you don’t like the result, simply delete the layer or try one of your other custom LUTs.

What exactly are LUTs?

LUTs are great for giving a set of images a consistent look and feel but what are they? A Look Up Table is exactly that, a table that maps the colours of each pixel in an image (the input values) to a specific colour contained within the table. There are a number of different formats, including .lut which controls a single parameter, usually the gamma, and .cube (used in this tutorial) which has three axes that control hue, saturation, luminosity, contrast and gamma.

For our recent competition in association with Photocrowd, Digital Photographer magazine challenged you to submit your best captivating portraits. After working through all the entries, the winners have been selected. As a prize, the expert winners will get a license for Affinity Photo professional editing software. Congratulations to all of the winners – the standard of submitted images was extremely high, and it was a difficult task to select the best ones.

1st PLACE

Lockdown in Monochrome by JH90Photography

This is a beautiful classical portrait. The intense eye contact is what drew us to this shot, while the natural frame adds some serious depth. The choice to use black and white allows us to focus on the tonality of the scene – had color been present it may have distracted us from the subject's face. Well done!

2nd PLACE

lo sguardo del monaco by Albertococco

The clever framing is what makes this image stand out from the crowd. The rich colors framing the face draw the eye to the center of the frame and add three-dimensionality to the shot. The composition also gives us a feeling of peering into the scene from the outside, adding intrigue.

3rd PLACE

Soratte’s Bunker portrait by TommasoH.Corona

What great lighting! This image demonstrates the inspired, high-level use of gels and off-camera light to create an atmosphere. The balance of ambient and additional illumination directs the eye and maintains the correct exposure level throughout the scene. Meanwhile, there is a brilliant spectrum of detail on show. Nicely done!

4th PLACE

The girl on the bus by Puck74

We make a distinction between portraiture and street photography, but this image ideally balances the crossover of these genres. The bus window acts as a natural frame and the lighting makes us ponder the subject's expression. Had the framing not been well-managed, this shot may not have worked as a classic portrait, but we love the arrangement.

5th PLACE

Pensive Person by photos.of.my.world

This image makes wonderful use of contrasting textures. The stationary subject balances the moving figures – a creative use of exposure to add interest to an otherwise static environment. The subject posing is simple but effective at framing the face and the direct gaze makes a connection with the viewer.

6th PLACE

Mirrors of the soul by Impian75

This demonstrates how contrast is a strong tool in photography. The clear contrast of tones creates the frame for the subject's face and produces an almost blank canvas for the negative space. When there is a crowded background, this type of close framing is a perfect pro technique for shooting a clean frame.

7th PLACE

Egyptian man by Yousef Naser

Environmental portraiture can be a challenge on account of the lighting. This mage shows off the delicate use of off-camera flash to blend artificial light with ambient illumination. The exposure is perfectly balanced and the flash lighting gradient is beautiful. It's a professionally shot photo worthy of a magazine cover.

8th PLACE

EGYPTIAN FISHERMEN by Ahmed fahmy

This is another example of wonderful lighting on location. The exposure is perfectly balanced to capture the background detail and color while preserving detail in the subject's skin and filling in the shadows. The directional lighting direction preserves depth, casting just the right amount of shadow on one side of the face.

9th PLACE

Dark Thoughts in a Smokey Room by Hilarie Jutras

We received a lot of studio portraits for this round, however, this one stood out for its balance and exposure. The use of smoke to add an ephemeral element is a good decision, while also adding to the subject's character and story. The lack of eye contact works in this case, as the eyes are intentionally, and partially hidden.

10th PLACE

Fishnet by CH Photography NC

This is an almost abstract shot. The use of negative space is inspired and the choice to cover the face adds to the dark theme. The eyes are perfectly exposed and the skin is bright enough to add to the contrast. It's a deceptively simple shot but a highly effective portrait.

All participants had a chance to win a license to Affinity Photo 2 editing software (worth £67.99 for Mac or Windows). Affinity Photo is a toolset for photography professionals.

Whether you’re editing and retouching or creating multi-layered compositions, Affinity Photo has the power you need, with non-destructive editing, RAW processing, and color management as standard. Winners will be notified by email and can choose between Mac, Windows, or iPad versions. Winning images will be revealed in an issue of Digital Photographer.

Watch video (above): The beauty of Solarization

Of all the darkroom techniques to have made an impact on digital photography, Solarization is perhaps the most instantly recognisable. First championed by Man Ray in the 1920s, Solarization involved momentarily flicking on the lights in the darkroom while exposing a print. This partially inverts the tonal range of the image.

Normally, the tonal range would run from dark areas to bright areas. In digital imaging this is represented by the histogram, which groups dark pixels on the left of the graph and light pixels on the right. If we think of the range of brightness in this linear way from left to right, then imagine chopping the range in half and flipping one half around. This is what Solarization does. It inverts half of the tonal range, while leaving the other half to follow the usual linear path from dark to light. Normally, it’s the darker half of the range that is inverted, while the lighter half remains closer to normal (although it can be the other way around too, just make an upside down V in Steps 2 and 3 below). 

You can see the effect clearly here in the pattern on the model’s dress. The tones that were originally close to black have been flipped to bright white. But the brighter tones in the back of the dress remain closer to normal. The effect is simple to achieve in Affinity Photo 2 with a combination of adjustment layers. We can fine-tune things to get the look we like by adding in further layers, controlling the strength and spread of the effect. Download the start images (click here) and follow along... 

1. Convert to black and white

Open our start_solarization.jpg or your own image into Affinity Photo then go to the Layers Panel, click the Adjustment icon at the bottom and choose Black and White. Use the colour sliders to control the brightness of the different colour ranges until you hit upon a combination that works for the photograph.

2. Invert the shadows

Click the Adjustment icon again and choose Curves. The diagonal curve line represents the tones from black on the left to white on the right. We can achieve the solarization look by inverting the left half of the line. First drag the bottom left point to the top, then drag the middle down to make a U shape.

3. Straighten the V

Add more points along the curve line to make the shape of the V more pronounced, less curvy and straighter. Here we pushed the bottom point of the V closer to the shadows to allow the skin tones to remain closer to normal. You can delete points if necessary by highlighting them and pressing Delete.

4. Fine-tune the brightness

Highlight the bottom layer then click the Adjustment icon again and choose Curves. Drag up or down on the curve line and notice how this affects the image. We can use it to further fine-tune things by determining which shadow areas are inverted. You might also want to tweak the black and white layer.

5. Paint black to tidy

The Solarization effect creates weird and wonderful results, but in places the effect can be too strange. Here it creates a bright spot in the subject’s nostrils and mouth that are a little too distracting. We can make a new layer at the top of the stack then grab the brush tool and paint with black to darken the areas.

6. Finish off with a color tint

Click the Adjustment icon and choose Gradient Map. Click on the left colour spot and choose a dark tone. Click the middle spot and choose a warm colour for the midtones, then a light colour for the highlights. Add further spots to tint the tonal range however you like, and adjust layer opacity to control the tint.

• See more of our Affinity Photo tutorials

If you enjoyed this tutorial but want a bit more power from your laptop, why not look at the best photo-editing laptops? If you're really keen to improve your skills further then online photography courses could be the way to go.

Watch video (above): Blend textures in Affinity Photo

Affinity Photo offers all kinds of tools for blending images together, from layer blending modes to masking and more. In this project, we’ll take advantage of clipping, which allows us to position one layer inside the shape of another. This way, we can break our portrait down into several simple shades of gray and then clip textures to each.

To begin by using the Posterize effect, which allows us to simplify the image into just a few shades of grey. We’ve chosen to create four levels, from white to black. From here, we can select the four areas of brightness using the Magic Wand tool and create separate layers for each.

Now the fun begins, as we can simply copy in different textures and colorful abstract images, then drag them on top of each layer so that the texture is confined to the shape of the layer. It lets us fill in each area of brightness with an image of our choice. We’ve supplied a free set of 15 textures for you to experiment with –  download here to your computer.

There’s colorful soap bubble images, rusty trays and close-up details. Not only are textures like this useful for this effect, they’re also a fun way to get creative with image blending for all sorts of interesting results. Try copying a texture on top of any photo then simply go to the Layers Panel and experiment with the layer blend modes. The Overlay, Multiply and Screen modes often work well. 

1. Posterize the portrait

Open the Portrait_before.jpg start image into Affinity Photo. Go to the Layers Panel, click the Adjustment icon and choose Black and White. Tweak the sliders to control the mono conversion. Next click Adjustment again and choose Posterize. Set the Levels to 4. This divides the image into four levels of brightness.

2. Select the whites

Press Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E to merge a copy of all the layers. Grab the Magic Wand from the toolbar. Set Tolerance to 20% and uncheck Contiguous in the tool options. Click on the whites to select them. Click the Refine button and increase Smooth to 5px. Hit Apply, then hit Cmd/Ctrl+J to copy to a new layer.

3. Make layers for each

Double-click the layer name and rename it Whites. Hit Cmd/Ctrl+D to deselect then highlight the merged layer below. Use the Magic Wand to select the next brightest range of tones, then repeat the process to make separate layers for the highlights, midtones and shadows. Proceed to rename each.

4. Remove the background

For the next step, we need to remove the background layers from the effect. First highlight the bottom layer, grab the Selection Brush, click ‘Snap to Edges’ in the options and paint over the background to select it. Click on the top layer and hit Delete, then repeat for the four layers below.

5. Add a texture

Open a texture image from your free download file, hit Cmd/Ctrl+C to copy then go to the portrait and hit Cmd/Ctrl+V to paste. Drag the layer on top of one of the layer names – Whites, Highlights, Midtones, Shadows. This will clip the texture to the layer so that the shape of the layer confines the texture.

6. Finish it off

Experiment by moving the layer around with the Move tool to find the best position, or use the bounding box to resize it. Copy in more textures and drag onto the other layers to build it up. You might want to lighten or darken the textures with Curves (Cmd/Ctrl+M) to fine-tune the tones.

Check out more Affinity Photo tutorials

For our recent competition in association with Photocrowd, we challenged you to submit your best Autumn Atmosphere images. After working through all the entries, the winners have been selected. As a prize, the expert winners will get a licence for Affinity Photo professional editing software. Congratulations to all of the winners – the standard of submitted images was extremely high, and it was a difficult task to select the best ones.

1st PLACE

Beauty in the woods by Jaz72

What an absolutely gorgeous image! We like the creativity in this image – it’s an interesting take on the brief, managing to blend landscape and macro photography into an unusual perspective. The colors are seasonal, but there is more to the shot than autumnal hues. A well-thought-out and executed shot!

2nd PLACE

Untitled by Robert Juvet

Any image that pushes boundaries is going to attract the judge’s attention and in this image, taken from a less-than-ordinary point of view, the photographer has combined an engaging composition with the excellently balanced autumn colours. Despite the elevated perspective, there is enough depth to lead us into the shot too. Well done.

3rd PLACE

Early morning in Suisi by Madison 

This is a wonderfully tranquil shot that has just enough colour to allow the viewer to identify the season without the frame becoming overloaded. The sweeping hills offer something for the eye to follow and the looming mountains provide a lovely compositional full stop. Everything is nicely placed and the shot feels perfectly balanced. A classic landscape that ticks all the boxes.

