drmoss_ca

That's interesting. I've swapped from using NeoFinder to using Photos, and the only drawback for me is that .afp files aren't stored in Photos. But I generally import to Photos, click an image there, use Cmd-Return to open it in the last used external editor - Affinity Photo - and when I'm finished there, flatten it and save, thus overwriting the original file in Photos (I could Save As... and leave the original, or I could plan ahead and duplicate the original in Photos before editing it, but mostly that isn't necessary for me. If I want to keep an .afp file I have to save it outside Photos. All photos are backed up to networked drives before being imported to Photos. Since Apple can save Photoshop layered files in Photos, it would be easy for them to do the same with .afp files. I'd encourage everyone to leave feedback asking for this at https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html

Argue away, old chap. Lacking an actual DAM in Affinity Photo, NeoFinder and Graphic Converter are the only Mac options we have at present.

Graphic Converter has a Browse function in the file menu, so you just point it at the folder where your photos are. Double clicking a photo thumbnail in the browser will open the photo in the default application for that kind of file. For example, I have the default app for .HEIC and .ORF files set to Affinity Photo (you probably know how to do this - in the Finder, click once on a file of the type concerned and use File menu > Get Info (Cmd-I) to open a window where you can change the app used to open the file, and click on the Change All button as well to open all photo files of that type in the app you want). Even photo files that are set to open in Preview, such as .jpg files, can be opened in Affinity Photo by ctrl-clicking on them and selecting Open With... All pretty easy!

NeoFinder is one option, and the browser function of Graphic Converter also works. The Mac's own Photos.app will not accept .afphoto files as yet.

This will only be of interest to Mac users, but I note it would quite nifty if Photos app would support .afphoto files. Photos already copes with layered files like .psd files from Photoshop, and the Finder supports .afphoto files with icon previews and quicklook (and with things like new RAW formats Finder support has always gone hand in hand with iPhoto/Photos/Aperture support as they all use the same routines). Affinity Photo already integrates with Photos by working as an extension when editing. If Apple would add support for .afphoto files in Photos we would have a decent DAM ready made that integrates with other macOS apps rather better than NeoFinder.

And you're back again. I bought each and every version of PS from CS2 onwards. I was willing, and still would be, if I knew I was actually buying it. But I won't rent software, nor will I be told off by some little youngster like you. So go and get lost in your mall, and stop wasting your time (and 1400+ posts) on hating an excellent and cheap competitor to PS.

Well, thank you for your helpful reply. I think my first version of PS was CS2, and I did use CC up until last month. But like most people who object to rental models of software, I'm here to learn about alternatives.

One of the plugins I miss from PS is ColorPerfect, used for colour correcting scans of colour negative film. I can place the plugin in the Affinity Photo plugins folder and have it recognised in the preferences pane (as 'Unknown' but I can check the use unknown box). Sadly Photo crashes when I try to open it. I asked the developer if I might expect the plugin to work with Affinity Photo in the future and got a rather bad-tempered reply: Ouch! Rather regret asking the question. But, presumably, I was not the first to ask, and hence the frustration. I'm sure Serif has lots of things to do, and has done a pretty good job so far of rivaling Photoshop. Let us hope full plugin support is on the to-do list!

Do you not find the RAW module useful at all? I confess I haven't played with it as I'm a film photographer and I'm importing scans of negatives as large TIFF files.

That wasn't an issue for me, as I keep my photos in folders by year. I just had all the folders imported into the sidebar of LR.

I recently committed to Affinity Photo. I have used LR and C1 in the past, and was rather relieved to recover so much disk space and so many processor cycles by removing Adobe altogether from my Mac. I am choosing between two products as a DAM: 1. NeoFinder. Actually rather clunky, for example it does not update a folder/catalog until you specifically ask it to do so. I add a photo to the 2020 folder, but then I have to ctrl-click on the catalog, select 'Update', click through a dialog box and then it shows up. No way in its prefs to set which application a photo is opened in - again ctrl-click and select Affinity Photo from a submenu. Also, how long did it take you to figure out how to arrange the viewing order for a catalog. That little tiny unlabelled icon at the bottom of the window is very inconspicuous. Naturally, that is absolutely in line with the way Apple does things these days, so maybe Norbert is just going with the Apple flow... 2. Graphic Converter. Used this for years, and the browser works without having to be updated or any such nonsense. Having been a LR/PS user for a long time I haven't kept up with how it works as a photo editor, but I suspect that now it has layers it is pretty good. Maybe not good enough yet for local brushes and non-destructive editing. What I want in a DAM is integration with the Finder and with the image editor. LR got that part just about perfectly. If Affinity Photo let me browse my folders and then edit a selected photo the way LR did it would be wonderful. What I'm doing with NeoFinder and Graphic Converter is a bit of a kludge, but one I can live with in order be rid of subscriptions and processor overhead. I'd pay twice as much for a permanent license for Affinity Photo that included such functionality!