I Tried Affinity Photo for 30 Days...
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- Опубликовано: 23 июл 2024
- I’ve been using Photoshop for over 30 years. I’ve now been using Affinity Photo for a mere 30 days. But even in that short amount of time, I’ve developed several insights into why this software exists, and who it’s for. That who might be you.
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[CHAPTERS]
00:18 Nondestructive Transformations All the Time
01:53 Applying a Filter to a Downsampled Image
02:39 Using the Develop Persona (a.k.a. Camera Raw)
05:14 Painting and Refining Masks
06:40 Saving to the Native .afphoto Format
07:05 Sliding Backward and Forward through History
07:40 Applying Liquify as an Editable Live Filter
10:37 Working with Clipped Masks and Effects
11:31 Patch and the Other Healing Functions
12:10 Meet the Powerful Blend Options
14:06 Will I Trade in Photoshop for Affinity Photo?
After about 30 years, I switched to Affinity and it was an easy move. I love how fast it is. I don't miss Photoshop at all.
There seems to be a lot of that 🥳
Agreed. I switched last year and I don't miss Adobe at all
I'm not even 30 year old 😅
This feels like the type of comment I linux user whould write (it's terrible)
I'm 30 and have like 20 using Photoshop and around 14 using Illustrator so one would say the Adobe suite is very ingrained in my mind and life, but it wasn't hard to move being used to learn a ton of software along the years, I just open it and use it as it is nothing, but if I get stuck, just search on RUclips or Google and that's it, I'm back in action with more knowledge again!
He taught me Photoshop 15 years ago, now Affinity Photo😊
ditto
Awesome!
I bought his book about CS2.
@@Jack_Warner Thx!
I began my Photoshop journey with you many years ago. Your training has taken me from newbie to advanced user over the years through many of your your One on One training courses. I have thoroughly appreciated your approach and enthusiasm for teaching so much so many times I have recommended your training to many of my friends. So needless to say, this video grabbed my attention because of who you are. I was thoroughly blown away by your enthusiasm for Affinity and made me seriously consider Affinity as an alternative to Photoshop.
Thank you very much! And, yeah, I didn’t expect to be quite this impressed.
Thanks for this video! Please make more tutorials comparing Affinity Photo with Photoshop. There are many Affinity Photo tutorials on RUclips, but none of them are target for Photoshop users. This kind of information is very useful. Affinity has just opened the trail time duration for 6 months.
My pleasure! Yes, the free trial is very cool, and very smart. And, yes, I will make more!
Deke does Affinity!!
No, the single best advantage Affinity Photo has over Photoshop is the pricing!
Pay for it once, it's yours. No subscription needed! The way Photoshop USED to do it, but at a much lower price than Photoshop EVER was.
No, it's not quite the same as Photoshop, but it's certainly close enough.
When Photoshop told me the newest update wouldn't support the integrated graphics on my Ivy Bridge MacBook I canceled my Adobe subscription and went all Affinity and never looked back.
Glad to welcome you over to our side, Deke! We have cookies!
Just a word of caution: Affinity got bought up by Canva this year. They are known for their subscription model. I'm really worried that they will implement that in Affinity too as soon as enough users jumped over to them. Maybe not as expensive as Adobe but still much more expensive than the fantastic perpetual license they are offering now. Remember: Affinity tweeted in september 2022 "aint nobody acquiring us." So they clearly have a history of breaking promises, it seems.
Sounds like an industry standard way of hooking subs in. Offer a one time pay then switch to a monthly subscriber membership. I know where this is going to in the future. No, thx I might as well stay put with Photoshop.
HA! (Will there be ice cream?)
@@jetd9716Affinity has been around for nine years and still haven't going to a subscription model. There's no evidence they have any intention of doing so, either. Especially after seeing the blowback against Adobe. I left Adobe years ago and have never had a moment of regret.
@@jetd9716 Well, they recently came out with version 2 of their apps which requires a repurchase, but justas in the old days, there was a generous upgrade discount.
We need more of these affinity tutorials Deke. I learned photoshop from you about 17 yrs ago and used photoshop, Once adobe abused their privileges and forced unfair and downright criminal agreements upon me I left for affinity and its the best move I ever made, and that's a shame I loved and used photoshop for many years!
Then I will continue to delve into Affinity!
What I like about Affinity is that the gap is closing all the time. For example the RAW space used to be a destructive edit for RAW but now you can traverse back and forth. Won't be long before the tools for the space will be available for all formats. I'm loving it!
Another thing I love: After eight(?) years, I believe, Affinity is still calling itself Version 2.X. Which means Serif is keeping its customers happy for extended periods of time.
