maspick

Here's my first creation in Photo:
 

This build has been superseded by the release of 1.7.1 announced here
We are pleased to announce a major update for the Windows release of Affinity Photo, version 1.7.0
The changes in Affinity Photo for Windows 1.7.0 over the last Affinity Photo patch 1.6.5 (1.6.5 PK) are as follows:
CHANGES SINCE LAST VERSION
EDR
Added support for EDR displays to Photo. When editing a 32bit document. Brushes
Photo 1.7 introduces a new “sub-brush” mechanism, developed in conjunction with Paolo Limoncelli (DAUB® Brushes). This exciting feature allows any brush to have a list of other brushes attached which will draw at the same time. Each sub-brush has a fully separate and customisable set of dynamics. You can control when the sub-brushes are drawn and how they blend with the main brush. The brush engine in Photo has been improved. Symmetry (up to 32-way) is now supported - including on-canvas controls and optional mirroring. Wet edges and accumulation are now available on colour brushes and brushes with HSL variance. Brushes with multiple nozzle textures have always chosen the nozzle at random. In 1.7, the nozzle choice has a dynamic controller and ramp for greater control. All brush tools now support left and right arrow keys for rotation - a common feature request. Fixed ABR brush import (would ignore "random" controllers). RAW
The RAW processing engine in Photo has been rewritten - producing better results and improved performance. RAW files now load much more quickly. Reimplemented support for XTrans sensors. The denoise algorithm has been rewritten. It produces better results and takes advantage of the new GPU architecture. Hot pixel removal is now automatically performed by the Serif Labs engine. Profiled lens correction are more stable, apply more quickly, and can be toggled in the Develop UI. The histogram in the Develop persona is now presented in the output colour space - as opposed to always being linear. Develop now respects the output profile when previewing. Show which autofocus rectangles were in focus and which were selected by the camera (yellow, green respectively). A large number of new cameras are supported for RAW development (we will provide a list of the new supported cameras as soon as possible!). Filters
New “Procedural Texture” filter with advanced presets support. New “Voronoi” filter. Denoise, Clarity and Shadows / Highlights filters have been rewritten (using technology from the Develop Persona). More filters are now available as Live Filters - including the new Procedural Texture filter. Live filters have been rewritten to improve performance - especially when multiple filters are used in a document. Improved Polar to Rectangular and Rectangular to Polar filters. Added round dot type to the halftone filter. New “Lens Correction” filter - apply lens correction from the built-in lens database. Bilateral blur accuracy improvements. Adjustments
The HSL adjustment layer has been rewritten. It now supports custom hue ranges, a new algorithm, new UI and picker controls. The Levels adjustment layer now supports output levels - a common feature request. The White Balance adjustment layer has been rewritten. The Selective Colour adjustment layer has been rewritten. PSD import / export of adjustments has been improved. The Vibrance adjustment layer has been rewritten. The Recolour adjustment layer has gained a lightness slider. Layers
Layers Panel - added option for transparent background for thumbnails. Layers Panel - added multiple thumbnail size options. Layers Panel- added ability to tag layers with a colour - including PSD round-trip. Allow adding an empty group from the Layer menu. New “Duplicate Selection” item in Layer menu (old behaviour). Duplicate now duplicate the whole layer ignoring pixel selection. Alt / Option is now used to make a pixel selection from layer luminance. You can now also hold shift to add the result to the current selection. Hide / Show / Show All Layers options in layers menu. Ability to either rasterise or rasterise and trim a layer. Previously recorded macros will trim. Selections
Significant improvements to selection refinement. When using selection tools with no pixel selection, default to New / Add as appropriate. Added “Alpha Similarity” to Select Sampled Colour tool. Tools
Grouped tool shortcuts now default to needing the shift key held to cycle (option in preferences). The Crop tool has been rewritten - it now supports resolution changes, absolute pixel size and has a much improved preset mechanism. The Sponge Brush tool now gives more correct / pleasant results. Allow brush rotate / size key changes while dragging. Added a “Reveal Canvas” checkbox to the crop tool - defaults to off. Added new “Transform object separately” mode into Move tool. A general tools overhaul has been performed - providing editing of grids, guides, page origin, across multiple tools (not just in the Move tool) Patch tool now supports arrow keys for rotate / scale. All brush tools can now be axis constrained once brush has started - not just the pixel tool. History
“Alternate futures” for document history have been added. Traditionally, if you roll back the undo history then do something else all your changes after that point are lost. Photo will now display a small branch icon in the history tab when you do this. Pressing that button will cycle between all the different “futures” after that history entry - meaning you will never lose work you have done. The History page now has an “advanced” mode - which shows thumbnails and time info. I/O
HEIF images can now be loaded directly into Photo. If they contain a depth map, this will also be loaded as a second layer. Because depth maps are typically lower resolution than the main image, optional “smart” upsampling will be performed. TIFF export now has user selectable compression method. Added support for 12bit TIFF files. Introduced new metadata mining - completely rewritten to improve performance, flexibility and correctness. Metadata is now dynamically synchronised with your document - so if you resize then export, the values will be correct. Added Focal Length to metadata summary view. Added a button in general preferences to open a folder from which Photo will read LensFun-style XML files - if users wish to add / experiment with their own lens profiles. Support 16bit CMYK TIFF import. General
New ability to control how macros are scaled / aligned when playing back. Added an “Assets” panel to Photo. New cube setup mode for grids. Add “Fill with Primary / Secondary” to the Edit menu for fast access. The batch process dialog now fully supports expressions for height and width - available constants are “w”, “h” and “dpi”. “Lock guides” added to menus. Support for drag dropping .afstyles into Photo. Support for drag dropping .afpalette into Photo. Photo now supports custom document presets - a popular feature request. A new blend mode - Linear Burn - has been added. New “Move inside / outside” commands have been added - useful for quick operations on clipping masks etc. The Hard Mix blend mode has been improved. New provider options have been added to the stock panel - support for Unsplash, Pexels and Pixabay. All of these providers offer full-resolution stock imagery which is free to use. Numerous text improvements have been made - including new features. Significant stability improvements when working on non-local files (network shares, USB drives, etc.). Significant PDF import / export improvements and fixes. Huge macro and batch processing improvements. New welcome screen layout and all new samples.  Numerous other bug fixes - too many to list! This thread is for commenting on this announcement. Please do not post bugs or problems that you find when using this version of the software in this thread, instead make a new thread in the Photo Bugs on Windows section and questions about usage go in the Desktop Questions forum.
UPDATING TO THIS VERSION (Free for existing customers)
For purchases from the Affinity Store the software: Each time you start the software it will check for updates and offer any available update, or it can be downloaded from here. The new build will install over the top of any earlier version, with no need to uninstall. Alternatively you can log into the affinity store here and find the order in your account and use the download button in there.
For purchases from the Microsoft Store: These are done automatically by the operating system (next time you start the application)