4th PLACE

Autumn in New York City by Ashley 

Autumn photography is often seen as a largely rural genre but it’s important not to forget the potential of urban locations. This shot of Billionaire’s Row in New York is a perfect mirror image composition and it manages to capture the atmosphere of the famous Fall season in NYC. The reflection is well placed and overall exposure is nicely managed.

6th PLACE

Magical morning by adrianstanica

This shot is filled with autumnal atmosphere without overdoing it! The colours and atmospheric conditions give away the season but it feels as if the specific scene is the focus rather than just the bold tones. It is a restrained composition that really tells the story of autumn. Lovely light, great exposure and ideal framing. Very well done. 

8th PLACE

Amanita muscaria by Jaz72

We love to see images that are a little different from the usual and this shot fits the bill. Often, looking a little closer for detail can tell a much more impactful story and this macro shot really captures the atmosphere of the season. The colour, light and perspective all inspire the imagination and make us feel like going on a woodland walk in the autumnal atmosphere.

How to enter 

Enter at photocrowd.com/digitalphotographer for a chance to win a licence to Affinity Photo 2 editing software (worth £67.99 for Mac or Windows). Affinity Photo is a toolset for photography professionals. 

Whether you’re editing and retouching or creating multi-layered compositions, Affinity Photo has the power you need, with non-destructive editing, RAW processing, and color management as standard. Winners will be notified by email and can choose between Mac, Windows or iPad versions. Winning images will be revealed in an issue of Digital Photographer.

Photo editing software rarely fails to capture the imagination with developers working hard to make their software stand out from the crowd. And, indeed, differentiate themselves from the market leaders who dominate this competitive sector. Zoner Photo Studio X is one such offering which proclaims itself as a Lightroom and Photoshop alternative, but one that's for Windows only.

The main difference here, and one that makes it similar in some ways to ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2024, is that it's all-in-one software offering a single interface made up of Modules. These modules provide image cataloguing, Raw processing, pixel-based editing, photo printing and even basic video editing. 

This streamlined approach to the interface is an interesting concept and one that could make it one of the best photo editing software options for beginners and intermediate photographers. I guess the main issue with Zoner Photo Studio X is that it's not that well-known at the moment, and that's always going to be a significant hurdle to overcome.

The software is intuitive and easy to use, especially if you already have experience with photo editing software. So much so, that you can pretty much hit the ground running with it if you're familiar with Lightroom, Photoshop, Affinity Photo 2 and similar software. Absolute beginners will, however, still face the same steep learning curve they would with most editing software.

Zoner Photo Studio X: Specifications

Zoner Photo Studio X: Price

Zoner Photo Studio X is available with a yearly subscription that costs $59 or $5.99 per month, making it one of the more cost-effective subscription-based options available. But where it's different is that there's no limitation in the number of installs so you can have, but this is for one person. You even get some free photo prints thrown in as well as 20GB of Zoner Photo Cloud storage.

A family license is available for $5.99 per month and this allows members of a household to have their own Zoner account with access to the software. There's also the 'ZPS X: The Complete Guide to Photo Editing' PDF book which costs $29 and is available on the Zoner website. It may be useful, but this is pretty much the same price as a physical editing book, if not more expensive than many, so this does appear to be too expensive regardless of its usefulness.

Zoner Photo Studio X: Interface & Usability

The Zoner Photo Studio X is intuitively laid out and follows what you might call the standard layout most photo editing software uses, so there are no surprises here. As an experienced photo editor, I found it incredibly easy to use with the interface split into Modules with Manager, Develop, Editor, Print, and Video; these are all pretty much self-explanatory in terms of what each is for and you can skip seamlessly through these as your workflow demands.

The Manager section is where you can manage your images by selecting, rating, rejecting, inputting metadata, and then opening your shots into the desired part of the software. As standard, this uses a file tree on the left so you can access image folders on your computer or external drive, or you can import images to the Zoner Catalogue to take advantage of Smart Raw previews for higher resolution previews.

This works well, but if the Raw format being installed isn’t supported, the software suggests installing Adobe DNG Converter to expand Raw-loading support. Zoner Photo Studio X then has to be configured to work with the DNG Converter. Even if you don’t want this functionality, I found that when trying to edit Fujifilm Raw files without this functionality still required Adobe DNG Converter to be installed. So, while there's a fix for unsupported Raw files, which is great, it's still frustrating to have to install further software.

The most impressive part of the software is the Develop Module which provides professional-level control over adjustments. It's not as fully featured in terms of localized adjustments as Lightroom, but you ultimately have every control you need at your fingertips to edit your shots. The Print Module is just that, allowing you to print at home or to order prints online through the software. You can also create other types of prints including calendars, canvases, contact sheets, and more with ease.

The Editor Module is the equivalent of Photoshop where you can work with Layers, masks, and other pixel-based editing controls, but it's closer to Photoshop Elements in the level of control available. The Video Module is useful because it provides an easy-to-use video editor with the ability to also create slideshows and time-lapse videos from stills, but its functionality is limited. But it is still useful to have for basic video tasks. This Module can suffer from slowdowns, so it's not as smooth as dedicated video software.

Zoner Photo Studio X: Performance

With Zoner Photo Studio X, you can achieve high-quality edits so image quality isn’t an issue. While you don’t get the level of control available in Photoshop and Lightroom, there are enough controls, particularly in the Develop Module, to meet the needs of beginners and intermediate photographers. The Develop module is by far the best, but the Editor Module can require you to work on copies of the Background Layer due to the limited Adjustment Layers available.

The fact that this is also an all-in-one editing solution helps to maintain a streamlined and consistent workflow, which is never a bad thing regardless of your editing ability. But for beginners especially, only having to use one program to meet all of your editing needs in a single interface can make things easier.

The most advertised feature of Zoner Photo Studio X is that it offers True HDR editing when the software is used with the latest HDR monitors. To cut a slightly longer story short, this ultimately means you can enjoy greater detail when editing with more realistic tones and faithful color rendition. But to enjoy this functionality, you have to be using an HDR monitor or a laptop with an HDR screen.

The main downside here is that although many higher-spec laptops these days come with HDR-enabled screens, as is the case with mine, turning on HDR reduces the color gamut of the monitor so I always edit in SDR for more accurate colors. You can buy wide gamut HDR monitors, and if you already have one, fantastic, Zoner Photo Studio X will be great in this department. But if not, these monitors are expensive when compared to wide gamut SDR options, which are expensive in their own right.

As someone who has been editing photos professionally for many years using SDR monitors and has a high-end professional monitor, I certainly don’t feel the need to rush out to replace it with a wide gamut HDR monitor to take advantage of this feature. However, when upgrade time comes around, and these monitors are the standard, they will inevitably reduce in price.

Zoner Photo Studio X: Verdict

Zoner Photo Studio X is an interesting offering and the affordable price of subscriptions will no doubt be attractive to beginners and intermediate users. I don’t think that it has what it takes to prise professional users away from Adobe and Capture One, but at the same time the Develop Module offers an impressive array of tools and controls.

These aren't quite at the level of professional software, but since this software is clearly aimed at a different audience it shouldn’t be a problem. The most important aspect of the software is that it does everything beginners and intermediate users need, and more, all in one intuitive and easy-to-use interface.

Looking into new software takes a little thinking outside of the box, especially when you're presented with something new that you may not have heard of, but don’t forget that this is Windows-only software so it's limited in terms of operating systems.

Alternatives

We’re slap-bang in the middle of the festival season, so this issue we’ve enlisted the help of pro music photographer Matt Higgs to share his top tips for capturing not only the main headline acts, but also the weird-and-wonderful goings-on you’ll find on the fringes of a frenetic music festival.

Wildlife photography doesn’t necessarily require lengthy treks into the wilderness or sitting for hours-on-end in a hide. Our apprentice heads to a central London cemetery to photograph wild animals that live amongst us: wily red foxes. 

We bring you the N-Photo verdict on Nikon’s latest mirrorless, the Z 6III. With an innovative new partially stacked sensor, it offers pro features in an enthusiast-level body. And we pit eight standard zooms against each other to see which is the best upgrade from your kit lens.  

Finnish wildlife photographer and Nikon Ambassador Konsta Punkka tells how he photographs all creatures great and small, while multidisciplinary artist and photographer LUAP explains why he travels the world in the company of a pink bear…

We have a great selection of practical projects to try your hand at, including travel photography, ultra-close-ups using bellows, intentional camera movement in landscapes, and how to shoot reflection-free copies of artworks, plus how to blend focal lengths in Affinity Photo and use the Curves tool in Photoshop.

N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine is a monthly magazine that's written by Nikon enthusiasts for Nikon enthusiasts, you can be sure that all the content is 100% relevant to you! So for the best Nikon-focused news, reviews, projects, and a whole lot more, subscribe to N-Photo today – with our unmissable subs deal!

Check out our latest subscription offer!

Where to find N-Photo magazine

So rush down to your newsagent today. Or ever better, why not subscribe with this fantastic deal  to a print edition, and have the magazine delivered to your door every month?

Alternatively, we have a number of different digital options available, including:

• Apple app (for iPad or iPhone)

• Zinio app (multi-platform app for desktop or smartphone)

• Pocket Mags (for Android devices)

• Readly (all-you-can-eat digital magazine subscription service)

If you wanted a printed version of any of our most recent issues we have a selection of back issues to choose from in our online store.

Subscription deals: Our guide to the best photo magazines

For its competition in association with Photocrowd, Digital Photographer magazine challenged you to submit your best Dark Nights images. After working through all the entries, the winners have been selected. As a prize, the expert winners will receive a licence for Affinity Photo 2 professional editing software. 

Congratulations to all of the winners – as usual, the standard of submitted images was extremely high and it was a difficult task to select the best ones.

1st PLACE

Untitled by esraburcun

We love the high contrast of this shot. The choice to keep the colour version adds to the stark difference in tone between the building and the darkness beyond. It almost looks like a tear in a black curtain, revealing a stage behind and the placement of the figure is perfect for drawing the eye to it. Well done!

2nd PLACE

Lost in your phone by John Wakeling

There’s a wonderful contemplative atmosphere about this image. Many people see night-time in the city as intimidating, avoiding shadowy areas like this. However, this image shows off the tranquil side of the darkness – this man is experiencing the city in a way that would be impossible during the day. Nicely spotted.

3rd PLACE

Startrail above Michaelschapel by Helitz_photography 

We saw many star trail images in this round, so it was a popular approach to the brief. However, this one stood out for its simplicity and tranquillity. The subject is so small it feels dwarfed by the night sky, while the exposure
is perfectly matched and blended. Well done.

RUNNERS UP

Manhatten Bridge At Night by MartinDuffyPhotography 

Nothing makes better use of the night-time than a cityscape, but the detail in this
shot is truly astonishing. From the deepest shadows to the brightest highlights, the exposure is perfectly blended, giving us an all-encompassing view of the New York skyline. A brilliantly shot and edited image.

Night Hunter by Graham Davis

This shot looks far more difficult to take than one might immediately imagine. The timing, lighting and composition all come together to tell a story and give us a glimpse into this bird’s nocturnal life, as it scans the blackness for its next meal. Expertly photographed. 

