Switching from LR/Photoshop to possibly Affinity Photo

GMac11

GMac11

GMac11

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Does anyone have experience of such a move? I have always relied on Lightroom and photoshop for my editing work, however that has been more down to the much larger support network than anything else. I'm not a big editor and I only shoot freelance for the local press and as a hobby for myself.
I have downloaded the Affinity Photo trial with a view to purchasing it as it's on 50% sale at £23.99.

I (admittedly begrudgingly) use pirated copies of LR and PS and in the future I'd rather not use them at all preferring a legit software package that I can keep up to date and not have to always look over my shoulder for when my luck may run out in regards to updates and potential malware invasion. For that reason paying subscription for Adobe is totally out of the question as I make very little from my work that it just isn't worth it, that and the fact I don't use a lot of the really in depth features anyway.

I understand Affinity is more a PS replacement than LR but do people have experience of both and reckon Affinity can more than do a job?
I'm not all that fussed on the cataloging features of LR although I do admit they are very handy but I think I could get by without them.
 
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GMac11 said:
Does anyone have experience of such a move? I have always relied on Lightroom and photoshop for my editing work, however that has been more down to the much larger support network than anything else. I'm not a big editor and I only shoot freelance for the local press and as a hobby for myself.
I have downloaded the Affinity Photo trial with a view to purchasing it as it's on 50% sale at £23.99.

I (admittedly begrudgingly) use pirated copies of LR and PS and in the future I'd rather not use them at all preferring a legit software package that I can keep up to date and not have to always look over my shoulder for when my luck may run out in regards to updates and potential malware invasion. For that reason paying subscription for Adobe is totally out of the question as I make very little from my work that it just isn't worth it, that and the fact I don't use a lot of the really in depth features anyway.

I understand Affinity is more a PS replacement than LR but do people have experience of both and reckon Affinity can more than do a job?
I'm not all that fussed on the cataloging features of LR although I do admit they are very handy but I think I could get by without them.
Click to expand...

From an editing perspective I found Affinity to be excellent on both Windows PC and the iPad Pro - I've not done much shooting over the last 12 months but for a good year I edited solely with Affinity and had no issues at all.
There's a bit of a learning curve to figure out how things are done compared to LR/PS but there's loads of folk out there using it now; plenty of YouTube resources and I actually bought a Udemy course to help me; it was well worth it.

There's no catalogue functionality but it sounds like me your not really looking for that.
 
Thanks. Yes I have discovered a lot of the youtube content over the weekend - not like there's anything else to do! It seems to have a great community and no shortage of help. The Udemy course is a great idea and they are often on offer, especially in the current climate so I'll keep an eye out for that.
I have been dabbling with different things this past few days and I am definitely seeing the upside of Affinity for sure. I have actually installed Capture One Express to accompany it for some minor cataloguing which seems to do all I need for now. I have always shot Canon but recently bought an X-T20 so that will definitely help with using Capture One.
The only downside with Affinity is I use both a MacBook Pro and a desktop Pc so if I wanted to cover both I would need two licenses. However I tend to use the MacBook more for editing anyway so I will purchase for that and keep the dodgy Lightroom on the Windows Pc as a back up for now.
Nothing like a lock down to attempt some self improvement!
 
I have done this. Affinity is absolutely fine for photos as mentioned above. Coming from LR there are a few things I miss.

Cataloguing I do myself by simply saving pictures into folders named by date the description. So that easy enough to find something.

The main thing is that LR was really good at the gradients and edits which were non destructible and that you could back to a photo months later and still be able to adjust those edits. That's kind of gone with Affinity.

Its more like Photoshop where you have the full layers saved in files .... Which if you have a number of layers leads to very very large files.
 
