Lightroom replacement possible ?

[maat]

Question: 
is Affinity working on a Lightroom replacement ?
So far, you've done such a great job, it would be a blessing if you could create a Lightroom version as well. The combination of archiving and editing has become very important to me as a professional and I often hear the same from my colleagues. Maybe you are already working on a development ? THAT would be great ! 

[Callum]

22 hours ago, maat said:

Question: 
is Affinity working on a Lightroom replacement ?
So far, you've done such a great job, it would be a blessing if you could create a Lightroom version as well. The combination of archiving and editing has become very important to me as a professional and I often hear the same from my colleagues. Maybe you are already working on a development ? THAT would be great ! 

Hi Maat,

Welcome to the forums

Its something we would like to do in the future but we don't have anything set in stone just yet.

Thanks

Callum

[Karl H.]

Hello,

I am wondering there are not more comments/requests for this project. Me as a professional photographer and photography teacher is really unlucky with the Lightroom situation now. I don’t want to spend $ and $ just to see, that Lightroom gets no real improvement since years. I still use LR 5.7 and hope a lot that Serif created some replacement to LR before my old version is not accepted by hardware or systemsoftware anymore.

Of course there are some so called alternatives for LR on the market, but all of them just concentrate on RAW developement and a lot of effects for spectacular images. But no one cares about the library function to organize and manage a hundred thousand photos or more. And for shure I know a lot of other photographers having the same problem. The Affinity apps are so well designed, have an amazing look and feel in UI and are running very fast even on 10 year old machines so I don’t want to miss them and would be extremly happy if I could throw LR in the bin because I got your "Affinity Organizer"!

Best wishes from Germany

Karl

[Blende21]

On my Mac I’ve installed GraphicConverter, actual version 11, to replace Lightroom. Can be tested to any extend for free, just has a start-Up-Lag in the free use. Then it is a one-time purchase, if I remember somewhere in the 30€ range.

Works different than LR, has a lot of tools to import, organize and develop pictures. Many things can be applied in batch processes to a series of pics. You do one, and then let the SW apply the same modification to all you select. Writes a XMB-file for every modified picture, so you can non-destructively roll back what you do. And you are not bound to a catalog that will sort of lock you into the program. Everything is on the disk, legible in Finder. 

German developer, good support.

[virtualshift]

Yes please!! I would Love to see a Lightroom Replacement. You guys make some of the best apps out there and I would love to see you make a Lightroom killer.

[Karl H.]

@Blende21: Thanks for your tipp! I've used GraphicConverter already about 30 years ago for format conversions but don’t use it anymore.  So I downloaded again the actual version and gave it a try. But by far it is not comparable with Lightroom when it comes to the management and organisation of 100.000 photos or more. It is just a file browser, not a database like LR. Also RAW development, retouching etc. is far behind LR and GC is extremly slow. I know, many poeple don’t know much about the huge capabilities of the Library module in LR but for me it is a unique tool I don’t want to miss. However, I would like to change from LR to a LR killer better today than tomorrow because of Adobes terrible pricing and marketing strategy.

[maat]

As I said, there is no alternative to LR and it is getting more and more unbearable, because Adobe starts to limit the features of the Classic version more and more. It would be a blessing for me as a photographer as well as for the other colleagues that I know ... but also for the many private users that we photographers have so often recommended the program to. 

[burzum]

Please give us a Lightroom replacement. I would even pay 3x the price of Affinity Photo for it! Adobe likes to fck their customers, LR6 got the map support removed, LR5.7 never got tethering for the 7DII, it's damn slow, their support overall underwhelming - it's fcking Adobe! 

[thomaso]

+1, Agree!
 

On 6/21/2019 at 3:08 PM, maat said:

there is no alternative to LR

At least nothing with a same intuitive UI, indeed. For the time being you might take a look at 'Darktable' or 'DxO Optics Pro'.