Spring Moon by Tetiana

This is an unusual shot and an exciting interpretation of the brief. The colours are beautiful and we love that the photographer has chosen to focus on the flowers, which contrast warmly against the deep blue of the twilight sky. A lovely night study. 

City Night by Ludwig P

Many shots of people walking through dark streets were submitted for this round, but the buildings drew us to this particular example. The lights, colour depth and composition pull the viewer into the frame and make us want to know what is around that corner.

How to enter 

Enter at photocrowd.com/digitalphotographer for a chance to win a licence to Affinity Photo editing software (worth £49 for Mac or Windows). Affinity Photo is a toolset for photography professionals. Whether you’re editing and retouching or creating multi-layered compositions, Affinity Photo has the power you need, with non-destructive editing, RAW processing and color management as standard. Winners will be notified by email and can choose between Mac, Windows or iPad versions. Winning images will be revealed in an issue of Digital Photographer.

Infrared light is present all around us, but is invisible to the human eye. Capturing infrared images requires specialized camera equipment that only records the red wavelengths. 

This creates distinctive-looking images; green or yellow objects are transformed into red tones, while blue and cyan subjects appear darker. If you don’t have an infrared-converted camera or infrared film, here’s how to simulate this style using Affinity Photo 2.

What you'll be using: 

• Black and White Adjustment Layer
•  Invert Adjustment Layer
•  Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer
•  HSL Adjustment Layer
•  Selective Colour Layer

Before and after

Editing steps

1. Work on brightness

To achieve the infrared look, start by adjusting the color brightness. Add a Black and White Adjustment Layer on top of the Background Layer and change the Blend mode from Normal to Luminosity. Decrease the Blue and Cyan sliders while boosting the Green and Yellow sliders.

2. Invert to negative

Now, let's begin the infrared color processing that would be done in-camera with a converted model. Click the Adjustment Layer icon and choose the Invert option to convert the image into a negative. An additional Layer will be added, so here change the Blend mode to Color.

3. Adjust color channels 

Add a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer. In the Channel Mixer window, select RGB and choose Red as the Output Channel. Drag the Red slider to zero and the Blue slider to 100%. Select Blue as the Output Channel and set the Red slider
to 100% and the Blue slider to zero.

4. Underline blue tones

To fine-tune the color of blue elements add an HSL Adjustment Layer, select the Cyan color, then increase the Saturation value and decrease the Luminosity slider. To adjust tones, select the dots in the blue section of the color wheel and experiment with Saturation and Luminosity. 

5. Work out red hues

To achieve the maximum infrared look, the final step is to intensify the red tones. To gain control, add a Selective Color Layer on top of the HSL Adjustment Layer. In the window, select Reds as the Color and increase the Magenta slider, while also decreasing the Cyan slider.

Key tip

Add some glow

Due to its effect on film, infrared photos are often associated with a glow. Adding this touch to your images can enhance their effect. Add a Live Filter Layer and click on Blur to find the Diffuse Glow option. Experiment with settings while choosing a smaller Radius of about 8px.

Take a look at the best infrared lens filters to achieve the IR look in-camera. You might also be interested in the best photo editing software and the best free photo editing software.

For Digital Photographer magazine's latest competition in association with Photocrowd, readers were challenged  to submit their best Minimalist Masterpieces. After working through all the entries, the winners have been selected. As a prize, the expert winners will receive a license for Affinity Photo 2 professional editing software. 

Congratulations to all of the winners – as usual, the standard of submitted images was extremely high and it was a difficult task to select the best ones.

1st PLACE

Back Home by Jeremiasz Gadek

This is a true minimalistic masterpiece, skillfully demonstrating how shadows can sometimes be given more importance than the physical subjects themselves. We love the surrealistic touch this frame provides, introducing the viewer into the scene, despite a common perception of reality. Well done!

2nd PLACE

Swimming Pool by Stefan Nielsen

The use of geometric shapes and forms in this minimalist composition has created an impactful visual effect. The diagonals divide the frame into distinct sections, with the pool handle adding a familiar element to the overall composition. The water appears almost invisible, with only a hint of its presence visible through the integration of the white lounger.

3rd PLACE

Red Umbrella by Igor Zuikov

This is a captivating image due to its structure and the splash of red that stands out against the background. The traces of the subject and its shadow are attention-grabbing, while the subject itself is artfully concealed under the umbrella, creating a skilful game of hide-and-seek. The scene's minimalist qualities have been expertly composed to set the stage. 

RUNNERS-UP

Cottages, Shingle Street by Kilterums

By including the foreground on a larger scale, the shoreline creates a dynamic composition that draws the viewer in. Using a long exposure turned the water into a smooth texture, in harmony with the horizon. The minimalistic approach to the cottages lets the viewer discover them without overloading the frame.

Untitled by Peter S

Minimalism takes many forms and we love the stripped-back nature of this landscape. Many photographers chose black and white for this round, as the lack of colour helps the minimalist theme. It has been put to great use here, allowing us to focus on the shapes. An expertly exposed and composed shot.

The Swimmer by Andrew Robertson

This frame allows us to wonder whether it is a photograph, a graphic or a combination of both. There is a clear gradient visible in the water that appears to be disrupted in the background. The human silhouette is the only element that hints at reality, which makes this frame intriguing and thought-provoking.

Entrance to the future by photosbyneil

This is a beautiful frame-in-frame image that showcases color and structure in an excellent composition that draws the viewer in. Including human silhouettes can often enhance the frame’s beauty, as seen here.

How to enter 

Enter at photocrowd.com/digitalphotographer for a chance to win a license to Affinity Photo 2 editing software (worth $69.99/£67.99 for Mac or Windows). Affinity Photo is a toolset for photography professionals. Whether you’re editing and retouching or creating multi-layered compositions, Affinity Photo has the power you need, with non-destructive editing, RAW processing, and color management as standard. Winners will be notified by email and can choose between Mac, Windows or iPad versions. Winning images will be revealed in an issue of Digital Photographer.

Monochrome portraits are a great way to highlight the eyes and facial features of your subject. By editing the background to black and blending the subject’s outlines in one frame, you can create a negative space that allows the subject to stand out, while effectively drawing the viewer’s attention to the frame. 

What you'll be using: 

• Curve Adjustment Layer
• Pixel layers
• Brush tool
• Color Panel
• Blend Ranges option

Before and after

Editing steps

1. Add drama

Firstly, work on the overall contrast of the image. Add a Curve Adjustment layer and make the line into an S-curve by adding nodes and dragging the line to bring the highlights up and the shadows down. The layer works non-destructively, so you can fine-tune the settings at the end. 

2. Color in the background

Add a Pixel layer. Select the Paintbrush tool with 100% flow, opacity and 0% hardness. Choose black from the color wheel. Paint around the subject, avoiding the outlines. Add another Pixel layer. Select the Brush tool with 20% flow and use it to fill in the gaps. Correct with the Eraser. 

3. Blend outlines

Add a third Pixel layer. Use the Paintbrush tool to paint over the outline of your subject. It doesn’t need to look perfect, as we will blend it in. Open the Blend Ranges option and focus on the right graph. Lower the right node and move it to the left to recover any overpainted highlights and details.

4. Add a mood

To create a moody look, adjust the darker areas by adding another Curve Adjustment layer. Select the bottom left node and gradually increase its position. This step is optional and depends on personal preferences, so experiment with the settings until you achieve the desired result.

5. Fine-tune

Add another Curve Adjustment layer and bring the middle node of the graph right down. Now invert the layer and drag and drop it to the right of the background layer. Finally, use the Brush tool to paint over any elements you want to darken with a white color or brighten by painting with black.

Key tip

Extend the frame 

If your portrait only has a little background space around the subject, extend the frame by selecting the Crop tool and adjusting it to your preferences. You can apply the editing technique to a variety of portrait shots so that your subjects stand out for a more professional look.

The DxO Nik Collection now consists of seven different plug-ins, five of which are designed to offer creative inspiration and effects, while two are more ‘corrective’ image enhancement tools. We call them plug-ins, and they can indeed be used from within Lightroom Classic, Adobe Photoshop, Capture One, DxO PhotoLab, and Affinity Photo, but they can also be used on their own as standalone applications.

We've long considered the Nik Collection to be one of the best photo editing software suites on the market, so what exactly do you get?

The creative plug-ins include Nik Color Efex, Silver Efex, Analog Efex, Viveza, and HDR Efex, and while there is a degree of crossover for black and white photography and color adjustments, each one is aimed at a particular style or genre of photography.

With Nik Collection 7, Color Efex becomes the principal photo editing tool, with its ability to apply over 50 different filter effects, combine them as presets, and mask each one with DxO’s fast and effective control point adjustments.

Color Efex 7 gets the lion’s share of updates in this version, with new preset management options, ‘dynamic’ filters which now include (improved) HSL controls, grain effects, and DxO’s own contrast-enhancing ClearView effect. It also has three new filters taken from the Viveza plug-in to extend its potential for image enhancement and effects.

The other plug-ins benefit from new control point options too, including the ability to reshape circular control points as ellipses and a new polygonal control point tool. It’s now possible to switch images to a different Nik plug-in while you work and to export a version of an image straight from the plug-in without having to return to the host program first.

Nik Silver Efex 7 specializes in black and white photography, with powerful tools and controls that reproduce the depth and richness of analog black and white photography, while Analog Efex 7 replicates the flawed, faded, and distressed look of old analog photos and adds in camera effects like double exposures, lens blur and bokeh.

HDR Efex 7 is little changed from previous versions but is a very effective tool for merging bracketed images into high dynamic range composites with a range of preset effects and manual adjustments. Viveza is a simpler tool aimed at color control and enhancement using both global adjustments and DxO control points for local adjustments.

Nik Dfine 7 and Nik Sharpener 7 are different and perhaps a little dated in their appeal. Dfine is a noise reduction plug-in that’s effective enough in a modest way but outclassed by today’s AI-drive raw denoising tools. Sharpener 7 is very good at ‘output’ sharpening for specific devices, but you can almost certainly do this in your host software too.

The plug-in missing from this release is Perspective Efex. This makes sense because there was always a rather confusing crossover (duplication, even) with DxO’s standalone ViewPoint software. Besides, most host programs like Lightroom Classic and Capture One have perfectly effective perspective correction tools of their own, which you can apply before or after sending images to the Nik plug-ins.

DxO Nik Collection 7: Price

DxO Nik Collection 7 is available to download now. The full version costs $159 / £145 (about AU$243), but existing users can upgrade for $89 / £79 (about AU$136). Alternatively, if you just want to see what it can do, there’s a 30-day free trial.

You do get a lot for your money. A new license will cost a little more than an annual Adobe Photography Plan subscription, but it’s cheaper than a Capture One license and in the same ballpark as other software tools. It’s also a perpetual license, so if you don’t need any of the new features in subsequent editions, you can use this one indefinitely. It doesn’t work directly with raw files, so it won’t be made obsolete by new cameras and lenses.

DxO Nik Collection 7: Interface and usability

Typically, the Nik plug-ins follow a standard modern layout, with presets in the left sidebar and manual controls, including local adjustments, on the right. There are differences in the details, though. Nik Color Efex 7 offers both individual filters and presets (combinations of filters) in its left sidebar, and the ability to change the stacking order of filters in the right sidebar – changing the order the filters are applied will change the appearance of the image.

