Anyone try or using Affinity Photo?

[Aaron Macomber]

SO I’ve been a CC holdout, I’m still using CS6 and LR5. Why? Because I OWN them. I was appalled at the move by adobe to move to the subscrition model and I still haven’t adopted it. I actually downloaded the 7 day trial of CC today and I officially hate it, and it doesnt want to let me uninstall it which makes me hate it even more. I generally loathe being forced to do anything. So, this has sent me scrambling to find an alternative, because as time goes on CS6 and LR5 have become buggy and unstable, and well Adobe has lost my love. Affinity photo looks pretty cool, is reasonably priced, and seems really easy to use. SO, anyone using it that came from Adobe that can shed light?

Also I used to think LR was pretty snazzy, and I now think its just ACR with an annoying way to catalog my photos SO, not going to miss that I dont think. I was an Aperture user before, so LR was a big upgrade from that hot mess.

 

[JimFox]

You know Aaron? I could have written what you wrote. Well minus the LR part, I don’t like LR.

I am driving home from Laguna Beach, so I can’t write, but I wanted to echo your thoughts.

 

[Aaron Macomber]

I dont like LR, I wasnt clear. I meant only to say that it is better than Aperture, which sets the bar extremely low.

I downloaded the trial, and watched a few tutorials. I’ve been making adjustments, blending, the “inpainting” tool for touchup/removal of elements/ cloning out is flat incredible. I LOVE IT!!!!!


Bye Adobe.

I am just going to Import all my files into Mac Photos, which sends 16-bit .tiff files to Affinity photo for editing. I absolutely love the way it works, and all for $39.99. Unbeatable.

 

[Aaron Macomber]

Also, the refine selection brush is amazing. This is going to save me so much time. I defintely recommend watching a few of the tutorial videos they offer up. #fanboy

 

[Zeph]

I've used affinity for a number of shots, been happy with the results, though I haven't done much, mostly basic RAW adjustments and clean up.Tools are straight forward and work as expected. I find it hard to switch between Photoshop and Affinity, as PS is very familiar. I haven't ported over and third party actions or other tools, I think one can.
I get CC license through my work so it pretty painless. To bad Apple gave Adobe all its market share...

 

[JimFox]

Hey Aaron, I have been busy wrapping things up for the end of the year and haven't checked out the link yet.

Does Affinity do Layers and Layer masking? That would probably be a deal breaker for me if they didn't as there isn't a photo I edit that I don't use a layer mask on.

I have the Nikon D850 on order, so once it comes in (whenever that is) I will definitely have to figure something out. I will probably just use the DNG converter to start with and just keep using CS6. I will be open to using something else, so thanks for bringing this up.

 

[Aaron Macomber]

It does, In fact it does it easier that PS in my opinion, and the brush types and settings are more accurate and intuitive for me. It also runs a lot faster and smoother than CS6. I played with it for probably three hours yesterday, and had already pretty much gotten it down. Its got a lot of really cool features, and for me PS doesnt hold a candle. If an app can be learned in 3 hours for someone whos used PS as long as I have, its intuitive. I watched the tutorial videos for: selection, layer masking, gradients, and one or two others that escape me at the moment. I see no reason for me that I will ever open PS or LR again. I already started importing my database into Mac Photos.

I’ve spent well over $1000+ on CS versions over the years (memory tells me the first full version I bought was $699), and Adobe put me out to the curb. I’ll keep reader, but I think everything else is going to get unistalled. I am considering adding a body this year too, and the D850 is a compelling reason to flop back over again, but I really like my Canon glass. I think I’ll get a 5DSR and then have the Ha conversion done on my 6D because I think its hard to imagine a better Astro body. The only thing I would worry about with the 5DSR is the shadow noise. Maybe the next iteration. Thats a lot of subjects in one answer lol. I’ve been up all night, so am a bit punchy Yay insomnia![/QUOTE]

The “inpainting” function, and the “refine edge” selection tool are astounding.

 

[JimFox]

Oh interesting, it does layers? Now you have my interest.

Yeah, its hard to swap bodies just because the switch of lenses makes it a pain. But.... I would highly recommend the D850...

 

[Kyle Jones]

I'm fine with Adobe CC, but for $40 I'm going to have to give Affinity a try.

I wouldn't worry about shadow noise with the 5DSR. Mine has been wonderful. The 6D is still better in my mind for high ISO, but the 5DSR has been much better for anything else

 

[Aaron Macomber]

I'm fine with Adobe CC, but for $40 I'm going to have to give Affinity a try.

