Best PS Alternative for RAW & Editing?

The following post is not a rant; I genuinely would like some feedback from you folks here, as many of you have a ton more experience than I do with photo editing software.

I have been a Photoshop user for many years (since CS2), and I currently pay for the monthly subscription.

I have been searching for an alternative for the past couple of years, and needless to say, there are dozens of photo editing software programs on the market today described by countless folks online to be "the best photo editing software".

First, what I shoot/edit:

I shoot a variety of subjects
including nature, people, travel, etc. I currently shoot Canon RAW (6dmk2, 7dmk2 and R6), Nikon RAW ( or "NEF" as they call it with my D750), Panasonic RAW (GX85), and as of this week, Sony RAW (just purchased a Sony A7c).

I usually shoot RAW+JPEG, and batch-process my files in Adobe ACR in Photoshop. Yes, I know, it's like watching paint dry, or snails racing, etc. The reason I shoot RAW+JPEG is in case I really like a shot on location and want to text it to someone.

I usually select all the RAW pics and save them as JPEGS. If I like 1, 5, 20 or more pics, I'll open them in ACR and work on them in Photoshop. I do this mostly when photographing people. Some pics require a ton of touching up in Photoshop, others not so much.

Second, my reason for wanting to dump Adobe Photoshop:

I can't deal with the slow, tedious, constant start-up process with Photoshop. If it's not an update, it's a mandatory login issue. Yesterday, after not having used my laptop for 3 weeks, it took me 16 minutes (yes, I actually timed it) to log in to Photoshop. It wasn't like this back in the old, stand-alone CS2 days. No matter what I do (leaving the laptop on all the time or shutting it off), logging in to Adobe Photoshop is always a painfully slow process. It is frustrating beyond words! Once I'm actually in, after 10 or 15 minutes of actually getting in to Photoshop, things start to speed up.

I don't want to use Lightroom or any other Adobe products at this time. My frustration/disappoint​ment level with Adobe is beyond repair. I don't want anything, absolutely anything to do with Adobe imaging software products anymore. Please, please don't turn this into a trolling flamefest. I respect your choice to love Adobe, but I'm done with them. Also, again, please don't recommend Lightroom; it's an Adobe product.

So, what are the best alternatives out there (paid or free, doesn't matter)? I would like to batch-process RAW files and edit details via a layers based program, preferably nondestructive. Oh, and the biggest feature: must be a stand-alone program with no mandatory subscriptions. I want to buy it and forget about it. I'll only update if I buy a new camera that has proprietary RAW files that need to be updated in the RAW editing software. Thanks

Here’s what you will find out there in the raw converter/image processing landscape.

1) Raw converters - they do just that, convert your raw files into RGB images that can be edited further, if you choose.
2) Raw converters with image editing capabilities such as color correction/grading, local edits, touch up/cloning/healing, some with a layers-based approach.
3) All-in-one raw conversion + image editing, with various degrees of filters, AI features, gizmos and whiz bang features.
4) Traditional pixel editors, like Photoshop.

That sort of spans the gamut of applications and it is up to you to choose the workflow that suits your needs. Most are cross-platform.

Examples:

1) Most camera companies supply this type of raw converter (Canon’s DPP, Nikon’s NX Studio, etc.). There are also third-party choices which are quite good and may suit your needs (Raw Photo processor, Iridient Developer, both of which are Mac-only). If you are adventurous, download Raw Therapee and give it a shot.

2) The biggies in this category are CaptureOne and DxO Photo Lab. Both are available as a stand-alone, purchase-once license. DxO uses U-point automagic masking echology (a development from the old Nik collection) as well as brush and various gradient masks to do local edits, just like Lightroom. CaptureOne uses layers and similar masking techniques, and you can control the opacity of the layer, as well as the luminance range of the layer mask.

3) There are a bunch of these hybrid apps, like Skylum Luminar, OnOne Raw Developer, Alien Skin Exposure, etc. A hybrid-hybrid would be DxO Photo Lab raw converter and their suite of effects tools that were formerly the Nik suite of filters/tools (DxO calls these tools the Nik Collection). These are a suite of a lot of filters and editing tools that integrate with DxO Photo Lab’s non-destructive raw converter.

4) The most usable pixel editor that is cross platform and maturing nowadays is probably Affinity Photo - it has an integrated raw converter (think, ACR) but it is terrible for a lot of reasons, so AP would be for pixel editing. It behaves differently than PS, so undoing years of image editing muscle memory will be frustrating at first, but there are a ton of well-produced video tutorials that explain everything very well. Others include Photo Line, GIMP, etc. Google “Photoshop alternatives” and you will get a bunch of suggestions.

As a lot of folks have discovered, Adobe products often foster a love-hate relationship, and their subscription model can push one over the edge. You have a lot of choice, so use the free trials that most of these apps offer and see what works for you, especially because some applications, like DxO Photo Lab, only support certain types of cameras and, more specifically, camera-lens combinations (for optical correction, for example).

