Normspics Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 (edited) My subscription to Photoshop is coming due in February, $179 (Canadian Dollars), and as I only use Bridge and Photoshop, my main reason to use Photoshop was keywording images prior to uploading to Alamy, now I’m keywording in the Alamy image manager. Do you have any recommendations for a non subscription photo editor, I do have Affinity but don’t know how to use it. I was also thinking about getting Adobe Elements. Edited January 23 by Normspics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ognyan Yosifov Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 (edited) 52 minutes ago, Normspics said: My subscription to Photoshop is coming due in February, $179 and as I only use Bridge and Photoshop, my main reason to use Photoshop was keywording images prior to uploading to Alamy, now I’m keywording in the Alamy image manager. Do you have any recommendations for a non subscription photo editor, I do have Affinity but don’t know how to use it. I was also thinking about getting Adobe Elements. deleted. Edited January 21 by Ognyan Yosifov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 (edited) Depends what level of quality you need/want and features. For me Photoshop Elements lacks some key features 1) No automatic CA removal 2) Some of the image adjustments only work in 8 bit mode Affinity is pretty good and would probably be my 1st choice if I needed to avoid Adobe subscription. But the newer features in Adobe CC (excellent denoise and sky replacement) combined with the massively discounted 12 month subscription prices on Amazon on Black Friday means I've no plans to switch away from CC any time soon. If you're a RAW shooter using a Mac, then RAW Power from Gentlemen Coders (on the app store) is worth a look. Adobe Bridge is free (no need for CC subscription) Mark Edited January 21 by M.Chapman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Normspics Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 22 minutes ago, M.Chapman said: Depends what level of quality you need/want and features. For me Photoshop Elements lacks some key features 1) No automatic CA removal 2) Some of the image adjustments only work in 8 bit mode Affinity is pretty good and would probably be my 1st choice if I needed to avoid Adobe subscription. But the newer features in Adobe CC (excellent denoise and sky replacement) combined with the massively discounted 12 month subscription prices on Amazon on Black Friday means I've no plans to switch away from CC any time soon. If you're a RAW shooter using a Mac, then RAW Power from Gentlemen Coders (on the app store) is worth a look. Adobe Bridge is free (no need for CC subscription) Mark Thanks Mark, My use is purely for submitting to Alamy, so sky replacement isn’t something I’m comfortable submitting to Alamy, thanks for the tip about Gentlemen Coders, will give that a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 It looks like you are subscribing for Photopshop only and not the Photography Plan which is quite a lot cheaper and, as Mark said, Adobe offer massive reductions at times. The Denoise feature on its own is amazing. I've never used a sky replacement except to see how it works but there is no rule on Alamy against using it or other forms of image alteration as long as it's not Live News. However, why not just learn Affinity Photo seeing as you already own it. It has an excellent reputation and it's not terribly difficult to learn. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 27 minutes ago, MDM said: It looks like you are subscribing for Photopshop only and not the Photography Plan which is quite a lot cheaper and, as Mark said, Adobe offer massive reductions at times. The Denoise feature on its own is amazing. I've never used a sky replacement except to see how it works but there is no rule on Alamy against using it or other forms of image alteration as long as it's not Live News. However, why not just learn Affinity Photo seeing as you already own it. It has an excellent reputation and it's not terribly difficult to learn. Micheal is right again! 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 (edited) 2 hours ago, Normspics said: thanks for the tip about Gentlemen Coders, will give that a look. Website is here https://www.gentlemencoders.com/ There's a free trial of RAW Power for Mac download on the website. It's a good, fast and fluid RAW processor, but, if I recall correctly, all adjustments are global (no local selection tools) and there are no clone or heal functions. Gentlemen Coders was founded in 2016 by Nik Bhatt, an 18 year veteran of Apple. His roles in the Photo Apps group included Senior Director of Engineering and Chief Technical Officer. Among other roles, he led the Aperture, iPhoto, RAW Camera and Core Image engineering teams, as well as the imaging team for the Mac version of Photos. Edited January 21 by M.Chapman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 2 hours ago, MDM said: It looks like you are subscribing for Photopshop only and not the Photography Plan which is quite a lot cheaper and, as Mark said, Adobe offer massive reductions at times. The Denoise feature on its own is amazing. +1 for Adobe's Photography 20 GB plan being more economical ($119.88/yr in US) and also for their AI Denoiser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Normspics Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 I did try the Black Friday discount but it didn’t work in Canada, I’ll look at the photography plan, as far as I know I get Photoshop and Lightroom for my subscription. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca Ore Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 If you get Photoshop and Lightroom for your subscription, and the price is higher than $119.88 per year, then you may be getting a foreign country bump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Normspics Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 I just took a look at the subscription renewal again, it’s $176 Canadian dollars and yes it’s the 20Gb photography plan, I misread the money as U.S. where as it is Canadian $. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MDM Posted January 21 Share Posted January 21 I did wonder if I was wrong despite Edo's confidence in me 🤣. It was the odd price that made me think you might be on a single app plan. I think it's still excellent value for £120 or $120 in any case. Learning Affinity Photo might still be a good way forward if you are trying to save money and life long learning is very good for keeping the mind in good shape - just look at Edo as the prime example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Normspics Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 15 hours ago, MDM said: I did wonder if I was wrong despite Edo's confidence in me 🤣. It was the odd price that made me think you might be on a single app plan. I think it's still excellent value for £120 or $120 in any case. Learning Affinity Photo might still be a good way forward if you are trying to save money and life long learning is very good for keeping the mind in good shape - just look at Edo as the prime example. So true about life long learning, that is one of the attractions to photography these days, not only learning software but researching the photos for accurate titles, descriptions and keywords. My only motivation for cancelling the subscription was my Alamy revenues are falling. