Affinity Photo beta for real work

[Paekke]

Nah.. They should just stick to persona. People will learn sooner or later  ;)

[ronnyb]

I too like Persona, more poetic term...

 

Nah.. They should just stick to persona. People will learn sooner or later  ;)

[MattP]

It does not utilize the Mac smart mouse or trackpad capabilities and the interface is not fluid.

 

With the exception of the rotate gesture (which will soon be added to rotate the canvas) - what were you expecting to happen with the trackpad/mouse that doesn't? We support much smoother pan and zoom than anything else on the market and this obviously means properly supporting Apple's gestures, so I'm confused by what this comment means?

[samc]

How much, I wonder, do we adjust what we do and how we work to the available software? I never had any interest in panoramas until I found out how easy is is in PS; now it's a fave! I'm primarily a writer, not a photog, the photos are illustrations, but some of the PS tools make it just to easy for me to get all artsy. I'm not entirely sure at this point what, if anything, I'm willing to give up in PS for the sake of new stuff in Photo. Maybe nothing; don't know enough yet. 

 

One thing, for sure; if the layout program, Publish or whatever it's called, lets me do book layouts nearly as well as InDesign, I'm in! Gotta have a .mobi export function, though. 

[AshTeriyaki]

I personally wouldn't use AP for actual work yet, it's not really ready. Depending on what you're doing you can find yourself in a sticky spot quite quickly without much of a way out. Progress on the beta is good though. I'd agree with others sentiments regarding masks, they aren't really ready for prime time.

[billtils]

I totally agree with MattP on using Apples gestures - this is a great feature of AP.  It is not only a good tool in its own right but is a "natural" thing for Mac users who have either a MacBook or a Magic Track Pad.

[Pedro Soares]

Hi Keanu,

 

I for instant use Affinity Photo (and Affinity Designer) for real work. Nevertheless my digital workflow starts with the raw conversion.

Years ago I was an avid user of Nikon Capture NX (I still use it for special cases, at least until my camera, computer and OS supports it) and for Nikon shooters this is probably one the best raw converters out there. Also the simplicity of U-Point technology is amazing, something difficult to achieve with masks. Nikon then decided to end it so it was time for me to move on. After some research I started using Aperture. Amazing piece of software with the simplicity and power we know (or use to know in terms of professional software) from Apple. Excellent and professional results. During this time I was using Photoshop to do some type of work a raw converter is not intended for. I still use Aperture but it seams I'm being forced again to move on and to choose another raw converter. This time I went to Capture One because it's the one that gives me the best results. Professional at every level despite the lack of some features Aperture has.

In the meantime Adobe started the monthly subscription plan. This was a dead end for me since I disagree with this policy. I stop upgrading in CS5 and started to look for alternatives for Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.

When Affinity Photo Beta was released I was hoping this could be the thing I needed to be part of my workflow and work side by side with Capture One and Aperture. In the first days I was sold and immediately started to change my workflow to use Affinity Photo instead of Photoshop. In the first couple of weeks  sometimes I opened the same file in Photoshop just to check and compare. Never I saw a difference in what I wanted to achieve (the final image) despite the process being sometimes different. 

Through Affinity Photo I came across Affinity Designer and the same thing happened. Sold out since day one. Bought the MAS version days after. Now I'm waiting for Affinity Publisher.

 

Nevertheless I have to say (main reasons I miss):

Develop Persona has still some improvements to be made/features to be had.

Masks, as a lot of members said, need to be refined.

Macro Persona is missing (and I know the reason for that). But this will be very handy.

Print Persona or whatever the name could be for "real" printing is missing.

 

But I already gain (some reasons I appreciate):

Freedom from Adobe monopoly.

Fast workflow and editing in the same machine.

Prettier user interface.

A fresh way of doing the same thing (it seams not very important but this help you to keep motivated).

 

I kept (some reasons really important to me):

Quality of my editing and compositions.

Easy integration with my raw converter of choice, Aperture or Capture One.

Ability to use my plugin suite of choice, Nik Software (also works with other plugins).

 

Conclusion:

For me and for my kind of work, Affinity Photo already delivers what I need and want. It's solid enough to trust my work and my clients work to it. It doesn't have the power and all the features Photoshop has. Somethings you have to learn a new way of doing it. Others you have to discover a way around but that's part of the game. In the end it's the results you have with your work that could tell you if Affinity Photo is ready for you. For me it is :)

Since the first beta version, Affinity Photo already saw some updates with improved stability and new features. The team behind it seams amazing and understands our doubts and needs. They have being keen to keep up with all the requests and bug fixes in order for us to have the best tool in our hands. Thanks a lot!!

 

P.S. 1 - From Aperture to Affinity Photo or from Capture One 8.2 to Affinity Photo everything works like a charm. Gestures works very well and the only one is missing is rotating (I use a Wacom tablet with customs functions in the pen, radial menu, express keys and touch ring. Everything works fine.)