Silver Efex 7 is slightly different in that the left sidebar has presets, but there are no filters as such, just adjustments you can apply in the right sidebar, and you can’t change the order – though that really doesn’t matter very much.

Analog Efex 7 has presets too, but not filters as such. Instead, it has different tools and effects under a ‘Camera Kit’ heading which you can select manually, and they then appear in the right sidebar where you can make detailed adjustments.

HDR Efex 7 is different again. In Lightroom, this has to be launched via the ‘Export’ menu rather than the ‘Edit in’ menu, and the interface layout is similar to Silver Efex, with presets on the left sidebar and manual tools on the right.

So while all the Nik plug-ins share the same family resemblance, they do operate slightly differently. It’s not a problem and you very quickly get used to it and think no more about it, but it’s worth pointing out that they are not identical.

If you’re launching them from Photoshop, you have another potential workflow. The Nik Collection installer adds a Nik Collection 7 palette which you can use to launch the plug-ins directly. There’s also a section for ‘Meta presets’, which are automated combinations of plug-ins and settings you can apply with a single click – though it’s a relatively small selection and you can’t create your own.

The Photoshop workflow is interesting because you can apply the Nik filters to Smart Objects, which means you can go back and change the filter settings later – it’s a non-destructive workflow.

But you can also achieve a non-destructive workflow from Lightroom and other host applications, or even when launching the Nik tools as standalone apps. There’s a non-destructive TIFF file option that does double the file size, but stores both the original image, the edited version, and the processing instructions needed to achieve it.

This non-destructive route is not new, but the plug-in switcher and quick export options are. These are genuinely useful additions to Nik Collection 7. They don’t change any of the creative options available, but they do make it possible to swap to another of the plug-ins if you realize you didn’t launch the best one for the job or to export one or more versions of your image while you’re still in the plug-in.

DxO Nik Collection 7: Quality of results

Nik Silver Efex enjoys a near-legendary reputation amongst black and white photographers for its ability to produce rich, dense, and dramatic black-and-white images. It also offers a set of tools that properly reflect the way photographers see and manipulate black-and-white images.

For me, though, Color Efex has always been the star of the show. Its filters are powerful, inventive, and genuinely useful day to day, and the range of permutations and presets you can create are practically infinite. The improvements in Nik Collection 7 make it better still.

I also love Analog Efex, though its presets can be a little heavy-handed and its sometimes odd photography jargon firmly rooted in the Google era – this is the one plug-in added by Google during its tenure before DxO took over. But what other tool gives you multiple-exposure effects, lens distortion, motion blur, and multi-lens effects like these?

I also like HDR Efex 7, though its HDR presets can look a little over the top by today’s standards. If you want naturalistic high dynamic range imaging, you are better off in a program like Lightroom, Capture One or Affinity Photo, where the HDR tone mapping is designed to be invisible, not exaggerated.

Viveza seems, to me, less valuable. It offers global and local color adjustments you can apply just as easily in Color Efex. Indeed, Color Efex 7 now includes three core components of Viveza as new dynamic filters.

Dfine seems a rather old-fashioned approach to removing noise in images that have already been processed. It can do a useful job on noisy old JPEGs, but if you shoot raw you would be better off with one of today’s raw denoising tools. Nik Sharpener 7, meanwhile, can apply subtle sharpening enhancements for printed output, but again seems a bit of a throwback to older ways of working.

DxO Nik Collection 7: Verdict

This review points out some inconsistencies in the Nik Collection 7 plug-ins and perhaps some areas for improvement. This might make it sound like a rather average sort of product. It isn’t.

The fact is, Color Efex 7, Silver Efex 7, Analog Efex 7 and even HDR Efex 7 are just so spectacularly good you could forgive the Nik Collection 7 anything. Viveza seems less useful and Dfine and Sharpener are distinctly old fashioned and limited. But who cares? Those first four plug-ins are so good they easily carry the rest.

These Nik Collection plug-ins are classic photo editing tools that have stood the test of time and then some. DxO has constantly updated them without ruining them, enhancing and developing them with a care and sometimes an ingenuity that’s kept them right at the cutting edge of photographic creativity. AI? Who needs it, when you have software that so perfectly releases the photographer’s own human intelligence?

Nik Collection 7 is not perfect and perhaps never will be, but it’s so good that it hardly matters.

DxO Nik Collection 7: Alternatives

For our latest competition in association with Photocrowd, we challenged you to submit your best Winter Landscape images. After working through all the entries, the winners have been selected. As a prize, the expert winners will get a licence for Affinity Photo professional editing software. Congratulations to all of the winners – as usual, the standard of submitted images was extremely high, and it was a difficult task to select the best ones.

1st PLACE

We love the simplicity of this shot. We saw many amazing images of far-flung locations in this round, but the great thing about such scenes is that they can be found anywhere. The photographer has turned what is otherwise a flat, empty landscape into a minimalist study with great compositional features. Well done!

2nd PLACE

This one is a classic composition of an increasingly famous location. This image’s alignment is ideal for using the cave entrance as a natural frame for the distant mountain. The colour palette is almost monochromatic, allowing us to focus on smooth and rough textures. Nicely conceived and put together.

3rd PLACE

When the snow falls, the temptation for many landscape photographers is to capture big, broad scenes. However, looking closer is a great strategy for capturing engaging details. We are drawn to the naturally deep contrast of this scene, the bright snow excellently rendered against the dark shadows. It’s a beautifully quiet composition. Well done!

RUNNER UP

This a gorgeously tranquil shot. It’s also a little different in that it embraces colour when many winter images focus on bleak, barren landscapes. The placement of the sun in the centre of the image, framed by the snow-frosted trees is a magnet to the eye and the white balance has been handled with expertise. 

RUNNER UP

Here, we have another wonderful display of minimalism. The sparseness of detail allows the tree's skeletal form to stand out against the plain background and sky, while the off-center composition draws in the eye. We like how the contours of the snow-covered ground almost look like paper cutouts.

RUNNER UP

What an iconic winter landscape! Although we have seen many images of this location, the arrangement of detail in this shot is exceptional. The subtle reflection, wintery hues and low clouds add atmosphere. The balance created by the focal length choice is also spot-on and the exposure is perfect. Nicely done!

How to enter 

Enter at photocrowd.com/digitalphotographer for a chance to win a licence to Affinity Photo editing software (worth £49 for Mac or Windows). The monthly rounds that are currently open are on the themes of Capture Color and Macro Studies.

Affinity Photo is a toolset for photography professionals. Whether you’re editing and retouching or creating multi-layered compositions, Affinity Photo has the power you need, with non-destructive editing, RAW processing, and color management as standard. Winners will be notified by email and can choose between Mac, Windows or iPad versions. Winning images will be revealed in an issue of Digital Photographer.

From crumbling castles to epic feats of engineering, the human imprint on the landscape is everywhere you look, and in this issue Nigel Forster shows you how to capture scenes that have been transformed – for better or worse – by the stamp of mankind. 

Our apprentice heads into the streets to photograph Bristol Light Festival – a once-a-year installation that fills the city with light-themed artworks.

They don’t come cheap, but in our Big Test we rate 10 of the best telephoto prime lenses for both F-mount and Z-mount Nikons, which combine epic reach with the optical quality that only a fixed-focal-length lens can deliver, and are the go-to glass for pro sports and wildlife photographers. On the other end of the scale, we bring you our five-star review of the Viltrox 27mm f/1.2 – a fully professional lens for DX mirrorless Nikons that comes with a bargain price tag. 

In our interview, Brett Florens tells his unlikely tale of how a stint as a riot policeman led to being one of the world’s most in-demand wedding photographers. Plus landscape photographer John Miskelly explains why slow is the way to go on a trip to capture the epic scenery of Iceland. 

We have projects on shooting spring flowers, starling murmurations, model railways and cyanotypes – an old-school method of exposing chemically coated paper to capture simple shapes, plus our usual Photoshop and Affinity Photo tutorials.  

N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine is a monthly magazine that's written by Nikon enthusiasts for Nikon enthusiasts, you can be sure that all the content is 100% relevant to you! So for the best Nikon-focused news, reviews, projects, and a whole lot more, subscribe to N-Photo today – with our unmissable subs deal!

Check out our latest subscription offer!

Where to find N-Photo magazine

So rush down to your newsagent today. Or ever better, why not subscribe with this fantastic deal  to a print edition, and have the magazine delivered to your door every month?

Alternatively, we have a number of different digital options available, including:

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If you wanted a printed version of any of our most recent issues we have a selection of back issues to choose from in our online store.

Subscription deals: Our guide to the best photo magazines

Serif has added support for 50 new cameras to its photo editing software package, Affinity Photo. This latest version, 2.4, now supports camera models including the Nikon Z8, Zf and Z30, along with the Sony a7R V, A9 III and A7C II. Newer Panasonic cameras such as the G9 II and GH6 are also now compatible with Affinity Photo. While expanded camera support is always welcome, Serif hasn't exactly been quick in adding some of these models to its supported camera list, as cameras like the Nikon Z30 and Sony a7R V are now over a year old.

But Affinity Photo version 2.4 doesn't just add extra supported cameras. Serif claims it is now the first photo editor to offer 32-bit HDR support, thanks to the addition of 32-bit HDR PNG 3rd Edition. This is in addition to the current True HDR support for both Mac and Windows, and means Affinity Photos meets all key requirements for high dynamic range on-screen graphics. Affinity has apparently worked with North American sports broadcasters to ensure this new HDR support is compatible with industry standards. The software is also able to export HDR images to display in Google Chrome, with other web browsers expected to offer similar HDR support soon.

Also in the Affinity creative suite is Affinity Designer, a vector graphics app that rivals Adobe Illustrator. The latest version now supports DWG and DXF file exporting, enabling vector outlines created in Designer to be imported into CAD software - ideal for architectural workflows.

Affinity version 2.4 is now available as a free upgrade for existing users. The Affinity suite, including Photo, Designer and Publisher, can be purchased for Windows or Mac for a one-off cost of $164.99/£159.99, with no subscription required. Alternatively, Affinity Photo is available as standalone software, priced at $69.99/£67.99.

Harness the power of ON1 Effects for free if you download it before January 31, 2024. The versatile editing tool gives users the freedom to explore a range of one-click presets, filters, backgrounds and, textures plus it includes intuitive AI tools such as Super select AI and Mask AI.

Sitting comfortably among the best photo editing software, ON1 Photo RAW offers powerful photo editing tools at a very affordable price. With non-destructive editing, support for layers and a great range of effects, you can transform your photos in just a few clicks. ON1 Effects is a plugin renowned for simplifying the photo editing process even more so by offering an extensive range of one-click presets, filters, LUTs and textures as well as several powerful AI tools.

Compatible with both Mac and Windows, the software can be used as a standalone application or seamlessly integrated as a plugin for popular photography applications like Adobe Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, Capture One, Affinity Photo, and Corel Paint Shop Pro. Users can select from presets such as Sun Glow, Golden Autumn or Vivid Landscape and multiple effects can be stacked or applied to specific areas of an image giving users complete creative control. 

