Affinity Photo - Capture One

[Jill Morgan]

I am getting tired of my monthly PS fee.  With exchange it is costing over $15 CDN per month or $180 per year.  Just getting too pricey.  Anyone using Affinity Photo/Capture One?  I use Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher but awhile ago I tried Affinity Photo and decided to stick with PS.  But I'm reconsidering.

 

I don't think I can do another free trial, so opinions gladly taken.  When I checked it out before, it did not have a adjustment brush tool like ACR, so that kind of disqualified it for me.  Does it have one know?

 

Jill

[Brian Yarvin]

Jill, I'm curious to know why you are interested in these two. I myself use Capture 1 (My only reason for sticking with Windows on my desktop for now) and especially appreciate it for my studio work. It is MUCH more complicated to use than ACR and will wind up costing almost as much. Have you considered anything else? 

[geogphotos]

I simply regard the monthly subscription to ACR as a business expense and don't give it another thought. Switching to an inferior option strikes me as a false economy. 

[Brian Yarvin]

Interesting question Ian! I will answer with another question - what if the options to ACR aren't "inferior?" Certainly, Capture 1 offers superior results in very many circumstances - especially in complex or difficult lighting. What if the best software solution for Jill didn't happen to be "Adobe?" There are very many image editing packages out there and all may be worth a try.

[Allan Bell]

7 hours ago, Jill Morgan said:

I am getting tired of my monthly PS fee.  With exchange it is costing over $15 CDN per month or $180 per year.  Just getting too pricey.  Anyone using Affinity Photo/Capture One?  I use Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher but awhile ago I tried Affinity Photo and decided to stick with PS.  But I'm reconsidering.

 

I don't think I can do another free trial, so opinions gladly taken.  When I checked it out before, it did not have a adjustment brush tool like ACR, so that kind of disqualified it for me.  Does it have one know?

 

Jill

 

 

Jill just a thought but as you have PS on your computer why don'y you cancel your subscription and see if PS still works. I know you won't get any more updates but you probably won't need them. Just think of it as a trial.

 

I am sure that Adobe has thought of that idea already and have some software built in so that if you stop paying the subscription it will stop you using PS.

 

Might be worth a try though.

 

Allan

 

[Harry Harrison]

Since you already use Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher I think you would find that Affinity Photo is very intuitive to use, part of their mission is I think to make them work seamlessly together. I have Affinity Photo myself but hardly ever need to use it as I do everything on my subscription-free Lightroom but they seem to have all sorts of different editing brushes, which ones in particular from PS would you miss?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlhD9YF8vPY&feature=youtu.be

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2dNOJ0Mw1s&feature=youtu.be

 

 

As an aside I just googled Affinity Photo and top of the list is:

 

Affinity Photo for Capture One Pro | Image editing & tethering‎

 

How does that work? A link to Capture One made to look like a link to Affinity Photo?

Edited September 25, 2019 by Harry Harrison
added links

[geogphotos]

1 hour ago, Brian Yarvin said:

Interesting question Ian! I will answer with another question - what if the options to ACR aren't "inferior?" Certainly, Capture 1 offers superior results in very many circumstances - especially in complex or difficult lighting. What if the best software solution for Jill didn't happen to be "Adobe?" There are very many image editing packages out there and all may be worth a try.

 

 

My answer to Jill was based on her comments that the alternative called Affinity Photo did not offer all of what she needed and that  "that kind of disqualified it for me".

 

I was simply giving my opinion that we need the right tools for the job - whatever those tools may be.

[sb photos]

Over the years I've seen many non Alamy forum threads where photographers are looking for more economical alternatives to the LR/PS contract, and I believe they are still searching for the holy grail. They all appeared to be lacking critical features, but this may depend on the features you require.

 

One alternative worth considering if you use Sony or Fuji camera's is the free dedicated manufacture supported Capture One Express.

 

 

[MDM]

53 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

 

Jill just a thought but as you have PS on your computer why don'y you cancel your subscription and see if PS still works. I know you won't get any more updates but you probably won't need them. Just think of it as a trial.

 

I am sure that Adobe has thought of that idea already and have some software built in so that if you stop paying the subscription it will stop you using PS.

 

Might be worth a try though.

 

Allan

 

 

Adobe are not stupid Allan. Photoshop CC will no longer work if you cancel the subscription. Lightroom will partially work in that you can still access your catalog(s) but you cannot use the Develop module. What you are suggesting is actually illegal as well.  😦

 

 

[Jill Morgan]

Thanks for all suggestions. Hoping to find an Affinity user, but not so far.

 

I have considered buying Lightroom 6, as it's the ACR part of PS that I have a hard time living without.  And of course after years of PS, I am so comfortable using it, everything is second nature when I'm working.  I probably spend 2-3 hours a day in PS as I use the artistic side as well as the photo editing side. But I have a few monthly subscriptions necessary for my business, so I have been trying to cut down on the fees.

