Affinity Photo ?

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ecniv

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Hi

Previously with the nikon d300 I was fairly happy with the ufraw and gimp processing (sometimes looked a little weird on colour merges, but overall ok - as I has lost the cd/software that came with the camera or it was sluggish).
However when I upgraded to the leica, I was teased into using lightroom ( ufraw and gimp didn't do too well - well gimp was ok, but the raw processing sucked for ufraw) the online version as the solid download/classic wasn't to be found (adobe wanting you pay and keep on paying).
When someone mentioned the photo stacking, I went for a browse and affinity was one of the options, paid. I'm trying picolay at the moment, but I don't feel it does well with the photos (lots of soft glowy parts).
Just seen a post about Affinity and conversion, so I am curious.
Is it the Affinity Photo (as they have a few affinity products) ?
Is it a one off payment and worth it?
Would I use it more than lightroom (ie - halt that payment) or is it more of an after raw processing step?

Regards

Vince
 
I've not really used Affinity, despite owning it for sometime, but I think the general consensus here is, it's not a great raw editor, however as a program it does seem to have other great editing features, and watching some of the great tutorials on YouTube, it's probably as close as you will get to Photoshop, and I think you can pick it up now for around £25 as a one off payment, and at that price I think it's a no brainer.
 
i have and use affinity photo great picture editor
for the price it can't be beaten
does 99% of photoshop
 
ecniv said:
Is it the Affinity Photo (as they have a few affinity products) ?
Is it a one off payment and worth it?
Would I use it more than lightroom (ie - halt that payment) or is it more of an after raw processing step?
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Yes, Affinity Photo is what most people are talking about and it is worth the price, especially with the current discount. The other Affinity packages are for graphic design and publishing. All very cheap at the moment, and one-off payments, so not much of a risk. Think of Affinity Photo more as (very good) replacement for Photoshop or Gimp rather than Lightroom. It has raw processing, but only one image at a time and without sophisticated camera profiles. I use other things for raw, like Nikon's Capture NX-D. Not sure what the best non-Lightroom option for Leica would be. There are much more fully-featured free packages than Ufraw around now, like Raw Therapee and Darktable. Capture One is a great raw developer, but not cheap and (unlike some other camera systems) there's not currently a less expensive manufacturer-specific version.
 
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I have affinity. It's not a ufraw or lightroom replacement because it's a destructive editor like GIMP. It works well enough, but it's not the same. Look at DXO Photolab, capture 1 express for Nikon or On1 photoraw for a suitable program.
 
I struggle with this term "destructive" it is not destructive in the sense that it irrevocably changes your original file, it does not, it saves the changes as layers in a .afphoto file and leaves the original file unchanged, so nothing has been "destroyed".
 
sirch said:
I struggle with this term "destructive" it is not destructive in the sense that it irrevocably changes your original file, it does not, it saves the changes as layers in a .afphoto file and leaves the original file unchanged, so nothing has been "destroyed".
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Does affinity allow re-editing of a previously edited image? I thought all changes were fixed at export.
 
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ancient_mariner said:
Does affinity allow re-editing of a previously edited image? I thought all changes were fixed at export.
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It is non destructive. It keeps the original file and the data of all the changes In its own format. However when you output you get a finalised copy In what ever format that you have chosen. But you still have the original and the data for such alterations that you made, so you can just carry on or make alterations to layers etc. It's layer capability is now far more advanced than Photoshop.

However it's raw processor is dire and largely unusable. And it has no DAM. It does not recognise camera or lens correction profiles.
 
Hadron said:
Surely all changes are fixed at export with most (if not all) raw editors? Isn’t that the difference between exporting and saving?
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In LR, DXPL, On1 etc the changes are never fixed, so you can go back & re-edit front the point you left the image last, even if you export part way through. Perhaps I'm mixing Affinity with Luminar?
 
ancient_mariner said:
In LR, DXPL, On1 etc the changes are never fixed, so you can go back & re-edit front the point you left the image last, even if you export part way through. Perhaps I'm mixing Affinity with Luminar?
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More like mixing it up with Photoshop..
To export is to save a copy in a chosen format.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Does affinity allow re-editing of a previously edited image? I thought all changes were fixed at export.
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I think your question has been answered above. Changes are stored in the .afphoto file. If you export then you export as jpeg, tiff, whatever but the changes in the .afphoto file can be altered and re-exported. I guess it's a little different to PS, since PS stores its layers etc in the tiff so you can reopen the tiff and re-edit but AFAIK with Affinity Photo you need to save the .afphoto file and open that to continue editing.
 
ecniv said:
LR for raw processing and affinity for pixel level editing
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Excellent option IMO.
If Affinity is in Lightroom's list of external editors, when you've finished raw processing, right click on the image and choose "edit in" Affinity, when you've finished in Affinity save (not save as) the image will be reimported to Lightroom alongside the original.
If Affinity is not in Lightroom's recognised list of external editors you can add it manually via EDIT/PREFERENCES?EXTERNAL EDITING
 
ecniv said:
Thank you all ...

so general concensus -> buy it, keep LR for raw processing and affinity for gimp like update but better (ie the stacking or other options).
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That still ties you to an Adobe plan, though. If you're going to stick with them, you might consider the Photography Plan, which adds Photoshop but drops the 1TB cloud storage the Lightroom Plan comes with (you can get better deals on storage elsewhere). Or you could check out Raw Therapee, Darktable, ON1 Photo Raw, Dx0 and Capture One etc. as possible Lightroom replacements and perhaps drop Adobe altogether.
 
I thought the OP already had a perpetual licence version of Lightroom. Maybe I'm wrong
 
Vince mentioned halting the payment, so I assumed this was a current subscription. If not, then standalone LR + Affinity would be a good combination for now (though of course that copy of LR won't be updated for any future cameras, and at some point Adobe will probably switch off the activation servers for their 'perpetual' licence products).
 
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