UKH

Any thoughts on Serif Affinity Photo (for windows)? A few good reviews for Mac version online and presumably would be similar for windows.

I have Lightroom, but now looking for a more powerful image editing software. Not going to use that much, at least in the short term, so can't justify Photoshop CC sub; looking for alternatives. Any other suggestions to consider for ease of use/learning, compatibility with LR, but give some future scope to be more adventurous as the learning develops?

Thanks.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

Don't have Windows, but use Affinity on a Mac. It's a mighty good program, both relative to its price, and just in general. It works well with LR, where it can be set up as an external editor. Then you just have to right-click any image, select 'Edit externally' (or something to that effect) and the image is sent over to Affinity right away.

As for learning, Affinity a) has a great forum where questions are answered quickly, either by other users or staff, b) has a large selection of instructional videos on Vimeo and Youtube, that is continuously being expanded, and c) Serif (the company behind Affinity) is planning to release a workbook to go along with it, as they have already done for Designer.

Personally, I'm not editing crack, so I can't tell you whether it's exactly 100% as good as PS. From what I've heard, it's not (yet). But it's very close, and most photographers won't miss anything. Some things are actually done better than in PS, and Affinity also runs remarkably swiftly, even on my 4.5 years old MacBook.

Overall I really do recommend it.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

Google 'affinity vs lightroom' and have a look at some of the reviews

In reply to ChrisJD:

Except Affinity is not meant to compete with Lightroom, it competes with Photoshop. Lightroom has an extensive cataloguing feature, Affinity doesn't.

In reply to Removed UserFuchs & ChrisJD:

Thanks for comments. From all I've read I think the positives of Affinity outweigh the negatives, so intend to give it a try later in the year. For the limited use I'm envisaging other options don't look so attractive; I'm intending sticking with Lightroom as my main software.

Cheers.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:
What are you hoping to achieve in a PS-alike program that you can't do in LR?

Can't remember the last time I opened up PS!

(edit. may depend on what version of LR you have)

In reply to ChrisJD:
Interesting question. Digital photography is still a relatively new, but important, hobby for me and I am currently going though I'll try this and that phase to find the direction I am going to concentrate on and maybe my niche!

Several things I'm hoping to experiment with in my continuing learning curve of digital photography, but nothing that definite as a must do; I'm still finding my direction I wish to take it, but a seed was set in my mind that I could do more experimenting with post processing when I recently discovered my camera is capable of far more than I could imagine with things like focus bracketing, HDR bracketing, and panorama setting. I have no current way of using those photos without stacking/stitching/merging etc.

Also, I did a tester course (PS) not long ago and through that and speaking to others, I was taken aback by some of things it is possible to do in post processing and whilst I could probably get LR to do some (or most things with plug-ins) when the Tutor mentioned Affinity as a stand alone new package, it set me thinking.

I really have no fixed end point of where I am going or really want yet and may indeed decide its not really for me, but with Affinity at only £40 or so I would not lose much but could gain alot. Currently I have some shots that need stacked and or merged and would start there.
Edit: LR version 5.7. Maybe that can do all I will ever really need?

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

Cheers for the considered reply - all worthy aims

For £40 Affinity definitely looks worthy of a play, even as a free trial.

LR-6/LR-CC can handle panoramas (Merge) and HDR. My memory is poor, LR 5 might have an early implementation of the Merge & MDR functions

Merge in LR-CC does so very well in 95% of the many hand held panos I take (including multi-row), especially with the boundary warp feature in LL-CC. And it creates a RAW DNG merged file. Not had to use AutoPanoPro for a long time. Don't do much HDR, so not sure how good that side is in LR6.

Good luck experimenting and playing!

In reply to ChrisJD:
Thanks for all; appreciated. Need to rush - just about to head out for another important hobby of mine - climbing .