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Yes Edo is a true inspiration, I can’t keep up with his photo output on Alamy! 😂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 (edited) I'm a post-processing dummy, and I haven't found Affinity Photo (version 1) that difficult to use. Mind you, I usually do only basic adjustments. The RAW developer is adequate and quite user-friendly as well, plus it's well integrated into the rest of the program. There are lots of good videos out there on learning how to use Affinity. I like this chap's tutorials (InAffinity). Edited January 22 by John Mitchell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Normspics Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 58 minutes ago, John Mitchell said: I'm a post-processing dummy, and I haven't found Affinity Photo (version 1) that difficult to use. Mind you, I usually do only basic adjustments. The RAW developer is adequate and quite user-friendly as well, plus it's well integrated into the rest of the program. There are lots of good videos out there on learning how to use Affinity. I like this chap's tutorials (InAffinity). Thanks John for the link, I have tried Affinity but you can’t enter keywords in the metadata so that’s why I continued with Photoshop, but also looking at the features I’m not using in Photoshop because of an aging computer, plus the declining royalties on Alamy does make me wonder if a free program like Affinity could work for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ognyan Yosifov Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 (edited) 5 minutes ago, Normspics said: Thanks John for the link, I have tried Affinity but you can’t enter keywords in the metadata so that’s why I continued with Photoshop, but also looking at the features I’m not using in Photoshop because of an aging computer, plus the declining royalties on Alamy does make me wonder if a free program like Affinity could work for me. I think the $10/month for Adobe subscription is a good deal with all of those constant updates and the tons of information available on the matter. Edited January 22 by Ognyan Yosifov 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve F Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 23 hours ago, Normspics said: sky replacement isn’t something I’m comfortable submitting to Alamy Not something I've ever wanted to use. But the AI sky masking tool in Lightroom is great. Easy to make quick edits to the sky now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KitJames Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 I have used darktable and that allows tagging within the application. I don't know if this has been mentioned anywhere, but in Windows you can add tags within Windows Explorer provided you save processed images to the Pictures folder (or have a folder configured specifically for photos) and you have the Details pane instead of Preview. You can enter tags there and it seems to register when uploaded to Alamy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 (edited) 22 minutes ago, KitJames said: you can add tags within Windows Explorer Unless I'm much mistaken this involves another "save" of a jpeg so a loss of quality. PS and LR don't do this. Edited January 22 by spacecadet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KitJames Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 36 minutes ago, spacecadet said: Unless I'm much mistaken this involves another "save" of a jpeg so a loss of quality. PS and LR don't do this. You mean if I tag within Windows it overwrites the JPEG? I haven't noticed a decline in quality if its actually doing that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Harrison Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 2 hours ago, Normspics said: but you can’t enter keywords in the metadata You couldn't right at the beginning but they introduced it later on, it's in the 'File' section of the Metadata tab, and this is on Version 1 of Affiniity Photo (1.10.8), not the current Version 2. Not a patch on Lightroom for that though, though Bridge is good I think, pretty sure you can get that for free. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 22 Share Posted January 22 (edited) 9 hours ago, Normspics said: Thanks John for the link, I have tried Affinity but you can’t enter keywords in the metadata so that’s why I continued with Photoshop, but also looking at the features I’m not using in Photoshop because of an aging computer, plus the declining royalties on Alamy does make me wonder if a free program like Affinity could work for me. You can add captions (description) and keywords by clicking on the Metadata tab, and then choosing File in the small drop-down menu. It can be a bit finicky to find at first. Some info here. Affinity has some other idiosyncrasies that I don't like, but overall it's an amazing bargain. Something else to watch for is that, unlike other software, Affinity adds zero capture sharpening to RAW files, so they look fuzzy. You have to add your own in the RAW persona using the Detail Refinement and Clarity sliders. Video here. Edited January 22 by John Mitchell 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Normspics Posted January 23 Author Share Posted January 23 12 hours ago, John Mitchell said: You can add captions (description) and keywords by clicking on the Metadata tab, and then choosing File in the small drop-down menu. It can be a bit finicky to find at first. Some info here. Affinity has some other idiosyncrasies that I don't like, but overall it's an amazing bargain. Something else to watch for is that, unlike other software, Affinity adds zero capture sharpening to RAW files, so they look fuzzy. You have to add your own in the RAW persona using the Detail Refinement and Clarity sliders. Video here. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Normspics Posted January 23 Author Share Posted January 23 18 hours ago, Harry Harrison said: You couldn't right at the beginning but they introduced it later on, it's in the 'File' section of the Metadata tab, and this is on Version 1 of Affiniity Photo (1.10.8), not the current Version 2. Not a patch on Lightroom for that though, though Bridge is good I think, pretty sure you can get that for free. I hadn't realized they had added keywords, will check it out. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 On 21/01/2024 at 16:06, MDM said: I did wonder if I was wrong despite Edo's confidence in me 🤣. It was the odd price that made me think you might be on a single app plan. I think it's still excellent value for £120 or $120 in any case. Learning Affinity Photo might still be a good way forward if you are trying to save money and life long learning is very good for keeping the mind in good shape - just look at Edo as the prime example. A prime example of what is the question? I do think of Adobe CC Photo as my most worthwhile digital expense. Affinity is good but not as good. Edo 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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