[BruceBanner]

I'm thinking of ditching my subscription to LR/PS/Adobe Portfolio. It's costing me $14AUD/month, and whilst I am generally happy with the products I do see myself moving towards more subscription services that will hike my overall monthly expenses up and I'm looking to cut back where I can.

My editing process see's me first use Faststone Image Viewer, I use this to actually do the first wave of culling. After that it's LR to do basic editing (Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, Cropping, Spot (Dust) Removal etc. The real magic starts when I then choose 'Edit In' and select PS, from here I use a variety of Topaz Plugins that really assist my work, I choose to ignore the masking ability from within the Topaz Plugins, and instead apply the effects and mask back in PS. I don't know why but on my machine specs to the brushing and masking is more fluid in PS than the Topaz Plugins directly.

I thought I would be tied to Adobe forever because of the Topaz plugins, but I have just seen that Affinity Photo is also associated with Topaz? Can it be true?! Can you launch Topaz Plugins from Affinity Photo?!

I'd test it out however my trial has expired long ago, and at the time I wasn't aware of its relationship with Topaz etc.
I'm also curious to know the extend of power/features that Affinity has, can you for example also do 'layers' and 'masking' akin to Photoshop?

I'm excited that perhaps I have found my Adobe substitute!

Can anyone weigh in and give me some feedback on those questions raised?

Cheers,

Bruce

[Wild Mark]

Bruce

I love affinity photo. I have photoshop and adobe RAW and find Affinity Photo an equal. Most of my adjustments are done using the RAW processing tool. Lots of layer options exist for non destructive manipulations.

Importantly, I find no loss in functionality AND am enjoying the use of Affinity Photo on the fly using my iPad Pro II - an awesome combo.

The filing system is not so good on the iPad is perhaps my biggest gripe. I need to better understand how this is done to comment on Affinity Photo properly - perhaps others can comment here.

[BruceBanner]

Bruce

I love affinity photo. I have photoshop and adobe RAW and find Affinity Photo an equal. Most of my adjustments are done using the RAW processing tool. Lots of layer options exist for non destructive manipulations.

Importantly, I find no loss in functionality AND am enjoying the use of Affinity Photo on the fly using my iPad Pro II - an awesome combo.

The filing system is not so good on the iPad is perhaps my biggest gripe. I need to better understand how this is done to comment on Affinity Photo properly - perhaps others can comment here.

Good to hear a satisfied customer! I have never bothered with the LR Library function myself, I wouldn't probably use a filing system that much, or care for it so no biggy there.

Most importantly I am keen to hear if people can indeed launch a Topaz Plugin from within Affinity, how does it fair, any different to the LR/PS launching it etc?

[baro-nite]

I have just seen that Affinity Photo is also associated with Topaz?

I don't think so. However, apparently you can use Topaz plugins with it:

Accessing Topaz in Affinity Photo ? Topaz Studio Help Center

I'm no Photoshop expert, having basically never used it, so I can't compare. I did use GIMP for many years, before finally giving up on it (latest versions have been unusably slow for me). I've tried other programs acclaimed as "Photoshop replacements" over the years, but was never convinced by any of them. Affinity is great. I use it for stitching panoramas, stacking and aligning bracketed images, spot removal for film scans, and local tonal adjustments (with masking or the dodge/burn tool). I don't use it for raw conversion; I'm a long time user of Iridient Developer for that. Given the price I think it's a no-brainer.

[BruceBanner]

I don't think so. However, apparently you can use Topaz plugins with it:

Accessing Topaz in Affinity Photo ? Topaz Studio Help Center

I'm no Photoshop expert, having basically never used it, so I can't compare. I did use GIMP for many years, before finally giving up on it (latest versions have been unusably slow for me). I've tried other programs acclaimed as "Photoshop replacements" over the years, but was never convinced by any of them. Affinity is great. I use it for stitching panoramas, stacking and aligning bracketed images, spot removal for film scans, and local tonal adjustments (with masking or the dodge/burn tool). I don't use it for raw conversion; I'm a long time user of Iridient Developer for that. Given the price I think it's a no-brainer.

Yeah it's on special right now for $55AUD, seems decent price. But even $55 is a waste of cash if I feel as though I cannot properly port across and lay waste to Adobe products.
I do see for example that Affinity seems to run Topaz Studio rather than the Plugins directly. I'm actually not that familiar with the Studio interface or features, I hope that everything works the same if not better accessing my paid for plugins via Studio than directly but I guess I won't really know till I take the plunge.

[gump]

Bruce

I love affinity photo. I have photoshop and adobe RAW and find Affinity Photo an equal. Most of my adjustments are done using the RAW processing tool. Lots of layer options exist for non destructive manipulations.

Importantly, I find no loss in functionality AND am enjoying the use of Affinity Photo on the fly using my iPad Pro II - an awesome combo.

The filing system is not so good on the iPad is perhaps my biggest gripe. I need to better understand how this is done to comment on Affinity Photo properly - perhaps others can comment here.

I had never heard of Affinity, being new to the game. It seems to be the answer to an "older" laptop as it is less demanding of RAM and such. Am I missing something?

