Affinity, what's it like please?

LouiseTopp

LouiseTopp

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I have photoshop Elements 11 and I am outgrowing it and feel I could do better. I am thinking of trying a free trial of Affinity, but before I download it, could anyone tell me if it's easy to use etc.? people say I should go to lightroom but at the moment money is tight and I would love to upgrade my Photoshop Elements too.

Can anyone advise me please?

I use a Nikon D5300 at event's etc.

Many thanks.
 
It's pretty good, it's like PS rather than Lightroom in that it has layers, brushes, masks, etc. and no catalogue functionality. There are loads of tutorials and videos available which are handy because it is different to PS, it does a lot of the same things but in different ways so it can take a bit of finding your way around. Perhaps look at a few videos on how to do some of the things in Affinity that you commonly do in PS just to get a feel for it. They sometimes have a half price offer on and if you can get that, for £25 it's a great deal.
 
A bit of a learning curve if you're coming over from Adobe PS, but otherwise not too different. at £25 it's well worth it.
I use it on the iPad with the pencil and thats where it really shines, the inpainting tool is my favourite and does a really good job of taking out unwanted elements of a photo.
 
I used it on my iPad Pro and it was really very good. It took a fair time to learn and get the best out of it but for the money it was brilliant
 
I would take a look at the quick start guide:
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video tutorials:
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Affinity Photo for desktop tutorials

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and online manual to get an idea of what it does:


As above, it's very much an alternative to Photoshop rather than Lightroom. Moving from Elements you may miss the image organiser, which has no equivalent in Affinity Photo. But as you shoot Nikon (and especially if you shoot raw) you might want to look at the free NX Studio package for this - it complements Affinity Photo rather well:
www.nikon.co.uk

NX Studio | Image viewing and editing software

Introducing NX Studio, a new image-processing suite designed for viewing, processing and editing images captured with Nikon digital cameras. Free to download!
www.nikon.co.uk
www.dpreview.com

Review: Nikon NX Studio answers our plea for a free, all-in-one editing app

Nikon's new NX Studio software suite combines the company's previous ViewNX-i and CaptureNX-D applications into a single one-stop solution for editing Raw files from your Nikon digital camera. Find out more about its updates and enhancements in our review.
www.dpreview.com www.dpreview.com
 
Its a good programme IMO.
Very much like CS5 etc.
Extremely good value for money, even at full price.
I have CS5 which I use most of the time, but affinity blows it out the water, for stacking / photo merging
 
It's full price at the moment, but if you're not in a hurry they usually do something for Black Friday at the end of November.
 
Lots of features, but I wasn't at all impressed with the results from the raw converter.
Good value if its only for the more Photoshop like things such as layers and stacking.
 
I bought it at half price some time ago just test it. Overall it is good value for money but awkward to use some features. It does not really compare with the current LR/PS combination but I already have those. Since testing Affinity, I have not been tempted to use it again.

Dave
 
I feel that Affinity is a very good package. As said by others, it is a competitor to Photoshop. A definite step up from Photoshop Elements. A great range of features at a good price.

It is a photo editor and therefore one area not covered is image management. Consequently I'm using DigiKam alongside Affinity to organise my images. No direct integration, but DigiKam does allow review and rating of images before post processing using Affinity.

I would say....give it a go and look at the many "how to" videos.
 
It's capable, but has its oddities. Images for some arcane reason are called 'documents'. I've never thought of my images as that. The resize canvas dialogue is a bit clunky, & you can't seem to choose a canvas colour - it's transparent with no other option that I can see. If I open curves and position my cursor in the image, there's no indication of where that point is on the tone graph - and curves hasn't got a switch to turn preview on / off either - I have to go to the history panel.

Some of these awkwardnesses are down to me learning a new interface. As an app, of course overall it will mature (hopefully). I find the raw converter competent, but it's not my default.

It's British and currently an absolute bargain & I wish them well. The other thing is that if you want to get into page layout you can ally it with Publisher ...
 
The menus and tool bars etc are different from Elements and so require learning. That would also be the case if you went to either Lightroom or Photoshop so learning will be required however you go.

Affinity Photo is excellent. It is easy to use and produces good results. I have been using Affinity Photo for several years now and wouldn't change even if Photoshop were free. On the free bit, Affinity have updated Photo quite a few times since I bought it for £50 several years ago and there has been no further cost.

It also works seamlessly with Affinity's publishing and graphic design apps if you need them.
 
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hi you have the option to do a 30 day trial, which I would. You can then compare it with what you are using now
 
I love Affinity Photo, I just find it much easier to work with than Photoshop.

There are some great tutorials on YouTube, Affinity Revolution are really good, they have lots of free content but I've done about 3 of their paid courses and they're well worth the small charge.
 
I have it on my iPad and MacBook Pro. It’s my ‘Photoshop’ as I no longer subscribe to Adobe. As others have said, it’s a bit of a learning curve, but when you start using it regularly it’s easy to get the hang of. I really like it, and got it half price at the beginning of last year.
 