[oqlus]

The day Serif announces an Affinity direct competitor to Lightroom is the day I’ll be willing to commit to whatever that product is. I’ve purchased every version of Lightroom up to and including 6, but I’m not buying into Adobe’s subscription model, so when macOS Catalina makes its way onto my Mac Pro and MacBook Pro, I’ll be purchasing VMware Fusion to run an instance of macOS Mojave, so that I can continue to use the software I’ve purchased outright… until something better comes along. 

I’d absolutely love for that “something better” to fit right into my Affinity suite.  

[maat]

The more people here speak out for an alternative, the more my hope increases that Affinity hears our requests and calls and begins with an implementation!

 

[iamdak]

I've been using Lightroom since the first version up to LR6. I've tried On1 Photo Raw 2019.5 but it's not a LR replacement, yet. The two key features that keep me from leaving LR is:

1. The export dialog with ease of selecting presets, but then i am able to quickly change a destination if needed. On1 doesn't start at the current selected directory so you have to re-navigate again to where you want to save to. It's these little things that make On1 frustrating to use.

2. Being able to right click on an image(s) and edit in external program like Photoshop Affinity Photo no matter what module you're in. like Library or Develop. In On1 you have to go back to Browse and then use the menu to select an external program, which brings up Windows browser. You then have to navigate to the editing program. Stupid. They should have preference settings for adding an external editing program like LR does. 

If On1 fixes these two things then i can easily move over. But it would be awesome if Affinity designs a LR replacement. I'd buy for sure . I've already purchased all 3 programs of theirs.

Yeah, Adobe can eat $#!^ with their subscription.

[Minus44]

A lot of those who are new to the Affinity suite of software may not realize that the request for an Affinity-brand of DAM (digital asset management) software, or at least a Lightroom-like alternative has been floated for a number of years now. The developers are listening. It IS coming, but no one is in a position to say when this will happen.

There is currently a very long thread on this forum about the need for a DAM produced by Serif. You can search for it and read through the various ideas presented by many users. It will also give you an idea of just how many different tastes there are to fulfill. 

[RussPitcher]

I'd definitely love to see a Lightroom alternative in the Affinity Suite. I can pretty much guarantee I'll buy it the instant it's available.

[hologram]

Please make an Affinity version of Lightroom, with the same intuitive type interface. I would buy it immediately. I check your site every few months hoping it will be there. Photography requires more than a photo editing app. A Lightroom type program is essential for organizing and developing digital photo work whether personal or professional. I love the current Affinity apps yet the suite is missing this one key piece for optimizing workflow.

[mistergarth]

Another voice of encouragement for the Affinity folks to develop a Lightroom replacement here. It does seem like the one major missing piece of the puzzle for many folks' workflow. I've got an overlapping thread, "indexing photo libraries", on this forum. So far, the best option for photo indexing I've found is a little open source app called DigiKam. The indexing features are excellent, and I've been finding it easy to use. The raw processing and photo merging are primitive, however, and some folks are having trouble installing it or running it. Now, if/when Affinity releases their version with  tight integration with the  three existing apps, life will be good.

[Aaaahron]

Joined the forum just to add a voice to this! Recently bought all software available in the black Friday sale and killed my Adobe subscription (I'd rather fewer features than be locked in by them for another year) but I can't lie, I'm missing Lightroom. I'm not going back and for now, opening photos from well-organised folders on my PC works okay. Would love the ability to tag and sort photos with metadata, or at least apply presets/current settings in bulk and sift through them.

Would absolutely be happy to pay for this feature as well!

[loulou]

I replaced for now my Lightroom with Darktable. Free and open source. I really love it.The learning curve is a bit rough, because a lot of possibilities to refine your images, but it does really a fantastic and professional work.

When Serif come up with a Lightroom replacement, it will be for me an instant buy. *cross fingers* Even when I like Darktable, but a working pipeline between Affinity products would be a big plus for me.

