Mid-March. Half rain, half snow, some sleet. Four AM. A cold wind steady out of the north. Not the best time to be outside. But a great time to take photos of empty city streets, where usually they are choked by cars and people.

Affinity photo is a new alternative to the ubiquitous Photoshop from Adobe. It offers all the basics you might need for most photo processing, but it also offers some very nice extras, including an ability to stitch panoramas and to produce HDR images. How well does it work?