Bill_de wrote:
Check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW_73gAANqY"
If by stating that you are a hobbyist you are ok with accepting lower quality images, ... is Gene being overly enthusiastic about his favorite software. It is absurd to think that not using Adobe products will give you lower quality images.
---The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
He's probably a stock holder.
Paintshop Pro only runs on Windows
Bill_de wrote:
Check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW_73gAANqY"
If by stating that you are a hobbyist you are ok with accepting lower quality images, ... is Gene being overly enthusiastic about his favorite software. It is absurd to think that not using Adobe products will give you lower quality images.
---The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Thank you for posting that link. J Cristina has some great thoughts and advice in there. His comments echo several of mine when it relates to Adobe's tactics about Photoshop et al. I will now tale a longer, harder and deeper look into the alternatives.
shotgunner wrote:
In order to avoid paying an eternal subscription fee to Adobe, I'm researching alternatives to Photoshop. I'm hearing good things about Corel Paintshop Pro and Affinity Photo, but I have not used either one. If you have experience with either of these programs , or other Photoshop alternatives, I'm eager to hear what you have to say. FYI, my interest in photography is strictly as a hobby.
This is an eternal discussion here. Please use the search function. I'm sure you will uncover limitless opinions.
Collhar wrote:
If you don't use Adobe, "you are ok with accepting lower quality images" I do of course agree with you regarding Adobe. I just don't understand the harsh response.
I would disagree that without Adobe, that one is "...accepting lower quality images." It just may take a bit more work, study and time to achieve the personally required quality in a photo. Each person's standard of quality will undoubtedly be different from another person's. That being said, it stands to reason that a person my attain perhaps better quality by utilzing a post processing program other than Adobe's.
philz
Loc: Rockaway Township NJ
If you want to primarily replace Photoshop, Affinity Photo is your choice. It is for sale now at only $40. If you want to replace both Lightroom and Photoshop, On1 Raw or acdsee ultimate 2019 at $80 on sale now will do the job well. Affinity will do anything they can't do that might still require Photoshop. All have a 30-day trial period when you can get a refund.
About a month or 6 weeks ago I bailed from the Adobe. I’ve used Adobe products a long time. Started with Elements 3.0 and Lightroom 3, and have used Adobe products all along until the latest iteration published June 2019.
For me the question boils down to which software is best for me. In the end it comes down to personal preference.
I bought On1 Raw, Paintshop Pro and Affinity Photo.
Between the three I chose Affinity Photo.
It was the easiest to transition into for me. Simon Fosters Udemy course entitled “Affinity Photo: Beginner to Pro via Reference and Workflow” was/is a big help.
Affinity is similar to Photoshop. It uses layers, masks, blending modes, luminosity masks, Photoshop plug ins, macros (actions), etc. The software layout and tools are similar to Photoshop as well.
Happy hunting!
Happy Affinity user here....
Affinity was recently updated and is currently on sale.
shotgunner wrote:
In order to avoid paying an eternal subscription fee to Adobe, I'm researching alternatives to Photoshop. I'm hearing good things about Corel Paintshop Pro and Affinity Photo, but I have not used either one. If you have experience with either of these programs , or other Photoshop alternatives, I'm eager to hear what you have to say. FYI, my interest in photography is strictly as a hobby.
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I would suggest Affinity Photo, Corel Paintshop Pro or ON1 Photo RAW 2019.5. I have and use all three. Affinity Photo is the most like Photoshop and ON1 Photo RAW 2019.5 can replace both Lightroom and Photoshop so if you used Lightroom as well as Photoshop, ON1 would be the better choice.
I strongly recommend the Open Source product GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Because it is open source, the software is FREE. I think it is as good as Photoshop. If you get GIMP, get version 2.10. The new version has been greatly improved to make it easier to use. It has a newer, cleaner look and feel. The tool icons are improved. (ie. the crop tool used to have an Exacto knife as the icon, now it is two opposing squares, like almost all other photo programs.)
It installs easily on all three platforms.
Find information and download links at
https://www.gimp.org/
johneccles wrote:
Do not forget "Zoner Photo Studio" I have been using it for many years, They are European based so don't let our US members put you off trying it out.
https://www.zoner.com/Look at ZPS. It is a good program.
For me, the bottom line is that it's worth $10 a month to not have to learn a totally new piece of software. If I were starting from zero, I would feel differently.
I tried that once, On1 I think, and I found it like trying to learn Serbo-Croat.
Blimey, not much bias in that comment!
I use ON1 RAW, AlienSkin Exposure 4, Iridient Developer and I'm trialling Capture One. All give results that are better than LR for processing XTrans Raw Files.
My experience of support from ON1 and AlienSkin is that it is better and easier to find than Adobe support.
Of course, it's each to their own in terms of their PP software choices but to say the image quality suffers is not correct. As far as Fuji RAW files are concerned it improves.
shotgunner wrote:
In order to avoid paying an eternal subscription fee to Adobe, I'm researching alternatives to Photoshop. I'm hearing good things about Corel Paintshop Pro and Affinity Photo, but I have not used either one. If you have experience with either of these programs , or other Photoshop alternatives, I'm eager to hear what you have to say. FYI, my interest in photography is strictly as a hobby.
I use Corel Paintshop Pro and After Shot Pro and am very pleased with them
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