Some good points and I fully agree the one thing I seem to miss the most is adding a radial or linear filter and adjusting things like clarity amongst others. I can't find a way to do this in the develop module within Affinity. It results in layers and masks which I don't mind but I miss the convenience.
I have to say I very rarely go back and redo many of my edits and in the cases I have I usually restart from scratch so I may not miss that feature all that much. The one thing I have picked up from my research is that Affinity has always been behind the trend when compared to Photoshop or Lightroom but it seems to receive timely and frequent updates. This is most prevalent when you come across forum posts from 2-3 years ago which highlight features that weren't in Affinity at the time but are now so that's encouraging if nothing else.
 
I came across a situation where I wanted to go back recently. I had edited a photo in LR and had got the colours and adjustments really good but never did anything with the image like save it out. I then ditched Adobe.

Fast forward to recently and I wanted the image printed to canvas. I couldn't get affinity to the same place with the photo. It was close but not the same. I'm still learning affinity but I couldn't work the image in the same manner.


It's almost like affinity photo and designer should merge or overlap and offer vector type adjustments to pixel images. That way you're only saving the original bitmap plus a small additional vector data of changes like gradients.
 
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Another option that is almost a Lightroom copy and drops under the radar is Cyberlink Photodirector, its very easy to use if you are well versed in LR with minor changes and actually prefer some things. Has LUTs which are the same as LR presets etc.

It's all I use now since there is no way I'm subscribing to the Adobe gouge and there is also a free trial.
 
And said:
Hardly a gouge at a tenner a month
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For casuals like myself who use LR once a month maybe twice and never ever touch photoshop it is absolutely.

There arent even regular updates or decent optimisation to take full advantage of modern hardware.

But I guess in an economy where people pay £5 for a coffee value perception definitely in the eye of the consumer.
 
Ok so I tried and I'm just not sure Affinity is the solution. See the two photos below:





The second one (as you can probably tell from the tone of post) was from Affinity. I spent a good hour this afternoon trying to edit and I just couldn't hit the sweet spot for what I had in my head. I went over to my PC and banged out the first photo in Lightroom in 5 minutes.

I'll admit there could be things in Affinity I'm maybe not using correctly but the ability to alter clarity and local brush adjustments is just something I cannot use conveniently (or with much success) in Affinity.
IMG-3733c.jpg
 
I struggled with Affinity too, as well as a few others and mostly all of it was interface related or features were called something I didnt relate to immediately.

That in the end is why I landed on PhotoDirector, its the most LR 'like' option I've used that isnt LR.
 
Affinity does work slightly differently, especially if you have come from LR.

GMac11 - Not wanting to beat you up about it, but I do think you can get closer than you have got there with Affinity ... its just that you still need to learn it. The exposure, saturation and sharpness/clarity is well down on the affinity one. Similarly, the vignette is a bit harsher.

( do you have the original that I could have a bash at ? )

It just works differently. Where in LR, you can just slide all the changes in one go, you almost need to think along the lines of having a layer and mask for each of those slide changes. Which makes is more complicated.... but it can get you most of the way there.

As for the comments of its only a tenner per month ... it adds up, and already said, if you use it sparingly, that still may not be worth it. Especially as they push to making it online more and more which I wasn't a fan of. I was lucky to be on an education plan for the full Adobe suite for about £25/mth, but I wasn't using it enough to merit even that. Since then, I've bought Affinity products when on sale, so for 3 months of the old plan, I have the 3 Affinity apps in full, and no further cost for the updates ( so far ). That is worth it more to me.
 
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@Donnie Fisher you are 100% correct - I am nowhere near unlocking the full potential of Affinity although I have been trying this last few days. I had another crack at the photo and arrived at this:

IMG-3733f.jpg


This is certainly an improvement (to my eyes anyway) although I'm still just not quite at Lightroom standard YET.

And by all means have a crack at the RAW file:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19IszW2k8_OIDSNdG_mX56Cm86H_Xx3EP/view?usp=sharing

My impression may be incorrect but it seems that, unlike what I would do in Lightroom, you can't just load a photo and start cranking sliders left, right and centre. Each individual adjustment has a small bearing on other adjustments. For example an exposure adjustment needs to be carefully planned along with Shadows/Highlights as you can very easily end up blowing out the extremities. As you say it takes a little more planning and thought and for each adjustment a new layer needs to be added. As a noob this is tedious to say the least but I have got quicker at it and I think in the long run it actually gives you a little more control over your adjustments. It's almost like going from automatic to manual.
I had a go at editing a photo I took last summer and granted I probably spent nearly 2 hours at it on and off I am almost there when compared to the original Lightroom edit:
(Lightroom image on top / Affnity on bottom. Ignore the 16:9 crop and border on the Affinity photo. By that stage I was tinkering for the sake of it!)

