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Please Lightroom Replacement!


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  • 2 weeks later...

Sadly not. I've been waiting for a couple of years for Affinity DAM. I suspect it would pull a lot of people from Adobe and other third party programs. I guess they're occupied with developing and supporting three major products on two platforms. And, of course, dealing with working in the current Covid 19 situation.

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Would love a true Lightroom replacement...all of the other options aren't great.  They usually have some features that work well but severely lack a great collection/asset management.  I just hope that if Affinity is working on a replacement/DAM, that's it not an Adobe Bridge like DAM, but a true Lightroom Replacement.  I don't think a Bridge alternative is going to do much for people looking for a lightroom replacement.

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  • 2 weeks later...

+1 for the Affinity DAM.

For everybody on a Mac, while waiting for the Affinity DAM to arrive, maybe give a look to GraphicConverter (currently rel. 11).

It does a great job to load, batch correct, review and organize your pics. Because it uses folders to do that, plus XMP-files as a sidecar to write corrective information there is no lock-in like with LR. After you got everything organized and your winners picked, you can seamlessly continue with AP and APub.

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As a Mac user, I had migrated from Aperture to Capture One Pro earlier in the year. Whilst RAW processing is awesome, unfortunately, C1’s image management is utterly woeful in comparison to Aperture – which I still feel is king when it comes to photo management (makes LR seem like 💩).

Having previously given up running Aperture on macOS Catalina, I have recently found that it can be patched to run on the very latest OS.

So, with Aperture running sweetly, I have reverted back to it for basic batch editing, photo and metadata management as well as brainstorming with its unique Lightable feature. 

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13 minutes ago, EddCh said:

As a Mac user, I had migrated from Aperture to Capture One Pro earlier in the year. Whilst RAW processing is awesome, unfortunately, C1’s image management is utterly woeful in comparison to Aperture – which I still feel is king when it comes to photo management (makes LR seem like 💩).

Having previously given up running Aperture on macOS Catalina, I have recently found that it can be patched to run on the very latest OS.

So, with Aperture running sweetly, I have reverted back to it for basic batch editing, photo and metadata management as well as brainstorming with its unique Lightable feature. 

I never understood Apple's decision to drop Aperture. So many of my photographer friends used it and a few moved from Windows PCs to Apple iMacs because of it. Staying with Adobe and Windows meant I became the odd one out in our group. LR lumbers on with bugs and annoyances and no one at Adobe listening presumably due to their dominant position. My hopes are still that Serif will provide an LR alternative though I suspect it will be a couple of more years yet before it makes an appearance.

In the meantime, for any Windows users out there, FastStone Image Viewer provides some basic organisational functionality including sorting on import. The interface is a bit clunky but it's easy to use, fast in operation and free (but if you find it useful send the author a donation).

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1 hour ago, Glevum Owl said:

I never understood Apple's decision to drop Aperture. So many of my photographer friends used it and a few moved from Windows PCs to Apple iMacs because of it. Staying with Adobe and Windows meant I became the odd one out in our group. LR lumbers on with bugs and annoyances and no one at Adobe listening presumably due to their dominant position. My hopes are still that Serif will provide an LR alternative though I suspect it will be a couple of more years yet before it makes an appearance.

In the meantime, for any Windows users out there, FastStone Image Viewer provides some basic organisational functionality including sorting on import. The interface is a bit clunky but it's easy to use, fast in operation and free (but if you find it useful send the author a donation).

If Apple had replaced Aperture with something usable then I can understand it – but, six years on, the replacement Photos app is still just as shit and useless as it ever was at the beginning. Heck, even iPhoto (simultaneously ditched with Aperture) was waaaaaay better. 

I had been searching constantly for six years to find a suitable Aperture alternative… to no avail. Nothing even comes close to Aperture’s photo management abilities, never mind its unique Lightable feature.

Like you, I doubt there’ll be an Affinity DAM any time soon (or ever) but, I am over the moon that I can still use Aperture. I still have the C1 safety net (C1 can import Aperture libraries) if I need it.

That said, I would dearly dearly dearly wish that there will be an Affinity DAM.

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  • 3 months later...