Love the tutorials you do for Adobe, glad to see you are moving to Affinity as well (I know you aren't abandoning Adobe completely) but also helping with Affinity tutorials.
Excellent, thx!
Wow, Deke you were my man back in 2000´s when I started to learn Illustrator and Photoshop, you still get the touch. I´m so glad to find you teaching Affinity, I´m a user of it and I would love to hear what you have to say about.
This feels like a design school reunion except I never met any of you before haha
That’s awesome news, thx!
Hi Deke, thank you very much for this video. You were my first and still favorite Photoshop teacher. Without even knowing it. More than 20 years ago your book (Photoshop Bible?) and videos are the foundation of my start, knowledge and enthusiasm for Photoshop and everything related to working digital. A year ago I started using Affinity Photo and Designer but am so used working with Photoshop that I haven’t completely switched.
This is all really great news, makes me feel proud, so thx! Takes a while to make a big move!
Thanks for this video, answers a ton of questions as a 20 + yr Photoshop user who just signed up for the free 6 month affinity trial
That’s awesome!
I started learning Photoshop and Illustrator from you 15 years ago, everything that comes from you is to be considered.
Well that really rocked. As college faculty I always learn about how to teach as well as how to use the software from you. I do miss "the good ol' days" when you dressed as an archaeologist, etc. (much like Dr. Brown btw). My time is limited but you have convinced me to do the new 6 month free trial of Affinity. Thanks again! 👏👏👏👏👏👏
That’s great news, thanks!!
i just tried affinity both the designer and photo.. as a professional graphic artist all i can say is WOW! how did i not know about affinity before this is beyond me. rest assured im so confident that moving from photoshop/illustrator to affinity is not even an issue! its just so good and so easy to use yet as powerful as adobe.
That’s great news! I’m not entirely that sold on it myself, but la vie change!
Do ai / eps files from Adobe open up on Affinity ? Are they compatible?
Cheers
Deke! Damn, I learned from you back in cs3 or something when you did those huge courses on Lynda. Damn nice to see you, even if it's on youtube.
For me it was Dekes "Photoshop 4 for Dummies" book. Which eventually - gave me a 'career'. Had it not been for Dekes funny writing, may never have got the bug,
@@yinoveryang4246 Yeah, I always enjoyed Deke's courses and his way of presenting also.
It’s good to be here-and thanks for the encouragement!
Deke, it is good to hear your voice again. I remember watching your tutorials when I was working as a video editor back in 2000.
Do I sound older? (NO, right? 😅)
Not having a few features (that will probably be added in the future) is absolutely not a problem if we consider not being tied anymore to Adobe's extremely predatory, trashy practices.
Not like it's an issue for me, I just visit the high seas. But the more market share they lose, the better for the industry.
I think after the purchase of Affinity by Canva, we will see an accelerated timeline for more features. I've been using the Affinity suite for 3 years now and I generally prefer using it over Adobe. Though Adobe is clearly a more mature (and, ahem, bloated) piece of software. I just love the snappiness and more pleasant interface of Affinity.
Well, I will say Affinity isn’t the slimmest piece of software I’ve ever used. But it does take its job of keeping up with Photoshop seriously 👏
Along with that is likely to come a subscription though.
@@HR-wd6cw Pure speculation. They have issued a public statement that they will continue to offer it as a one-time purchase and IF they ever go to a subscription model, it will be an offering alongside the perpetual license. There are already applications that use this type of model such as Filmora and Sketch. You purchase it outright and get free feature updates for a year and then after that you only get security patches.
Truly appreciate this. Been a PS user since 2002 and now switching to AP as adobe left me less than pleased. Just going with the 6 month free trial and this type of content is so helpful.
Nice. There will be more!
I learned so many things about Photoshop from Deke. Watching him do a run down on Affinity Pro is awesome. I just subscribed.
Awe. Some!
Thank you, finally a comparison I can trust! I will also watch the patreon video as soon as I can. 👍
Yay! Thx!
I've been using Affinity Photo since it first came out 7-8 years ago and have never looked back. It's got everything you need if you want to create graphics and the only things it doesn't have are some of the more esoteric features such as 3D and the new AI generative fill features, none of which a real artist would ever need.
Affinity Photo is way faster and more stable than Photoshop has ever been so it's a no brainer.
Price is spot on too. Will never go back to using Photoshop again.
This is good to know!
Very happy to see you delve into Affinity. More videos please!
Absolutely!
Really interesting, Deke. Love some more. And am looking forward to Illustrator vs Affinity Designer. Ya know, like when you get a spare moment!
Gimme another 30 days! 😁
Well, there he is 😃 Hi Deke, you were my Photoshop instructor on Lynda way back in the Photoshop 3 days. I switched to Affinity after Photoshop CS6 and haven't looked back since. I'm looking forward to seeing more Affinity videos from you - preferably with side-by-side comparisons with Photoshop. 👍🇩🇰
I’m on it!