I wouldn't worry about shadow noise with the 5DSR. Mine has been wonderful. The 6D is still better in my mind for high ISO, but the 5DSR has been much better for anything else

Thanks for the feedback on the 5DSR, I did read last night that Canon will be releasing the next iteration of it this year. Spose I’ll holdout for that

 

[Aaron Macomber]

I’ve been processing with Affinity, and still learning. There are a couple of things I’ve yet to figure out with it, but I just need to watch a few more tutorials, they prove very useful.

 

[Darcy Grizzle]

I am very interested in this thread as my LR as you say is buggy since updating to classic!

 

[lionking]

Just bought X-Rite Color Munki, which came with Affinity Lic, watched some tutorials, it looks better then PS, has all the features, some are working even better, the shortcuts seem to work the same, the only bummer for me is all the TK actions, unfortunately its not possible to use in Affinity , they have their own Macro Editor (instead of Actions in PS ), the pricing model is much friendlier, its good to have some competition for a change in market dominated buy one huge company...

 

[Ryan10]

Well...I've only ever used Lightroom and Photoshop. The last year has mainly been Photoshop for editing and Lightroom for cataloging. I'll do some edits in LR, but that's just because I don't have a workflow nailed down yet. I tend to have a few beers while editing, so I'll start with some simple edits in LR and then tell myself, "crap, just bring into Photoshop" and finish it. lol.

Anyways, I've considered trying Capture One since I bought my Fuji X-T2, but meh...LR and Photoshop are just fine. I don't mind paying the $89 a year for the PS/LR subscription. Yes, LR is a bit slow, but I don't find it bothersome since I'm a hobbyists and don't have a need to process many photos every week. I probably would be annoyed if I was processing a lot more though.

 

[Brian]

I know this is an old thread. So I thought I'd ask how you all are liking Affinity after having it a while. I have been using Luminar and it's gone to crap. I'm really disappointed with them. They seem to be making it worse. So now I'm looking for another editing program/software.

I really don't want to cave to Adobe's pricing. But man I'm getting close to biting the bullet. Affinity looks good.Any suggestions for those of you that have been using Affinity for a while now?

Thanks.

 

[Kyle Jones]

I've downloaded affinity and given it a quick test drive but not much more. I actually consider $10 a month for Lightroom and Photoshop to be well worth it so I don't sweat it too much. I do keep up with other options like affinity for when the day comes that I have to give Adobe the boot.

 

[Brian]

I've downloaded affinity and given it a quick test drive but not much more. I actually consider $10 a month for Lightroom and Photoshop to be well worth it so I don't sweat it too much. I do keep up with other options like affinity for when the day comes that I have to give Adobe the boot.

Thanks Kyle. I appreciate it. I seem to be leaning more and more to just sucking it up and paying Adobe. But for some reason, it's just ticks me off.

 

[AlanLichty]

Adobe's pricing used to tick me off until I did the math on upgrading Lightroom and Photoshop on a regular basis. The subscription is actually cheaper and I get far more updates than I ever did waiting for the next release. Three year old versions of either Lightroom or Photoshop are actually a bit on the primitive side compared to the current version.

What I won't use for any reason is Adobe's cloud based storage. When I am on a photo trip I require immediate access to the images I am taking with absolutely no dependencies on internet connectivity. One day's worth of images could wipe out your cellular data plan.

 

[Brian]

Adobe's pricing used to tick me off until I did the math on upgrading Lightroom and Photoshop on a regular basis. The subscription is actually cheaper and I get far more updates than I ever did waiting for the next release. Three year old versions of either Lightroom or Photoshop are actually a bit on the primitive side compared to the current version.

What I won't use for any reason is Adobe's cloud based storage. When I am on a photo trip I require immediate access to the images I am taking with absolutely no dependencies on internet connectivity. One day's worth of images could wipe out your cellular data plan.

Thanks Alan. Yeah, I wouldn’t use the cloud either. I appreciate your perspective on it.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Brian, I agree I was also put off with the idea of a subscription to use Photoshop, so I have just stuck with Photoshop CS6. It won't though read Nikon D850 raw files, so in order to use it I have to use the DNG converter. That's okay, but the extra step gets old after a while.

I have thought about the finances of it more, and to Alan's point it's not any more expensive really then when we just paid for the stand alone version of Photoshop. I used to think it would be more expensive, but to get it at only $10 a month when you compare it to what Photoshop cost as a stand alone, it's pretty much close to being a wash. Now of course, I always thought the stand alone Photoshop was too expensive, but the quality of it is undeniable. So I will probably switch over to the CC version sometime in the next few months.