One of the standout features of ON1 Effects is the intuitive Super Select AI tool which gives users the ability to select specific regions with a single click making it easier to make blue backgrounds, change something's hue, or lighten an area. Users can also say goodbye to time-consuming brush selection thanks to Mask AI which uses advanced machine learning to create precise masks so users can quickly select objects, people or regions to edit. 

Dan Harlacher, the Vice President of Product at ON1 said, “We are excited to offer ON1 Effects for free until January 31st, allowing new photographers to explore its powerful features and have a lot of fun styling their photos. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a passionate photography enthusiast, this limited-time offer provides a unique opportunity to enhance your creative process at a tremendous value.”

To take advantage of this offer, head to the ON1 website here you can download ON1 Effects for free. After January 31, ON1 Effects will be available to buy at the regular price of $69.99/£68.52 so don't miss out on your chance to explore everything ON1 Effects has to offer.

Non-destructive editing is just like the most perfect thing ever, right? It means that you can undo and redo every edit you made to your photos, long after you’ve closed the file. It means it doesn’t matter what order you carry out your edits since they all work in parallel, and you can even make ‘virtual’ copies of the same photo to try out different edits, without creating duplicate image files.

Some of the best photo editing software is non-destructive, and we even regard that as a positive. Which, in the short term, it is.

Adobe Lightroom is the champion of non-destructive editing, but other programs offer it too, such as Capture One, DxO PhotoLab and ON1 Photo RAW. This is the ‘new’ way of editing photos. Everything is undoable and re-doable, and you can work on raw files alongside JPEGs and TIFFs completely seamlessly, with no separate initial raw processing phase.

It’s such a change from the old days. Programs like Photoshop and Affinity Photo offer non-destructive editing in their own way, but as a kind of half way house where not every action can be re-edited and where it does make a difference what order you do them in.

We still need programs like Photoshop and Affinity Photo for more advanced effects, compositing and layered illustrations, but increasingly a non-destructive tool like Lightroom does most if not all of the things that photographers need.

So what’s the problem?

Why non-destructive editing is a long-term liability

If you want to use the unique tools and features in Adobe Photoshop or Affinity Photo, you need to save images in their bespoke file formats. It’s the same with non-destructive editors like Lightroom, but a lot less obvious.

Lightroom, Capture One, DxO PhotoLab and other non-destructive programs never modify the original image. That is a big plus point. But your edits still have to be stored somewhere, and this will either be in ‘sidecar’ metadata files alongside the image or in a central catalog database. 

There’s always the chance that your original images and their processing metadata may get separated, in which case all your edits will be lost. If you lose your Lightroom catalog, that could be tens of thousands of edits. But that’s just a remote possibility. There’s a bigger issue.

This processing metadata is unique to each application. Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom can understand the same processing instructions, but that’s because they use the same tools. No other program will be able to apply the same edits. Adjustments you make in Capture One will be invisible/unreadable to DxO PhotoLab and edits you make in PhotoLab won’t be visible to Lightroom. 

Just as Photoshop and Affinity Photo use bespoke file formats, non-destructive editors use bespoke processing metadata to store your edits, whether it’s as sidecar files or in a catalog.

If you need to share an edited image you can simply export it as a processed JPEG or TIFF file, of course – no problem there. But unless you do that with every image (that would be SO time consuming and wasteful) the reality is that we just keep on accumulating edits and adjustments – many of which we’ve taken a good deal of time over – that are locked into a specific application or image catalog. Our non-destructive edits don’t exist as actual images, but purely as virtual renderings in a particular application.

The longer this goes on, the deeper the hole. How do you stop using Lightroom, for example, if you’ve got ten thousand edited images in your catalog? Or twenty thousand, or thirty thousand? You either export them as generic processed image files that other software can work with (how many Gigabytes will THAT be?) or you just sigh, shrug and carry on digging.

So what’s the answer?

Yes, well, perhaps there isn’t one. Non-destructive editing is just so darned convenient that we would probably all prefer to carry on with it even if we realize we’re digging a big hole for ourselves.

All I can offer is this. Stop trying to keep your options open indefinitely. That’s the seductive danger of non-destructive editing. It stops us ‘finishing’ anything. If you carry out a series of edits you’re satisfied with, my suggestion would be to export them as JPEGs and TIFFs and draw a line under that job. You can remove your Lightroom edits or leave them, but at least all your valuable editing work now exists outside of Lightroom.

Photography isn’t just about choice. We’re surrounded by choice, often paralysed by it. Photography is also about decisions, and the danger of non-destructive editing is that we postpone those creative decisions indefinitely or leave our images floating in some kind of unfinished limbo state.

The amazing new Nov issue 210 of PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine is on sale now – FREE videos + FREE ebook! Subscribe today to get our new Christmas offer – big savings + get a free Lowepro Adventura Go BP 150 backpack backpack worth £95!*

We're the No.1 Canon magazine, written by Canon photographers, for Canon photographers, and we cater for every Canon EOS camera user. 

As if we all need an excuse to get out with our Canon cameras, autumn / fall is the season that offers an abundance of photographic opportunities. In our big Canon photo skills guide this issue, we have 10 exciting photo projects for you to try in your local areas. 

Shoot a misty autumn / fall sunrise, capture parkland wildlife, head to town for urban scenes, or get down low for colourful canopies in forests full of fiery red foliage. Alternatively, or bad weather days, capture close-ups indoors of autumn / fall leaves with a shallow depth of field.

Our PhotoPlus Apprentice has a great time in Canon pro Russ Tierney’s cool photo studio, learning how to capture six creative portrait styles, with a mixture of models, simple lighting and different backdrops.

New Canon camera skills!

In our brilliant Canon Skills sections, new photo projects include the beauty of backlighting, sensational seasonal still-life shots, and get down low for unique city photos. Plus image-editing tutorials in Photoshop, Lightroom and Affinity Photo. All projects and tutorials come with free video guides to follow along.

We interview versatile Canon photographer James Musselwhite, who shoots everything from weddings to pro wrestling!

There’s more of your great Photo Stories, and learn the best kit for tasty food photography with Monika Grudzinska.

In Canon School, discover how to turn down the noise in your images.

We also test eight of the best zoom lens upgrades for Canon EOS R mirrorless cameras.. And don’t miss our comprehensive Canon EOS camera and lens buyers guides.

Also get your FREE Raw in Photoshop ebook worth £17.99, download details inside the mag.

If you’re not a PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine subscriber already CLICK HERE to join our Canon crew and get your free Lowepro camera backpack worth £95!*This also makes sure your copy is delivered to your door every month. 

Every issue of PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine is packed with essential Canon techniques, tests, tutorials and inspiration every issue – out now at all good newsagents and supermarkets.

Thank you for choosing PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine!

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The new October issue 209 of PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine is on sale now – FREE videos + FREE ebook! Subscribe today to get our new offer – big savings + get a free Lowepro Adventura Go SH 160 bag worth £52!*

We're the No.1 Canon magazine, written by Canon photographers, for Canon photographers, and we cater for every Canon EOS camera user. 

With money too tight to mention, many of you may well be looking into other ways to raise some extra dosh. So why not learn how to profit from your photography? 

In this issue’s Make Cash With Your Canon guide, we show you useful routes to turning your hobby into a revenue stream. From where to begin to shooting weddings and family portraits, stock libraries to selling prints, and running workshops, there’s a variety of options available to try. 

PhotoPlus editor, Peter Travers, also shares his story how he started up his own freelance photography business, specialising in portraits and properties.

New Canon camera skills!

Also inside this issue, wildlife pro photographer Paul Fowlie proves to our PhotoPlus Apprentice that it’s possible to take atmospheric shots of animals in their natural habitat, even when it’s hammering down!

In Canon Skills we have new photo projects, from misty scenic shots to close-ups of colourful mushrooms in the woods, plus more image-editing tutorials in Photoshop, Lightroom and Affinity Photo. All projects and tutorials come with free video guides to follow along.

We speak to incredible photographer David Lund, who has made liquid splash shots into a photographic art form, see his profile inside.

In Canon School, Marcus Hawkins helps you control your colours, and Brian Worley answers your technical questions.

Plus we test eight of the best lightweight lenses for those big days out or for your travels.

Also get your free Photography Post-Production ebook worth £15.99, download details inside the mag.

If you’re not a PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine subscriber already CLICK HERE to join our Canon crew and get your free Lowepro camera bag worth £52!*This also makes sure your copy is delivered to your door every month. 

Every issue of PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine is packed with essential Canon techniques, tests, tutorials and inspiration every issue – out now at all good newsagents and supermarkets.

Thank you for choosing PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine!

Back issues and digital editions

Limited back issues of PhotoPlus print editions are available on our MagazinesDirect secure store

Alternatively, we have a number of different digital options available:

• Apple app (for iPad or iPhone)

• Pocket Mags (mult-platform app, great for Android users)

• Zinio app (multi-platform app for desktop or smartphone)

• Readly (digital magazine subscription service)

• Follow us on Instagram!
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Adobe is marching forward with further price increases, despite the company pulling in record revenues and profits, with revenue reaching a whopping $4.89 billion (approximately £3.95 billion / AU$7.60 billion) in its third quarter of the 2023 financial year, or 13% year-over-year growth. 

It's important to note that, currently, Adobe is only increasing the prices of the Adobe Creative Cloud Single App Plans and the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps Plan, with a respective $24 or $60 increase if you pay annually, or a $3.00 or $7.50 increase if you pay month-to-month. The price hike is only going to affect users in North, Central, and South America, as well as Europe.

At the moment Adobe appears to be leaving alone its popular Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan, as well as its mobile subscriptions, so most of us can breathe a (probably temporary) sigh of relief.

The company is justifying its price increases by further expanding its AI tools. Abode, instead of offering these as an additional option to photographers, has chosen to push AI across its existing applications, as well as new Single Apps plans also now coming (whether you want it or not) with access to new web apps like Adobe Express Premium. 

Adobe is also introducing a new generative AI credits system, which will limit access to the fastest version of Adobe's AI generative tools like Adobe Firefly or AI-powered background expansion in Photoshop. After allotted credits have been used up, users can still use Adobe's AI features, although at a slower rate, or have the option of purchasing more credits.

Free users using Adobe Express will get 25 credits to use, with an additional 100 credits costing $4.99. It is not clear from Adobe how many credits paid users will receive depending on their plan, or where you can check your current allowances.

However, with many photographers having absolutely no interest in Adobe's AI additions (especially those aimed squarely at social media marketers), these price hikes are undoubtedly going to annoy a lot of users who are now being charged more money to keep using the same application in the same way as they have for years.

Adobe is likely relying on users being so accustomed to its software that they choose to stay and pay the increasing prices – although some of the best photo editing software from other companies offers much more affordable prices, with rivals like Capture One Pro 23 or Affinity Photo offering much of the same editing experience as Adobe's Lightroom or Photoshop software.

Find out more about the best Lightroom alternatives or the best Photoshop alternatives.

In the modern age, taking your photos is only half the story. You’ll also need a capable photo editing app such as Affinity’s Photo 2, ranked our best Photoshop alternative, to polish your pictures to perfection and do them justice. The great news is Affinity products can be bought on a one-off basis, so there’s no recurring monthly cost like with Adobe’s Creative Cloud. Even better, you can try before you buy too! Click here to start your free 30-day trial of Affinity Photo 2.