Thanks for this. Something I use a lot for my work in PS is context aware removal, or generate to create plates for background in video. Is there anything like this? Do the tools all work in 32 but? Some tools are limited to 16 bit in PS.
Thanks for this. As a professional designer I will be aging out of needing a full creative cloud subscription. The idea of owning the software outright is very appealing. I do find affinity a bit complex but it will do what I need it to do. More videos on this would be very helpful.
More are coming! I have to say, I do find it hilarious that Serif has made almost no attempt to streamline things. Affinity Photo is an unapologetic colossus ⛰
LOVE Affinity! Takes a little to get used to the new nomenclature, but YOU OWN IT OUTRIGHT!
There's no way i got an Adobe Photoshop ad before the video started. 💀
Yeah from the beginning I could tell that HE KNOWS what he is talkin about 'XD. Im indeed not gonna use Photoshop anymore but I'll be using Photopea and Affinity. The devs should see your video to make it better.
Damn it was such a good video, I had fun watching and even if I wasn't looking for something I learned stuff, amazing! Can't wait to see more :)
Excellent! Thank you, and more is on the way. 🙂
Like so many other folks Deke you taught me Photoshop and to an extent Illustrator back in the CS3 days for which I'll be ever forever grateful 🙏 I moved over to Affinity a few years ago, the Adobe prices just got too crazy, so it's great to see you doing some videos on Affinity Photo. Perhaps one day we might see a range of Affinity Photo One on One Fundamentals , Intermediate and Advanced courses some day?
Give me a couple of years on that one. 😅 But I’m happy to say, Affinity Photo deserves more attention!
Moved to Affinity Photo quite a while ago. Never looked back.
Do you mind me asking about the subject selecting capabilities in affinity photo. Does it look like photo'shop "select and mask" or any different or anything lacking?
@@hasindukumara5358 Difficult to say as it's a long time since I used Photoshop (so don't know how current version does it exactly) and I haven't moved to Affinity 2 yet either (going to start a trial of v2 soon). I would suggest trying the free Affinity trial and see if it suits.
What did you find in Affinity and what did you not find in Affinity that was a crucial aspect of Photoshop?
@@mr.person1219 I'm in the comments section - I'm not doing comprehensive head to head reviews here :)
Deke - I learned PS from your tutorials 30 years ago. Seriously. Glad to see you back. But, you know Affinity cannot compare to our PS of 2024!! ❣️
I’m not leaving Ps anytime soon. (I have a few more reasons at my Patreon. For example, transformations are handled haphazardly depending on the layer type. There’s more.) But Affinity has a lot going for it!
I'd love to see more Affinity Photo tutorials Deke. I'm a Photoshop user of over 20 years and have watched your tutorials since the Lynda days. I appreciate your humor and style of teaching. I make my living as a commercial photographer and I create pretty high end stuff including working on national ad campaigns. Retouching and post production is a HUGE part of my creative process and Lightroom/Photoshop has been an integral part of that. Trying to find a "replacement" is nearly impossible.
Due to recent events with the controversy over Adobe's Terms of Use (more specifically the license agreement artists were at one point being forced to grant them before they changed their mind and rewrote their terms due to backlash from the creative community), I've lost a lot of trust with Adobe and decided to purchase Affinity Photo 2. I've been experimenting with it and there are a lot of things that I like about it. For example, the live filters are really cool and super responsive.
That being said, there are also some things that I feel like are missing (or my lack of knowledge in the program has me thinking that they're missing.) For example, when you create a curves adjustment layer a panel pops up, just like Photoshop. However, you'd think that you'd be able to save a curves preset and access it from that same curves adjustment layer panel. Instead, you have to go to Window > Adjustment and access your presets there. Not a big fan of that.
Anyway, thanks for making this video. I always enjoy your perspective and teaching style.
My immense pleasure! I am likewise smitten with Live Filters. (I plan to drill down on those guys in a future week.) Affinity has a lot of little things to catch up with, but Serif & Co have a track record of nimble updates. I’m really encouraged.
@@dekeNow Awesome, looking forward to seeing a video on that! I'm hopeful that this software will just keep getting better over time. Cheers 🍻
Thanks for another nice video. I'm a 20+-year photoshop and Illustrator user. The subscription fee for CC is becoming really high, making me look for alternatives. That's why I appreciate that you are looking into Affinity Photo. Any chance you will investigate Affinity Design (AI alternative) as well?
For you, yes I will. (But give me another 30 days!)
@@dekeNow Great!