 

P.S. 2 - Affinity Designer is also an amazing piece of software that stands in the place where Illustrator was for many years (for me). It also has improvements to be made and features missing but now, all my vector work goes through it.

 

Hope I could help some way.

[billtils]

Agree with most of what you say Pedro - the only difference is that CaptureOne was a big disappointment (explored it from the 30 day free trial).  It did not do a very good job of importing my Aperture library and the Healing/Cloning tools do not work well for complex editing.

 

AP is still in beta and promises to get even better, but already has lots of nice little features; one that was commented on in another thread is that it supports Apple's trackpad gestures so you can zoom in and out and pan from there without interrupting what you are doing - minor but nice!

 

And have you tried Nikon ViewNX 2?  I found it good enough to stop using Aperture to download and convert my RAW images, even although it means an extra step in the workflow to move the processed images from Pictures to the Aperture library.  (They have brought out a new "View NX-i" but overall I was not impressed).

[Pedro Soares]

Hi billtis,

 

I agree with you, importing an Aperture library doesn't work very well since you lost a lot of adjustments you made in Aperture and normally the important ones... To solve this problem I decided to not import my libraries to Capture One. Only new photo shoots will be imported to Capture One or Aperture. For know I'm living with both. Healing and cloning in Capture One is more or less a joke. It's useful for small things. For complex editing as you mention, I trust Affinity Photo :)

 

AP is still in beta but is a very good beta. And I didn't mention everyone but yes, it's sure has a lot of nice and useful features. Gestures support is really good and I use it both in my trackpad and Wacom tablet (Intuos Pro).

 

I've used Nikon View NX2 some time ago and as a raw converter is very good since it uses more or less the same engine as Nikon Capture NX2. But since I started to use Aperture, and I'm very happy with the raw files it gives me, I stopped using it.

View NX-i is like Capture NX-D, it's not the real substitute of View NX2 and Capture NX2.

 

As I said, I already use Affinity Photo in my real work but I look forward to see where it's going.

:)

[ronnyb]

Pedro, have you tried a recent version of Phase One's Media Pro (formerly iView Media Pro)?

 

My plan is to continue using Aperture and create a backup like billtils describes, but start finding to another DAM system for future projects and eventual migration. I'm going to try Media Pro by Phase One; I'm hoping Media Pro as DAM, and Capture One + Affinity Photo for editing. I was waiting to see the final release of Yosemite's Photos, but it's a bad joke for Aperture users. I can't believe Apple seriously suggests migrating to Photos for professional photographers. That's like going from Photoshop to MacPaint — ok maybe not that bad, but you get the drift...

 

Hi billtis,

 

I agree with you, importing an Aperture library doesn't work very well since you lost a lot of adjustments you made in Aperture and normally the important ones... To solve this problem I decided to not import my libraries to Capture One. Only new photo shoots will be imported to Capture One or Aperture. For know I'm living with both. Healing and cloning in Capture One is more or less a joke. It's useful for small things. For complex editing as you mention, I trust Affinity Photo :)

 

AP is still in beta but is a very good beta. And I didn't mention everyone but yes, it's sure has a lot of nice and useful features. Gestures support is really good and I use it both in my trackpad and Wacom tablet (Intuos Pro).

 

I've used Nikon View NX2 some time ago and as a raw converter is very good since it uses more or less the same engine as Nikon Capture NX2. But since I started to use Aperture, and I'm very happy with the raw files it gives me, I stopped using it.

View NX-i is like Capture NX-D, it's not the real substitute of View NX2 and Capture NX2.

 

As I said, I already use Affinity Photo in my real work but I look forward to see where it's going.

:)

[Pedro Soares]

Hi ronnyb,

 

I'm also planning to keep using Aperture (and Capture NX2) until it's possible. Probably a next OS version or the following will change this.

As billtils and you said, I'm also in the process of creating a backup DAM system because sooner or later I'll be "forced" to migrate. This is where Affinity Photo and Capture One comes to play for the editing plan (like you). Regarding Photos app, I don't even want to loose my time with it, at least for professional use, a bad joke it is for Aperture users...  

As for Media Pro, I did a sneak view of it but didn't tried it, so I don't have an opinion about it. I'll take a look.

[toyotadesigner]

As soon as snapping features for the crop tool will be implemented, I will use AP 100% for real work. But I guess this will be the final release.

 

Until now I'm using it for scaling, some retouching and 'playing' (= getting used to it). Currently AP seems to be a bit slow, because loading an image file (from an external FireWire HD) needs 4 times as long as with my current image editor (no, not PS, just another 16 bit editor). I guess the final release will be optimized and load images faster.

 

But I know that the wait is worth it.