Unrivalled 30-day trials are available for all Affinity creative products, including the superb photo editor Affinity Photo 2, Affinity Designer 2; the award-winning vector graphics software and Affinity Publisher 2; the page layout and design powerhouse perfect for designing books, magazines, marketing materials, social media templates and much more!

The lengthy 30-day trial, with no commitment, allows users to fully explore Affinity’s credentials as the class-leading alternative to the industry standard.

Serif CEO Ashley Hewson says: “One-week free trials are common, but we have chosen to set the free trial period for Affinity at 30 days to allow users to fully experience what Affinity can do without any reservations.

“This extended trial duration provides the freedom to immerse oneself in creative work as much as desired. Like other trials, there’s no automatic billing after the trial period ends so you don’t have to remember to cancel it.”

If you’d like to continue your photo editing journey in Affinity Photo 2 once your 30-day trial has come to an end you can purchase it with a one off payment. The price of Affinity Photo 2, Publisher 2 and Designer 2 is £67.99 / $69.99 / €74.99 for each app on Windows and macOS, or £17.99 / $18.49 / €19.99 for their Apple iPad versions. However, you can save money with a bundle price of £159.99 for all three with the Affinity V2 Universal Licence.

What we love about Affinity Photo 2

1) Built for a pro workflow. Live real-time editing, massive image support, super steady pan and zoom at maximum refresh rate, near instant load of huge files… Affinity Photo 2 is exceptionally fast and powerful.

2) Flawless retouching. Smooth skin with frequency separation. Retouch with Dodge, Burn, Clone, Patch and Blemish Removal tools. Remove unwanted objects with the magical Inpainting Brush. Work in a dedicated liquify workspace to perfectly sculpt features and more.

3) Full RAW development. Shoot in RAW and enjoy an end-to-end 32-bit experience. Bring out all the details and control those finer corrections to take that perfect shot to the next level.

4) Breathtaking compositions with unlimited layers and effects. Explore a large library of adjustments, effects and live filters, all of which can be grouped, clipped, masked or blended together to create incredibly complex image compositions.

5) Fully-featured across all platforms, including iPad. The first professional photo editing application to have 100% file format compatibility across Windows, Mac and iPad, allowing you to work with the same file across any device.

As the only fully-loaded photo editor integrated across macOS, Windows and iPad, Affinity Photo is the first choice of millions of photography professionals around the world. With incredible speed, power and precision, it has everything you need to edit and retouch images, create multi-layered compositions, beautiful raster paintings and so much more.

It's also equipped with hundreds of timesaving tools and a completely redesigned UI to make your editing experience more seamless than ever.

What else is included in the Affinity creative suite?

Get a free 30-day trial of the Affinity Universal Licence bundle and in addition to the award-winning Affinity Photo 2 image editor, you can test drive Affinity Designer 2 and Affinity Publisher 2 on your choice of Mac, PC and iPad-or all three.

Affinity Designer 2 is the vector graphics software setting the new industry standard in the world of design. It’s a super-smooth, feature-packed app used by thousands of professional illustrators, web designers, game developers and other creatives looking to create high-quality concept art, print projects, logos, icons, UI designs, mock-ups and more.

Affinity Designer 2 also boasts hundreds of timesaving tools and functions allowing creatives to achieve pixel perfect designs every single time.

For photographers looking to make a photobook, album or even promotional flyers and leaflets Affinity Publisher 2 is the app for you. Optimised for the latest tech on Windows, Mac and iPad - and chosen by Apple as its Mac App of the Year - Affinity gives you the power to combine your images, graphics and text to make beautiful layouts ready for publication.

Affinity’s unique StudioLink technology means you can use the editing tools of Affinity Photo in a layout in Affinity Publisher, without having to save your work and switch apps. This simple technology alone can save huge amounts of time.

It's a double celebration for DxO as it releases updated versions of the Nik Sharpener and HDR Efex plug-ins, the last two to be modernised from the days when the Nik Collection was owned by Google.

DxO acquired the Nik Collection from Google in 2017, just when it looked as if one of the best photo editing software suites might be lost for ever, and has spent the last six years re-authoring "millions" of lines of code, much of it undocumented, to make it fully compatible with modern hardware and systems, including Windows, MacOS and Apple Silicon, which is now used for many of the best MacBooks for photo editing, for example. The update also adds support for the best 4K monitors and beyond as high-DPI monitors become the norm.

Nik Sharpener is a two-part tool which offers a 'presharpener' for general detail enhancement and an 'output sharpener' to optimise sharpening for specific print sizes and output devices. This is actually an important technical process that's often overlooked but is key to the best print quality.

Nik Sharpener now has the latest interface design shared by the other Nik Collection plug-ins, with a "clearer, cleaner" look and the option of using DxO's local adjustments via sliders attached to control points in the traditional manner or via sliders in the sidebar.

The same update has been applied to Nik HDR Efex, another older Nik plug-in that was due some attention. HDR Efex can merge separate bracketed exposures into high dynamic range images, and it can also apply its HDR effects to single images too.

Both plug-ins get DxO's latest Control Line local adjustment tool, which works rather like a gradient mask but with an eyedropper to select the tones to be affected by the adjustment.

There are some workflow improvements for Photoshop users too, so that it's now possible to turn an image into a Photoshop Smart Object even after you've started editing it, and the ability to apply any of your last 15 Nik Collection edits with a single click.

Also, the Nik Collection now automatically detects Affinity Photo during the installation, so that you can easily launch the Nik plug-ins from this program too.

For existing Nik Collection 6 owners it's an easy decision, as Nik Collection 6.3 is a free update. Otherwise, it costs $149 / £135 (about AU$229) for new users and $79 / £69 (about AU$121) for owners upgrading from Nik Collection versions 4 or 5.

Best Photoshop alternatives

Best noise reduction software

Photo editing just got a whole lot easier with the launch of the DxO Nik Collection 6, bringing with it a whole host of new features and updates. 

While most other software updates are making use of AI, DxO's Nik Collection keeps things simple and brings updates to the slick new user interfaces for several of its plug-ins. 

• See our picks of the best photo editing software

Never heard of the Nik Collection? It's been around for years – and is essentially a series of plugins that you can install on your computer (Mac or Windows) that offer advanced editing tools to be used either standalone or integrated with your own primary editing software of choice. It is compatible with Lightroom, Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Capture One, or DxO's own PhotoLab 6 RAW editing software and works with the non-destructive workflow of those applications.

The popular suite includes eight separate plug-ins that each have a different purpose, these are: Nik Color Efex, Nik Silver Efex, Nik Analog Efex, Nik Viveza, Nik Dfine, Nik Sharpener, Nik HDR Efex, and Nik Perspective. 

Nik Collection 6 offers some pretty impressive new features, including the ability to apply any of your last 15 edits to a new image with a single click. New Control Selectivity sliders have been added to elevate specific areas of your image, and the new Control Lines tool incorporates linear gradient filters into your workflow. 

With the new collection, you can now also search for presets within all plugins (excluding Nik Dfine), and rename local adjustments while saving them as part of presets, making it easy to apply quick changes to your gallery. The Nik Perspective plug-in has a new ReShape tool, and the Nik Color Efex has been equipped with a newly added Hue/Saturation/Luminance slider.

The Nik Dfine preset has been rebuilt from the ground up, in what the company describes as a "Complete visual overhaul" for a refined editing experience. It's also been given an upgraded user interface (along with Nik Sharpener and Nik HDR Efex) and the ability to save denoising profiles and return to them later. 

In terms of integration improvements, the Nik Collection 6 will auto-detect the presence of Affinity Photo during software installation. Users of newer Macs will appreciate that it now supports Apple Silicon natively. 

Want to try it out? You can take the Nik Collection 6 for a spin with the  30-day free trial of the full unlimited version, with no payment options required to test it out, and it can also be installed and reverted back to an existing version of Nik Collection after testing – now that's confidence! There are also helpful onboarding tutorials included with the trial to show you how to navigate the plugins and user interfaces. Head to the DxO website for details. 

• You might also be interested in the best photo editing tools and accessories, and require one of the best computers for photo editing . If Nik has piqued your interest, check our review of the DxO Nik Collection 4 plug-in.

At this time of year, you just don’t know what the weather’s going to throw at you. One day it could be snow, the next storms, the following day winter sun. But it matters not a jot for Edyta Rice, who shows you how to get stunning landscape shots, whatever the weather, in this issue’s lead feature.

We explore the backstreets of the city of London with Nikon Creator Darren Boyd, who takes our apprentice for an outdoor urban natural light portrait shoot with a professional model.

In our Big Test we compare the latest photo-editing software, including industry leader Photoshop, a major update of low-cost rival Affinity Photo, new kid on the block Radiant Photo – and plenty of others besides. We also check out popular third-party lens maker Tamron’s first Z-mount lens, a sensibly priced 70-300mm tele-zoom.

We’ve revamped our Skills section, where we’ve persuaded pro photographers to deconstruct their shoots and the techniques behind them for projects that you can try yourself. And by popular demand, we’re reintroducing our Buyer’s Guide – our at-a-glance ready reference to all currently available Nikon DSLRs, mirrorless Z-mount cameras and Nikon-fit lenses. 

We also have a free ebook edition of the N-Photo Nikon Annual 2023 to download, plus a free three-month trial for the excellent Radiant Photo, and a chance to win a Nikon Z 9, worth £5299!

N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine is a monthly magazine that's written by Nikon enthusiasts for Nikon enthusiasts, you can be sure that all the content is 100% relevant to you! So for the best Nikon-focused news, reviews, projects and a whole lot more, subscribe to N-Photo today – with our unmissable subs deal!

Check out our latest subscription offer!

Where to find N-Photo magazine

So rush down to your newsagent today. Or ever better, why not subscribe with this fantastic deal  to a print edition, and have the magazine delivered to your door every month?

Alternatively, we have a number of different digital options available, including:

• Apple app (for iPad or iPhone)

• Zinio app (multi-platform app for desktop or smartphone)

• Pocket Mags (for Android devices)

• Readly (all-you-can-eat digital magazine subscription service)

If you wanted a printed version of any of our most recent issues we have a selection of back issues to choose from in our online store.

Subscription deals: Our guide to the best photo magazines

Popular AI-powered photo editing software and plugin developer ON1 has just announced Photo RAW version 2023.1. The latest update adds a host of new helpful tools for retouching and refining images including an enhanced healing brush, sky swap AI modes plus advanced uses of the healing brush tool. 

For the last 15 years, ON1 has been providing a photo editing platform designed for photographers and made for photographers. It might not be as well known as some of the likes of Adobe Photoshop or Capture One but these latest updates go one step further to making it a worthy competitor - especially if you're after a large amount of cloud storage. 

• Check out the best photo editing software including subscription and one-off payment services

 The non-destructive healing brush tool which can be used to remove spots and blemishes, distracting objects or repair other imperfections can now also transform, copy and move to enable you to scale, rotate and flip your brush strokes for super-precise healing edits. The enhanced brush also lets you copy objects in your photo or move them to a new area. 