Cindy -
In order for a focus merge to work well, it's important to frame your subject and then focus in closer and closer with each shot.  Focusing on separate aspects of your subject will prevent the software from successfully merging the images for you, forcing you to merge them manually.  In order for the panorama stitching to work, there must be enough overlap of the images for the software to figure out what fits where.  Using a tripod improves your odds with both panos and stacks, helping the software align the images properly.
You would be better off to find a means of shielding your subject from wind and then framing the subject to fit and take progressively closer images.

@dmstraker All good points. I think if Affinity Photo was a bit faster and had, as you say, better plugin support (I really need it to work with DFX), then it would be better then PS for sure. Regarding RAW editing, the new DXO Photolab is the best IMO. They have the best noise reduction technology period. And they have the best lens/camera profiles. Then for DAMS... we're dammed. LR is OK but too slow. If Affinity developed one with the same sexy interface and complete metadata support that'd be amazing.

If you don't happen to live in the UK, you can click this link:  http://www.dxo.com/us/practicalphotography
My understanding is that this is a totally free copy of DxO Optics Pro version 11 (which is the current version), but is not the Elite version (which offers better noise reduction and some other features). A post on the DxO forum suggested that this may be a "loss leader" in anticipation of a soon-to-be-released version 12. That is evidently speculative, though.
I am currently using DxO Optics Pro 11 as my raw developer (the Elite edition, though) and I find it easy to use, and quite good at its job.

Yeah, but as Steven Wright said, "It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it!" d;¬{D

maspick, I just followed my thoughts where they went. Sometimes they go too far! I do like the image though.
I had the idea that some kind of mining craft coming - just over the horizon - between the planet and Earth might look good but then I decided that I prefer it as it is.
Its sometimes better left to the viewer to think about what's happening. (Unless they take those thoughts a bit too far as I did.)

Like the Jupiter-like spots in the swirleys. Interesting work, enjoyable!

Great background star field and gas clouds! The big light-green one on the right is perfect! Thanks for sharing.

Latest Photo creation:

Here's my first creation in Photo:
 

I like it

Hey maspick! Davenport, IA here also!!! It's a small world, that's for sure...

Here's my first creation in Photo: