The Aphera Method
Most photo editors give you more controls and call it power. We think power is knowing what to leave out. Aphera is built around three steps that get almost every photo right, plus a deeper mode for the few photos that need it. These are the ideas we built the app around, and how we think you should work.
01 Cull
First, find what’s good.
Look at an image and decide if it's worth keeping. Like it? Hit 1 to give it a star. Find everything you’ve marked in the Starred view to focus on the good stuff.
Use star ratings 2–5 to mark better images. Need to be even more organized? Collecting into groups should do it.
| 1–5 | Set a star rating |
| Option+Delete | Reject (soft delete) |
| ← → | Move between images |
| Space | View |
| Escape | Grid |
| Ctrl+S | Starred |
| B | Collect into a group |
02 Balance
Give each photo its best start.
Place your left hand pinkie on the A key, index finger on the F key (home row).¹ From here you can reach the primary adjustment tools we call Balance.
Balance on RAW files is photometric: it adjusts the light the camera recorded, as if you'd changed it at capture. Let your eyes tell you what feels good; there's no right answer.
| Q A | Exposure |
| W S | Temperature |
| E D | Tint |
| R F | Contrast |
| T G | Shadows |
| Y H | Highlights |
| U J | Saturation |
| , . | Surround Color |
| \ | Show the image before edits |
¹ Keys follow their position on the keyboard, so other keyboard layouts are supported.
See Balance →03 Looks
Give it some style.
Looks give your image character. Like a film stock, each look changes how color and tone shape the photo. Start with one image, and find a look that feels good, then apply it to every image in the shoot.
Choosing a look doesn't affect Balance — that was adjusting the capture itself. Want to change it now? Use the Balance keys to push the image around at any time.
Want something totally different? You can always modify our looks or build one from scratch.
| Cmd+1–Cmd+9 | Built-in looks |
| Cmd+0 | Base Look (default rendering) |
| [ ] | Previous / Next look |
| \ | Show the image before edits |
Most of a shoot ends with a few passes through these steps. Cull, Balance, and Look — for most photos, that's the whole edit.
Some need more — the images going to a client, the ones you can't leave alone.
04 Develop
When an image needs that extra something.
Some photos are worth more time. Press Return and Develop opens the full Image Pipeline around that single image. The same tools you were already using, now exposed for detailed editing.
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Scopes
Histogram, Waveform, and Color scopes. Precision tools to understand the image.
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Image Formation
Bring the RAW to life with Aphera 2499, or use your own .cube LUTs, with log and gamut inputs from ARRI, RED, Sony, Canon, Fujifilm, Panasonic, Apple, and DaVinci, plus ACES.
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Effects Layers
The image pipeline is made up of layers, each of which changes the character of the image. Add as many as you like, stack them, re-order them.
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Film Response
12 base curves, from Cinema Negative and Classic Print to Instant Film and Strong B&W, plus split toning.
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Color Controls
A dedicated skin-tone control, plus independent hue, saturation, and luminance for red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta.
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Texture & Effects
Grain, halation, diffusion, frequency-aware sharpening, and optical or print-style vignetting.
Want the full list instead? See every control in the Features reference.