You can now use the crop tool in photo Raw with new overlays such as the rule of thirds, golden ratio or golden spiral which helps photographers create new compositions when cropping photos. Sky Swap AI has also had a make-over and now allows you to more easily differentiate between the sky and buildings or the sky and similar foreground colors which should help create more realistic looking sky-replacements with smoother edges. 

NoNoise AI and Resize AI which can be downloaded independently as plugins and used alongside Adpbe Lightroom or Affinity Photo (to name just a couple) or within ON1 now run much faster thanks to improved performance AI inference which cuts down on editing time and improves workflow. 

Not only have individual tools benefited from an update, ON1 now also supports some of the latest cameras released such as the Canon EOS R6 Mark II and the Panasonic Lumix S5 II - not bad considering the S5 II was only released last month.

Pre-existing customers will automatically get access to the new ON1 Camera RAW when it is released mid-February. For those looking to change editing suites or try one for the first time, prices start at just $99.99/£82.

Check out the best monitors for photo editing and choose from a range of budget options and top-spec professional machines

The Apple Mac Mini has been a favorite budget by in our best desktop computers for photo editing for a while now - but the latest 2023 versions promise even more. The svelte miniature computer will now get Apple's latest M2 processor to offer more power – and for those who want even more there will be a 12-core M2 Pro chipped version too! And the good news is that the starting price has not increased from the current M1 versions - with the Mac Mini M2 going on sale from next week from $599 / £649.

"The new M2 Pro chip delivers pro-level performance to Mac mini for the first time," says Apple, "enabling users to run high-performance workflows that were previously unimaginable in such a compact design. As well as faster performance the latest versions will offer support for up to two displays on the M2 model, and up to three displays on the M2 Pro model.

See also Apple reveals the fastest, most powerful MacBooks ever

Compared to the Mac Mini M1, the new M2 version is said to offer 50 percent faster filter and function performance in Adobe Photoshop CC, and 2.4x faster ProRes transcoding when using Apple's own Final Cut Pro video editor. Mac mini M2 features an 8-core CPU with four high-performance and four high-efficiency cores, along with a 10-core GPU.

The faster M2 Pro version offers up to a 12-core CPU with eight high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores, along with up to a 19-core GPU. The M2 Pro has 200GB/s of memory bandwidth — double that of the M2 — and supports up to 32GB of memory.

Apple says the M2 Pro Mac Mini boosts a ProRes transcode in Final Cut Pro by up to 4.2x, when compared to the M1 Mac Mini; graphics performance in Affinity Photo 2 is enhanced 2.5-fold.

See our full Mac Mini M2 Pro (2023) review

The M2 Mac Mini offers two Thunderbolt 4 ports, whilst the Pro version provides four. Both models feature two USB-A ports, an HDMI port, a Gigabit Ethernet port with a 10GB option, and an upgraded headphone jack to support high-impedance headphones. They feature the latest Wi-Fi 6E standard for up to 2x faster throughput than before, as well as Bluetooth 5.3.

Mac mini with M2 starts at $599/£649 – or from $499/£539 if eligible for Apple Student Discount. 

Mac mini with M2 Pro starts will sell from $1,299/£1,399 - or from $1,199 /£1,289 for those in education.

Both models go on sale from August 24 in the US and the UK - Australians will have to wait a further week until 2 February.

Winter is upon us, and so this issue we persuaded landscape and nature pro Ross Hoddinott to part with 25 of his hottest tips for capturing the coldest of seasons, sharing his secrets for supreme shots of everything from snowy scenes to winter wildlife.

Our apprentice opts to stay inside the comfort of a cosy studio and learns to shoot portraits with a difference, with the models submerged in a huge Perspex tank, for images that have an extraordinary ethereal feel.

This issue we present our Gear of the Year awards, with a roundup of the very best kit that’s passed through our labs and into the hands of our expert reviewers over the past year. Plus we rate Nikon’s cut-price Z 17-28mm f/2.8 ultra-wide zoom – with a fast f/2.8 aperture usually reserved for pro-level lenses yet comes with an affordable price tag.

Our skills section has a distinctly festive feel this issue, with projects on light-painting a Christmas tree, dressing up pets for seasonal shots, capturing a festive foodie flat lay, and shooting subjects with the aim of popping them inside a snow globe, along with our usual Adobe CC and Affinity Photo tutorials. We also have a free Teach Yourself Photo Editing ebook to download to your device. 

N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine is a monthly magazine that's written by Nikon enthusiasts for Nikon enthusiasts, you can be sure that all the content is 100% relevant to you! So for the best Nikon-focused news, reviews, projects and a whole lot more, subscribe to N-Photo today – with our unmissable subs deal!

Check out our latest subscription offer!

Where to find N-Photo magazine

So rush down to your newsagent today. Or ever better, why not subscribe with this fantastic deal  to a print edition, and have the magazine delivered to your door every month?

Alternatively, we have a number of different digital options available, including:

• Apple app (for iPad or iPhone)

• Zinio app (multi-platform app for desktop or smartphone)

• Pocket Mags (for Android devices)

• Readly (all-you-can-eat digital magazine subscription service)

If you wanted a printed version of any of our most recent issues we have a selection of back issues to choose from in our online store.

Subscription deals: Our guide to the best photo magazines

Who would have thought that photo editing software released as a Mac-only version in 2015 could take on the software behemoth Adobe? Well, that’s exactly what Serif has achieved with its Affinity products, where Affinity Photo has undoubtedly become Adobe Photoshop’s main rival. And with some revolutionary new features alongside an inexpensive perpetual license, the latest Affinity Photo 2 provides an even more compelling alternative to the market leader’s subscription-based photo editing software.

Affinity Photo 2 is pixel-based photo editing software available for Mac, Windows, and iPad, and it offers most of the functionality of Photoshop CC alongside its own unique features. The software uses a single interface split into ‘Personas’ that are used for performing specific editing tasks, such as Raw processing or image adjustments/manipulation, etc. It’s highly capable, and indeed powerful software, that’s only let down by the lack of Raw image cataloging or some kind of image browser for viewing and managing images.

A feature of this kind would elevate Affinity Photo 2 even higher, and make its workflow much more seamless. But at just $69.99/£50.99 for the desktop version or $19.99/£17.99 for the iPad version, Affinity Photo 2 is incredibly good value for money. What’s more, if you also use design software you can pick up the full suite of Affinity software which includes Affinity Photo 2, Affinity Designer 2, and Affinity Publisher 2 for $169.99/£144.99. All these are perpetual licenses, too, so no monthly or annual subscription is required.

Affinity Photo 2 Key features

Many of the new features are aimed more towards designers using the software, but there are plenty that are aimed at photographers with one, in particular, being both unique and revolutionary when it comes to Raw processing and image editing: Non-Destructive Raw.

This useful new feature allows you to link to or embed the original Raw file once it’s been processed in the Develop Persona, so after creating Adjustment and Filter Layers in the Photo Persona, you can go back to the Develop Persona by double-clicking on the Raw file icon on the Layers Panel. Once there, you can view the image with or without Adjustment and Filter Layers visually active and make further Raw adjustments.

This is a great feature, but the only downside to this is that if you have performed any cloning, healing or other similar work where you’ve created new pixel-based Layers, adjusting the underlying Raw file doesn’t apply to the cloning or other pixel Layers. So, if taking advantage of Non-Destructive Raw, any cloning work should only be performed once you’re 100% happy with the Raw processing.

In terms of advanced features, Hue Range allows you to generate masks based on specific colors and color ranges. And working similarly is Luminosity, which allows you to mask specific brightness ranges to apply precise adjustments with speed and ease. Plus, there are Compound Masks that allow you to combine multiple masked layers non-destructively using add, intersect, subtract and XOR operations.

Other new features for photographers include Band-Pass, which provides an easy way to work with frequency Layers for advanced retouching and creating creative effects. Saved Layer States lets you save a variety of visible/invisible Layer states based on different criteria to make viewing different versions of images quick and easy. And Live Mesh Warp makes it possible to match an image or Layer to the surface/contours of the underlying Layer.

Affinity Photo 2 Interface and usability

Affinity Photo offers a single interface that’s split into five ‘Personas’ that are workspaces designed to perform specific tasks within the software. This makes editing clear-cut in many respects because everything is performed within a single intuitive interface.

The interface itself is fairly simple-looking, but don’t let this fool you into thinking that the software lacks features and functionality. Affinity Photo 2 has received a redesign but maintains the look and feel that current users are used to. But Adjustment and Filters Layers now have icons rather than using bracketed text, and hovering over the icons shows the Layer (type) name.

With the Personas, Develop is where you process Raw files, Photo is for standard image processing adjustments using Layers, etc., Liquify is for manipulating pixels, Tone Mapping is for achieving HDR effects with a single image or set of bracketed exposures and Export is for exporting images to other file types or creating new versions of the same file type.

The biggest letdown of Affinity Photo 2 is that there’s still no image browser for viewing and cataloging Raw files, which means that you’ll need to use other software for this. The inclusion of this feature would make Affinity Photo a much more rounded editing software option overall, with a more fluid workflow that doesn’t rely on the use of additional software.

Affinity Photo 2 Quality of results

When it comes to results, it’s fair to say that Affinity Photo 2, like its predecessor, is capable of being used within a professional or enthusiast workflow. Results are excellent overall and the range of tools and features available allow you to achieve almost any result you’re aiming for regardless of the subjects you shoot.

There are some quirks to the software though, which haven’t been ironed out since the previous version. These include clunky batch processing of Raw files where you have to save adjustments as Presets that can then be applied to subsequent images you process, and localized adjustments aren’t included here so these have to be applied manually for every image in a batch.

So, while Affinity Photo can’t be faulted in terms of the overall features available, especially when considering the cost of the software, the workflow remains unintuitive in some areas. It’s certainly not a deal breaker, but something to be aware of.

Affinity Photo 2 Verdict

In some ways, Affinity Photo is better than Photoshop and more intuitive, although in others it’s the complete opposite. Photoshop arguably has slightly more finesse when it comes to the workspace and overall performance. However, the low cost of the perpetual license means that Affinity Photo 2 represents excellent value for money, especially if you resent paying a regular subscription for the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography Plan.

There’s no denying that Affinity Photo has long been the best Photoshop alternative available, and Affinity Photo 2 is Serif’s most impressive version of the software to date. And the new features, in some cases, are remarkable. So, if you’re looking for a highly capable Adobe alternative with an incredibly good value perpetual license to boot, then look no further than Affinity Photo 2

The software isn’t perfect and a useful, and indeed much-needed, image browser/catalog for Raw files remains absent. Users could take advantage of the free Raw editing software RawTherapee to use its File Browser, and this software is available for both Mac and Windows.

This is the best free photo editing software and these are the best photo-editing laptops today.

With the days getting shorter and nights drawing in, it’s the perfect time of year to try your hand at astrophotography. Dave Williams shares his top advice for shooting the Northern Lights, Milky Way, star trails, moonscapes and night landscapes.

Autumn is also in its full throes, so we took our apprentice to the Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire for a landscape masterclass under the expert guidance of Carmen Norman, showing how to best capture the beauty of autumnal colours.