[jendres]

I love the Affinity product suite for its performance, simplicity, design and price. But please, please add a Lightroom replacement -- I'd buy in an instant. Can't wait to switch!

[Naturbild]

On 7/19/2019 at 4:24 AM, iamdak said:

I've been using Lightroom since the first version up to LR6. I've tried On1 Photo Raw 2019.5 but it's not a LR replacement, yet. The two key features that keep me from leaving LR is:

1. The export dialog with ease of selecting presets, but then i am able to quickly change a destination if needed. On1 doesn't start at the current selected directory so you have to re-navigate again to where you want to save to. It's these little things that make On1 frustrating to use.

2. Being able to right click on an image(s) and edit in external program like Photoshop Affinity Photo no matter what module you're in. like Library or Develop. In On1 you have to go back to Browse and then use the menu to select an external program, which brings up Windows browser. You then have to navigate to the editing program. Stupid. They should have preference settings for adding an external editing program like LR does. 

If On1 fixes these two things then i can easily move over. But it would be awesome if Affinity designs a LR replacement. I'd buy for sure . I've already purchased all 3 programs of theirs.

Yeah, Adobe can eat $#!^ with their subscription.

I tested two versions of On1 Photo Raw as an alternative to LR. But even on my Mac Pro, it's too slow, although I don't have any speed issues with LR. I've been waiting for Affinity's LR alternative for years. I hope Affinity brings a LR alternative, which then still runs on Intel Macs with macOS Mojave.

[vbahns]

Yes, Please build an Affinity Photo app that replaces Lightroom.  It would be nice to roundtrip to Affinity Photo back to an Affinity photo organization editing app.  

[ColinG]

On 6/21/2019 at 2:08 PM, maat said:

As I said, there is no alternative to LR and it is getting more and more unbearable, because Adobe starts to limit the features of the Classic version more and more. It would be a blessing for me as a photographer as well as for the other colleagues that I know ... but also for the many private users that we photographers have so often recommended the program to. 

Adobe is not limiting or reducing the functionality of Lr Classic. Quite the opposite - it has had some first rate enhancements only just recently. Nobody is going to build a better or even equivalent dam any time soon. It would be a huge undertaking.

[robinp]

To be honest, I'm actually pretty happy with using macOS Photos.app as my photo library. I like that it works with iCloud photos so I've got all my photos wherever I am and whatever device I'm using.

Perhaps what I'd request is a library interface in Affinity Photo on Mac that exposes the photos / iCloud library within the app. I guess different libraries and types of libraries could be accommodated so you could potentially also add a google photo library or create a new local one from scratch.

[h_d]

33 minutes ago, robinp said:

Perhaps what I'd request is a library interface in Affinity Photo on Mac

We sort of have that already. From the File - Open dialog, look down the sidebar for Media - Photos and that will give you access to the images in your Apple Photos library. 

 

However, it's pretty clunky - sometimes it will initially only display my Photo Booth library. On top of that, if you open a file in this way, and then close it (even without editing),  the next time you run File - Open you start deep in the normally hidden Photos.library directory structure, and heaven knows what damage you could do to the database if you start messing with that.

I also don't know what the effect would be in Apple Photos if you opened an image in this way, edited and saved it.  Photos doesn't recognise .afphoto documents, so you'd have to manually flatten it to retain .jpg format. Even then I don't know what effect it would have on Apple Photos, and I'm somewhat reluctant to experiment with it. And I don't even want to begin to think about a workflow for raw files...

 

[ColinG]

I would have said why not use Photos as your dam and use Affinity Photo via the extensions in Apple Photos. Trouble is I am not sure the extensions are working as they should, or at least not in a way that makes sense to me. Apple Photos is a pain really and all I do is use it to keep my edited images. My originals are kept on a separate dam. The problem with the affinity project files is they are proprietary to Affinity it seems.  But cannot you export as a 16 bit tiff with layers preserved rather than save as afphoto. That way you could use something like Adobe Bridge as your dam (and it is free).