[jddwoods]

I have it and use mostly as an add in to photos on my 9 year old iMac. It does expand the capabilities of apple photos as an add in but since I do not have photoshop elements I cannot say how it compares. I do like that you can buy the programmed get free updates with no monthly fee.

[mee]

Good to hear a satisfied customer! I have never bothered with the LR Library function myself, I wouldn't probably use a filing system that much, or care for it so no biggy there.

Most importantly I am keen to hear if people can indeed launch a Topaz Plugin from within Affinity, how does it fair, any different to the LR/PS launching it etc?

I run Topaz plugins in it.. as well as other Photoshop plugins (namely Nik collection). They work just like they do in Photoshop (no extra steps afaik).

I still prefer Photoshop though just because I think it is easier to use for some particular tasks. But I have been using Photoshop off and on since the mid 90s (so I could be partial). That said I refuse to pay a monthly rental fee so I use Affinity instead.

For me, it is the most powerful and useful Photoshop competitor on the market.. and pretty cheap.

[clickclick]

I'd try to see if you could get another trial of Affinity. If it's been awhile, try a new download and if it doesn't work, I'd hit their sales department and tell them you're thinking of switching from Adobe and want another look. Got nothing to loose, and you'd think any savvy sales department would give you another 30 day shot to pull away another customer from their chief competition.

[Riggomatic]

I've been using affinity for Windows since the release. It does everything I need it to, and I can always find an online tutorial for most features. I see it's 30% off right now. Not a bad piece of software for $35. Free updates too.

[Wild Mark]

I had never heard of Affinity, being new to the game. It seems to be the answer to an "older" laptop as it is less demanding of RAM and such. Am I missing something?

The latest iPad Pro (gen 2) is about as powerful as a well spec'ed laptop. So, unfortunately, no it is not necessarily an old laptop solution. But you can only try and the cost is not that great (once off price and not that expensive).

[BruceBanner]

I'd try to see if you could get another trial of Affinity. If it's been awhile, try a new download and if it doesn't work, I'd hit their sales department and tell them you're thinking of switching from Adobe and want another look. Got nothing to loose, and you'd think any savvy sales department would give you another 30 day shot to pull away another customer from their chief competition.

Yeh tried that, waiting to hear back...

I've been using affinity for Windows since the release. It does everything I need it to, and I can always find an online tutorial for most features. I see it's 30% off right now. Not a bad piece of software for $35. Free updates too.

$55AUD this way, still not bad.

The latest iPad Pro (gen 2) is about as powerful as a well spec'ed laptop. So, unfortunately, no it is not necessarily an old laptop solution. But you can only try and the cost is not that great (once off price and not that expensive).

No ipads here, plus that would negate Topaz Plugins, still a nice to know feature however (further down the line).

I run Topaz plugins in it.. as well as other Photoshop plugins (namely Nik collection). They work just like they do in Photoshop (no extra steps afaik).

I still prefer Photoshop though just because I think it is easier to use for some particular tasks. But I have been using Photoshop off and on since the mid 90s (so I could be partial). That said I refuse to pay a monthly rental fee so I use Affinity instead.

For me, it is the most powerful and useful Photoshop competitor on the market.. and pretty cheap.

Nice feedback. Now specifically, when you launch Topaz Plugins, are you restricted to being taken to Topaz Studio or directly (skip Topaz Studio/pretend it's not even installed) to the plugins?

[mee]

Nice feedback. Now specifically, when you launch Topaz Plugins, are you restricted to being taken to Topaz Studio or directly (skip Topaz Studio/pretend it's not even installed) to the plugins?

Well, I am testing with Remask 5. But it just works like a normal PS plugin, you select it from the filters dropdown, it opens the remask gui, you make your selections in the remask gui and click on the 'compute (mask) now' button and it goes back to the image having computed the mask.

There is no topaz studio screen. I'm not even sure I have topaz studio installed?? But I don't see anything named that. Like I said it just works like a normal PS plugin.

I will say I needed to get an updated version of remask because an older build I had gave me an error in AP when trying to open it. But Topaz provided a fix for it (in the form of a new build) so I'm assuming they did the same for all their plugins.

[BruceBanner]

Well, I am testing with Remask 5. But it just works like a normal PS plugin, you select it from the filters dropdown, it opens the remask gui, you make your selections in the remask gui and click on the 'compute (mask) now' button and it goes back to the image having computed the mask.

There is no topaz studio screen. I'm not even sure I have topaz studio installed?? But I don't see anything named that. Like I said it just works like a normal PS plugin.

I will say I needed to get an updated version of remask because an older build I had gave me an error in AP when trying to open it. But Topaz provided a fix for it (in the form of a new build) so I'm assuming they did the same for all their plugins.

Good stuff!

I spoke with a rep or the developer on Facebook Messenger, sadly no more free trials for me but I can buy and be fully refunded within 14 days, so I'll just do that I think, block out a good week of really getting to grips with it and see if I can make do and break these Adobe chains forever!

[AndyB]

If you use the Topaz Studio plugins they take you into Topaz Studio. The plugins show up separately in Affinity as well as a Topaz Studio specific plugin, but they all take you directly into Topaz Studio.