I see the last post is from June . ..  I echjo the desire on to get Afinity touch on the Lightroom / Aperture version for Mac. Just go to Dpreview.com on to how wide user base is and everyone is waiting for proffesional yet adorable version of these. Affinity, pplease !

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Today I renewed my annual Adobe Photo Plan subscription, not entirely by choice but mainly out of necessity: there's nothing out there to rival LR's capabilities. Yet. Maybe next year there'll be a Serif alternative. Mind you, I was saying that last year. 😂

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Serif currently have to develop and support three major programs on two platforms though they largely follow the same model: create or load a single document or a small number of documents, edit same, save. Whereas Designer, Photo and Publisher share this common model, a DAM is a whole different paradigm involving large numbers of files and some  kind of database. Therefore I don’t hold out much hope of seeing  Affinity DAM until 2022 at the earliest.

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  • 2 months later...
On 10/31/2020 at 6:05 PM, Glevum Owl said:

Serif currently have to develop and support three major programs on two platforms though they largely follow the same model: create or load a single document or a small number of documents, edit same, save. Whereas Designer, Photo and Publisher share this common model, a DAM is a whole different paradigm involving large numbers of files and some  kind of database. Therefore I don’t hold out much hope of seeing  Affinity DAM until 2022 at the earliest.

Breaking my self-imposed silence and exile from Adobe-land[1] for a bit:

Ahem, three different platforms… macOS, Windows and iPadOS. I know folks have been wanting a DAM from Affinity for ages, but for me personally I hope they delay any new products for a time, and instead choose to focus on their existing applications—all of which could really use some TLC. There are so many feature requests and workarounds littering these forums—some going back over five years—that just starting to address even a few of these requests, per application, per platform will require a massive investment from Serif.

Personally, I would rather have 'fewer, nicer things' than lots of mediocre things that require elaborate workarounds and endless compromises.

I hope Serif chooses to invest wisely, I know I will.

[1] I recently gave up on all the constant workarounds and inconsistencies of the Affinity range and had to return to Illustrator and InDesign to get some actual work done.

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1 hour ago, Bryan has left the forum. said:

Breaking my self-imposed silence and exile from Adobe-land[1] for a bit:

Ahem, three different platforms… macOS, Windows and iPadOS. I know folks have been wanting a DAM from Affinity for ages, but for me personally I hope they delay any new products for a time, and instead choose to focus on their existing applications—all of which could really use some TLC. There are so many feature requests and workarounds littering these forums—some going back over five years—that just starting to address even a few of these requests, per application, per platform will require a massive investment from Serif.

Personally, I would rather have 'fewer, nicer things' than lots of mediocre things that require elaborate workarounds and endless compromises.

I hope Serif chooses to invest wisely, I know I will.

[1] I recently gave up on all the constant workarounds and inconsistencies of the Affinity range and had to return to Illustrator and InDesign to get some actual work done.

You're not alone there. I have a few friends who make a living from producing art / designs and all have tried Serif's Affinity range yet returned to Adobe not merely due to familiarity but mainly for functionality. Serif's achievement is to have produced an affordable Adobe alternative for those of us who merely dabble, Photo especially.

Your points on quality are well made; I have a OneNote folder purely for Affinity tips, tricks, workarounds and gotchas. I'm in two minds about an Affinity DAM: I'd love to completely jump ship from Adobe but am tied to Lightroom which has little to no competition for the way I work. Conversely, Affinity Designer is, for me, not as easy to use as the old Windows-only DrawPlus 8 to which I find myself reverting more often these days. (I recently switched to Apple but keep an old, reliable i3 Win 10 PC to hand for software I can't live without like DP8.)

My hope is that version 2 of the Affinity programs will bring stability and maturity more than functionality. And perhaps a 'good' DAM will appear somewhere down the line.

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1 hour ago, Glevum Owl said:

You're not alone there. I have a few friends who make a living from producing art / designs and all have tried Serif's Affinity range yet returned to Adobe not merely due to familiarity but mainly for functionality. Serif's achievement is to have produced an affordable Adobe alternative for those of us who merely dabble, Photo especially.

