Essential Affinity 3

Forget trying to learn every tool. Master the essential 5% that produces 95% of your photo editing results.

Affinity 3 is one of the most powerful photo editing applications available. But for many new users, it can also feel overwhelming. With so many tools, panels, filters, features and adjustments available, it's difficult to know where to begin or which techniques really matter.

Essential Affinity 3 takes a different approach. Rather than trying to teach everything, it strips away the complexity and focuses on the essential 5% of tools and techniques that produce 95% of the results.

Instead of trying to memorise dozens of tools and features in isolation, you'll learn the essential ones by using them to complete a real editing project from start to finish.

Beginning with a RAW file, which you can download from the author's website, you'll follow every step of the editing process alongside the book. You'll make every adjustment yourself, see why it's being made, and understand how every change contributes to the finished image.

By the end of the project, you'll have transformed the original RAW photograph into two high-quality finished images: one in colour and one in black and white. More importantly, you'll understand why each adjustment is made, giving you the confidence to edit your own photographs instead of simply following step-by-step recipes.

Along the way you'll learn how to:

•Develop and prepare RAW photographs for editing—and, just as importantly, know when to stop
•Work confidently with Affinity 3's workspace and customise it to suit the way you work
•Build a completely non-destructive editing workflow you can apply to every photograph you edit
•Improve tone, colour and contrast to create more compelling images
•Remove distractions, repair imperfections and even reposition objects
•Make precise local adjustments using selections and masks
•Create dynamic and expressive black and white photographs
•Sharpen, finish and export your completed images

Because every technique is introduced exactly when it's needed during a real edit, you'll build practical skills that are easy to understand, remember and apply. Instead of trying to memorise individual tools, you'll learn the way we all learn best: by doing.

Perhaps the greatest benefit is that you'll be building your editing skills on solid foundations. The techniques in this book do more than teach you how to edit a single photograph; they provide an approach you can apply to every image you edit afterwards. By using proven, non-destructive techniques from the very beginning, you'll develop good editing habits that will continue to serve you as your skills grow, without having to unlearn poor habits later.