xptom Loc: Concord, CA

Has anyone had experience with using Affinity Photo?

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Yes, lots of experience. Do you have a question? Affinity Photo is a Photoshop clone. It is as such a raster editor. It's not the equal of Photoshop but it comes close in many ways and given it's cost it's a fantastic deal for what you get.

It's biggest weakness is it's module for raw file processing. You'd be better off to just avoid that and use an alternative raw converter along with Affinity then to further process RGB images.

Joe

Cwilson341 Loc: Central Florida

I have been using Affinity since It first became available for PCs. It does an excellent job of processing and has a lot of creative capability. Photoshop plug-ins work with affinity, too.

I know some have complained about the raw converter. Personally, I have not experienced any problems in that area. As long as the camera is supported, I have found the raw converter very good to work with. I recently got a Nikon Z50 and it is not currently supported. The files will open but it takes a little extra processing to get them where you want. I have two other Nikons that are supported and they come out fine.

I found Affinity fairly easy to learn and have been extremely pleased with it!

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

One could say all edit programs are photoshop clones. Affinity is written with modern code vs Adobe which has many bandaids on the old code. Indeed edit programs have the standard "PS" tools, but wrenches by various manufacturers are much the same... does that make them "clone" wrenches... well, yes, sorta, they may accomplish the job but may have different metal, heat treating, angles, etc that make them unique.

Adobe is indeed a classic gold standard but is clawing as the blackboard to keep that income.

ClarkG Loc: Southern Indiana USA

Affinity photo’s latest free upgrade makes processing raw photos as good as any other photo editing software. Did I mention they have lifetime free upgrades. No subscription fees. I love affinity photo.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

No it doesn't. In a raw workflow Affinity's processing is destructive of your work. It's raw Develop module lacks what most consider important features and tools. I does not perform highlight reconstruction unlike most raw converters. It lacks an HSL tool in the raw Develop module. And most importantly it does not save any of your work done in the raw Develop module -- it's destructive of your work.

Joe

robertcbyrd Loc: 28754

I too have been using Affinity Photo since it became available for Windows. I use it almost entirely for RAW processing and converting.

Mostly I think it's the cat's pajamas. But, when I was using my 18 - 135 mm Canon kit lens it did not handle the distortion well even though it claimed to support it. When I switched to a Tamron 24 - 70 mm 2.8 all of that went away.

So your mileage may vary in some of the details. I highly recommend it.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I use it occasionally, b ut not enough to offer an opinion - no complaints, though.

Some reviews -

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/software-review-affinity-photo-1-5-2
http://www.shutterbug.com/content/affinity-photo-software-review-has-photoshop-met-its-match#d1c5lY5EQ03QoLjh.97
http://www.diyphotography.net/affinity-photo-can-give-adobe-run-money/
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/affinity-photo-1.5,review-4257.html

Woodworm65 Loc: Lombard, IL

I use Affinity along with On1 photo raw, ON1 is my raw editor and Affinity I use as you would photo shop for the price on both it is well worth the cost and your not paying juice to Adobe.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Affinity Photo is an excellent editor. Never an issue with my RAW data although I tend to use the proprietary RAW editor made for my cameras.

Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

Here is info I copied from the Affinity website on non-destructive vs. destructive workflow. Hopefully it will answer your questions regarding Affinity software.

begin quote "Hi Pete, here's a quick breakdown, hope it helps:

The Develop persona is non-destructive. All tonal operations are done in an unbounded colour space (so no tonal information is clipped). When you click Develop, you then process the image destructively.

However, if you open the develop assistant (that little suit/tuxedo icon at the top), you can change from 16-bit to 32-bit output. This still "destructively" develops the image, but tonal ranges aren't clipped, so you can alter the exposure at any point without losing shadow or highlight information.

Yes, adjustment layers are non-destructive unless you merge them down.

Yes. live filter layers are non-destructive.

Any filters applied from the top Filter menu are destructive. I would suggest duplicating any pixel layers you want to apply those filters to if you want a non-destructive way of using them.

You can create "snapshots" of your work that are stored in the saved document. This allows you to jump between a series of edits and store your progress if you want. See this video on Snapshots for more information.

Regarding the .afphoto document format: You have the option of saving a full undo history (File>Save History with Document). This allows you to re-open a document at any time and step back through all the operations you've performed.

The format saves uncompressed raster information, so yes, it's definitely not a sidecar file ;) . It's worth noting that Photo develops raw images to 16-bit by default, which can produce big file sizes with uncompressed image data. For example, a typical 16MP 16-bit image can be around 120MB in size.

When you first develop a raw image, Photo also stores an initial snapshot so you have a clean copy of your image (again, see the video linked above for more information). This also increase file size. You can delete this before you save your document if you don't need it.

Hope that helps, James" end quote

TucsonDave Loc: Tucson, Arizona

You have received some informative responses. Affinity Photo has several "Personas" The Develop Persona treats the raw file. It is a little thin in capability BUT, you use it to save information in the shadows and reduce the chance of clipping the highlights (Assuming your original photo didn't blow them out). When developed, it drops you into the Photo Persona which has a wide range of capability and when layers and live filters are used, is non-destructive. It also has a Tonal Persona and a Liquify Persona, all of which are non-destructive.

I have used it for 3 years. All the 10 or so upgrades have been minor in nature, some substantial, and free. They are on version 1.83 from 1.1. They do indicate that a major upgrade may cost. The entire program was only $50. Today it is $25. What a deal!

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Until you click Develop and all of your non-destructive work to that point is discarded. So clicking Develop in the Develop Persona to convert a raw image to an RGB image and then move to the Photo Persona is a "forced destructive" action. In a raw workflow then Affinity Photo is always forced destructive since you can't return to any of the work done in the Develop persona with the raw file data. You have to start from scratch with the raw file if you want to re-visit/re-adjust something you did in the Develop module with the raw data.

It's worth noting that Affinity Photo stands alone in the industry in this regard. Of course no other raw conversion software would do that to you.

I'm still happy to say that Affinity Photo is an excellent raster editor and a fantastic bargain, but I want my raw workflow both non-destructive and re-editable without having to start over. It's easy enough to do raw conversions in a different app that saves your work and then move to Affinity as needed.

Joe

dandev Loc: Enumclaw, WA

I have used Affinity Photo for 18 months in conjunction with Capture One that I use with my raw editor. It's a good product - that is very price competitive. Some of the UI features are easier to use vs. PS. It does have a few features missing compared to PS. The good news is that I can export from Capture One, do my edits in Affinity, then save back to Capture One.
There are available tutorials - and you can use PS tutorials - then adapt to Affinity.

Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

Joe,

The info that I posted was copied from the Affinity website, and was an answer to a question on that website regarding non-destructive vs destructive processing. I posted it strictly to give the OP some added information to his question regarding non-destructive vs destructive workflow with Affinity, not to contradict anything you said.

You as a regular user of Affinity are most likely to have a lot more experience with it than I, and therefore are much better qualified than I am to share info on it with the OP.