Looks

A Look is a saved style: applying one gives a photo a complete rendering in a single step, the way choosing a film stock sets the character. Looks are found on the left side in Develop mode, and on the right in Grid and View modes.

Every new project includes a set of built-in looks, with the first five assigned to the shortcut keys 6–0. These looks are great starting points that you can use immediately.

What’s in a Look?

A look stores the Image Formation and effect layers. Conversely, Balance, Crop, and Input settings belong to each photo and are not part of a look: applying a look never changes those adjustments.

Photos reference the look rather than holding a copy. That means updating a look changes every photo that uses it; see Image Stack for saving and updating looks.

Applying a Look

Click a look in the panel to apply it to the current photo. Selecting a look sets the photo’s formation and layer configuration to match the look’s settings.

Clicking the currently applied look again (or selecting “None”) removes the look, clearing the formation.

Modifying a Look

A look’s layers can be opened for editing in Develop. In the Editing Layers stack, the applied look appears as a Look: name row — hover or expand it and click Modify to unpack the look’s layers into the stack. The edits belong to the photo, and the panel shows the look as “modified”; the look itself is unchanged.

To make the changes part of the look, use Save Look → Update “name” in the Editing Layers header. Because photos reference looks, updating changes every photo that uses it — Aphera warns you first when other photos are affected. Choose Create a new look instead to leave the original alone. See Image Stack.

The built-in looks are ordinary looks: modify, rename, or remove them as you like. Changes stay within the project; every new project starts with the full set again.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Looks can be assigned to shortcut keys. Pressing the key toggles that look on the current selection.

Assigning Shortcuts

The Looks panel shows a numbered slot for each shortcut key; looks without a shortcut are listed under More Looks. To assign a look to a key:

• Drag a look onto a numbered slot, or
• Right-click a look under More Looks and choose Set Shortcut.

Assigning a key that is already in use swaps the two shortcuts. To clear a slot, right-click it and choose Unset Shortcut.

Managing Looks

Right-click a look in the panel for its management commands:

• Rename — edit the look’s name inline.
• Set Shortcut — assign the look to a shortcut key. See Assigning Shortcuts above.
• Remove — removes the look from the project.
• Export Look… — exports the look to a file.

Drag looks within More Looks to reorder them.

New looks are created by saving the current editing layers: use the Save Look menu in Develop. See Image Stack.

Importing and Exporting Looks

Looks can be imported via File > Import Looks…, or by dragging .apheralook files into the looks panel. Imported looks are added to the current project.

To export a look, right-click it and choose “Export Look…” from the context menu.