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. The Looks panel sits on the left 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 nine assigned to the shortcut keys Cmd+1-Cmd+9; see Keyboard Settings if yours are on different keys. 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 Pipeline 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.

Selecting Base removes the look, clearing the formation.

Modifying a Look

A look’s layers can be opened for editing in Develop. In the Effects 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 Effects Layers header. Because photos reference looks, updating changes every photo that uses it — Aphera warns you first when other photos are affected. Choose New Look… instead to leave the original alone. See Image Pipeline.

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 applies that look to the current selection.

You choose which keys map to looks, and how many looks are keyboard-assignable; see Keyboard Settings.

Assigning Shortcuts

The Looks panel lists the keyboard-assignable looks in numbered positions, one per shortcut key; looks without a shortcut appear under More Looks. To assign a look to a key:

• Drag a look onto a numbered position, 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 free a key, right-click its look 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.

Create a look by saving the current editing layers: use the Save Look menu in Develop. See Image Pipeline.

Importing and Exporting Looks

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

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