Your points on quality are well made; I have a OneNote folder purely for Affinity tips, tricks, workarounds and gotchas. I'm in two minds about an Affinity DAM: I'd love to completely jump ship from Adobe but am tied to Lightroom which has little to no competition for the way I work. Conversely, Affinity Designer is, for me, not as easy to use as the old Windows-only DrawPlus 8 to which I find myself reverting more often these days. (I recently switched to Apple but keep an old, reliable i3 Win 10 PC to hand for software I can't live without like DP8.)

My hope is that version 2 of the Affinity programs will bring stability and maturity more than functionality. And perhaps a 'good' DAM will appear somewhere down the line.

Adobe is still the standard, and when working together or with other designers, printers, etc, it is nice to all be on the same page software wise. I bought all 3 Affinity apps to support them as I think they are doing some good things, but I never use it for anything save testing or out of curiosity when I read something interesting here. Still in V1, it will only get better and maybe one day down the road it will start looking like an actual replacement for Adobe to some professionals. 

Regarding running old software you could simplify and install Windows as a virtual machine on your Mac and run those good old Win apps on your Mac. With Parallels you could even have it set with a simple button click to run the Windows app so it looks like a native Mac app. They call it coherence. I use it all day long with some Windows apps on my work iMac. 

 

 

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On 1/13/2021 at 6:01 PM, wonderings said:

Regarding running old software you could simplify and install Windows as a virtual machine on your Mac and run those good old Win apps on your Mac. With Parallels you could even have it set with a simple button click to run the Windows app so it looks like a native Mac app. They call it coherence. I use it all day long with some Windows apps on my work iMac. 

AFAIK Parallels for Silicon M1 is only in a technical preview stage currently. Everything on one piece of hardware is too many eggs in one basket. The i3 is ready to go as a hot standby for our home business PC so doubles as my fall back for indispensable Windows apps e.g. FastStone ImageViewer, which I love. A clunky but reliable way to sift photos and do a bit of organising before importing into LR. Runs efficiently on our low spec HP laptop too. In fact, a while back I even considered using it and DxO instead of Adobe stuff but I rely too much on LR for geotagging and finding photos based on metadata. And I moved to Apple.

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  • 1 month later...
On 1/12/2021 at 10:35 PM, bgalakazam said:

Realtalk, if you have to use Lightroom anyway, then you get Photoshop with that monthly bundle... soooo why use Affinity Photo at that point? Clever move by Adobe indeed. Capture One is even more expensive.

True. As long as i have to pay Adobe 10€ for Lightroom a month and get Photoshop for free, i won‘t buy Affinity Photo, as i already have Photoshop. As soon as Serif comes out with a real Lightroom replacement DAM, i‘ll switch to Affinity Photo and even also buy Designer (which i don‘t need) both for Mac and IPad. I even would pay them top dollar for that DAM. Make it 300€ for a full suite (DAM, Photo, Designer) and i will place an order the Moment it is out...

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A bit late to this, but to the OP.
The issue with the map not displaying in LR6 CAN be fixed without too much difficulty. It's due to a Google licencing issue changing in 2008.
The fix is documented here https://github.com/astuder/lightroom-map-fix 

Bear in mind that even if Affinity do create a DAM to make the suite more like Lightroom, a map module might not be included. It's worth checking out Darktable for it's newly added mapping functions too.

 

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1 hour ago, AndrejSK said:

Is there possibility to let Serif developers know, that there is serious interest in Lightroom replacement ? It would be amazing if that could have tethering possibility as well. 

They will have seen this thread so they will know there are a few people interested in it. I think their priority is the 3 Apps on the 3 OS's they currently have out.

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10 minutes ago, AndrejSK said:

@wonderingsOf course i understand their focus, but despite that i believe that Lightroom replacement could be another perfect asset into the whole product line up. Moreover i don't think that there are just "few" people interested in it, but i might be wrong. 

yes and lots of people think a video app, or animation tools, or pdf viewers, or a host of other things would be a perfect asset as well. Serif is not an Adobe or have the resources that Adobe has. I am sure in time with success with the current 3 products they will add some new applications, but I don't think it will be anytime soon. 

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