I was thinking a little more about this.
My observations, for what they are worth.

I was always very impressed with Elements, then I moved to CS3.
From CS3 to CS5. I thought that was the canine testicles. ( if not somewhat pricey)
But over the years it occurred to me that one programme may not in reality do it all.

So along side CS5

Topaz deNoise (Plug in)
free trial & currently priced at $79.99 But it does go on special offer from time to time( IIRC I paid about half that on special offer)
Very much kicks CS5 in the nuts, although I'm not convinced about the AI sharpen ( extra) programme.

Affinity
Free trial and currently priced at £47.99 but is available on special offer from time to time ( I paid about half that on special offer)
Blows CS5 away, with its photo stacking ability.

DXO Nik collection (Plug in)
Following a query post from me, regarding the functionality, of the free trial a couple of guys ( @Retune @stupar ) came to the rescue
with a free (legit) older but full version.
It has some great presets, great for HDR and or Tone mapping.

So I doubt the one programme fully suits everyone's needs
certainly not mine.
 
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It's amazing value, and very powerful for editing individual images. The only issues really are that the raw processing is destructive, so you have to 'develop' the raw file initially, for which you have fairly limited tools, before exporting it to the main editing suite. But you can't go back and make changes to the raw file. Also you can't edit large numbers of files - you have to import a raw file, develop it, edit it and export it as a stand-alone file. If you tend to edit individual or small numbers of images it's great. If you're making relatively minor adjustments to lots of raw files it's a bit of a pain.
 
There should probably be a better term than 'destructive' for the way the Affinity 'Develop Persona' works, but we seem to be stuck with it. Of course the raw file isn't altered and you can always go back to it, but each time you are starting from scratch. 'Non-destructive' tools like Lightroom and Nikon NX Studio save the raw edits as metadata (e.g. in 'sidecar' files), so you can always go back to the current state of the image and reverse or tweak anything you've done without going right back to the beginning. Affinity can only edit 'non-destructively' after you've 'developed' (converted) the raw image (it's then possible to save the post-raw-conversion edit history within the working file and revert edits later).

This is one reason I like to use NX Studio together with Affinity Photo or even Photoshop (I don't have Lightroom). NX Studio lets you select from a lightbox-style view, deal with a lot of images, and return to the raw edits later. I think it also does a better job with Nikon raw files than either Affinity or Adobe. But both Photoshop and Affinity Photo are much better at local editing after raw conversion.
 
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Cobra said:
Topaz deNoise (Plug in)
free trial & currently priced at $79.99 But it does go on special offer from time to time( IIRC I paid about half that on special offer)
Very much kicks CS5 in the nuts, although I'm not convinced about the AI sharpen ( extra) programme.
Click to expand...
Any thoughts on the noise reduction in Topaz vs Dfine 2 or anything else? It's been a long time since I compared noise reduction tools. Noiseware was good back in the day. And I think I still have a discounted Luminar 4 key to redeem somewhere...
 
Have used Affinity for the past 2 years. Before that PS. Affinity is very good indeed, and for the average enthusiast photographer has all you'll need, without the cost of a subscription, and updates are also free...
 
Retune said:
Any thoughts on the noise reduction in Topaz vs Dfine 2 or anything else?
Click to expand...
Personally, as long as you get the balance right ( it can be a fine line ) , I prefer Topaz
Over any of the programs I mentioned.
 
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Thanks for your input guys. I have never used the image organizer, so I don't know how it works tbh. Is the NX Studio free download the same as Nik Collection please?
 
LouiseTopp said:
Thanks for your input guys. I have never used the image organizer, so I don't know how it works tbh. Is the NX Studio free download the same as Nik Collection please?
Click to expand...
No, completely separate. The name of the company, 'Nik', that originally wrote those plugins is just coincidentally similar to Nikon (though to add to the confusion, Nikon at one point contracted Nik to write software for them!).

NX Studio is a raw processor and editor with quite a nice image browser you can use for previewing, selecting and culling your shots. It's actually quite powerful, especially for a free program. This would be the first step in your editing workflow.

The Nik Collection is a set of plugins that works inside something like Photoshop (and can be made to work with Affinity Photo). It includes a set of nice filters, as well as noise reduction and sharpening tools, etc. This would be used later in your workflow.
 
NX studio a free download, can it be added as a plug in for photoshop? Looks like the download is for MAC only.
 
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It's Windows and Mac. Windows is selected by default. Go to the bottom of the page, accept the T&Cs, select the region, and click 'Download':


It can't be used as a PS plugin, but from within NX Studio you can register PS (or another editor) so that PS opens when you right-click an image in NX Studio and select 'Open with'.
 
Cobra said:
I was thinking a little more about this.
My observations, for what they are worth.

