Affinity Photo is an image editor for developing camera RAW files, correcting photographs, combining layers, painting, and preparing finished images. It works on pixels and editable document layers rather than organizing a photo library. A single document can contain masks, adjustment layers, text, placed images, and live filters, while separate workspaces called Personas expose controls for RAW development, pixel editing, liquify changes, tone mapping, and export. Saving the working document preserves those editable parts; exporting creates the flattened or encoded image used elsewhere.
Develop the RAW
Opening a supported camera RAW file sends it to Develop Persona. Affinity Photo can correct exposure, tone, lens behavior, noise, detail, and local regions before the image enters the main editing workspace. Clipping indicators reveal shadow, highlight, or midtone detail pushed outside the visible range.
The output choice has lasting consequences. Pixel output develops the photograph into a normal pixel layer and cannot reopen the original RAW controls. RAW layer output keeps the development editable, either by embedding the source in the document or linking to its original file. A linked RAW layer saves document space but fails if the source moves or becomes unavailable.
Non-destructive RAW development requires the Serif Labs engine. The output type chosen at first development cannot be swapped when the image returns to Develop Persona. Choosing Pixel by accident therefore means reopening the source and repeating the development if later RAW adjustments are needed.
Read the layer stack
Layers determine both content and scope. A mask can hide part of a layer without erasing the stored pixels. An adjustment layer changes color or tone below it, while a clipped adjustment affects a narrower target. The order matters because moving an adjustment upward can change several layers that previously sat outside its reach.
Affinity Photo keeps many filters editable as live filter layers. Blur, sharpening, noise work, distortion, and lighting can be reopened and changed. Dragging a live filter onto one layer limits its effect; leaving it above a group or the whole stack changes more content. Merging the filter commits the result into the layer below, which removes the same freedom to revise it later.
Merge source frames
Panorama, HDR, stacking, and focus-merge commands start with several source images and build a new editable document. Focus Merge selects detailed areas from photographs taken at different focus distances to extend apparent depth of field. It aligns the frames first, blends focused areas, and creates a composite that can still receive ordinary edits.
The camera work controls the quality of that result. Shifts in framing, moving subjects, or inconsistent exposure can leave seams and ghosts. Stable support and matching exposure settings reduce those defects. A macro subject may also need many closely spaced focus steps; missing one depth interval can leave a soft band that the merge cannot invent.
Keep edits reversible
Affinity Photo separates reversible document decisions from permanent export decisions. Adjustment layers, masks, live filters, and embedded RAW layers remain changeable inside the working file. Rasterising, flattening, merging a filter, or exporting can bake those decisions into pixels.
A working document can also link placed images rather than copy them inside. Linking keeps the file smaller and lets an external asset update, but the document depends on that path. Embedding increases the document size while keeping the placed asset with the project. Resource Manager shows which items are linked or embedded before the file moves to another computer.
Export the result
Export Persona can define slices for several output areas and write them without changing the layer structure of the working document. Ordinary export writes the whole document or a selected area in the chosen image format. Color profile, bit depth, transparency, and compression affect how another program reads the result.
Before export, Affinity Photo users need to check document dimensions, color mode, hidden layers, and the intended background. A transparent canvas can become a solid background in a format that has no alpha channel. The editable document remains the place to revise masks and layer choices after the delivery file has been written.
