Affinity Photo?

I have been Affinity Photo for about a year now and in my opinion it's the best (affordable)substitute to Adobe Photoshop that you can have. Yeah The Gimp is free however the workflow is terrible. The RAW interpreter is decent, waay better than what The Gimp uses. The RAW editor function's however could use some inspiration from the Lightroom layout. The same edits are possible to do, however you need to click more and search in menu's. Like other's already said: All updates for version 1.XX are free if you purchase the software now. But when version 2.0 is released I will be first in line to buy it to support the developers.

I have actually bought Photo four times just to support them, I like it so much. For what they charge on sale how can you go wrong? They just keep getting better, I love all the videos too.
David

I bought Affinity Photo last year and I thought it was time to finally look at it and try to edit an image. Now I know, I have always used Photoshop, and obviously another application will do things differently. Of course. But before I could do any real editing, I ran into this annoying thing with the crop tool. It is set to "unconstrained" as default and there is no way to change it and what's more it constantly reverts back to that.

So, I crop a photo. I have to go into the drop-down menu, change "unconstrained" to "original ratio". Then, I'm not happy with that crop. So, I open the crop tool again, thinking that as I cropped it to the original ratio it would automatically be set to that again for that photo. But no, surprise!, it's back to "unconstrained". So I have to go into the drop-down menu again, change "unconstrained" to "original ratio". I go to the next photo. I want to crop it. It's back to "unconstrained". This is maddening! How can a photo editing application be so bad at something so basic?! I went to the Affinity forum where people complained about this for years. Well, apparently nobody is listening.

In short, I'm still looking for a Photoshop alternative.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19396551
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In short, I'm still looking for a Photoshop alternative.

You could give Capture One a try. A little pricey. I've used it for a couple of year, very happy with it. Here is Mark Denney doing an overview, this isn't really a tutorial, sort of a run through of what it can do. They do have a 30 day free trial.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19396551
It is set to "unconstrained" as default and there is no way to change it and what's more it constantly reverts back to that.

Below worked for me.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19396551
I bought Affinity Photo last year and I thought it was time to finally look at it and try to edit an image. Now I know, I have always used Photoshop, and obviously another application will do things differently. Of course. But before I could do any real editing, I ran into this annoying thing with the crop tool. It is set to "unconstrained" as default and there is no way to change it and what's more it constantly reverts back to that.

So, I crop a photo. I have to go into the drop-down menu, change "unconstrained" to "original ratio". Then, I'm not happy with that crop. So, I open the crop tool again, thinking that as I cropped it to the original ratio it would automatically be set to that again for that photo. But no, surprise!, it's back to "unconstrained". So I have to go into the drop-down menu again, change "unconstrained" to "original ratio". I go to the next photo. I want to crop it. It's back to "unconstrained". This is maddening! How can a photo editing application be so bad at something so basic?! I went to the Affinity forum where people complained about this for years. Well, apparently nobody is listening.

In short, I'm still looking for a Photoshop alternative.

I do love Affinity for the price, but as a long time PS user, yeah, there are some really irritating attribute with Affinity - I don't know if that's due to copyright on PS tools or what. I refuse to be dinged monthly for Adobe though. I don't want to rely on a company that changes it's terms of service or prices every few months.

I have found, though, that the noise reduction feature on Affinity is really good, surprisingly so. Better or as good as Topaz IMHO.

lacogada wrote in post #19396956
Below worked for me.

Thanks. I will try that!

greyswan wrote in post #19401449
I do love Affinity for the price, but as a long time PS user, yeah, there are some really irritating attribute with Affinity - I don't know if that's due to copyright on PS tools or what. I refuse to be dinged monthly for Adobe though. I don't want to rely on a company that changes it's terms of service or prices every few months.

I have found, though, that the noise reduction feature on Affinity is really good, surprisingly so. Better or as good as Topaz IMHO.

Price is definitely right. And I bought it at a discount too. Like you I would love to move away from Adobe. It's just that I don't think there's anything as good as Adobe. Although part of it or maybe even all of it is just being so used to using Adobe apps and so comfortable with everything, that it's awkward to suddenly have to do things differently.

But it's not the big things, I mean, curves are curves and layers are layers, right. It's the little things. Like that crop tool in Affinity. Or not being able to move a pic around by tapping the space bar. And the interface, how things are organized. And named ("recipes", "personas"? What is wu-WRONG with these people!). And in Affinity I don't get the different work spaces. When I open a pic, it opens in the develop mode (I'm calling it mode, okay?), but I want to be in the Photo mode as there I have the tools I want. But I can't just change modes, I have to "commit" or cancel. And I have to commit if I want to go to Photo mode. But commit to what? I haven't done anything yet! See what I'm saying? Sigh... I should watch a tutorial...

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19401465
And in Affinity I don't get the different work spaces. When I open a pic, it opens in the develop mode (I'm calling it mode, okay?), but I want to be in the Photo mode as there I have the tools I want. But I can't just change modes, I have to "commit" or cancel. And I have to commit if I want to go to Photo mode. But commit to what? I haven't done anything yet! See what I'm saying? Sigh... I should watch a tutorial...

Exactly why I have not continued to use it.

Same way with On1, gave up on that in 2016 or 2017, so not sure if it's changed in recent years.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19401465
Thanks. I will try that!

Price is definitely right. And I bought it at a discount too. Like you I would love to move away from Adobe. It's just that I don't think there's anything as good as Adobe. Although part of it or maybe even all of it is just being so used to using Adobe apps and so comfortable with everything, that it's awkward to suddenly have to do things differently.

