Image editing for book bloggers with Affinity Photo version 2

Advertisement – Almost six years ago I already introduced Affinity Photo. Since version 2 of all programs in the Affinity Suite was released not too long ago, I’d like to take the opportunity to present this photo-editing software anew. The Affinity Suite has served me very well for years and I wouldn’t want to miss any of the programs. Affinity Photo is especially interesting for book bloggers, because it does everything a blogger needs and is truly affordable—nothing like Adobe’s overpriced products. Plus, all Affinity programs are available as a one-time purchase; no expensive subscription needed. In this post, you’ll find out why Affinity Photo is so valuable for this blog.

Right up front: I’m marking this post as advertising—not because anyone paid me, but because there might be a lot of praise and I’d rather be safe than sorry about disclosure. I haven’t sold my soul for this post; the tools are simply good and recommendable, and I use them very often and with pleasure. And of course it’s no surprise that a software developer gets excited about beautiful, well-made software.

When I first started blogging, I tested the waters cautiously, used a free theme, and didn’t include photos. I only placed the cover and key data at the top of my posts. Once I realized how much fun it is to blog about books, I invested more time, bought a high-quality theme, and started adding photos to my posts. The difference was striking: a clean, professional layout and attractive photos quickly led to a noticeable increase in visitors. By now, pictures of beautiful books are simply part of it for me; they spark a desire for literature and fine editions and give an important glimpse into the book’s physical features beyond its content. The photos straight out of the camera are rarely perfect—especially since I don’t have professional equipment. Post-processing is therefore essential.

Affinity Photo was a colleague’s tip many years ago. Back then I was still wrestling with GIMP, which is simply painful from a usability perspective. Affinity now offers three programs: Affinity Photo for photo editing (that’s the focus of this post), Affinity Designer, an Illustrator-style vector tool, and Affinity Publisher, a desktop publishing application. With version 2 there’s now a complete package for €199.99. You get a license for all three programs on all platforms (Windows, macOS, and iPad). As an introductory offer, the suite was available for a while for €119.99. If you’re a bit patient, you’ll likely see the bundle on sale again during the year for around €100. If you know Adobe’s inflated prices and their subscription model (which hardly anyone wants), you’ll recognize what a knockout price this is. You can also buy the programs individually, but I have the suite because I regularly need all three tools. For me, Affinity is the equivalent of Microsoft Office and has become part of my standard setup. I’ll show what you can do with Affinity Publisher in one of my next posts—I’ve “pimped” one of my books again, and an easy-to-use DTP tool is perfect for that.

For Lesestunden it’s important to me to show the book itself because I love high-quality editions and want to share my enthusiasm for bibliophile books. I use my Canon EOS RP, which takes really good photos. But most of the time this happens on the fly and under so-so conditions—quickly on the terrace, in front of the garden shed, or on the kids’ bench in the yard. I don’t shoot enough to justify investing in professional gear with bright diffuser lights and the like. Editing has to make up for that—and it does, very well.

Here’s what that looks like in practice. I have a beautiful unique edition of The Count of Monte Cristo. The photo was taken in front of the garden shed and is anything but presentable.

For one thing, the picture is crooked. Then, of course, I wasn’t paying attention and there’s a big screw visible in the wooden board in the foreground. The colors are pale and the image isn’t crisp and sharp the way it should be. There’s also a damp spot in the foreground, and the framing is far from ideal.

The improvements are almost always the same, and I probably use only a small portion of Affinity Photo’s functionality. Straighten the image, choose a crop so the book sits nicely centered, and reduce the resolution—those are the first steps. Then increase brightness and contrast. Slightly overdoing brightness often looks quite nice, too. I usually apply a sharpening filter so the photo appears nice and crisp. The screw you see in the picture is stamped out in just a few clicks with the clone tool. Things like that are rare, though. The result looks like this:

Learning the necessary steps isn’t hard. You can discover a lot just by clicking around in Affinity Photo. There are also plenty of guides and tips online. I sometimes use masks as well—these have always been extremely helpful in Adobe Photoshop and are, for me, an essential feature. With a brush, you can mark areas where a filter should apply. That way, you can compensate for side light quite well, or selectively boost color—say, when a book is lying amid greenery and you want the green to pop while the book retains its original color (here’s an example where I did that with The Fox and the Star).

Affinity Photo’s interface is tidy. On the right you see the layers, where you can add filters and toggle them on and off. I find the history panel essential—it lets you undo changes quickly. The sharpening filters are accessible via the menu bar. On the left is the toolbar with tools for cropping and the clone stamp, among others. Beginners shouldn’t be put off; it’s best to experiment a bit and explore the individual functions. As mentioned, you certainly don’t need to use the full spectrum of features to achieve excellent results.

I can only recommend Affinity Photo and the Affinity Suite. For a truly fair price you get a complete graphics suite that leaves nothing to be desired. For book blogging, Affinity Photo is an excellent tool for preparing photos beautifully for posts. I also use the software beyond blogging—for software development (think Android resources, website elements, etc.), for editing family photos, for designing my own stickers, and, most recently, with Affinity Publisher to spruce up one of my books. I’ll tell you more about that in one of my next posts.

What software do you use? Do you know and use the Affinity tools already? Or do you rely on other helpful alternatives?