Top Plugins and Extensions for Affinity Photo

If you use Affinity Photo regularly, you know the base tools are powerful but the ecosystem is different from Adobe’s. You cannot just install a Photoshop automation panel and expect it to work.

However, Affinity Photo does support a specific architecture of plugins—primarily .8bf filters—and has its own robust system for extensions via Macros. The right combination allows you to bridge the gap between a standalone editor and a professional production pipeline.

Here is what actually works in 2024 and 2025.

1/ Comprehensive Styling Suites

Nik Collection (by DxO)

A legendary suite of eight plugins that covers everything from advanced black-and-white conversion to color grading and geometric correction.

Why it matters: It provides industry-standard color science that Affinity’s native adjustments can take hours to replicate manually. The "U Point" technology allows for local adjustments without complex masking.

Best for: Final styling of architectural renders and emotive black-and-white photography.

Technical Note: Ensure you enable "Allow Unknown Plugins" in Affinity’s preferences. Some recent versions (Nik 6.3+) have specific compatibility updates for Affinity Photo 2.

ON1 Effects

A massive library of stackable filters, LUTs, and textures that functions as a standalone plugin within Affinity.

Why it matters: Unlike simple overlay packs, ON1 allows you to stack non-destructive effects inside its own interface before baking them back into your Affinity layer. It is often more stable than Nik on newer silicon Macs.

Best for: Rapidly testing different "moods" or atmospheres for a client presentation.

2/ AI Restoration and Cleanup

Topaz Photo AI

An all-in-one AI plugin that handles sharpening, noise reduction, and upscaling in a single pass.

Why it matters: Rendering engines often leave noise in low-light areas, or you might need to crop a 4K render significantly. Topaz recovers detail that simply isn’t there in the original pixels, saving you from re-rendering at higher resolutions.

Best for: Fixing grainy night renders or upscaling low-res client assets.

Retouch4me

A suite of AI plugins specifically designed to automate tedious retouching tasks like cleaning background dirt, skin retouching, or color matching.

Why it matters: It automates the "boring" 80% of post-production. For architects and designers, the "Clean Backdrop" or "Color Match" plugins can instantly unify a composite image without manual cloning.

Best for: High-volume editing where manual cleanup is a bottleneck.

3/ Lighting and Atmosphere

Luminar Neo

While a standalone editor, it functions effectively as a plugin for Affinity Photo, bringing unique AI relighting tools.

Why it matters: The "Relight AI" feature creates a 3D depth map of your 2D image, allowing you to adjust lighting in the foreground separately from the background. This is incredibly difficult to do manually in Affinity without depth passes.

Best for: adjusting the lighting balance of an interior shot after the rendering is finished.

Boris FX Optics

A cinematic lighting and lens flare engine used in the film industry, adapted for photo editing.

Why it matters: It generates physically accurate lens flares, volumetric light rays, and gobo patterns. Unlike a static JPEG overlay, these are procedural effects that interact with your image's highlights.

Best for: Adding "Hollywood" polish or dramatic lighting effects to exterior architectural shots.

4/ Textures and Artistic Generation

Filter Forge

A node-based texture generator that allows you to create or download thousands of procedural effects and textures.

Why it matters: It gives you access to a massive library of seamless textures (wood, metal, stone) that can be generated at any resolution. It solves the "low-res texture" problem in post-production.

Best for: Generating seamless textures for 3D mapping or applying painterly effects to concept art.

G’MIC (Windows Only)

An open-source framework containing over 500 configurable filters.

Why it matters: It offers specific restoration and artistic filters that commercial plugins ignore. While the interface is utilitarian, the "Dream Smoothing" and specialized noise reduction algorithms are unique.

Best for: Experimental visual styles and technical image repair on Windows workstations.

5/ Native Workflow Automation (Macros)

Since Affinity Photo does not support HTML/CEP panels like Photoshop, "Macros" are the only way to build custom workflow extensions.

JR Custom Macros (or similar Library Macros)

You can record complex, multi-step operations (like "Frequency Separation setup" or "Export for Web with Watermark") and save them to the Library panel.

Why it matters: This is how you build your own "plugins." By recording a macro for your standard render setup (e.g., Duplicate Layer > High Pass Filter > Set Overlay Mode), you turn a 2-minute task into a 1-second click.

Best for: Repetitive technical tasks that you do on every single project.

Choosing what fits your work

Not every plugin makes sense for every project. The Affinity ecosystem requires a bit more manual curation than Adobe’s.

• If you do heavy styling: Get Nik Collection.

• If you fix bad inputs: Get Topaz Photo AI.

• If you need speed: Build your own Macros for free.

Start with the one tool that solves your biggest time-sink.

Bonus: Speed up rendering without leaving your workflow

If rendering is your bottleneck, Rendair handles visualization faster than most plugins can process.

Upload your Affinity Photo exports or rough sketches, and get presentation-ready renders in minutes. No new software to learn, no render farm setup.

Start creating – try it free