 

I'll probably continue my subscription for now, and if Affinity has a Christmas promotion may buy Affinity Photo anyway.  Right now it's only $70 CDN, so if they have a promo, I could get it for $50.  Not a big risk. As mentioned it does work well with my other two Affinity programs.

 

Jill

[Harry Harrison]

32 minutes ago, Jill Morgan said:

I have considered buying Lightroom 6

 

That would need to be 'second user' now unfortunately, it's what I use but it supports my RAW files so that's fine. More recent versions of Lightroom Classic on subscription have extra features such as Haze and Texture,  but sometimes you can get plugins that mimic such features, I have a good 'Haze' one.

 

I've only used Affinity Photo occasionally from Lightroom so I'm working on a 16-bit Tiff, I've noticed that if you open a RAW file then their proprietary format (.afphoto) is much, much larger without making any changes at all - 27MB .CR2 v 170MB .afphoto (maybe I'm doing something wrong though?). Also at the moment Affinity Photo only lets you enter a caption, nothing else. It will display EXIF though.

Edited September 25, 2019 by Harry Harrison

[Brian Yarvin]

2 hours ago, geogphotos said:

I was simply giving my opinion that we need the right tools for the job - whatever those tools may be.

 

Okay Ian. I understand your point now. 

 

 

[NYCat]

1 hour ago, Harry Harrison said:

 

That would need to be 'second user' now unfortunately, it's what I use but it supports my RAW files so that's fine. More recent versions of Lightroom Classic on subscription have extra features such as Haze and Texture,  but sometimes you can get plugins that mimic such features, I have a good 'Haze' one.

 

I've only used Affinity Photo occasionally from Lightroom so I'm working on a 16-bit Tiff, I've noticed that if you open a RAW file then their proprietary format (.afphoto) is much, much larger without making any changes at all - 27MB .CR2 v 170MB .afphoto (maybe I'm doing something wrong though?). Also at the moment Affinity Photo only lets you enter a caption, nothing else. It will display EXIF though.

 

I am still using Lightroom 6. If I get the subscription will it still be usable? I'm thinking I'll want to keep it in case I eventually want to stop the subscription.

 

Paulette

[Harry Harrison]

3 minutes ago, NYCat said:

 

I am still using Lightroom 6. If I get the subscription will it still be usable?

 

I'm sure it will be fine, it might be sensible to log in to your Adobe account and download the installation files for 6.14 and keep them safe somewhere just in case they try any funny business. On the other hand although I haven't used CC I presume that it will update your catalogues so they will no longer be readable by 6.14, so the image files will remain but any subsequent editing of past or future images will mean that you are tied in to the subscription version. No, Adobe are certainly not stupid when it comes to business!

[NYCat]

1 minute ago, Harry Harrison said:

 

I'm sure it will be fine, it might be sensible to log in to your Adobe account and download the installation files for 6.14 and keep them safe somewhere just in case they try any funny business. On the other hand although I haven't used CC I presume that it will update your catalogues so they will no longer be readable by 6.14, so the image files will remain but any subsequent editing of past or future images will mean that you are tied in to the subscription version. No, Adobe are certainly not stupid when it comes to business!

 

Hmmm.....tricky. So I may also have to keep one of my back-ups safely stored away. I'm very big on having copies of my images on different hard drives.

 

Paulette

[MDM]

10 minutes ago, NYCat said:

 

I am still using Lightroom 6. If I get the subscription will it still be usable? I'm thinking I'll want to keep it in case I eventually want to stop the subscription.

 

Paulette

 

Once you use the latest version it is very unlikely that you would want to go back to LR6 for reasons to numerous to list right now. If you cancel the subscription, then you can go back of course. You can use the two together but you need to create a separate AdobeID to install the standalone once you have the CC (LR Classic) version installed. However, I can't think of any reason why anyone would want to use them as there is no difficulty going from the older to the newer version. 

[MDM]

3 minutes ago, NYCat said:

 

Hmmm.....tricky. So I may also have to keep one of my back-ups safely stored away. I'm very big on having copies of my images on different hard drives.

 

Paulette

 

You appear to be under the common misconception that  image files are contained in the catalog. That is not the case - the images are entirely separate. The catalog is just that - a catalog (database) in the same way that a paper or web catalog does not contain the goods,  just the information about the goods.  Just make sure that you have LR set up to write metatdata to xmp and the metadata will travel with your image files/

[Harry Harrison]

3 minutes ago, MDM said:

it is very unlikely that you would want to go back to LR6 for reasons to numerous to list right now

I'm not totally averse to the subscription model though I would far prefer leasing Lightroom on its own. One thing I've often wondered is what happens when and if Lightroom Classic requires an upgrade to operating system or hardware, can you carry on as you are and forego future updates or are you stuck without possibly changing to a new computer?

[MDM]

3 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

I'm not totally averse to the subscription model though I would far prefer leasing Lightroom on its own. One thing I've often wondered is what happens when and if Lightroom Classic requires an upgrade to operating system or hardware, can you carry on as you are and forego future updates or are you stuck without possibly changing to a new computer?

