Affinity Photo Beginner Guide: The Free Photoshop Alternative Every Photographer Should Know
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What Is Affinity Photo and Why Should You Care?
For years, Adobe Photoshop has been the default choice for serious photo editing. But its subscription model ($22.99/month for the Photography Plan) adds up fast, especially for hobbyists and beginners who may not need every feature Adobe offers.
Enter Affinity Photo. Originally developed by Serif as a one-time purchase alternative to Photoshop, the software earned a loyal following among photographers and designers for its professional-grade toolset, fast performance, and complete lack of subscriptions. In late 2025, Canva acquired Serif and merged Affinity's three apps (Photo, Designer, and Publisher) into a single unified program called Affinity Studio, then made the core functionality entirely free.
That means every photographer reading this can download and use a professional photo editor with RAW processing, layers, masks, retouching tools, HDR merge, focus stacking, and panorama stitching without paying a single dollar. The only features behind a paywall are AI-powered tools like generative fill and automatic background removal, which require a Canva Pro subscription ($14.99/month or $119.99/year).
This guide walks you through everything you need to get started with Affinity Photo as a photographer, from downloading the software to making your first serious edit.
Downloading and Installing Affinity Photo
Getting started is straightforward. Visit the Affinity website and download the app for your platform (Windows, macOS, or iPad). You will need to create a free Canva account to activate the software.
The download is roughly 500MB, and installation takes just a few minutes. On first launch, you will be prompted to sign in with your Canva account. After that, the full editing suite is available immediately.
If you previously purchased Affinity Photo 2 as a standalone app (the $69.99 version), your license still works. The free Canva-backed version and the standalone purchase are functionally identical for all non-AI features.
System Requirements
Affinity Photo runs well on modest hardware, which is one of its advantages over Photoshop. You will want at least 8GB of RAM (16GB recommended for large files), a display with at least 1280x768 resolution, and roughly 2GB of free disk space. Both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs are supported natively, and the Windows version runs on Windows 10 or later.
Understanding Personas: Affinity's Workspace System
The single most important concept in Affinity Photo is the Persona system. Unlike Photoshop, which puts all tools in one workspace, Affinity divides its capabilities into distinct workspaces called Personas. Each Persona is optimized for a specific type of task.
Photo Persona
This is your main workspace and where you will spend most of your time. It looks and feels similar to Photoshop: a central canvas surrounded by panels for layers, adjustments, brushes, and history. All layer-based editing, retouching, compositing, and filter work happens here.
The toolbar on the left includes selection tools (marquee, lasso, magic wand), painting tools (brush, eraser, clone stamp, healing brush), vector shape tools, and text tools. The panels on the right show your layer stack, adjustment layers, brush settings, and navigator.
Develop Persona
When you open a RAW file, Affinity Photo automatically launches the Develop Persona. This is a dedicated RAW processing environment comparable to Lightroom's Develop module or Adobe Camera Raw.
In the Develop Persona, you have access to exposure compensation, white balance (temperature and tint), highlights, shadows, clarity, vibrance, saturation, tone curves, HSL adjustments, lens corrections, noise reduction, and sharpening. All adjustments are non-destructive and applied before the image enters the Photo Persona for further editing.
The Develop Persona is surprisingly capable. While it lacks the cataloging and organization features of Lightroom, the actual RAW processing quality is excellent, with good highlight recovery, smooth shadow lifting, and accurate color rendering from most major camera brands.
Liquify Persona
The Liquify Persona provides a dedicated environment for warping, pushing, pinching, and reshaping pixels. Portrait photographers will find this useful for subtle adjustments to facial features, though it is also handy for correcting lens distortion in creative ways.
Export Persona
When you are finished editing, the Export Persona gives you granular control over output formats, quality settings, color profiles, and file naming. You can set up slices for batch export at multiple sizes, which is useful for preparing images for both web and print.
Tone Mapping Persona
If you merge HDR bracketed exposures, the Tone Mapping Persona provides tools specifically designed for mapping high dynamic range data into a displayable image. Ghost removal, local and global tone mapping, and detail enhancement are all available here.
Your First Edit: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough
Let's work through a typical editing workflow so you can see how the pieces fit together.