I switched to Affinity Photo about 4 years ago and I use a few other tools like Luminar Neo and Topaz software to give me those quick and easy AI features so I don't feel like I am missing out on that much with Photoshop. Now with the whole licensing concerns with Photoshop I am hoping more folks jump ship to Affinity Photo and maybe with a few more dollars in hand Affinity Photo can start to add a few more Photoshop tricks that can make it an even more exciting alternative.
Sounds great to me!
Thanks for the great video, Deke! Will we have an Affinity Photo Bible in the future? :) I still have my Adobe Photoshop 5 Bible (and also an Adobe Photoshop 7 Bible) from back then, good times!
You own TWO bibles? That’s awesome news! (But, no, no way, no more Bibles, no no no . . .)
Yes after two decades switched to Affinity. It feels more intuitive. And much less expensive. I took some of your Photoshop and Illustrator courses. You're an amazing teacher. Please explore Affinity more :) Love
It’s decided-next week!
Depending on one's needs, Affinity Photo can be a good alternative. Definitely worth a try! I subscribed because I'm curious what you will come up with comparing the iPad versions - there Affinity (not only Photo) is on a completely different level in my experience. Best of all: You're not confined to work in/with Creative Cloud, but can access any file you want, anywhere you want (iPadOS has come a long way in this regard, even though it took Apple over 10 years to make file handling halfway usable on the iPad)!
Agreed re: iPad file management. And thanks for the sub-I’m excited to take on that topic!
Might not be for everyone but Affinity does everything I need, and at a great one-off price. No-brainer for me! Big Affinity fan.
Can’t argue with that!
Hey thanks for your vid but may you help me on this?
My Affinizy photo is laggy af..although its using my gpu...
Do you have a solution for this?
Where is it lagging for you? Do you have a few scenarios you can share?
Thanks for this Deke I've been thinking of buying Affinity. I would love to see more tutorials.
Presently, there is a complimentary trial period of six months for the Affinity Suite.
@@psdtouch Thanks for the info! I'll check it out.
You got it!
Yes I would like to see more of Affinity please
Coming right up! (Turn on notifications!)
Thank you very much for sharing. I appreciate it.
My pleasure!
Does it have separation tools to other sources of ways for art
You mean color separation? It supports CMYK and D50 Lab, but I haven’t explored outside RGB/8 so far.
How is Affinity's brush engine compared to PS? Is it friendly for painters?
That I do not yet know. I hope to address some of the painterly/art-feel stuff when I take on the iPad cage match
Deke, you are the man for sure. You have taught me and millions and I cannot thank you enough for what I have learned from you. The issue is with Adobe and its' less than ethical practices. It won't change unless it gets hit in the pocketbook. That is why I canceled my subscription and have moved over to Affinity software. It's a shame, but I felt like a hypocrite for being critical of Adobe's subscription model but yet still paying for it. That's not to say that one can't be critical of the software they use, that's how the software gets better, but when the company keeps kicking you and laughing, while I am paying them, I decided to end the toxic relationship. I look forward to seeing you use AP!
Thank you! I’m looking forward to more Affinity. Stick with me and let me know what you think!
Hi, I've just started looking at Affinity, can you help with some advice please? In photoshopI have a filter called Imagenomic portraiture which does a great job of skin retouching, you can use several layers for different amounts of retouch and it's very quick. Is there anything like this for Affinity do you know? Also, I have lot's of actions that I made myself for Photoshop, is there an Affinity equivalent? Thanks!
Affinity offers the option of loading Ps plug-ins, but I have no sense for success rate. (You might contact Imagenomic.) Affinity can’t reasonably import Ps actions b/c the “hooks” don’t work (command structure is different). Affinity does offer a Macro panel that lets you record a sequence of operations, much like actions.
@@dekeNow Thanks for your reply. Affinity will load the Imagenomic plugin but it doesn't work unfortunately.
@@MickPayton Thx for trying that out and letting me know! I wonder how many plug-ins actually do work. (I imagine the APIs are wildly different.)
Definitely want to see more Affinity Photo videos!
You’re on!
@@dekeNow awesome!
Liquify live filter is a reason to switch all by itself.
I switched fully to Affinity almost a year ago now 🥳, and you review is on point it stand true even a year after 🤣🤣 TBH gets under my skin every time I see reviews recommending Affinity Photo for Photoshop users without actually being experienced Photoshop users themselves, or who only used it for a short trial while still having Photoshop on hand. They say "it's a great software, I switched!" but honestly, it's not even close to replacing Photoshop. It's just not a fair comparison. Two clicks in Photoshop take 15 clicks in Affinity Photo, you get my point? And the lack of real plugin support is killing me. 😭😭 I still use office RemotePC to access photoshop for those Photo Cutting and Some plugin workflows till this day 😜😜
I have not tried a single Ps plug-in in AffPh so far. (Also, how are we supposed to abbreviate this product name?)
