Professional Image Editing Made Easy with Affinity Photo

Professional Image Editing Made Easy with Affinity Photo

by Jeremy Hazel
Released May 2023
Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
ISBN: 9781800560789

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Book description

Utilize Jeremy Hazel's Affinity Photo expertise in this color guide to confidently solve problems in your photo edits by understanding the workflow structure and arming yourself with the most effective photo editing techniques

Key Features

  • Learn to use masking, selection, brushes, blend mode, and color tools in the photo editing workflow
  • Unveil advanced personas used in the editing pipeline like tone mapping, liquification, and more
  • Create your own brushes and build your artistic pallet in Affinity Photo

Book Description

In this book, you’ll explore the Affinity Photo program through practice-based learning as you make popular photo edits, learning the tools and techniques in conjunction with the workflow concept. Instead of comprehensive description of the tools, you’ll learn through practical application and understand why they work, not just how they work. This is neither a technical manual nor a workbook but a project-based hybrid approach that provides a deeper understanding of how to use each tool to achieve your goal.

Starting with the fundamentals of navigating the interface, understanding layers, and making your first edit, this Affinity Photo book gradually increases the complexity of projects. You’ll go from single-layer edits, composites, and RAW development to putting together a complex composition using the tools that you've learned along the way. Additionally, you’ll learn the best practices used by expert photo editors for a flawless finish.

By the end of this book, you’ll have a good body of work, be able to evaluate the edits you want to make, and achieve desired results with Affinity Photo.

What you will learn

  • Develop a repeatable methodology for use in your photo editing style
  • Understand the most frequently utilized techniques by professional editors
  • Compete a body of work for use and reference in future projects
  • Develop your own libraries of assets, macros and tone mapping presets for your style
  • Recreate popular editing styles utilized in print and film
  • Recondition older family photos
  • Understand and deconstruct other editing styles to expand your knowledge

Who this book is for

If you are a beginner to any form of photo editing or are a Photoshop user switching from Adobe, this book is for you. This book is also for small business owners who want to do brand-specific editing on stock photos but have limited experience in photo editing. Beginner-level editors, photographers, and people looking to get into product photography and advertising will be able to make the most out of this book.