Step 1: Open Your RAW File
Go to File and then Open, and select a RAW file from your camera. Affinity Photo supports RAW files from all major manufacturers, including Canon CR2/CR3, Nikon NEF, Sony ARW, Fujifilm RAF, and Adobe DNG. You can check exactly which settings your camera embedded by dropping the file into ExifGrabber before you start editing.
The Develop Persona will launch automatically. You will see your image in the center with adjustment panels on the right.
Step 2: Set White Balance and Exposure
Start with the Basic panel. If the white balance looks off (common with tungsten or mixed lighting), adjust the Temperature slider until skin tones or neutral objects look natural. Then set your overall Exposure, pulling it up if the image is underexposed or down if highlights are blown.
Next, work through Highlights (pull down to recover bright areas), Shadows (push up to open dark areas), and Blacks/Whites to set the overall tonal range. The Clarity slider adds midtone contrast, which can add punch to landscape and architecture shots but should be used sparingly on portraits.
Step 3: Adjust Tone Curve and Color
Switch to the Tone Curve panel for more precise tonal control. The curve works identically to Photoshop or Lightroom: drag the curve up to brighten, down to darken. You can adjust individual RGB channels for color grading.
The HSL panel lets you target specific colors for hue, saturation, and luminance adjustments. Want bluer skies? Push blue luminance down and saturation up. Want warmer autumn leaves? Shift the orange hue toward red and boost saturation.
Step 4: Apply Lens Corrections and Noise Reduction
The Lens Correction panel can fix chromatic aberration and apply a profile-based distortion correction if your lens is in the database. The Noise Reduction panel uses a two-slider approach: Luminance (for grain) and Color (for chromatic noise). Be conservative here, as heavy noise reduction can destroy fine detail.
Step 5: Develop and Move to Photo Persona
When you are satisfied with your RAW processing, click the Develop button in the top toolbar. This applies your adjustments and moves the image into the Photo Persona for further editing.
From here, you can add adjustment layers (Curves, Levels, HSL, Gradient Map, and many more), use the Clone Brush or Healing Brush for retouching, apply filters like Unsharp Mask for output sharpening, or composite multiple images using layers and masks.
Essential Tools for Photographers
Adjustment Layers
Like Photoshop, Affinity Photo supports non-destructive adjustment layers. You can add a Curves, Levels, HSL, Black and White, Gradient Map, or Channel Mixer adjustment without permanently altering your image. Each adjustment layer also has its own mask, so you can paint adjustments onto specific areas.
To add an adjustment layer, click the Adjustments icon in the bottom of the Layers panel and select the type you want. The adjustment appears as a new layer in your stack, and you can double-click it at any time to modify the settings.
Healing Brush and Clone Brush
The Healing Brush samples texture from a source area and blends it seamlessly into the target area, automatically matching lighting and color. It is perfect for removing blemishes, sensor dust spots, and small distractions.
The Clone Brush copies pixels exactly from the source to the target. It is more useful for areas where you need precise control over what replaces the removed element, such as cloning out a person from a busy street scene.
Selection Tools
Affinity Photo offers all the standard selection tools (marquee, lasso, polygon lasso, magic wand), plus a Selection Brush that lets you paint a selection by brushing over the area you want to select. The Refine Selection dialog provides edge-detection refinement for complex selections like hair and foliage.
Frequency Separation
For portrait photographers, Affinity Photo includes a built-in frequency separation workflow. This technique separates texture (high frequency) from color and tone (low frequency) onto different layers, allowing you to smooth skin without destroying pore detail. Check out our dedicated guide to frequency separation for a deeper dive into this technique.
Focus Stacking
If you shoot macro or landscape with a narrow depth of field, Affinity Photo can merge a focus stack automatically. Go to File, then New Focus Merge, select your bracketed images, and the software aligns them and composites the sharpest areas into a single image. The results are competitive with dedicated stacking software.
HDR Merge
Similarly, you can merge bracketed exposures into an HDR file via File and then New HDR Merge. The Tone Mapping Persona then lets you map the expanded dynamic range into a final image. Ghost removal handles moving elements between frames (waves, clouds, people).
