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Why I Can't Learn Affinity Photo


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First of all, Affinity Photo is a great app. It may well be the equal too, and in some ways, superior to Photoshop. The problem isn't the tool but in the interface. Or more precisely, learning the interface.

 

Choosing to appeal to PS users, disaffected or otherwise, I believe the Serif team made two incorrect assumptions about those users in development, including:  

 

1. That changing terminology from the gold standard Photoshop wouldn't be a problem.

The words we call things matter. Example, if common usage (the base term)  is that A is a process that uses tool B, changing the base term to C means that user has to  learn that C now redefines the process, renames it and so moves it into a different indexed space, just to find, and use, tool B. That is further complicated if the assignment of A to C using tool B is changed to assign it to tool D without a reference , e.g.,  "if you used B in Photoshop to do A, to do the same thing in Affinity you should use D to do C." Without that guide, a digital Rosetta Stone, the learning curve becomes much more difficult.

2.  That everybody who used Photoshop used the tools in the same way.

This may be the greater mistaken:  PS users do not use PS the same way. The many-ways approach isn't just a marketing term for PS, it was integral to how many long-term users learned and applied the program. Like many other PS users, I've been at it through several generations of the app, and learned which of the myriad PS ways to completing a task worked best for me. Not the best ways, perhaps, but my ways. 

 

In fact, these two assumptions are why I'm struggling with AP and may have to switch back to PS.

 

 

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9 minutes ago, azartguy said:

The words we call things matter.

 

Can you provide some examples of Affinity terminology that confused you as a PS user?

 

10 minutes ago, azartguy said:

PS users do not use PS the same way.

 

That being the case, which of the myriad ways of completing a task in PS do you think Affinity Photo should adopt?

 

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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It sounds like you should start from the basics, @azartguy, and watch the official Affinity videos for beginners. After that, you might focus more specifically on the videos whose topics seem likely to address areas of interest to you and the work you do.

Any time you switch to a new tool there will be a need to learn new ways of working, and new terminology. If all tools used the same terminology, and worked exactly the same way, there wouldn't be a need for more than one tool of any kind. Fortunately for us, they don't all look and work the same, but that does mean we need to continue learning.

-- Walt
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Change can be hard, in particular when years and years of using and working in Photoshop is ingrained in your skin and pores. Whenever I learn a new application, I take the concepts I know, and approach the new application with an open mind. I explore the GUI, and translate those concepts and workflows to adapt to the new application's workflow.

Trying to placate your expectations by telling yourself and others that everything must work the same between various applications is merely deluding yourself. Yes, Photoshop is the so-called "industry standard". But it's an old standard, and by now a number of new applications have arisen that are rewriting some of those old assumptions how an image editor is supposed to work.

Photoshop is old, and has many usability problems and other rather obvious weaknesses. Many bugs, and the situation is not exactly improving since Adobe went rental only.

In short, take the concepts, but leave the old Photoshop workflows behind that are no longer efficient. And keep an open mind. Affinity Photo is NOT Photoshop. Simple as that.

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A simple example, Alfred

1 hour ago, Alfred said:

 

Can you provide some examples of Affinity terminology that confused you as a PS user?

 

Using my ABCD model in the original post , "... if you used  the Magic Wand tool and the Paint Bucket in Photoshop to fill in a color, to do the same thing in Affinity you should use the Flood Select tool and the Flood Fill tool to change a selected color.”  Add to that, the outcomes are described differently:  PS says to fill in a color, and AP says "change a selected color."

Notice that not only are the tool names different, but the described outcomes are different:  PS says to fill in a color, AP says to change a color. And that leads to your second question about what changes AP should adopt... perhaps none. But a type of thesaurus would be welcome. 

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2 minutes ago, azartguy said:

PS says to fill in a color, AP says to change a color.

 

I'm not a PS user and I've only used PS Elements a little, but in this context "change a colour" makes more sense to me than "fill in a colour". Perhaps you meant to type "fill in with a colour" (in which case I have no difficulty in getting the same meaning out of the two different ways of expressing the concept in question).

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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1 minute ago, Alfred said:

 

I'm not a PS user and I've only used PS Elements a little, but in this context "change a colour" makes more sense to me than "fill in a colour". Perhaps you meant to type "fill in with a colour" (in which case I have no difficulty in getting the same meaning out of the two different ways of expressing the concept in question).

And there's the rub, Alfred, it's not whether or not the terminology "makes sense," it's whether or not a newcomer can look at the term and intuit what sense it makes. Consider that you want to fix a leaking pipe under the kitchen sink and say to me, "I have a leak in the main, hand me a spanner." I can guess you mean a leaking water pipe and you need a wrench, but I  I might not even know that "main" = "pipe" or that "spanner" = "wrench." What I want, I suppose, is an Affinity/Photoshop phrase book.

 

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56 minutes ago, Medical Officer Bones said:

Trying to placate your expectations by telling yourself and others that everything must work the same between various applications is merely deluding yourself. Yes, Photoshop is the so-called "industry standard". But it's an old standard, and by now a number of new applications have arisen that are rewriting some of those old assumptions how an image editor is supposed to work.

Photoshop is old, and has many usability problems and other rather obvious weaknesses. Many bugs, and the situation is not exactly improving since Adobe went rental only.

In short, take the concepts, but leave the old Photoshop workflows behind that are no longer efficient. And keep an open mind. Affinity Photo is NOT Photoshop. Simple as that.

Well, Bones, I don't expect AP to be Photoshop; in fact, I hoped it wouldn't be. I expected it to be better, and it may well be. But I won't find out if I have to labor through these basic interface problems of terminology and tool applications. The folks at Serif are getting in their own way.

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