-
Welcome to the new forums! Please read this first. For known issues we are working to resolve, click here.
Affinity Photo Ver. 1.5 officially released.
- Thread starter nand
- Start date
CanaryMango
Leading Member
One of the things I wasn't hugely happy with was the shadow/highlight correct and the fringing/chromatic aberration removal in the RAW section.
However I've just watched some of Affinity's tutorial videos and I see my unhappiness was misplaced. The shadow/highlight and fringing filters are superb - and the way one can use them as live filters on a layer is excellent.
I wish they made some things more clear in the program. When fixing fringing I thought it was a shame there was no picker to nail the right colour. But there is, the cursor becomes a picker when the filter dialogue is open. It's just not signposted clearly that this is the case.
Fantastic program though. The more tutorial videos I watch the more I realise how powerful it is.
However I've just watched some of Affinity's tutorial videos and I see my unhappiness was misplaced. The shadow/highlight and fringing filters are superb - and the way one can use them as live filters on a layer is excellent.
I wish they made some things more clear in the program. When fixing fringing I thought it was a shame there was no picker to nail the right colour. But there is, the cursor becomes a picker when the filter dialogue is open. It's just not signposted clearly that this is the case.
Fantastic program though. The more tutorial videos I watch the more I realise how powerful it is.
According to the Plugin compatibility list, you can run PTL as a plugin.
Cheers,
Graham
Glen Barrington
Forum Pro
and a Photography blogger, I am preparing a detailed review of Affinity from the eyes of an experienced user of ACDSee Ultimate 10. I may also do a comparison between Affinity and PaintShop Pro, if I can find the time and maintain the motivation. As I get older, I find I want to move on to other issues very quickly. (less time, and lots of subjects!)
In general, I've found Affinity to be a mixed blessing. The raw development requires a LOT of work in my opinion. And In spite of my prior statements that I've found Affinity stable, I'm starting to run into some crashing issues.
I'll put all this into my article, but, so far, I still think that Affinity is worth the money Serif is charging if for no other reason than no other Bit mapped editor in this price range does the HDR, Focus stacking and panoramas that Affinity does. Even basic third party apps that do these things can cost as much as $100 USD. I paid $80 USD for Photomatix alone, and that was a discounted price! This alone makes it a good deal.
Plus I have no doubt Affinity will just keep on improving with each update build and each version upgrade that is released.
Then too, I sense a genuine effort on the part of Serif to try to think of a different way of doing things. However that has it's drawbacks There are workflow gaps, and little frustrations everywhere.
In general, I've found Affinity to be a mixed blessing. The raw development requires a LOT of work in my opinion. And In spite of my prior statements that I've found Affinity stable, I'm starting to run into some crashing issues.
I'll put all this into my article, but, so far, I still think that Affinity is worth the money Serif is charging if for no other reason than no other Bit mapped editor in this price range does the HDR, Focus stacking and panoramas that Affinity does. Even basic third party apps that do these things can cost as much as $100 USD. I paid $80 USD for Photomatix alone, and that was a discounted price! This alone makes it a good deal.
Plus I have no doubt Affinity will just keep on improving with each update build and each version upgrade that is released.
Then too, I sense a genuine effort on the part of Serif to try to think of a different way of doing things. However that has it's drawbacks There are workflow gaps, and little frustrations everywhere.
- Messages
- 15,230
- Solutions
- 17
- Reaction score
- 7,705
Yes, I managed to crash AP for the first time a few minutes ago while experimenting. It did create a recovery file, but I didn't take the time to see how comprehensive that was.
No problem, I'm at the 'test and evaluate' stage; no serious work is being done with AP yet.
I agree, and it definitely feels like a work still in progress. I think of this purchase as being a reduced-price late-beta test, much like quite a bit of other software I've used.
I do wish there was more detailed text documentation; I don't like to waste time watching a general-purpose video when there are specific terms I'd like to search for. But AP is definitely promising, and has a lot of capability for the price.
Glen Barrington
Forum Pro
Well I'm not done testing or writing up my results.
For raw, I personally think Paintshop Pro is superior to Affinity. The only thing wrong with PSP's Corel Raw Lab is that it is an incredibly old fashioned looking user interface that doesn't work like the way people think it should. It is possible to do fine work with PSP raw if, IF - you are willing to take the time to understand how it works and what Corel's vision on how to process raw should work.
See a short PSP raw tutorial I wrote a couple of years ago, HERE.
I think in bit mapped editing, it's a toss up. But I've yet to do any detailed testing on Affinity.
But the thing that makes Affinity special is the Photo Stacking functionality. Like I said elsewhere, that is something yo don't normally see in this price range.
