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Serif's Image Editing App 'Affinity Photo' Launches for Mac
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Well we know the drill by now - I'm sometimes one of those people; nothing likely ever will be able to replace PS for some of us, but it's interesting seeing the alternatives. I'm going to try this, but most likely it will never be able to replace PS.
PS just does so much that even when you try alternatives and things seem to be going well -If you've been using a wide range of PS's toolset for over a decade - you keep running into missing features or file incompatibilities, etc.
Very nice! I've been playing around with Serif's Affinity Designer for a few weeks now, and I love it. I'll definitely give this one a try too!
I love Pixelmator, but it never completely won me over Photoshop. I'm definitely getting Affinity Photo too, if just to support the awesome developers from Serif!
I love Pixelmator, but it never completely won me over Photoshop. I'm definitely getting Affinity Photo too, if just to support the awesome developers from Serif!
Purchased Affinity Photo - Nice Program, very powerful.
What is really nice is that Affinity is very willing to work with users on free improvements.
Needs:
A training book like Adobe has. (Affinity has stated that they are working on this.)
Better Print module (Affinity has already promised this)
What is really nice is that Affinity is very willing to work with users on free improvements.
Needs:
A training book like Adobe has. (Affinity has stated that they are working on this.)
Better Print module (Affinity has already promised this)
A few questions for people who have used it so far:
Does Affinity Photo allow you to pan/scroll your document beyond the edges of the screen (i.e. bring the edge/corner of your canvas freely to the center of the screen). This is a feature that Photoshop supports (in Full Screen mode only, if I'm not mistaken), and that has been one of the main reason I haven't completely switched over to Pixelmator. When you have to work on details on the edges of the image, it can be really annoying not being able to bring them to the center of the view, and increasingly so if you have toolboxes, swatches and all that stuff hovering over your image on each sides.
Also, is the pressure sensitivity working well? Wacom tablet user here. Does it play well with Affinity Photo?
Does Affinity Photo allow you to pan/scroll your document beyond the edges of the screen (i.e. bring the edge/corner of your canvas freely to the center of the screen). This is a feature that Photoshop supports (in Full Screen mode only, if I'm not mistaken), and that has been one of the main reason I haven't completely switched over to Pixelmator. When you have to work on details on the edges of the image, it can be really annoying not being able to bring them to the center of the view, and increasingly so if you have toolboxes, swatches and all that stuff hovering over your image on each sides.
Also, is the pressure sensitivity working well? Wacom tablet user here. Does it play well with Affinity Photo?
I don't know about the pressure sensitivity, but you can certainly drag the corner of the photo to the centre of the screen.
Hello guys,
I'm Andy Somerfield - Affinity Photo project lead.
Thought I'd say hello and offer to answer any questions you guys have:
- Yes - we can import .abr brushes
- Yes - we let you pan the document nearly-totally-out-of-view
- Yes - we do all the pressure stuff including barrel rotation and Wacom hotkeys
Hope this helps - anything else you need answered, fire away..
Andy.
I'm Andy Somerfield - Affinity Photo project lead.
Thought I'd say hello and offer to answer any questions you guys have:
- Yes - we can import .abr brushes
- Yes - we let you pan the document nearly-totally-out-of-view
- Yes - we do all the pressure stuff including barrel rotation and Wacom hotkeys
Hope this helps - anything else you need answered, fire away..
Andy.
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Hi Andy,
Thanks for confirming. Could you confirm if you can run brushes along a path?
Hi Emiljabo,
At the moment, we only support nozzle brushes in Photo - so cannot run them along a path - we have paths and other vector things - just can't run brushes along them
Affinity Designer can though - if you do a lot of textured vector paths, maybe that's a better fit for you?
The apps can open each others files, and there's a free trial of Designer over at affinity.serif.com
Hope this helps,
Andy.
At the moment, we only support nozzle brushes in Photo - so cannot run them along a path - we have paths and other vector things - just can't run brushes along them
Affinity Designer can though - if you do a lot of textured vector paths, maybe that's a better fit for you?
The apps can open each others files, and there's a free trial of Designer over at affinity.serif.com
Hope this helps,
Andy.
Hello guys,
I'm Andy Somerfield - Affinity Photo project lead.
Thought I'd say hello and offer to answer any questions you guys have:
- Yes - we can import .abr brushes
- Yes - we let you pan the document nearly-totally-out-of-view
- Yes - we do all the pressure stuff including barrel rotation and Wacom hotkeys
Hope this helps - anything else you need answered, fire away..
Andy.
Thanks Andy! I'm definitely giving Affinity Photo a try this weekend!
Hi Andy
Could you say a few words on how affinity photo could replace my current workflow of importing raw images from the Nikon d750, organizing and going through the thumbnails, selecting images for developing, making adjustments, then exporting the images to photoshop to do further corrections then optimizing images for the web?
I'm very motivated to leave the Adobe ecosystem and would need a quick summary of how I could do this with your software.
Thanks!
Tom
Could you say a few words on how affinity photo could replace my current workflow of importing raw images from the Nikon d750, organizing and going through the thumbnails, selecting images for developing, making adjustments, then exporting the images to photoshop to do further corrections then optimizing images for the web?
I'm very motivated to leave the Adobe ecosystem and would need a quick summary of how I could do this with your software.
Thanks!
Tom
Hi Tom,
Of course - but I'm not sure Photo is the sort of thing you need - at least for part of your workflow.
Photo is not a DAM - like Aperture, or Lightroom - it does not maintain a catalog of your images. It's an editor with RAW import capability - perhaps more like Photoshop + ACR.