I was always very impressed with Elements, then I moved to CS3.
From CS3 to CS5. I thought that was the canine testicles. ( if not somewhat pricey)
But over the years it occurred to me that one programme may not in reality do it all.

So along side CS5

Topaz deNoise (Plug in)
free trial & currently priced at $79.99 But it does go on special offer from time to time( IIRC I paid about half that on special offer)
Very much kicks CS5 in the nuts, although I'm not convinced about the AI sharpen ( extra) programme.

Affinity
Free trial and currently priced at £47.99 but is available on special offer from time to time ( I paid about half that on special offer)
Blows CS5 away, with its photo stacking ability.

DXO Nik collection (Plug in)
Following a query post from me, regarding the functionality, of the free trial a couple of guys ( @Retune @stupar ) came to the rescue
with a free (legit) older but full version.
It has some great presets, great for HDR and or Tone mapping.

So I doubt the one programme fully suits everyone's needs
certainly not mine.
Click to expand...
Absolutely agree with you about the photo stacking ability, I tried a 16 shot stack recently on affinity it was amazing worked really well, I’ve never found a way of auto stacking that worked properly before I tried it in affinity
Also Affinity seems to work on older computers I can edit and stack large Canon R 5 files on my old Dell PC that probably wouldn’t work in Lightroom
Before I stopped using Adobe CC I was struggling to process my 7D files but Affinity seems to work OK maybe it was just something I was doing wrong
 
Tom Pinchenzo said:
It's amazing value, and very powerful for editing individual images. The only issues really are that the raw processing is destructive, so you have to 'develop' the raw file initially, for which you have fairly limited tools, before exporting it to the main editing suite. But you can't go back and make changes to the raw file. Also you can't edit large numbers of files - you have to import a raw file, develop it, edit it and export it as a stand-alone file. If you tend to edit individual or small numbers of images it's great. If you're making relatively minor adjustments to lots of raw files it's a bit of a pain.
Click to expand...
Yes I agree that’s the only real issue I have with Affinity that you can’t batch convert a bunch of raw files , have to convert (in affinity called develop) one at a time but the actual editing part is excellent
 
I'm an illustrator and artist so I use both Designer & Photo and I really like them both. I can't compare it to PS as I've not used it since CS2 (it's now free to use). I find Photo a little odd with some actions and you can "go round the houses" to do something that should only require one step. I find it a little more frustrating for my artwork than I do with photo editing. I never bother to make adjustments in the develop persona as I usually always need to go back a step as the develop persona is destructive. I do love the non-destructive live filters and adjustment layers which can easily be masked and adjusted on the fly. The In Painting brush is superb at removing things from the image accurately and selection refinement for removing backgrounds with fine details like hair is brilliant. Also removing CA is a breeze, especially with the defringe filter which can easily be added as a live filter. The power you get for the price is a no-brainer for me. Checkout their demo. I would imagine they will do another decent sale on Black Friday too,
 
Black Friday will bring 30% off…

from Monday 22nd November
 
I bought it earlier in the year during one of their sales. I'm very much new to photo editing so figured it would be a relatively cheap way in and if I out grow then at least I would have an idea of what I really needed. So far very, very pleased and I think it'll be a very long time before I need to start looking elsewhere.
 
I’m looking at it as I don’t won’t to pay £10 a month for PS. Hopefully the cloning / healing works well as I often need to remote items from my snaps…
 
It's an absolute bargain. I'm guessing the price is so low because they want to gain market share.
 
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Try before you buy ( right at the bottom of the page) there is also a good description on the same page
 
Well I have bought the iPad version for £8.99. It’s not as intuitive as PS but maybe that’s because im used to adobe.

lots to learn
 
Been using it now for about 3 years having bought it for a third off in one of their sales. An absolute bargain, with so many advantages that we have ditched Photoshop completely. Initially the RAW converter was not that good but it has improved greatly over time. The fact that you get free updates and can put it onto any x64 computer that you own is a real advantage. The biggest drawback we have found is that the latest versions need all the Windows updates to run. We live in a rural area with very, very slow internet speeds and find it impossible to have updates as it ties up the computer endlessly. Latest versions of Windows with no ability to turn off updates are not an option, so we are still on Windows 7 and v1.9.1 of Affinity Photo, but it still does an excellent job. Happy to recommend it to anyone as a sensible and economic alternative to Photoshop.
 
damianmkv said:
I’m looking at it as I don’t won’t to pay £10 a month for PS. Hopefully the cloning / healing works well as I often need to remote items from my snaps…
Click to expand...
Cloning and healing work well. The context heal (inpaint) Is extremely effective.
 
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I have used it on a Mac for years sporadically. When I get into it, it is an effective piece of software, but each time I start it, I have a learning curve to figure out how to use it. I suspect if you use it more regularly than I, it is as powerful as Photoshop.
 
Hate to point this out- the OP has not been on since 1st October :)
 
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