I still keep going back to the original Affinity Photo

[Salus]

Hi,

As an enthusiastic user of Affinity Photo (and occasional user of Affinity Designer), mostly on my desktop (MacBook Pro) but occasionally on my iPad as well, I was happy to support a 2.0 version and bought the suite and have them all installed. I find, however, that I am not using Photo 2.0 after all (I just went back to using the original version of Affinity Photo) due to some issues.

1. I love using the plugin Nik Silver Effex Pro 3, but with Photo 2.0, when I go to Filters/Plug-ins/NikCollection/SilverEffectsPro, the plug-in window opens up in Photo 2.0, BUT the dialog box at the bottom, that allows you to Apply (or Cancel) your work in the Silver Effex Pro pop-up window, does NOT exist when using the plug-in with Photo 2.0. So, there is no way to Apply my work in the Nik Silver Efex pop-up window so that it becomes a layer back in Photo 2.0.  This is not an issue with the original Affinity Photo version. Because I like to occasionally turn my work to a BnW version, I decided to just use the original Affinity Photo in my workflow because I know will support the plug in if I chose to employ it.

2. Today, I finally decided to just ignore the annoyance of the Silver Efex Pro performance and go ahead and bite the bullet and start using Photo 2.0 from now on for my work. To give it another chance. I opened 4 files at once (each RAW files from my full frame Sony a99ii) and I was working on the first image, using the Distort filter, and Photo 2.0 just crashed. Sigh. This does not happen with the original Affinity Photo version.

3. Some months ago, right after I purchased Photo 2.0 and installed it (shortly after it was released), I found that there was a lag when trying to use some basic tools on a single image file. That lag problem is something that I had never experienced with the original Affinity Photo version. It was at that point that I decided to just use what works for me and just ignore the fact that there was a 2.0.

4. This is just an opinion but I really do not care for the new look of the icons (I can't tell what the pictures are supposed to be in some cases) as well as the use of buttons instead of checked and unchecked boxes within the layers. This is just a personal aside. 

5. I went to View/ShowGrid and no grid appeared as it does in the original Affinity Photo version. ??

All in all, I think I am going to just continue using the oldie-but-goodie ORIGINAL Affinity Photo and put off, again, using the new 2.0 version. I haven't found any benefit to the upgrade, although this is due to the fact that I have had problems right away when using the new version and, thus, do not likely have enough experience using it, yet, to see the benefits.

Anyone else having these types of simple problems that do not seem to occur with the original version?

[Lee D]

The Silver Effex plugin does work with Affinity Photo V2, see the attached screenshot. Do you know if you're running the MSIX or the MSI version of the app? The MSI version is newer and is available to download from your Affinity Store account. I would recommend uninstalling the existing version first before installing the other one.

Not something I can reproduce but open the apps Preferences > Performance and try turning off Hardware Acceleration and restarting the app is see if this has any effect.

For grids to be visible you do need to open the Grid & Snapping Axis dialog and select a mode/grid setting.

[Salus]

Many thanks for this helpful response. I will try out the fix. 

[Salus]

Hi,

I had a chance to go through the suggestions here. Firstly, the grid problem is fixed. Thanks for alerting me to the change in version 2. All set.

Second, I am not sure which app (Affinity Photo or Nik Silver Effex) you were referring to in your text when talking about MSIX or MSI versions. I don't see anything in the "About" for either app that involves these acronyms. I am unfamiliar with them so I Googled them and is it the case that they involve Windows OS and not Mac? I am running my Photo now on a MacBook Pro from 2019. If these terms still apply to me, can you please explain where I can go to check which version I am running? (I am running the latest Affinity Photo 2.0 if that matters.)

Third, I ensured that everything in Affinity 2.0 as regards Photoshop Plugins (ie, how to link up the Nik Suite filters into Affinity...) in the Services area looks exactly the same as in Affinity original. I even removed the Nik Suite, restarted, added it in again as I have done for original Affinity and restarted and the Nik Silver Efex window is still lacking the APPLY bar at the bottom (See attached screen grab).

Finally, the suggestion you make about turning off hardware acceleration I have done and now just need to try it out.

Any other ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[fde101]

16 minutes ago, Salus said:

they involve Windows OS and not Mac?

Correct, those are the two more common Windoze equivalents of the ".pkg" and ".mpkg" installer package formats on the Mac.  There are a few differences in how the software behaves depending on which of them is used, but none of that applies to those of us who use the software on the Mac.

[selenita]

On 4/25/2023 at 11:56 AM, Salus said:

Hi,

As an enthusiastic user of Affinity Photo (and occasional user of Affinity Designer), mostly on my desktop (MacBook Pro) but occasionally on my iPad as well, I was happy to support a 2.0 version and bought the suite and have them all installed. I find, however, that I am not using Photo 2.0 after all (I just went back to using the original version of Affinity Photo) due to some issues.

1. I love using the plugin Nik Silver Effex Pro 3, but with Photo 2.0, when I go to Filters/Plug-ins/NikCollection/SilverEffectsPro, the plug-in window opens up in Photo 2.0, BUT the dialog box at the bottom, that allows you to Apply (or Cancel) your work in the Silver Effex Pro pop-up window, does NOT exist when using the plug-in with Photo 2.0. So, there is no way to Apply my work in the Nik Silver Efex pop-up window so that it becomes a layer back in Photo 2.0.  This is not an issue with the original Affinity Photo version. Because I like to occasionally turn my work to a BnW version, I decided to just use the original Affinity Photo in my workflow because I know will support the plug in if I chose to employ it.

2. Today, I finally decided to just ignore the annoyance of the Silver Efex Pro performance and go ahead and bite the bullet and start using Photo 2.0 from now on for my work. To give it another chance. I opened 4 files at once (each RAW files from my full frame Sony a99ii) and I was working on the first image, using the Distort filter, and Photo 2.0 just crashed. Sigh. This does not happen with the original Affinity Photo version.

3. Some months ago, right after I purchased Photo 2.0 and installed it (shortly after it was released), I found that there was a lag when trying to use some basic tools on a single image file. That lag problem is something that I had never experienced with the original Affinity Photo version. It was at that point that I decided to just use what works for me and just ignore the fact that there was a 2.0.

4. This is just an opinion but I really do not care for the new look of the icons (I can't tell what the pictures are supposed to be in some cases) as well as the use of buttons instead of checked and unchecked boxes within the layers. This is just a personal aside. 

5. I went to View/ShowGrid and no grid appeared as it does in the original Affinity Photo version. ??

All in all, I think I am going to just continue using the oldie-but-goodie ORIGINAL Affinity Photo and put off, again, using the new 2.0 version. I haven't found any benefit to the upgrade, although this is due to the fact that I have had problems right away when using the new version and, thus, do not likely have enough experience using it, yet, to see the benefits.

Anyone else having these types of simple problems that do not seem to occur with the original version?

Almost all the things they mention have happened to me on both PC and iPad. For now, I still insist on adapting to change and resolving each issue, however, many times I long for the old version of Affinity. I will continue reading the responses to this post to see if they have outlined solutions to these difficulties.