STEP BY STEP RAW TRICKS FOR PORTRAITS

Boost portrait colours, add a vignette and enhance the eyes with simple edits

01 CLASSIC S-CURVE

Go to the Develop Persona. Go to the Curves panel and plot an S-shaped curve to boost contrast and saturation. Sometimes it’s worth reducing the contrast using the Contrast slider, then adding it with an S-curve instead. This gives you a finer degree of control over shadows and highlights.

02 BOOST THE EYES

The Overlay tools allow you to paint over areas to make local adjustments. A subtle boost to the eyes can be very effective. Go to the Overlay panel and click on the brush then paint over the iris. Go to the Basic Panel and increase saturation and contrast. Repeat to lighten the whites of the eyes slightly.

03 EXPERIMENT WITH CURVES

You can get all kinds of creative colour effects by experimenting with the curves channels. Go to the Curves Panel and change the dropdown from Master to Red, Green or Blue. Drag the top right and bottom left points inwards or up/down to introduce colour shifts to the shadows or highlights in the image.

04 ADD A VIGNETTE

Portraits will often benefit from a vignette. First darken the image by reducing Exposure, and if you like drag the White Balance Temperature slider left to skew colours. Next grab the Gradient Overlay tool, set mode to Radial and drag out from the face to make an overlay, then increase Exposure to lift the face.

05 CLARITY REDUCTION

The Clarity setting can often look a little heavy, so try reducing it for a softer feel and act more kindly over skin. To remove spots or marks on the skin, grab the Blemish Removal tool. Use the ] and [ keys to resize the brush tip. Click over a mark, then if necessary drag the sample point to a clean area of skin nearby.

06 OPEN INTO THE PHOTO PERSONA

The RAW tools in Affinity Photo are basic compared with what can be done in the main Photo Persona. So once you have taken the RAW image as far as you can, click the Develop button at top left. If you like, you can try out the free LUT presets supplied in the project files (see right for our guide).