Canva, the new owner of Affinity, launches Canva ProSuite – so what’s new for photographers?

These are somewhat confusing times for Affinity Photo users. First, Canva acquires Affinity and rolls the three desktop apps (Photo, Designer, Publisher) into one and second, Canva starts the integration of Affinity with its powerful and extensive web-based AI-powered design tools. Affinity Photo has become a small cog in a very big machine, so does it still have enough to tempt photographers?

But don’t worry, because Affinity Photo is very much as it was, though it now lives in the ‘Pixel Studio’ within the Affinity Desktop application. A few things have moved around, but if you already know Affinity Photo it won’t take you long to find them.

Even better, Affinity is still a free download. You’ll need to sign up for a Canva subscription, but there’s a free tier that includes the Affinity download. There are some features which will need a paid Canva plan, including a new SDR to HDR (standard dynamic range to high dynamic range) conversion tool that uses AI to generate realistic extended highlight and shadow detail. We can probably expect to see more paid plan features in the future.

So what’s new in the latest Affinity update? The are over 100 new features across the whole Canva ProSuite for designers, animators and illustrators generally, but here are some of the new features of interest to photographers specifically:

• Improved RAW processing with global presets, more detail refinement options and what looks (to me at least) better out-of-the-box RAW processing and automatic lens profile corrections.
• The Object Selection tool uses a single click or a marquee to select objects and now has Border and Ramp options to control how the mask edges blend with their surroundings.
• You can now Duplicate and Invert masks in the Develop Studio and colour-based adjustments have been added to the Tone Panel
• There’s a new spline-based Saturation/Hue Curves adjustment layer which offers curves-style adjustments that go beyond relatively crude HSL adjustments, though it’s a more complex process.
• You now get colour-picker eyedroppers for Curves adjustments for one-click black point, white point and grey point setting, plus white balance. Remember the eyedroppers in Photoshop’s Levels panel? It’s like that.
• There’s a whole new dedicated Astrophotography Studio workspace that offers Star and background separation, automatic background removal, structure enhancement, and colour calibration. Also a Remove Background filter, Astro Stretch Tool, and Wavelet Denoise Tool and Plate Solving panel – plus astro stacking improvements.

There are other improvements too, but these seemed to be the most significant. What hasn’t changed is that Affinity retains its deeply technical slant. You can use it on a superficial level, but getting the best from it will require some learning.

Is it still a good Photoshop alternative? Absolutely. Affinity can do pretty much everything Photoshop can. But where Photoshop is widely accepted as an industry standard, and widely understood by countless photographers, colourists and artists, Affinity goes its own way. It also remains to be seen how it will evolve as its integration with the Canva suite deepens.