--
I look good fat, I'm gonna look good old. . .
http://glenbarrington.blogspot.com/
http://glenbarringtonphotos.blogspot.com/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/130525321@N05/
Last edited:
Glen Barrington
Forum Pro
I bought it as a companion editor to ACDSee Ultimate 10. Primarily as an inexpensive way to do focus stacking. It's the cheapest commercial way I could find to do photo stacking. Everything else is a happy extra for me.
Only you can decide what is "worth it" for you. I won't make decisions for other people and I'm not going to publish my review before I am done testing.
Only you can decide what is "worth it" for you. I won't make decisions for other people and I'm not going to publish my review before I am done testing.
Brian Hedrick
Well-known member
Jim,
I was a beta tester and found that Serif has done a great job on this software. I am a little concerned that there were a few kinks that still needed working out and you could have waited a little while longer on the release, but on the whole it does a great job. Given the price point, it should be a real competitor to PS CC. I bought it at the release price and look forward to putting it through more paces.
Brian
I was a beta tester and found that Serif has done a great job on this software. I am a little concerned that there were a few kinks that still needed working out and you could have waited a little while longer on the release, but on the whole it does a great job. Given the price point, it should be a real competitor to PS CC. I bought it at the release price and look forward to putting it through more paces.
Brian
Brian Hedrick
Well-known member
Glen,
Interesting that you mentioned focus stacking. I tried a few comparisons with Photoshop in the beta version, and once they fixed a problem with washing out the images, it beat Photoshop every time in creating a clean photo, sometimes significantly. I feel like I need to get used to it more as I am still having trouble teasing out details in my workflow that I can manage easily in PS, but seem difficult or impossible in Affinity. There may still be some real limitations, but I think a lot of the issue is just getting used to a new workflow.
Brian
Interesting that you mentioned focus stacking. I tried a few comparisons with Photoshop in the beta version, and once they fixed a problem with washing out the images, it beat Photoshop every time in creating a clean photo, sometimes significantly. I feel like I need to get used to it more as I am still having trouble teasing out details in my workflow that I can manage easily in PS, but seem difficult or impossible in Affinity. There may still be some real limitations, but I think a lot of the issue is just getting used to a new workflow.
Brian
Version 2 is "years" away according to a response from Serif on the support forum when asked about when a paid upgrade would be required.
Cheers,
Graham
Glen Barrington
Forum Pro
NRBlack
Leading Member
I'll jump in here.
Photomatix has multiple unique tone mapping algorithms. Depending on the image, some algorithms suck and some are good.
The one algorithm in Affinity does a pretty good job. It seems to create a more contrasty image. This can be good or bad. One thing I have not liked with AP tonemapping it that is wants to push some percentage of tones on the dark/light edges all the way to the edge. Depending on what you give them they may lighten and blow the highs which you then try to recover with other controls.
Since the editor is a full 32-bit pixel editor you can open the tone mapping persona a second time on an image. This can get you more tone compression than you can get in one iteration. The thing is the tone compression/mapping leaves a certain amount of tones at the edges alone. e.g. The highs stay full/max bright no matter how many times you run tone compression. The tones inside these boundaries do get tone mapped the second time you run the tone mapping persona.
In summary I think they could be awesome if they had a bit more tone compression range in their slider and gave us control over the mapped darks and lights. Like maybe have a whites and black slider to give us control over how those tones on the boundary are mapped. Right now we have no control over them. Of course all this matters or not on user preference and even more, the specifics of a given image.
brucet
Senior Member
HDR, Tonemapping, Focus Stacking, whatever. Is one all in one program 'better' than a tool box full of specialized tools?
So question becomes, "As good as Affinity, or any other editor such as Photoline, PSP or even PS, may be, is a one program, that sort of does an everything well, approach the best solution to all our needs"?
If so why do we buy plugins etc etc?
Just thinking out loud.
regards
Baron LaCat
Senior Member
If you click on the Help Menu option you will find plenty of detailed text documentation.
I cannot believe the amount of negativity spewing forth on this forum about Affinity !!!!
Also, the number of beginner questions which could be easily asked and/or answered on the Affinity forums.
Baron
Last edited:
- Messages
- 15,230
- Solutions
- 17
- Reaction score
- 7,705
You call that Help Menu detailed? OK...
And on my PC, accessing the Help Menu twice in a row (start AP, open Help, select a topic, read, close Help, open Help) made this happen:
After I reopen AP and repeat those steps, it crashed again. Twice.
No, at this time I'll stand by my view that AP is powerful and cost-effective, but not fully baked yet. It's too early for me to go fanboy with it.
Last edited:
Similar threads
Keyboard shortcuts
- f
- Forum