@@dekeNow AFPhoto 😅
And the iPad version...😮😮😮😮😮😮😮 Amazing....❤
Looking forward to it!
I would prefer the HSL in the develop persona, and also the camera profile/calibration. I'm glad there's metadata editing, which as for me as a semi pro photographer, does a lot of good
Welcome to the World of Affinity! 😀
Thx!
great, thanks Deke
My pleasure!
They just switched their trial period to 6 MONTHS! and the entire suite is on $85 right now for a lifetime version 2.x license, so almost everyone can afford it...
I hadn’t heard about the $85 thing. That is, quite frankly, a crazy good deal.
Would be interested i hearing your thoughts on compound masks in Affinity Photo and also your thoughts on Affinity Designer
I’m interested to hear my thoughts as well 😂 Seriously, both are on my short list!
An Affinity Photo course from Deke would be a game-changer and dare I say a change in the Zeitgeist.
I await my Total Training VHS's, thank you sir.
Okay, that was worthy of a spit take. 😂 How many videotapes would you like? Enough to fill a large closet, or a small apartment?
@@dekeNow Wait! I could've gotten videotapes? I still have all of the TT DVDs from back in the day. Gonna have to finish watching them one day. I suspect they would still be somewhat useful trainings.
@@dekeNow I believe a singular closet will suffice. Just enough for a background of book shelves. Or 'Shelves of Deke' as it were.
@@yuppysoul I have those!
I've learned many techniques from you through Linda and your previous company! Two years ago, I switched to Affinity. I still have Adobe to convert my files, but I love the performance of Affinity having the same applications on both my Macbook and iPad. Although I pay monthly for Adobe CC, I don't like to work with any of the Adobe applications.
So you still have an Adobe subscription, but you’re doing most your work in the Affinity apps? That seems like a safe solution.
@@dekeNow Yes. I could say I do 95% of my work with Affinity apps and 5% Adobe apps.
I think you will enjoy working with Affinity Publisher, which includes Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo.
In Adobe, you have to travel a lot between Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign, but when you work with Affinity Publisher, you don’t need to travel between applications at all. Basically, you work with one app to start and finish all of your work. Try it
@@dekeNow Yes. I could say I do 95% of my work with Affinity apps and 5% Adobe apps.
I think you will enjoy working with Affinity Publisher, which includes Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo.
In Adobe, you have to travel a lot between Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign, but when you work with Affinity Publisher, you don’t need to travel between applications at all. Basically, you can start and finish all of your work in one app. If you want to continue your work with an iPad, no problem; you have all the tools, features and functions as your desktop.
@@shirazigs This I did not know. I look forward to this part of *my* learning.
The Master is here. Now we need affinity Bible! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
😃Thanks!!
Been using Affinity Photo for a few years now. Haven't missed PS a bit.
This is good to hear 😃
There is a Revert option, it’s under Edit if I remember it correctly.
Good memory!! Edit > Defaults > Revert doesn’t Revert to the last-saved image, though. It’s supposed to restore default settings, but I have yet to do see it do much of anything.
any lightroom classic solution??? like catalog, etc...
Not that I know of.
Thanks Deke. Yes, please delve deeper. And wider. PSD user since v3. I bought CS6 Master Suite in 2012 and refuse to rent. I've had Affinity Photo since it came out, but just can't make the final leap- Muscle memory gets me every time.
I took the leap last year after two years of "playing around" with Affinity Photo. v2, and especially 2.5+ made it possible for me. Yes ... muscle memory is hard to overcome! Especially after decades in Photoshop! But, like you, I refused to rent. First project after switching 100% to Photo was fantastic, even more so considering it was an outdoor exhibit with HUGE physical dimensions and file sizes. Zero problems. Very happy to have switched.
I will say, unequivocally, Affinity Photo is better than Photoshop CS6. (I use CS6 every once in a while, and boy howdy is it creaky)
@@LV4EVR That’s awesome feedback!
New to AP. Kindly tell me the differences between the “personas” and what they’re all about. Thanks.
Personas are traditionally a UX term, meaning use cases. In AP, they resemble what Adobe calls “workspaces,” like Select & Mask, and Liquify. They’re subprograms, IOW.
@@dekeNow understood. Thank you, much appreciated.
If i leave Adobe, will I be able to open my hundreds of files saved with Adobe file extensions? I’m now using other extensions but have decades of work that I worried about.
I wouldn’t swear to it. I imagine Affinity is going to handle your PNGs and JPEGs and third-party file formats just fine. As for PSDs, the software gives you a laundry list of items it doesn’t recognize (which, honestly, I rarely find helpful) every time you open a PSD file. The only app that can guarantee full support for PSDs is Photoshop.