Table of contents

  1. Professional Image Editing Made Easy with Affinity Photo
  2. Contributors
  3. About the author
  4. About the reviewer
  5. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
    4. Download the example project files
    5. Download the color images
    6. CiA videos
    7. Conventions used
    8. Get in touch
    9. Share Your Thoughts
    10. Download a free PDF copy of this book
  6. Part 1: Foundational and Navigation Basics for Affinity Photo
  7. Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Vector versus Raster Art and Basics of the Interface
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Differentiating between raster (pixel) and vector-based images
    3. Why you would use one over the other, and how to choose the correct type of art
    4. Understanding DPI and why it matters
    5. Understanding the role image size plays in image quality
    6. Understanding color profile and how it factors into your image
      1. RGB
      2. CMYK
      3. The six areas of the Affinity Photo Interface
    7. Summary
  8. Chapter 2: Opening Your First Document
    1. Bringing in an existing photo into Affinity Photo for editing
    2. Creating a new document for a project
    3. Placing an image into an existing project
    4. Resizing the document you just created
      1. When you want to change the document size
      2. When you want to change the canvas size
    5. Creating presets and templates for use in other projects
      1. Creating presets
      2. Creating templates
    6. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    7. Summary
  9. Chapter 3: Layer Fundamentals – The Heart of Affinity Photo
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Understanding layers
      1. What is rasterizing a layer?
      2. Working with layers – the demographics
    3. What are adjustment layers?
    4. What are live filter layers
    5. What are text layers?
    6. Layers – practical editing practice
    7. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    8. Summary
  10. Chapter 4: The Basics of Masking in Affinity Photo
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Basics of masking and making your first mask
      1. Masking principles
      2. Making a simple mask on a Pixel layer
    3. Masking Adjustment layers or Live Filter layers
      1. When to use this technique
    4. Making a gradient mask
      1. Where is the gradient tool, and how do we read it
    5. Utilizing a clipping mask – vector
      1. Shape-based clipping masks
      2. Curve-based clipping masks
    6. Practical masking application
      1. The edit breakdown
      2. Operational steps
      3. Professional tips from this edit
    7. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    8. Summary
  11. Chapter 5: Selection and How to Achieve It in Affinity Photo
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Principles of selection
      1. What is Affinity Photo doing when it selects?
      2. How to think of a selection – the three statements
      3. When do you use selection?
      4. What does a selection actually look like?
    3. Types of selection
      1. Tool-based selection
      2. Attribute-based selection
    4. Creating, adding to, and subtracting from a selection
      1. Universal steps in creating a selection
      2. Tool-based selection – using Selection Brush
      3. Attribute-based selection – tonal selection
    5. Saving a selection as a mask or channel
      1. What are a channel and a spare channel?
      2. Creating a spare channel
      3. When to use this technique
    6. Tricks for refining a tricky selection
      1. Example #1 – adding adjustment layers to increase differences and make better-defined edges
      2. Example #2 – adjusting a selection using the menu (Grow / Shrink...)
    7. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    8. Summary
  12. Part 2: Fundamental Concepts Used to Create a Simple Edit
  13. Chapter 6: Cropping and Composition
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Cropping fundamentals
      1. What is cropping?
      2. The mental model for cropping a photo
      3. Using presets for cropping
      4. Reading the presets
      5. Creating your own presets
      6. Releasing or resizing a crop
    3. Using cropping tools to adjust photos
      1. Overlays
      2. The straightening tool
    4. The basics of composition
    5. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    6. Summary
  14. Chapter 7: Basics of Workflows and Balancing Dark and Light
    1. Technical requirements
    2. What is a workflow?
      1. Cropping the image to get the focal points right!
      2. Setting the levels (using curves, levels, or Exposure Adjustment layers) for the entire image
      3. Applying a sharpen and blur adjustment layer to the image and masking out the areas that you do not want it to apply to
      4. Apply the color grading you want to your image
      5. Balance and finishing
    3. Intermediate concepts in composition – the three pillars of atmospheric perspective
      1. Pillar 1 – objects in the foreground are brighter
      2. Pillar 2 – objects in the foreground are more heavily saturated
      3. Pillar 3 – objects in the foreground have more details
    4. Applying the pillars
      1. A practical edit walkthrough for the workflow
    5. Tools to set exposure (levels of light and dark)
      1. Exposure Adjustment
      2. Levels Adjustment
      3. Curves
      4. Histogram – an aid in setting exposure
    6. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    7. Summary
  15. Chapter 8: Blend Mode Fundamentals
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Blend modes and their uses
      1. The role of colors in blend modes
    3. Using blend modes in practical editing
      1. Blend modes and the application of textures
      2. Blend modes for the addition of elements in compositing
      3. Using blend modes and opacity together
    4. Blend modes in Adjustment and Live Filter layers
      1. Practical example
    5. Blend modes versus blend ranges
      1. Where do blend ranges show up?
      2. How to read the blend ranges
      3. Practical application of blend ranges
    6. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
      1. Tips to make your work more dynamic
    7. Summary
  16. Chapter 9: Basics of Stock Brushes in Affinity Photo
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Introduction to the brush studio panel
      1. Reading the Brushes panel
    3. Brush management (installing, deleting, and so on)
      1. Importing and exporting
    4. Exploring the individual parts of a brush
      1. The General tab
      2. The Dynamics tab
    5. Making your first brush
      1. Setting up the category