IMG-8646-Edit-2.jpg


Portstewart-J.jpg
 
Just saw this thread now, as I don't really check in on this forum very much these days.

@GMac11 - I gradually switched away from LR/PS over a period of 3-4 years, mostly because I was unhappy with how LR handled Fujifilm RAW files, and I became increasingly frustrated with the general bloatedness and performance issues of the software. Adobe was picking up a fortune in subscription fees but ignoring their customers concerns.

In my opinion, Affinity Photo isn't meant to be a direct substitute for LR - it's more akin to Photoshop or Photoshop Elements ; a pixel editor with very limited DAM tools. So, in terms of digital asset management (DAM ) you may find it difficult to organise your photos/files with Affinity compared to LR, which is designed with that in mind from the ground up.

On reflection, having used LR since its pre-release alpha stage, I came to the conclusion that I didn't particularly like LR's proprietary DAM. It locked me into their system which I saw as a potential problem further down the line if I wanted to change software. I'm quite happy organising my own files into folders with a logical labelling structure. With that in mind I turned to Capture One Pro ( COP ) as my RAW editor/DAM software - it's weaker overall on the DAM side but it's more flexible with other apps and I like how it gives the option to save "projects" ( or "sessions", as they call it ), which fits my work style, as folders with their own internal folder structure eg. captured images, selected images, images to be trashed, edited images, exported images. For me, and especially with Fujifilm RAW files, the editing capabilities of Capture One Pro are superior to LR. COP also supports editing with layers ( applied to the base RAW file ) which is amazing and allows me to do more editing without having to resort to Photoshop.

Of course, it does take time to learn a new application, particularly if you have been using the previous one for years. I think a lot of people lack patience and give up quickly, blaming inferior output on the software rather than their lack of skills.

If you are a hobbyist and don't shoot much COP may not be the anwer for you as it is one of the more expensive RAW editors but in contrast to LR you have the option of buying either a subscription or a perpetual license outright. Other RAW editors I like, and sometimes use, which are less expensive and give LR a good run for their money are Alien Exposure X5 and ON1 Photo RAW.

To summarise, my workflow is now Capture One Pro ( for DAM and RAW editing ) with Affinity Photo for pixel editing and anything else I'd previously use Photoshop for.

Good luck with your journey and experimentation :)
 
I've found with affinity that its a 2 stage process with RAW files. You have the develop section when you open it, then the secondary editing section after its developed.

I generally try to limit the develop section to general exposure and detail, and do the more complex stuff after.

There is no doubt, its not as complete as LR is but i'm still learning.

I had a play ... still learning too ! LR seemed to be very good at bringing out the bee ... in LR had you made an selected area adjustment around the bee itself ?

The LR is slightly warm onthe flowers too compared to mine.

i0ox4AX.jpg
 
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You are spot on about the bee - LR definitely seems to bring it out just that little bit more. My LR attempt was a fairly crude adjustment brush with clarity cranked up. LR also seems to do a slightly better job at making the background foliage a little more contrasty between the green and yellow hues however you have managed to get that very close above - just another skill for me to hone on AP.

@xaldub patience is definitely a virtue required to learn AP and if I was being honest with myself had we not been in the midst of a lock down I probably would have cast it aside by now. It's the perfect time to try and learn something new so I'm definitely going to stick with it. I'm currently stuck with editing old images (no bad thing at all) however that comes with the 'baggage' (for want of a better word) as I am constantly trying to match my original LR edits - case in point above!
Ideally some new images to edit from scratch could unleash a little more creativity.
 
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