In our Big Test, we try out eight photo backpacks for size. Our Gear Section also hosts our annual Christmas Gift Guide, packed with ideas for Christmas gifts – be it for photographer family or friends, or simply treating yourself. Plus we rate the remarkable Viltrox AF 23mm F1.4 Z – a bargain lens with full autofocus capability for crop-sensor mirrorless Nikons that’s ideal for street photography.

Our skills section is packed with projects, explaining when to switch your metering mode from Matrix, advice for going on a photo hike, how to shoot a high-octane rally race, plus our Big Project on zoom blending landscapes, to place emphasis on subjects in a wider scene, along with our usual Adobe CC and Affinity Photo tutorials.

N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine is a monthly magazine that's written by Nikon enthusiasts for Nikon enthusiasts, you can be sure that all the content is 100% relevant to you! So for the best Nikon-focused news, reviews, projects and a whole lot more, subscribe to N-Photo today – with our unmissable subs deal!

Check out our latest subscription offer!

Where to find N-Photo magazine

So rush down to your newsagent today. Or ever better, why not subscribe with this fantastic deal  to a print edition, and have the magazine delivered to your door every month?

Alternatively, we have a number of different digital options available, including:

• Apple app (for iPad or iPhone)

• Zinio app (multi-platform app for desktop or smartphone)

• Pocket Mags (for Android devices)

• Readly (all-you-can-eat digital magazine subscription service)

If you wanted a printed version of any of our most recent issues we have a selection of back issues to choose from in our online store.

Subscription deals: Our guide to the best photo magazines

Digital Camera launched in 2002 and is the world’s leading digital photography magazine. It has been helping photographers of all skill levels to improve their images ever since. 

Every issue is packed with technique tips, tutorials, inspiring images and expert buying advice, plus the latest news and equipment reviews, as well as a selection of free gifts (see below). 

Wouldn’t it be great if you could streamline your editing journey into a super-efficient maximum of 10 steps, freeing up time away from the computer so you can take more photographs? 

That’s the objective of this month’s feature – learn how to master raw processing in Adobe Camera Raw. 

Don’t forget that you can subscribe to Digital Camera magazine and get the magazine delivered to your door every month. Choose between a print or digital subscription, or a bundle of the two.

We reckon that this month’s collection of creative projects in Photo Active could produce plenty of source material to practise your new raw editing skills on. 

Learn how to use off-camera flash on an outdoor fashion shoot, how adding texture effects can transform self-portraits, discover how a multi-award winning wedding shooter makes his work stand out, and how to shoot product shots against digital backdrops. 

Other highlights in December’s Digital Camera 

Also this month, Camera College offers a masterclass in dusk to dawn photography – discover how you can make low-light pictures one of the highlights of your portfolio.

Follow along with the lessons, apply your new learnings and submit your best mono shot to be in with a chance of winning a copy of Affinity Photo 2 editing software worth £59.99/$69.99! 

December’s One to One pro masterclass sees us join leading pro Sam Nash for a street fashion shoot. 

He was keen to show us the new Rotolight Neo 3 Pro and Aeos 2 Pro LED light panels before they were launched – and we’re sure you’ll agree that Sam’s handiwork, captured on the beautiful streets of Bath, demonstrated their creative possibilities perfectly! 

Landscape Photographer of the Year is one of the pre-eminent competitions of its type, and is renowned the world over for the incredible images that it showcases year after year. 

This issue we turn our lens on the winners of the latest competition, in our Hotshots gallery. 

Practical Photoshop is back with a fantastic bonus software promotion: you can bag a free copy of DENOISE projects 2 software (pictured above) for PC and macOS worth $69/£53!

Plus, you’ll find three more tutorials that cover the latest developments in image editing, supported – as always – by bespoke video lessons. 

Tool School focuses on automatic portrait masking in Camera Raw and Lightroom, while Fundamentals will teach you how to liven up raw captures of scenic shots using a few quick steps in Lightroom. 

Completing the line-up, Get the Look offers four approaches to colour grading in Photoshop. 

Drawing on the techniques in these tutorials, we’ve included 15 software extras: four Actions and 10 Lookup tables, plus a preset. 

Copy each bonus pack to your computer, add the contents to your software and you’ll be transforming your images in a matter of clicks! 

This month’s reviews section leads on the latest top-end Apple camera phone, the iPhone 14 Pro Max. 

Find out if its uprated hardware and the latest software has done enough to take the fight to its competitors, in our in-depth four-page review. 

Plus, we review a new AI-driven image editor that promises to offer compelling results, Radiant Photo. And a pair of new prime lenses passes through our lab: the Fujinon XF56 F1.2 R WR and Nikkor Z 800 f/6.3 VR S. 

The latest issue of Digital Camera comes with an unrivaled selection of digital gifts 

This issue’s digital gifts comprise nine all-new photo tips cards; a total of 15 software extras for Photoshop, Lightroom and Affinity Photo; 48 minutes of video tutorials and a 280-page-plus camera buying guide ebook. 

Here’s the full line-up of the bonus gifts with issue 262: 

• Nine new photo tips cards covering wildlife, landscapes, action – and more!
• 48 mins of video tutorials for Lightroom and Photoshop   
• Free copy of DENOISE projects 2 software for PC and macOS worth £53/$69 
• 15 software extras for Photoshop, Lightroom and Affinity Photo
• 280-page-plus Camera Buyer’s Guide eBook packed full of buying advice

Subscribe now

Every issue of Digital Camera magazine is packed with tips, techniques, pro advice, reviews, news and inspiration. 

Don’t forget that you can subscribe to Digital Camera magazine and get the magazine delivered to your door every month. Choose between a print or digital subscription, or a bundle of the two.  

Click the link above to view our current subscription deal. 

You can buy limited back issues of Digital Camera magazine in print at our Magazines Direct secure store.

Alternatively, there is a range of different digital options available, including:

• Apple app (for iPad or iPhone)
• Zinio app (multi-platform app for desktop or smartphone)
• PocketMags (multi-platform app for desktop or smartphone)
• Readly (digital magazine subscription service)

Shooting at a high ISO or using a long exposure to capture details in the dark increases noise in a digital image. There are essentially two flavors of noise: luminance and color. Luminance noise looks a little like film grain, although not quite as pleasing, while color noise covers the image in distracting colored speckles. You may also see bands of color in an image.

Some of the best professional cameras have built-in noise reduction options, which can be applied to the image as it’s processed and saved to the memory card. These don’t apply to RAW files though, which have to be processed later. RAW processing software such as Affinity Photo provides more refined controls for noise reduction, with individual sliders for luminance and color noise reduction. Be wary of going too high with the luminance slider, as it will soften details in the image as well as the noise.

Check out the camera skills below, and discover how to optimize your ISO settings when you’re shooting in the near dark. You can click on the arrows in the top right-hand corner of the image below to make it bigger.

You might like the best low-light cameras – which will help you to shoot after dark. Plus, find out how to understand ISO settings.

Affinity Photo is one of our favorite Photoshop alternatives, offering the same professional tool set but at a fraction of the price, and with a single, low one-off payment. Now Affinity Photo 2 is here; introducing plenty of exciting new features, it is part of a relaunch of the whole Affinity ecosystem.

Along with launching Version 2 of the Affinity creative suite products, Affinity also announced its V2 Universal Licence ownership tier (more on that below) and the fact that Affinity Publisher is now available on iPad. “Affinity V2 is by far the biggest, most exciting launch in the history of Serif," says Ashley Hewson, Managing Director of Serif.

Here, we'll of course be focusing on Affinity Photo V2 – and its latest features for photographers.

Affinity Photo 2 features

Affinity had previously told us that "something big was coming" but we didn't know any more than that when it came to the new features of Affinity Photo 2 – until now, that is.

There are many new features with Affinity Photo Version 2, including Luminosity (to mask specific luminosity ranges), Live Mesh Warp (to distort an image to match the surface of a template like a book) and Hue Range (to create a mask based on specific colors in your image). We've delved into a few more key features below.

Non-destructive RAW Developing

Affinity Photo 2 now comes with non-destructive RAW develop, which as the name suggests means that you can go back to change your RAW develop settings at any time, even after you've played around by adding extra layers or adjustments.

Live and compound masks

Different compound masks can be combined together non-destructively to add and remove XOR operations. Affinity says, "any separate masks you have created can be maintained non-destructively while creating new masks based on those component parts." You can also add new Live Masks which update automatically based on the properties of the image.

JPEG XL Import/Export

Affinity Photo allows photographers and designers to export the JPEG XL format – a raster-graphics file format that supports lossy compression and lossless compression – which is now being more often by web browsers.

Saved Layer States

This feature will allow photographers to save different versions of your layer stack and therefore review different versions of your images.

Affinity 2 pricing

Affinity is now marketing its new software applications with a new Affinity 2 Universal License tier. This will normally cost $169.99 / £144.99 / AU$259.99 but comes with a 40% launch discount which takes the whole suite down to just $99.99 / £89.99 / AU$159.99. This partly allows for the fact that many purchases are via app stores where it’s not possible to offer upgrade pricing for existing users.

The suite includes Affinity Photo 2, Affinity Designer 2, Affinity Publisher 2 and the company’s new Affinity Publisher for iPad edition.

Digital Camera World readers are likely to be interested primarily in Affinity Photo 2. This will continue to be available separately and will come with a 40% launch discount for $40.99/ £35.99 / AU$64.99 .

For existing users of Affinity Photo, the upgrade is completely optional and you can continue to use V1 in its current form for as long as you want to, although V1 won't receive any new updates in the future.

Affinity Photo is one of the best photo editing software applications you can get and we can't wait to see what Affinity has done with it – we'll be bringing you a full review very soon.

Software brand Affinity has released a new video on its YouTube channel promising us that "something big is coming" – perhaps the biggest announcement in its history. 

If you're not familiar with Affinity, it offers professional software for a wide range of creatives, from designers to photographers around the world, with Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher.

Affinity Photo is what we're most familiar with of course; with all the power of Photoshop but at rock-bottom, no-strings price, we've given it great reviews in the past and even added it to our pick of the best photo editing software.

Affinity Photo focuses on the retouching market, with cloning, healing and retouching tools, an Inpainting tool for automatic object removal and a dedicated Liquify persona (workspace) for localized image distortion effects. Now up to version 1.10, Affinity Photo has steadily improved and evolved since its launch, but Affinity has yet to charge for any update.

So what could this big announcement be? All we know so far is that Affinity's apps are "about to get even better." That's the caption underneath this official YouTube video anyway.

At just over a minute long, the teaser video is suitably vague and doesn't give anything away, however there are lots of neat sound bites:

• "We're realizing our vision, so that you can realize yours"
• "Everything you want, in a creative suite"
• "New ways of working, new ways of thinking"
• "Hundreds of enhancements, incredible new features"

What's suggested is that the whole Affinity workflow has been refined and redesigned and that we'll get the full announcement on 9 November.

Affinity Photo update – what would we like to see?

In many ways, Affinity Photo is actually better than Adobe Photoshop CC for photographers, more intuitive to use, and certainly much more affordable. However, some features can be overly-complicated, saving and exporting features have quirks and there's no option for image cataloging like there is with Lightroom. 

Could we see a cataloging-style workflow come to the Affinity Apps? The announcement will be on November 9, and our review will hopefully follow.

For now, check out the best free photo editing software and a how-to guide for RAW editing with Affinity Photo.