I cannot tell you which one will work best for you; however, CaptureOne is excellent and just introduced their iPad app. It is a basic rollout with additional features to be introduced over time. I have been demo-ing it for a few days and it works as advertised on my iPad Pro 12.9”. If this kind of cross-device integration for raw processing is important to you, then CaptureOne may be the ticket. Affinity Photo also runs on the iPad.

Good luck,

Kirk

Thanks for the detailed feedback! I'm currently using Windows platform, and most of the editing I do is on a laptop (I played around with the Lightroom app on my phone, but it was too much if a hassle for cellphone pics).

I actually googled "Photoshop Alternatives", and the results were overwhelming! Every single photo editing software manufacturer insists their product is the best.

I'm going to do a few trials with programs you suggested. Hopefully I'll find the right match for me. Thanks!

With the other trials, be sure to check out Exposure software. I switched over to using it, from Adobe, and I've been reasonably happy with it. It covers the asset management and editor spaces relatively nicely; with a few bugs and misses.

Their import function doesn't work on my system and hangs the software, but I work around that by copying the files straight from my card before editing. It does not handle a couple of, now, basic tasks that I don't quite understand overlooking: stitching and layer blending; it makes heavy use of adjustment layers and offers some pretty strong masking ability. Just not the ability to *blend* layers....just odd. I like their huge array of filters and general editing capabilities, and appreciate that it is a standalone product.

It won't stand up to the needs of the true "power user", IMO; but for a mid-level enthusiast, it's working well for me.

I'm not posting to urge you to stay with Adobe products. I use them, but I know many photographers who are content with alternatives, particularly Capture One in the case of the people I know.

However, what you posted strongly suggests something is wrong with your computer set up. I have used the Adobe subscription service for years and have almost never had to log in. I just click on the icon, as with every other program. And once it loads, it works at the normal speed immediately. This has been the case with several different computers, including two laptops. You can turn off automatic updates, and if you do that, it will let you know when an update is ready and leave it to you to start the update process. That's what I do. I update when it's convenient, and always painlessly in the background.

So, it might be worth figuring out what's causing the problem, particularly the slow performance after loading, because whatever is causing that might affect other complex software as well.

I agree w @paddler4 - the Adobe app launch should not take more than a couple of seconds.

Kirk

kirkt wrote in post #19400013
I agree w @paddler4 - the Adobe app launch should not take more than a couple of seconds.

Kirk

This is good to hear and I'm following this with interest.

I'm currently using a standalone version of CS5 I bought 10 years ago when I had my (then) new machine built. Before year's end I'll be building another and plan to go the subscription route. I don't like the idea of paying monthly but I recognize that I'm missing out on new features. However, I'd hate to deal with slow start up speeds if that's the case. My current machine is a real dinosaur but I have to say that CS5 and Bridge open pretty fast.

paddler4 wrote in post #19400010
So, it might be worth figuring out what's causing the problem, particularly the slow performance after loading, because whatever is causing that might affect other complex software as well.

+1

There are a lot of alternatives out there as there are a lot of threads here discussing them. Have a peek at these. Lots of good discussion. As you'll find, thee is no one clear answer just as PC is not a clear answer either. They all have strengths and weaknesses. I am a PC user for home but using Gimp for work. I have LR and use it from time to time but not for its "D.A.M." functionality. I prefer my own plain old Windows directory structure.

https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1524928
https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1523658
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=464298
https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1518006

paddler4 wrote in post #19400010
So, it might be worth figuring out what's causing the problem, particularly the slow performance after loading, because whatever is causing that might affect other complex software as well.

To the OP: When I reboot my Windows PC the task Msmpeng.exe runs for about 20-30 minutes. It's constantly hitting the disk so anything I try to do before it's done happens extremely slowly. If you're always starting/rebooting your Windows PC before running PS:

• open the Windows task manager
  
• click on the "Performance" tab at the upper left of the task manager window
  
• click on "Open Resource Manager" which is at the lower left of the Task Manager window
  

I ran a poll a bunch of years ago, and re-ran the poll in 2021. The poll is useful to see what alternatives are in use, and how popular they are among POTN users

https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1521824

After re-reading the OP, I suppose some more info is needed. I just times my PS opening and it was 5.6 seconds so as the post above says, there might be something else going on. 16 minutes is crazy. A few questions though:
What kind of laptop?
How much memory?
Which processor?
How full is your primary drive?
SSD or spinning disk as your primary drive?

Might also take a look at the event logs. run "eventvwr.msc" and it will bring up the event viewer. Warning or information events can pretty much be ignored. If your getting a lot of errors though, it's worth lookig into. There are other things you can do as well like enable a boot log and take a look at what the machine is doing during bootup.

Note the 26 hard faults per second in Memory!! Your problems can well be due to that.

I'm on a Mac. I have no issues opening or using PS with my subscription. For me, I can open the program in six seconds or less. But, I am not happy with the subscription model. I have tried other photo editing programs in the past and none was as versatile as PS, I also tried PS Elements and while it could do most of what I needed, it's printing options were not as versatile as the full version.

Edit - I have 96GB of RAM.