Affinity Photo LIVE: Editing, Focus Merging, HDR Merging & More

Live replay: stream starts at 00:03:43
Come and join me (James Ritson, in-house product expert for Affinity Photo) for a live stream where I'll be doing various editing within the app.
I could be tackling anything from photography to 3D render retouching, image compositing, astrophotography and more! This is a laid back live stream, so I'll be experimenting with ideas, discussing what works, what doesn't etc.
Feel free to ask questions and I will do my best to address them on-air.
See more of my work (and get some free Affinity Photo resources such as macros) at jamesritson.co.uk
Music is Heart of Night by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio ( / @whitebataudio )

[@mulberryks1965]

Excellent information. Thank you very much for taking the time to do this. You are great at what you do.

[@davidstraker8336]

Darn. Missed it live. Never mind, watched it here. Thanks! James is always excellent value.

[@frogmoor]

Very, very interesting and enjoyable, James. Really appreciate your efforts. Looking forward to future work. 👍

[@Maxxxworld]

James this was a fantastic Stream. I love this presentation very much! Thank you so much!

[@suz8481]

Very interesting videos clear to understand . So glad I changed to Affinity.

[@SkYjAcKeR666]

I just bought your LUT's pack, so glad I have, fantastic stuff James. Thank you, cannot wait to see more live stuff, so informative. Using the Lab Gold Punch is so cool, as you can bang on a mask, and select the colour you want to lose in your shots, it's so cool. Thank you.

[@alibo_]

Hello James. Thank you very much for all the information and knowledge you are sharing with us. The filters I adore are in Nik Colorefex Pro 4. The filters are the various contrast adjustment ones, e.g. tonal contrast, pro contrast, color contrast, contrast only. It would be amazing if they could be recreated in Affinity Photo non destructively.

[@xzenor]

Brilliant video! Thanks!

[@vinr]

Hey James thanks for this wonderful live events. Can you also do one about macro photography, equipment and how you go about tacking pictures you used here for focus merging, thanks

[@Goldmangun]

Fascinating, thank you!

[@stevehallam0850]

Great stuff, there is scope for a dozen videos here! Have you done anything on the use of scope versus histogram?

[@ilsegoyens8939]

I so love your livestreams! I would love to have/buy these creative macro’s!! I would love infrared photography effects, day to night conversion, oilpainteffects, blurry art effects, orton effect, foggy ones, effects that emulate old film, cinematic colour grading, long exposure emulating, filters from nik collection, ... hope you offer them to buy!

[@MarcinGil]

Hi James! Excellent performance again! After this video, I've started wondering: my current workflow is to get as best image I can out of raw converter and then move to AP for some final touches (and maybe experimenting like liquefying, etc). But now I've started hesitating.
Question: if you develop an image like this w/o edits first - do you lose any information contained in the raw file? Like RAWs have plenty of details in shadows to be recovered, etc.

This was a very interesting webinar, especially the part about artifact repair in focus stacking.

[@jeffersonmatthew7942]

You prolly dont give a shit but if you're bored like me during the covid times you can watch all the new movies and series on Instaflixxer. Have been binge watching with my brother for the last few weeks xD

[@aydenmaximilian7030]

@Jefferson Matthew definitely, I have been watching on instaflixxer for years myself :D

[@markhornby3135]

Thanks for the demonstration James.
I don't know how useful it will be, but I wanted to make a macro to automate dodge and burn. What I've done is create 3 curves layers and used Blend Ranges to target shadows, mid-tones and highlights. Would tonal range selections be a better way of doing it, or can you suggest something else?

[@markoehlschlager3862]

I'm fascinated by the effects you're able to program with the procedural texture filters, but all the math is really beyond me. What's the likelihood of Affinity either supplying canned versions of your favorite procedural effects, or offering a means of building effects that are not so reliant upon mathematical genius?

[@vincebrashear]

James, thanks for the information and ideas, although I have to admit, a lot of it was over my head. Since you asked for ideas, I would like to submit this one. I have been trying to recreate the look of the images in this book: From Basics to Fine Art - B&W Photography by Julia Anna Gospodarou, Joel Tjintjelaar. This is black & white architectural photography which they edit by a process they call iterative selective gradient masking. You can see samples of the type of image I am Julia Anna Gospodarou.
Thanks again for the live stream!

[@pharmacymandan]

Hi James awesome video thanks just a question about how to get that lab gold macro you used on the folage?

[@cpnock]

Just downloaded the latest Filter Pack, many thanks, really good. Any chance of a video on "The Orton Effect", and would it be possible to do live filters / macros for it ?. Many thanks.

[@MarkBTomlinson]

Bit late to the party but I have an idea for a macro: It would be nice to have some Height Map and or Normal feature especially now PS is dropping 3d Support.

[@garypannett2756]

Hi James great video how do you convert the 16 bit raw file to 8 bit jpeg Or do I mean 8 bit raw ?
Which is the best method for focus merging macro photos please and do you recommend a tutorial many thanks

[@EdKenUK]

Do you have a video (or one planned) for your composite on your website of the disintegrating sphere in the mountings?

[@DarioDarrow]

26:58 I had this happen, in the end I dragged it off the side of the screen 🙃