Travelling Man

You are most welcome and likewise :-)

You are not really missing anything. The missing ingredient is AP having a digital asset manager (DAM) to work with. In this respect they are planning to create their own but there is not much more info than that.

Oh well, that's that then. Still a none starter as the end game will always be a jpeg :-( Back to LR :-) Thanks again.

Thanks MEB. Presumably that means edit a raw and you get a tiff sent back, which is not so bad as Photos keeps a copy of the raw. Is it possible to edit say a tiff and save as a jpeg? This extension seems the sort of functionality Apple should have built in the first place, although the saving of layered tiff is essential really!

Sounds great and makes other plugins redundant. Does it convert everything to JPG though or is it possible to send another file type back to Photos, such as Tiff?

Except AP is an awful RAW editor. LR with ACR excels in this regard. It is a bridge that needs to be crossed before I see AP as a serious contender.

I don't find that with Nikon - there may be a slight difference between LR and Nikon's software but nothing too bad. ACR handles Nikon NEF and other RAW files quite well and I suspect millions of other photographers, be they Nikon or otherwise, feel the same. Of course if you do not use RAW its not an issue but for many who do it is. But it is down to personal choice, so whatever "floats your boat" has to be right :-)

Must admit I share the trepidation. I purchased AP to show support and to start the learning curve. Don't see me leaving Adobe Photographers CC anytime soon - like others I need the DAM and decent RAW tools. LR gives me all that and if and when I need more integration with PS comes into play. To be honest I have not accessed AP in weeks. I really had high expectation re AP and hope they have not dropped the ball!

Remember Affinity is not a good raw converter and it is not a DAM. It is not a replacement for LR an is not intended to be. It is much more akin to PS but with an inferior RAW converter. All that said, it is an amazing piece of software and especially so given that it is so young. It has a very bright future and when they bring out their own LR equivalent it will be brilliant.

Certainly I would think.

Cant't argue with that. I rarely get beyond LR as I find ACR does most of what I need re editing and LR as a DAM suites my need (and especially so with a few plugins). If I require more then the round trip to PS is easy. I cannot see anything on the horizon (yet anyway) that will make me move away from that workflow but time is a strange beast!

Awe come on - the AP RAW editor is the single biggest reason I don't use AP in my main workflow. It is very, very limited to put it mildly. I have mess around with the vision 9.5 browser and I don't see what it really brings to the LR party. I do like ON1's Effects though and they work well as a LR/PS plugin.

Seems this development space is hotting up - ON1 have announced they will be releasing a fast RAW editor this autumn http://petapixel.com/2016/04/26/on1-photo-raw-first-new-raw-processor-released-decade/

There is no point in buying Nik when the AP can already do the job. If you want easy then buy something other than AP - AP is there for a specific market. Macphun is not the answer for the same reason Nik is not - AP does not work with them. Neither does AP work with On1. The answer is for AP to sort out the compatibility problem not buy up redundant software packages. For all that - Nik, Macphun and On1 all work standalone so if you need easy there it is. There are other things AP needs to address now like RAW editing and the DAM issue. Incidentally, if MacPhun are an Adobe shop why have they built extensions for Apple Photos?

It is not just the DAM that is needed, the entire RAW editing needs an overhaul, which I understand is in hand. LR with ACR is a long, long way in front of Affinity Photo so far as RAW editing is concerned. I see the problem being that LR is pretty much all that is required for touching up photos (raw or otherwise) with PS only being required for more advanced editing work. If Affinity constructs a similar sort of DAM it kind of makes AP unnecessary for most basic editing work. It will be interesting to see how all this develops.

AP's raw processing is very limited at present, but that will change. Currently, LR's raw editor is superior in all respects in my view. That said, there are alternatives for RAW development but you need to consider whether you need DAM functionality as well. For DAM stuff you could use Adobe Bridge as it is now a free download - it does not include a raw editor though.

I still find plug-ins useful. They have a place in my workflow (or sometimes they do); certainly they can make some things easier/quicker. I have long done away with having stacks of them like Topaz and now restrict myself to a couple of MacPhun apps and the free On1 stuff. These seem to work well provided one does not push it too far! Have to admit if one really wants perfection then pixel level editing is probably best. I try to keep away from this though, preferring to try and get it right in camera. That is why I like LR so much - the RAW tool is really very good and keeps me out of PS most of the time.

Do you need to process RAW?

Apart from Plugins you may want to consider your workflow as you will lose LR for digital asset management (DAM) and raw developing. From the DAM aspect, Adobe Bridge is now a free download so that could be an option re the DAM piece. Unfortunately, imo, APs current RAW development module needs a lot of work but thereagain I understand that work is in hand.

IF that is the truth of it then they should not be selling, or selling solely, via Apple should they? Or am I getting it wrong?. Others have dual marketing - Macphun for instance. Either way the bottom line for me is I cannot consider AP as my sole/prime editor until advances are made in this area (plug-ins) along with others (DAM, RAW processing etc- although the DAM shortfall can be overcome by using Bridge or Perfect Browse). I am sure it will get there, the core editor is developing very nicely indeed.

And Elements has a reasonable RAW convertor. Plugins and RAW, along with a DAM are, imo, Affinity's big weaknesses at the moment but then nobody said this would be a quick and easy path to tread. Take your point re 8 bit though.

That is the strong point! Indeed, I feel that realistically it will be while before PS/LR is caught but it must already be knocking on the door off stuff like Elements.

I use PS and LR via CC and have had no significant problems. As I said, we shall see but there is a long way for Affinity to go before I will feel that I am in a position to move away 100%. I am not a pro but am in contact with a few and I am not hearing significant moans - most even now accept that subscription will become the way of the software world. In any event Adobe is not going to sit back and let market share evaporate. Time will tell, competition can only be a good thing and the one thing that Affinity is definitely lacking is strong raw development tools and that DAM. Yup, Affinity has certainly come a long way and I have been so impressed that I purchased a copy. I shall stick with it but Adobe is my software of choice.........for now.

We'll see. There is a lot of catching up to do. No matter what our preferences here Adobe is a long way in front.

Did not know Bridge was now free. Does it work with AP? Yes it does, just tried it. On1 browser 9.5 does allow for "open with" they call it "send to" and I just opened a file with AP. I use LR anyway and at present PS remains my main editor - mainly due to plug-in support.