@@dekeNow I don’t save Photo shop files so much. Mostly just save image files for those, it’s illustrator and InDesign files that concern me. I’ve started saving illustrator as .svg or .
@@graphicallydeb9897 I’ve only begun investigating Affinity Designer; haven’t even tried an SVG yet. InDesign files are rarely backward-compatible with previous versions of InDesign, so I’m not sure I’d put much hope in a third-party app offering consistent support.
No Revert is a problem. Do we have to go back to PS5 in 1999 and save a bunch of versions?
Thank you! I feel the same way.
Speed up my selection and mask process by atleast half haha thank you
If I could, I would!
I switched completely to Affinity.
I would like something really simple, as I am more concerned with taking a good photo on the camera, instead of spending hours on a computer trying to create a good image from a poorly taken one!
I try to adopt a film mentality when using digital, so I'm concentrating on composition and correct camera settings. Slight tweaks afterwards are fine, but I want to be out taking shots, not sat at a computer.
Not to discourage you from Affinity, but what you’re describing is the domain of Lightroom. Photoshop, Affinity Photo, and their ilk are compositing programs-not designed to disguise the quality of a photograph, but rather to build more elaborate works of digital art.
@@dekeNow
No problem if that's what you're after.
I just want to record a good composition straight out of the camera of something I'm looking at.
".... as I am more concerned with taking a good photo on the camera, instead of spending hours on a computer trying to create a good image from a poorly taken one!..."
Working on the computer does not mean one did not take a good shot.
In this day and age...no matter how good a shot you took with the camera....it can still be tweaked and 'improved' on the computer.
I should know...I've been a taking pictures for over 40 years now - and trained myself in those film days to get the shot 'right' to begin with - And that was a necessity to shoot like that back then because you never got a second chance without having to 'pay' - It costs money to develop film and you had to wait before it got developed.
Even if you did your own darkroom work - there's still the 'wait'.
Image editing software is not about trying to make a bad photo good.
Unless you simply don't like sitting at a computer screen, and just want to be out in the field - You are missing out on a quit a bit with that thinking.
Think of modern photography software as digital darkrooms.
I don't think anyone back in the film days would say Ansel Adams did dark room work because his original shots were done poorly - no, he took care to get good shots so he could do good darkroom work.
It's the same with todays digital cameras and software - You take good photos to begin with so you can take full advantage of the software.
That's why I always shoot in RAW and only work on the good images in the software.
@@babajaiy8246 Yes!
Hey deke, do you make courses in linkedin in future?
Please continue the new feature series...
I would *love* to continue the New Features, but sadly those got shut down across the board.
My guess is that for most people, including me that just makes thumbnails and plays around with filters, Affinity Photo will do most if not all of what we want.
I just paid my Adobe sub, so I'll wait about 20 days and then I'll decide if I'll quit that or not. Probably will.
Wow! Keep us posted 😁
Affinity Photo is a good option for us hobbyists who want more than Photoshop Elements, but who don't want to pay for a Photoshop subscription. I also like how one can call up Affinity Photo directly from within Apple's Photos application. Recently I purchased the perpetual universal licence for the Affinity V2 suite, which allows not only me but also my family members to use it on all of our machines. That's just in time for my kids, a new generation who is starting to dabble in this stuff but who has never been exposed to Photoshop before. However, I wonder if Canva/Serif is going to add stuff like generative AI sooner rather than later and slap a V3 label on it while also changing to a subscription model at that time.
I use AP professionally as a product photographer and in my spare time as a hobbyist so there is definitely a professional user or two out there
I'm sold.
Best wishes!
Thanks for the comparison video, Deke! I'm honestly just going to stick with Adobe. I'm used to the software after 25+ years, and I need InDesign for accessibility work. Plus, all the AI features are useful. BUT I'm always curious about alternatives.
I hear you!
It's good but still nowhere near the combination of PS/LR, however at the price it's very affordable for those on a budget. Also no Generative Ai which is good for object removal. I'll be sticking to Adobe's offering.
This is also my take for now.
I agree...as much as I dislike how Adobe operates it's business...for my photography...only going with the LR/PS on price point for features I use, is still a keeper. Although I am aware of some software, of which I can't remember their names, having some features like denoisers which apparently are better than Adobes...still has too high a price per month to switch.
Does the program also have a Lightroom copy? Otherwise it’s useless for a lot of people
It offers the Development persona; I’m unaware of any Lightroom solutions per se. (I think Serif is primarily targeting the design audience.)
