Note: Aurora HDR is currently only available for Mac computers but Macphun is working on a Windows version. Aurora HDR is their latest creation and was developed in collaboration with Trey Ratcliff, a renowned travel photographer who has contributed significantly to HDR’s popularity on the net. They started with iPhone apps and became popular with Mac software like Tonality. MacPhun is an American company that was founded in 2008 by two college friends who decided to design photography software. Update: our review of Aurora HDR 2017 is now online! So when Macphun asked me if I wanted to try their new HDR software, I thought it was worth taking the time to explore the app given its very reasonable price point. I’ve been impressed by Iridient Developer and I’ve also used Nik collection in the past (now owned by Google and available for free). Happily, my work for MirrorLessons has given me the opportunity to look at software from other brands. It’s not necessarily because I consider Adobe to be the best but rather because they have been part of my workflow for so many years. Since then, I’ve become so accustomed to Adobe products that I rarely feel the need to look at other software alternatives. That is to say, it feels so comfortable that after a little while you’re already making your own choices unlike others where you’re trying to learn the UI.Īll in all, Affinity Photo is a great product, feels fast, comfortable, and has all the tools to quickly start enhancing your photos.When I began editing photos and videos on my computer nearly 10 years ago, the first software I ever used was Adobe. I even throw a little of my own choice in Affinity Photo and tinted the shadows slightly purple. Since the former has everything there, you start getting lost touching here and there. Somehow the tools in the latter are more focused and lead you to a better overall workflow. While I could’ve spent more time perfecting the colorizing in Aurora HDR, this is what a total newbie got with it, just like in Affinity Photo. Affinity Photo can solve all these issues perfectly. Aurora HDR can bring the cloud details up quickly, but can’t remove the bush and fails to set color on the island in the center. You can see it could use some contrast and stronger colors, some areas are too dark, there’s a bush in the front, and lacks volume and details on clouds. The photo was taken with a Fujifilm X-T2 35mm f2 in Horseshoe bay in West Vancouver, while I was waiting for the Bowen island ferry. So, here’s the comparison from knowing zero to this on Aurora HDR and Affinity. My only concerns are that some operations seem to be too intensive on CPU and the MacBook Pro fan started going like crazy for a bit, and that sometimes adjustments lag for a millisecond on images like 6000 px wide. It has a dedicated UI to develop the photo, particularly interesting for RAW photos and another for tone mapping, very powerful, with more than enough options. It has layers, adjustment layers, layer styles so you can non-destructively edit the image. Its tools cover almost everything you would expect coming from Photoshop, selection, healing, brushes and more. It’s a very capable photo… editor? I guess it’s still an editor if you can transform the image, but for example, if you want to remove a wire, a bottle, or a bush in the photo, you have to buy a separate module called Snapheal for extra money.Īffinity Photo is a strong Photoshop alternative. The adjustments are nice and probably enough for many, but they don’t go too far.Īurora HDR, with a nice and wide array of adjustments applied to the overall image. Interesting software, however, the UI and the delay in re-render the image makes it hard to use.ĭxO OpticsPro, but actually I tested this “ essentials” completely free version. Much of the decision behind testing these were not to bow to Adobe and their ubiquitous Lightroom/Photoshop with the pay forever price model.Īlong with Affinity Photo and Aurora HDR, some of the photo editors I tested were: This is not a review, but rather, a side by side testing with Aurora HDR to see what I could achieve from knowing zero on both. It has a natural workflow and some nice intuitive tools to enhance images. I’ve been trying some photo editors recently, some free, others paid through the demo and I’m really liking Affinity Photo.
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