So, unfortunately, you would need a separate DAM product to go along side it. We're planning to make one one day - but for now I'd happily recommend the (perpetual licensed) Capture One - a lot of our beta users on our forum have had success using that to catalog their images, and using Affinity Photo to edit them (the "exporting to Photoshop to do further corrections" stage in your workflow).
When we started making Photo 5 years ago, we expected Aperture to be the DAM of choice - it was a good product! Since it's gone, things have changed!
Sorry I can't be more help with this one - but I'd rather give you a straight answer than tell you to buy the app - because it probably doesn't do what you want.
Andy.
Of course - but I'm not sure Photo is the sort of thing you need - at least for part of your workflow.
Photo is not a DAM - like Aperture, or Lightroom - it does not maintain a catalog of your images. It's an editor with RAW import capability - perhaps more like Photoshop + ACR.
So, unfortunately, you would need a separate DAM product to go along side it. We're planning to make one one day
- but for now I'd happily recommend the (perpetual licensed) Capture One - a lot of our beta users on our forum have had success using that to catalog their images, and using Affinity Photo to edit them (the "exporting to Photoshop to do further corrections" stage in your workflow).When we started making Photo 5 years ago, we expected Aperture to be the DAM of choice - it was a good product! Since it's gone, things have changed!
Sorry I can't be more help with this one - but I'd rather give you a straight answer than tell you to buy the app - because it probably doesn't do what you want.
Andy.
Thank you so much Andy for your response. I'll look at capture one and I also use aperture anyways. I'll buy affinity photo because I believe strongly in supporting a real photo-editing alternative. And please keep adding features.
Hi Tom,
Of course - but I'm not sure Photo is the sort of thing you need - at least for part of your workflow.
Photo is not a DAM - like Aperture, or Lightroom - it does not maintain a catalog of your images. It's an editor with RAW import capability - perhaps more like Photoshop + ACR.
So, unfortunately, you would need a separate DAM product to go along side it. We're planning to make one one day
When we started making Photo 5 years ago, we expected Aperture to be the DAM of choice - it was a good product! Since it's gone, things have changed!
Sorry I can't be more help with this one - but I'd rather give you a straight answer than tell you to buy the app - because it probably doesn't do what you want.
Andy.
So I have a question. There's one feature (that seams basic but maybe it isn't) that I'm looking for in a Photoshop replacement. Actions. Here's what I do a lot of: I get a high-res image file. I need to create one or two versions of the file and a specific width. With Photoshop, I can one-click it (I actually have it set through automator). It resizes and saves it quickly. Does this app do anything similar?
Also, how is it at setting image quality on saves (so saving web images is easy)?
Edit: And are there Automator actions already set up for this app?
Also, how is it at setting image quality on saves (so saving web images is easy)?
Edit: And are there Automator actions already set up for this app?
Has anyone gotten Topaz Denoise to work with it? I'm failing - It always fails when I start the plugin.
Yes I see no reason why not
Would be good to get a more complete picture of exactly how it should work - the paths should remain editable as vectors, right? And we should just run the raster nozzles along them?
Andy.
Hi Andy,
Thanks for the positive response, well any response is good, but a positive one is even better which is more than can be said from my experience of dealing with the Adobe developers recently...
Yes, they remain as fully editable vector paths. You simply select the path and click a button on the paths palette to run the currently selected brush along it with whatever spacing and other options you may have allocated to that specific brush. There are more features in PS, but I simply run a normal soft edged brush along it. You can get some really nice, perfectly smooth and uninterrupted strokes when you need to.
That's because I'm thinking no one in their right mind really likes Adobe, and I think no one can honestly say they actually enjoy using Photoshop, but rather up to this point they had no other options. But they realize that the only thing that competed with Photoshop until now was Pixelmator, which really has nothing to do with Photoshop as it only does a small fraction of the things PS does. Those who are forced to use Photoshop for serious work have no relief in trying Pixelmator, because for them it's like depending on a Mac Pro for serious video work and then being offered to use an iPad with iMovie instead. It further frustrates people as they see that Photoshop has no enemy, which sucks for everyone except Adobe. I hate hearing how Pixelmator is so much better than Photoshop. It's a better quality app, it's much more elegant, but it doesn't even try to do most of what Photoshop can do so you can't fairly compare. If you're working with linked smart objects, multiple layer comps, actions, scripts, and 5GB files, Pixelmator is not the right app for you because that's not what it's for.
Affinity Photo, however, is going head-to-head with Photoshop, it's trying to do everything that PS does but better, in a more modern way. From what I've seen it still lacks a ton of things (no idea about how it's doing with paths, vector masks, linked smart objects, actions, scripts, to name a few things I can't live without), but it's very promising in its ambition and modern approach (having a function for frequency separation, which Photoshop lacks and forces you to type in numbers in Apply Image that make no sense) and maybe in a few years people will be abandoning Photoshop completely for Affinity.
I really hope something's going to happen because I'm so sick of Photoshop and its glitches, bugs, sluggishness, crashes, more bugs, and even more bugs, the absolute lack of care from Adobe, how the developers just tell you "it's probably a problem with your computer and setup, we haven't noticed the bug that everyone else can reproduce 100% of the time" every single time you report any bug whatsoever, the slowness in how they deal with things, the endless performance drops with every update, etc... Let's not even talk about the subscription-only model which I think mostly everyone hates. And before that the price was just ridiculous. Affinity Photo is proving that you can make a quality pro app at a totally decent price.
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