But it's not the big things, I mean, curves are curves and layers are layers, right. It's the little things. Like that crop tool in Affinity. Or not being able to move a pic around by tapping the space bar. And the interface, how things are organized. And named ("recipes", "personas"? What is wu-WRONG with these people!). And in Affinity I don't get the different work spaces. When I open a pic, it opens in the develop mode (I'm calling it mode, okay?), but I want to be in the Photo mode as there I have the tools I want. But I can't just change modes, I have to "commit" or cancel. And I have to commit if I want to go to Photo mode. But commit to what? I haven't done anything yet! See what I'm saying? Sigh... I should watch a tutorial...

If you are opening a raw file in AP, then the file needs to be converted into an RGB file - that's why the file gets opened in the Develop "persona" - that is the raw conversion module in AP (similar to ACR in PS). If you are opening an RGB file in AP (a JPEG, TIFF, etc.) then it should open in the Photo persona and you can go about your business. I would advise against trying to achieve reasonable results for raw conversion in the Develop persona of AP - its a pretty terrible raw converter. Even if you nail the settings, they are not preserved or saved in any way, so once you commit those adjustments to the file and convert it into the Photo persona, all of the settings you applied to the raw file are forgotten. Open the raw file again, and you start from the beginning.

You DEFINITELY should watch some tutorials. The ones produced by Serif (Affinity) are excellent and there are a ton of them:

https://affinity.serif​.com …/tutorials/phot​o/desktop/

Have fun. Undoing years of Adobe muscle memory is a rough task at first, especially when it comes to masking and channel manipulation in AP.

Kirk

Gentlemen,
I have used this for a couple years now and have to say I really like it. I have used Photoshop in the past and there was a learning curve with it too. Affinity has one too.
When you start with a raw file it will convert it for you. But it is a step you have to take.
You gentlemen may want to try FastStone. An easy program to learn and you can start right away working on the picture as it doesn't make you convert it first. This also is a great program! Very useful. You will be impressed with the spot remover, sizer, sampler changing, cropping and much more. If you have a large file it will resample it at the size you pick. If you want to put it on the internet choose a size for that, really useful.
Check it out!
David

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19401465
Thanks. I will try that!

Price is definitely right. And I bought it at a discount too. Like you I would love to move away from Adobe. It's just that I don't think there's anything as good as Adobe. Although part of it or maybe even all of it is just being so used to using Adobe apps and so comfortable with everything, that it's awkward to suddenly have to do things differently.

But it's not the big things, I mean, curves are curves and layers are layers, right. It's the little things. Like that crop tool in Affinity. Or not being able to move a pic around by tapping the space bar. And the interface, how things are organized. And named ("recipes", "personas"? What is wu-WRONG with these people!). And in Affinity I don't get the different work spaces. When I open a pic, it opens in the develop mode (I'm calling it mode, okay?), but I want to be in the Photo mode as there I have the tools I want. But I can't just change modes, I have to "commit" or cancel. And I have to commit if I want to go to Photo mode. But commit to what? I haven't done anything yet! See what I'm saying? Sigh... I should watch a tutorial...

I agree with everything you mentioned here - I'm still using CS6 (works perfectly well on my Windows 11, lol) and I find that in Affinity everything takes three times as long (once, as you say, you interpret the 'modes/personas crap) with three or four steps to one in PS. Unfortunate but true.

I use Affinity for noise reduction only, or to open files no longer supported by CS6.anything else graphics-related I bring into my trusty CS6, which really does everything I need, even compared to the Cloud PS, which I have used professionally supplied by other offices. Most of the updated Cloud CS these days seems to be a case of 'we've hit the wall with new tools, just dress it up and change the keystrokes to fool them into thinking it's a new feature' kind of mentality.

Having said all of that, I have a friend who has never used PS, and she seems to use it quite handily for her projects, although she's not a professional graphic designer, so maybe we are just resentful of having to retrain our muscle memory, I get really irritated with things that should be so simple in PS and turn out to be a long slog in Affinity, usually without the finesse I'm used to in PS.

I've also found some odd color shifts when opening Raw files in Affinity that I don't get with Adobe RAW, the DNG converter or DPP.

I still us Affinity but I gave up on ON1 in 2018 as well and kept with Capture One. Now that CO pricing has gone through the roof I was thinking about (finally) going back to Adobe. However I had heard that ON1 had made some significant improvements in their latest release so I downloaded 2022.5. What a vast improvement they have made. The program no longer lags and uses up the computers resources; it's nice and snappy.

They will honour upgrade pricing from any previous version. I'm going to keep running the demo and ON1 2023 will drop in a few more weeks.

kirkt wrote in post #19401613
If you are opening a raw file in AP, then the file needs to be converted into an RGB file - that's why the file gets opened in the Develop "persona" - that is the raw conversion module in AP (similar to ACR in PS). If you are opening an RGB file in AP (a JPEG, TIFF, etc.) then it should open in the Photo persona and you can go about your business. I would advise against trying to achieve reasonable results for raw conversion in the Develop persona of AP - its a pretty terrible raw converter. Even if you nail the settings, they are not preserved or saved in any way, so once you commit those adjustments to the file and convert it into the Photo persona, all of the settings you applied to the raw file are forgotten. Open the raw file again, and you start from the beginning.

You DEFINITELY should watch some tutorials. The ones produced by Serif (Affinity) are excellent and there are a ton of them:

https://affinity.serif​.com …/tutorials/phot​o/desktop/

Have fun. Undoing years of Adobe muscle memory is a rough task at first, especially when it comes to masking and channel manipulation in AP.

Kirk

I totally lost track of this thread, so I am way overdue in thanking you for the explanation of the different modes, Kirk. Very helpful reply. And thank you for the link as well.

Muscle memory really is a bltch when you switch to something else.

I picked up Affinity for $25. It was pretty hard to say no to that price. I only open it to see if there is an update. My backup if I ever drop Adobe.