Panorama Stitching
File and then New Panorama lets you stitch multiple overlapping frames into a panoramic image. The algorithm handles perspective, cylindrical, and spherical projections, and the output is surprisingly clean even with handheld captures.
Affinity Photo vs Photoshop: Key Differences
If you are coming from Photoshop, here is what to expect.
Where Affinity Matches or Beats Photoshop
Layer support, including adjustment layers, live filters, and blend modes, is virtually identical. RAW processing is excellent and often faster to launch than Adobe Camera Raw. Performance is generally snappier, especially on older hardware. Focus stacking, HDR merge, and panorama stitching are all built in (no separate Lightroom needed). PSD file compatibility is very good for importing existing Photoshop files.
Where Photoshop Still Leads
Content-Aware Fill and Generative Fill are more advanced in Photoshop (Affinity's AI tools require Canva Pro). Actions and batch processing are more powerful in Photoshop. Third-party plugin ecosystem is larger for Photoshop. No cataloging or asset management (you will need a separate tool like Adobe Bridge, Photo Mechanic, or your OS file browser).
The Elephant in the Room: No Lightroom Equivalent
Affinity Photo's biggest gap for photographers is the lack of a catalog and library management system. There is no equivalent to Lightroom's Library module. You cannot tag, rate, or organize photos within Affinity. You will need a separate tool for that job.
Options include Capture One (subscription or perpetual license), darktable (free and open source), Photo Mechanic (one-time purchase), or simply organizing files in folders on your hard drive.
Tips for Getting the Most Out of Affinity Photo
Learn the Keyboard Shortcuts
Affinity Photo uses many of the same keyboard shortcuts as Photoshop (Ctrl/Cmd+Z for undo, B for brush, V for move), but there are differences. Spend 15 minutes reviewing the shortcut list in Edit and then Preferences and then Keyboard Shortcuts. You can also import a Photoshop-compatible shortcut preset.
Use Live Filters Instead of Destructive Filters
Whenever possible, apply filters as Live Filters rather than directly to the pixel layer. Live Filters behave like adjustment layers: they are non-destructive, editable, and can be toggled on and off. Right-click a layer, select Live Filter Layer, and choose your filter.
Save Your Workspace
Affinity lets you customize which panels are visible and where they are positioned. Once you have a layout you like, save it via View and then Studio and then Save to quickly return to your preferred setup.
Use Macros for Repetitive Tasks
Affinity's Macro feature records a sequence of actions (similar to Photoshop Actions) that you can replay on other images. If you apply the same set of adjustments to every photo (base Curves adjustment, sharpening, noise reduction), record it once and apply it with a single click.
Export for Web and Print Separately
Use the Export Persona to set up separate export presets for web (sRGB, JPEG, 2048px long edge) and print (Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB, TIFF, full resolution). Switching between them is instant.
Who Should Use Affinity Photo?
Affinity Photo is an excellent choice for hobbyist and enthusiast photographers who want professional editing tools without a monthly subscription. It is also a strong option for professionals who already have a catalog management workflow (through Capture One, darktable, or file-based organization) and want a capable pixel editor.
It is less ideal for photographers who rely heavily on the Adobe ecosystem (Lightroom catalog, Creative Cloud libraries, Photoshop plugins) or who need AI-powered editing features without a Canva Pro subscription.
The fact that the core editing suite is now completely free makes it worth trying for anyone, even Photoshop subscribers. Download it, spend an afternoon with the Develop Persona and Photo Persona, and see if it fits your workflow. You have nothing to lose.
Recommended Resources
If you want to dive deeper into photo editing techniques that work in Affinity Photo (and any other editor), check out these ExifGrabber guides:
- How to Color Grade Photos (the principles apply across all editors)
- How to Edit Portraits (core retouching concepts)
- How to Create HDR Photos (bracketing and merging workflow)
- How to Dodge and Burn Portraits (technique overview)
- Focus Stacking for Landscape Photography (depth-of-field control)
Affinity Photo handles all of these techniques with tools that are functionally equivalent to what you will find in Photoshop or Lightroom. The interface is different, but the underlying concepts are identical.