 

I don't like the subscription either and I resisted for some time but the benefits far outweigh the negatives in termes of features and speed so it is now part of life. I can't really answer your question as it hasn't happened to me yet. My Mac is 5 years old but very well specified when purchased and I don't think there have been any issues with needing to upgrade hardware. The apps use graphics acceleration which some computers may not be able to use but you just turn it off. Until not too long ago it was possible to download older versions of the CC apps but there was a notice from Adobe that it was no longer possible to do that - I think it was over some third party licensing issue - if you search you should get more up to date info. 

[NYCat]

15 minutes ago, MDM said:

 

Once you use the latest version it is very unlikely that you would want to go back to LR6 for reasons to numerous to list right now. If you cancel the subscription, then you can go back of course. You can use the two together but you need to create a separate AdobeID to install the standalone once you have the CC (LR Classic) version installed. However, I can't think of any reason why anyone would want to use them as there is no difficulty going from the older to the newer version. 

 

I already have the standalone version. Would I need to do anything to preserve it? 

 

Paulette

 

 

 

[NYCat]

17 minutes ago, MDM said:

 

You appear to be under the common misconception that  image files are contained in the catalog. That is not the case - the images are entirely separate. The catalog is just that - a catalog (database) in the same way that a paper or web catalog does not contain the goods,  just the information about the goods.  Just make sure that you have LR set up to write metatdata to xmp and the metadata will travel with your image files/

 

Oops. I shouldn't have said back-up.. I keep copies of the actual images on different hard drives. I use SuperDuper to completely copy my images and those I presume I would need to keep one in case I go back to the standalone if the subscription is going to make them unusable on the standalone.

 

Paulette

Edited September 25, 2019 by NYCat

[Harry Harrison]

3 minutes ago, MDM said:

Until not too long ago it was possible to download older versions of the CC apps but there was a notice from Adobe that it was no longer possible to do that - I think it was over some third party licensing issue

Thanks, yes their explanation certainly was regarding third party software issues though I'm pretty cynical about Adobe's motives and behaviour I must say. The 'perpetual' licence was available until the beginning of this year from their website but the link to try and purchase it had been almost impossible to find for a long time, any attempt to look for it always seemed to end back at 'CC'. I also wonder if they are starting to tacitly push CC over Classic as the former involves lucrative hosting charges.

[MDM]

9 minutes ago, NYCat said:

 

I already have the standalone version. Would I need to do anything to preserve it? 

 

Paulette

 

 

 

 

Make sure you have the final download version stored (6.13 I think). 

[MDM]

1 minute ago, Harry Harrison said:

Thanks, yes their explanation certainly was regarding third party software issues though I'm pretty cynical about Adobe's motives and behaviour I must say. The 'perpetual' licence was available until the beginning of this year from their website but the link to try and purchase it had been almost impossible to find for a long time, any attempt to look for it always seemed to end back at 'CC'. I also wonder if they are starting to tacitly push CC over Classic as the former involves lucrative hosting charges.

 

A conversation for another time I think. As I said the LR Classic and Photoshop are well worth 120/annum in my book. I was spending that anyway keeping up with the upgrades. I use it professionally so a decent Mac, Adobe software and good camera gear are essential parts of my business. Gotta go work is calling 😀

[Harry Harrison]

2 hours ago, NYCat said:

I presume I would need to keep one in case I go back to the standalone if the subscription is going to make them unusable on the standalone.

 Provided you have the installation files and the folder structure of where you store your images hasn't changed then 6.14, and all the edits and metadata that you have made within it will still work. However in reality once you start using the subscription model then you are tied in because to opt out would be to lose all the edits and metadata that you have made within it.

 

Yes you can export the metadata as xml sidecar files but the processing for your files is held within the catalogue and the catalogue will only be read by the subscription version of Lightroom Çlassic that you have reached by the time you might think of opting out.

 

Paulette, MDM has pointed out that in fact the processing information is included in the xmp sidecar files for RAW files and in fact embedded in other types of files, you will see his comment below. New features added since 6.14 will not register if you were to later access the files in 6.14 of course. However ideally you will have had that option switched on in Lightroom here:

 

MAC > Lightroom > Catalog Settings > Metadata
PC > Edit > Catalog Settings > Metadata

 

Edited September 25, 2019 by Harry Harrison
Correction

[MDM]

48 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

 Provided you have the installation files and the folder structure of where you store your images hasn't changed then 6.14, and all the edits and metadata that you have made within it will still work. However in reality once you start using the subscription model then you are tied in because to opt out would be to lose all the edits and metadata that you have made within it. Yes you can export the metadata as xml sidecar files but the processing for your files is held within the catalogue and the catalogue will only be read by the subscription version of Lightroom Çlassic that you have reached by the time you might think of opting out.

 

Not true Harry. The development information travels with the sidecar files. The problem would be that any new features used in the newer version would not be understood by the older one. However, once one uses the newer one and realises the benefits, going back is very unlikely.