      2. Setting up your test space
      3. Building the brush
      4. Trialing and duplicating the brush
    6. Adjusting brush settings using the context toolbar
      1. Reading the context toolbar for brushes
    7. Applying the basics of brushes in an edit
      1. Steps in the edit
    8. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    9. Summary
  17. Chapter 10: Working with Color in Affinity Photo
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Working with the Color panel and the Swatches panel
      1. Color studio panel
      2. The Swatches panel
    3. The three most used color spaces in photo editing
      1. The three color spaces
      2. Setting the color profile in the options menu
    4. Tools and adjustments used in color
      1. The fill bucket tool
      2. The gradient tool
    5. Practical editing using color grading
      1. Editing sequence
    6. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    7. Summary
  18. Part 3 : The Practical Applications of Affinity Photo
  19. Chapter 11: Compositing in Affinity Photo
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Fundamentals of compositing
      1. What is a composite?
      2. The basics of perspective for compositing multiple images
      3. Finding images
      4. Shooting images for your library
    3. Basic compositing workflow
      1. The composition workflow
    4. Filter and layers used in compositing
      1. The Liquify filter
      2. The HSL Saturation Adjustment layer
    5. Practical composition edit
    6. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    7. Summary
  20. Chapter 12: Photo Restoration and Portrait Retouching in Affinity Photo
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Exploring three common tools for photo retouching and restoration
      1. Clone stamp tool
      2. Inpainting brush
      3. The Blemish Removal tool
    3. Understanding the photo restoration workflow and its practical application
      1. Practical application
    4. What is frequency separation?
      1. Why would you use frequency separation?
      2. How to use frequency separation
    5. Portrait retouching workflow and practical application
      1. Practical application
    6. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    7. Summary
  21. Chapter 13: Advanced Color Concepts and Grading
    1. Technical requirements
    2. The basics of color modes
      1. What is a color mode?
      2. So, what does 8-bit mean?
      3. The difference between 16- and 8-bit color modes
      4. What do I use most of the time and what is the best practice?
      5. Setting and modifying your color mode in Affinity Photo
    3. Adjustments and tools used in color grading
      1. Hue, saturation, and lightness adjustment
      2. Selective color adjustment layer
      3. Spilt Toning Adjustment layer
      4. Channel mixer adjustment
      5. Gradient maps
      6. Color balance
      7. Using curves to color grade
      8. LUTs
    4. Color grading practical applications
      1. Color grading practical edit 1 – teal and orange film look
      2. Color grading practical edit 2 – dynamic urban
      3. Color grading practical edit 3 – teal and pink neon
    5. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    6. Summary
  22. Chapter 14: Destructive Filters and Tools in Affinity Photo
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Common destructive tools used in editing
      1. The Blur and Sharpen brushes
      2. The Dodge and Burn brushes
      3. The Sponge brush
      4. The Mesh Warp tool
    3. Destructive filters used in editing
      1. Motion Blur
      2. Depth of Field Blur
      3. Ripple
    4. Practical destructive edit
    5. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    6. Summary
  23. Chapter 15: Creative Effects and Specialty Brushes in Affinity Photo
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Advanced brush concepts
      1. Different types of brushes
      2. Breaking down the intensity brushes
      3. Breaking down image brushes
    3. Working with layer effects
      1. Applying layer effects to images
      2. The practical application of layer effects
      3. Saving layer effects as styles
      4. Applying styles to new layers
    4. Specialty brush creation
      1. Creating a smoke/flame brush
      2. Creating fog brushes
      3. Creating particle brushes
    5. Creating atmospheric layers – the rain overlay
      1. Setting up the effect
    6. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    7. Summary
  24. Part 4: Finishing Your Edit and Building Your Own Artistic Palette
  25. Chapter 16: Working with Text and Shapes in Affinity Photo
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Basics of text in Affinity Photo
      1. The Artistic Text Tool option
      2. The Frame Text Tool option
    3. Shapes in Affinity Photo
    4. Practical application of shapes – making a YouTube thumbnail
      1. Setting up the project
      2. Populating the project
      3. Finishing the image
    5. Making a personal gallery
      1. Setting up the gallery
      2. Adding the frames
      3. Adding lighting
    6. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    7. Summary
  26. Chapter 17: Editing in Other Personas in Affinity Photo
    1. Technical requirements
    2. The Develop persona
      1. What is a RAW image and why shoot in it?
      2. Editing in the Develop persona
    3. The Liquify persona
    4. The Tone Mapping persona
      1. What does the Tone Mapping persona do?
      2. Working with the Tone Mapping persona
      3. The tools
      4. The studio panels
      5. Applying Tone Mapping
    5. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    6. Summary
  27. Chapter 18: Exporting and Artist Efficiency Tips
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Fundamentals of exporting
      1. Exporting in Affinity Photo
      2. Reading the export window
      3. Exporting formats
    3. The Export persona
      1. Exploring the interface
      2. Creating a slice from the flat image
      3. Creating a slice from a single layer
      4. Saving a custom preset
    4. Artist efficiency techniques
      1. The Assets panel
      2. Working with macros and the Library panel
    5. Professional tips, tricks, and important points
    6. Summary
  28. Index
    1. Why subscribe?
  29. Other Books You May Enjoy
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    2. Share Your Thoughts
    3. Download a free PDF copy of this book

Product information

  • Title: Professional Image Editing Made Easy with Affinity Photo
  • Author(s): Jeremy Hazel
  • Release date: May 2023
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781800560789