I tried Affinity Photo again just a week ago and the same thing I hated about it from a few years back is still an issue today - shadows. In Lightroom/Camera Raw when I raise my shadows it pulls out detail for me to work with. Affinity acts like I'm trying to pull up shadows on a jpeg and leaves me with just a gray mess. I'd love to get away from the subscription model, but Affinity just doesn't work well.
You’re pulling shadows with the Shadows control in the Development persona? I haven’t found an image that gives me different results so far, though I’ll keep looking. Meanwhile, I think it’s interesting that Affinity lets you develop a raw photo in the context of a layered composition, rather than honing in on just the one image, as in Camera Raw.
@@dekeNow Yep, and likewise when I try to recover highlights it does the same, as if it was clipped, but LR has no problem with it.
Yes the shadows and highlights tool has always been pretty broken. I know they use a third party RAW decoder so I wonder if that is why…
@@chrisnielsen9885 Interesting. Worth more consideration for sure.
@@dekeNow I just did a comparison between AP, NX Studio and PS for shadow recovery and I actually like the AP one the best. It does raise a much larger amount of shadows but I find PS raises such a narrow band of shadows the final image doesn’t look as good
Great video. Very informative. But I'm still looking too. 😅
Look + never quite find = flexible thinker
Affinity was bought by Canva a few months ago now. Canva has a lot of AI related online apps many being similar to the Photoshop AI features. So I am hoping at some point these AI tools will be integrated into Affinity Photo which would make it very much closer to Photoshop.
For Ai I side load an image into Krita which has Ai fill locally.
It’s on my list!
Subscription or you own the version you buy?
Affinity employs a buy-to-own model. (Although, as has been noted by others, it is currently free.)
I have been using Photoshop for ~30 years too. I have been transitioning to Adobe for the last 3 or 4 years. I am completely done with InDesign and Illustrator but keep going to Photoshop. Affinity Photo is great but I still have to go to Photoshop for some of those options that just aren't there yet for Affinity Photo. Well, a lot of them are, but Photoshop still does it better and easier on a lot of those options. I did manage to drop my Adobe account for all applications and went for the Photoshop Only option - Hopefully, as Affinity Photo keeps getting better over time, will be able to drop Adobe completely. I LOVE owning my software too - just like Adobe did. I think Adobe should have given the option to buy the software too. The moment I quit "renting" their software I lose the ability to edit with their product vs. when I purchased their software, like in the past, I could CHOOSE to see if an upgrade was necessary and still use the software if I chose not to or couldn't afford it at the time.
What did you replace Illustrator with? Affinity Designer or Photoshop / Affinity Photo?
I'm in a similar boat to you and have got down to a photoshop only subscription nowadays, but I do miss the days when I had Illustrator.
@@yuppysoul Affinity Designer replaced Illustrator. I do miss some of the features of Illustrator. I do like some of the features better in Designer too. I do try and use Photo to replace Photoshop to get in the habit (I do plan on eventually leaving Photoshop but some features have just not yet been matched) and I was a big fan of InDesign since before it was even popular and companies I worked for using QuarkXpress (back in the late 90s and early 00's) Publisher is a great alternative to InDesign and some of the features (ie: color and gradients, etc.) are actually better in Publisher. I used InDesign since version 1.5 too. I haven't used InDesign in probably a little bit over a year. Acrobat I have replaced with just the standard preview app on the Mac and ipad.
I’d be interested to know what drives you back to Photoshop. I very much get it, btw. But I’m eager to hear everyone’s specifics!
@@dekeNow Probably the comfort and ease of it being second nature when it comes to Photoshop. A lot of features I know without thinking I know which menus to go to without having to get certain features and functions. It is just getting out of my comfort zone. When it comes to paid projects I work on I don't want to mess around with trying to figure out how to do certain things in Affinity Photo as I want to get my project done and get paid. Lol. I could survive without Photoshop, but it would take me longer to do some of the workarounds in Photo. Two of my favorite features are that it is much easier to crop with AI in Photoshop and automated commands and shortcuts in Photoshop vs. Affinity's inferior macro settings just to name a couple off the top of my head.
I use both on my mac and PC to be honest. But on my off time I try to do more with affinity photo. I also LOVE that they have full-featured apps on the iPad vs. Adobe horrible versions of their Photoshop and Illustrator on the iPad. I watched your tutorial on Photoshop iPad and can totally relate to your thinking on PS on the ipad.
Excellent video - you seem very excited and shouty though so I can’t watch for long.
Well, I do peddle in enthusiasm. I just get. So. Excited 😆!
I switch 🥰
Best of luck on your journeys!
Adobe will have to change its path as I am only subscribed to CC for my class. Once I graduate with my BA in Dec 2024, I will cancel Adobe and go to Affinity for all my apps (they offer Designer and Publisher along with Photo). Adobe is predatory and needs to change.
I imagine you’re not alone in that regard. Adobe has done a terrific job of seeded academia with subscriptions. But if Affinity continues to build in similar directions (many of its low-level features are nearly identical), then there’s little preventing intrepid students like yourself from jumping ship.
Revert is not good old fashiond, it's just old fashioned ;) . On a more serious note, so awesome you're getting into Affnity now just when I'm attempting to make the jump myself. So yes, indeed, please keep this up. Affinity Designer is also not too shabby, though some critical features are still missing as of now.
Excellent! I’m looking forward to spending 30 days with Designer. 😁
I have actually never learned to use Adobe, but as one to be late coming to the world of graphic design/ digital art started with FOSS apps and then jumped to Affinity. I often watch graphic design tutorials that are for photoshop and illustrator, to try and apply that to Affinity. I fully agree. There are features I would love in affinity, such as this object blend tool (in Inkscape it’s called interpolation, but it’s destructive there). And vector tracing is still not a thing in Affinity. Shape builder was late to the party as well.
Right now in my mind the big 4 missing features in Affinity is true vector brush engine, live transform filters/effects (with randomization), vector pattern swatches, and blend tool. If Affinity gets these down then I’d be over the moon. Never cared for the image trace, which is also quite trash in Illustrator.
@@arale1402 I look forward to all this when I take on Designer! (No blend, huh? Rough. I use that a lot.)
@@juurstudioI don’t mind drawing the vector shapes myself tbh, but usually I don’t have too pressing deadlines. VT just seems to be something that people in the affinity community moan a lot about. Agree with your wish list. Would be great to have these tools and learn to tinker around with them.
The real question: will PS respond to the competitive advantages?
I am still waiting to see if PS will render all the 3rd party panels obsolete by presenting an ultra-simple luminosity masking tool.
And, will Adobe make LR's selection and removal tools just as powerful as those in PS to avoid the need for back & forth?
Time will tell.
I have some thoughts on those exact thoughts (coming up!)
The only missing parts in Affinity are the Generative Fill features :)
Close to. Here’s one: Affinity lacks workspaces. Currently my biggest peeve
@@dekeNow What do you mean it lacks workspaces? It has Studio presets though? Not the same thing?
@@juurstudio Thank you for correcting me on this! Studio presets were indeed what I’m looking for.
I think, this could be a really good editor if someone cant handle ps
I originally expected as much. But Affinity is as challenging as Ps. A single layer can sport multiple layer masks with live filters assigned to each. Affinity offers its own share of mazes within mazes.
@@dekeNow every program has its own mazes 😄 especially Adobe things
I’ve been using Adobe since my art school days back in the early 90s. Switched to Affinity recently. There’s too much about Adobe I’m not comfortable with right now so I’m taking my business elsewhere. …Let’s see how they respond!
Compare with Coreldraw please
Oh boy. I haven’t looked at CorelDraw in forever. I’ll add it to the list!
I ditched Adobe. Big reasons are that I don't need or want cloud service. I don't want Adobe holding my stuff. Second... subscription model. Affinity accomplishes much of the same without having access to my credit card and f**king around with yet another password for something. And then the price increases.... whyyyyy? Stop injecting bloat just to justify increasing your profit margins. Lastly... canceling and removing my card was like trying to cancel cable. Giving me the run around and whatnot. Unreal.
So yeah. Done with Adobe. I'd rather support a company that values me as a customer.
I had not heard the canceling story before. That is troubling. No company should be chasing the Comcast/Netflix model.
I switched because of the price and because I hate the way Adobe takes over your whole computer and has shit running all the time even when you're not using one of their apps.
That last bit is a great point. Acrobat in particular! You’d think that software was capable of actual brain surgery given the sheer amount of overprogramming built around it. (Uh, now eventually you do plan on opening PDF documents in your PDF software, right?)
Affinity still does not have an upright writing option for Asian text input.
This I did not know-thx!
@@dekeNow The poor font support for Asian languages in Google Translate has been a problem for several years, and despite feedback to the company, there has been no improvement.
I've switched to Affinity
There you go!
Why aren't we mentioning that all three Affinity programs are currently free to try FOR SIX MONTHS. You don't even give them billing information. This needs to be shouted from the rooftops.
This is a good point. I don’t think this is true of any of the Adobe products. 🤑
Went from CS5.5 to Affinity 1, I’ve never looked back, and saved 1000’s of dollars. So I can afford brushes and a new drawing tablet.
Based on what I’m hearing, that sounds like a prescient time to have switched.
Now anyone can test the Affinity suite for a full 6 months. No strings attached. No subscription.
Yeah, it’s a smart move!
@adobe your time is comming
If nothing else, competition is good!