Affinity Photo (1 Viewer)

[MikeInPA]

Affinity Photo is an award winning Photo Editing developed by UK company Serif. It’s ridiculously cheap at £25 or $25 for one time purchase and you get free updates. Yes FREE updates. Like any really powerful software packages there’s a learning curve, YouTube has lots of great videos of how to use Affinity which makes it easier. If you take photos they can be improved by post processing, period.

Check it out.

Affinity Photo

I am absolutely nothing to do with Affinity other than being a long time user from its release several years ago. It only gets better.

 

[PaulCountyDurham]

Affinity Photo is an award winning Photo Editing developed by UK company Serif. It’s ridiculously cheap at £25 or $25 for one time purchase and you get free updates. Yes FREE updates. Like any really powerful software packages there’s a learning curve, YouTube has lots of great videos of how to use Affinity which makes it easier. If you take photos they can be improved by post processing, period.

Check it out.

Affinity Photo

I am absolutely nothing to do with Affinity other than being a long time user from its release several years ago. It only gets better.

Mike, I know we talked about this and I said I paid about 24 quid. This was about 6 weeks back and I've had two updates since then. Just to add to your post: the updates are not only free you don't even have to do anything for them except press a button when their message pops up.

You're certainly right about YouTube. When I first got it I thought 'probably too complicated for me at the moment, i.e. I'd have to put a lot of time in to get to grips with it. I couldn't have been more wrong, courtesy of YouTube and the people who have taken the time to put some tutorials on there.

'Pretty easy to use really. I've come 'round to the way of thinking that I turn off my in-camera noise reduction because I find it too aggressive and don't like the look of the pictures as a result, and in Affinity I turn off all of the denoise levels except for denoising the background because I tend to take pictures at 100 to 400 ISO and that sort of noise is pretty much hidden by the bird's feathers anyway and a bit more detail will be retained as a result.

The highlights and shadows feature is impressive in Affinity as are the bits and pieces such as tint and exposure.

I'd imagine that those more serious about their pictures, and with more time, get a lot more out of it than I do; but from my perspective for 24 quid and just wanting to do a few minor bits and pieces to the picture, it's a bargain really.

What I don't know at this point is how much my current laptop is limiting the look of my pictures and what Affinity can do. I'll find out in a few weeks when I get a laptop with a much more capable processor.

 

[MikeInPA]

Mike, I know we talked about this and I said I paid about 24 quid. This was about 6 weeks back and I've had two updates since then. Just to add to your post: the updates are not only free you don't even have to do anything for them except press a button when their message pops up.

You're certainly right about YouTube. When I first got it I thought 'probably too complicated for me at the moment, i.e. I'd have to put a lot of time in to get to grips with it. I couldn't have been more wrong, courtesy of YouTube and the people who have taken the time to put some tutorials on there.

'Pretty easy to use really. I've come 'round to the way of thinking that I turn off my in-camera noise reduction because I find it too aggressive and don't like the look of the pictures as a result, and in Affinity I turn off all of the denoise levels except for denoising the background because I tend to take pictures at 100 to 400 ISO and that sort of noise is pretty much hidden by the bird's feathers anyway and a bit more detail will be retained as a result.

The highlights and shadows feature is impressive in Affinity as are the bits and pieces such as tint and exposure.

I'd imagine that those more serious about their pictures, and with more time, get a lot more out of it than I do; but from my perspective for 24 quid and just wanting to do a few minor bits and pieces to the picture, it's a bargain really.

What I don't know at this point is how much my current laptop is limiting the look of my pictures and what Affinity can do. I'll find out in a few weeks when I get a laptop with a much more capable processor.

Hey Paul,

I was a user of Photoshop for many years but didn’t want to go to their monthly subscription. I’ve found Affinity Photo does everything and more that I need and all for the $50 I paid when it first came out. Now it’s down to $25 or £25 it’s tremendous value. The removal tools I find are marvelous, if theres a twig that I find distracting , zap and it’s gone.

It gets better every new free release. Glad your enjoying it too.
🙂

 

[PaulCountyDurham]

Hey Paul,

I was a user of Photoshop for many years but didn’t want to go to their monthly subscription. I’ve found Affinity Photo does everything and more that I need and all for the $50 I paid when it first came out. Now it’s down to $25 or £25 it’s tremendous value. The removal tools I find are marvelous, if theres a twig that I find distracting , zap and it’s gone.

It gets better every new free release. Glad your enjoying it too.
🙂

Hi Mike,

I'm very much glad I paid for it: money well spent. On the removal tools: I watched a couple of tutorials and tried it and couldn't believe the result, this was around a month back. With trying to learn about camera and other bits of Affinity, I had completely forgotten about that feature so I'll go back to it. 'Glad you've reminded me because I've had a few good pictures lately spoiled by twigs getting in the way. I quite like the dodge tool, too, 'seconds of work and it can give a sparkle here and there!

I think when I get a new laptop, with a much more capable processor, and assuming it has an impact on my pictures; I'll probably really begin to take photo-editing more seriously. That's a possibility because my pictures look far better in-camera. I appreciate some detail is lost when transferring to a computer and the screen is smaller on a camera, but the difference is stark.

Cheers,
Paul

 

[MikeInPA]

Good luck with your laptop purchase. Get loads of memory, these photo editing software packages are memory hogs.

A good topic to learn on Affinity is how to use Layers and after that Layer Masks. Wheres that Banging Head against a brick wall Smiley when you need it.

Actually once you grasp the concept you'll never look back.

Honestly

 

[Weasel1]

Thanks for the heads up, Mike...just bought it, so will see how it compares to my ageing Lightroom 4 and PSE 10.

 

[MikeInPA]

Thanks for the heads up, Mike...just bought it, so will see how it compares to my ageing Lightroom 4 and PSE 10.

It's commands are very similar to Photoshop, somethings it does much better in my opinion, somethings not quite as good from memory but it does everything I typically do to my photographs.

At 25 quid to quote a line from one of my favorite films "It's a deal, it's a steal, its the sale of the f***ing century".

If you never seen Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels do yourself a favor and watch it.

 

[PaulCountyDurham]

Good luck with your laptop purchase. Get loads of memory, these photo editing software packages are memory hogs.

A good topic to learn on Affinity is how to use Layers and after that Layer Masks. Wheres that Banging Head against a brick wall Smiley when you need it.

Actually once you grasp the concept you'll never look back.

Honestly

Aye, I know I'm missing out on a lot of it. It's just time really. I was out on Saturday and ended up with about 800 pictures. That sounds great but at the time of taking the pictures you know which ones you have gotten right, where the camera has been held steady and so on; but by the time I'm home and I've sifted through a lot of them I begin to lose commitment to finding the best ones which I had right. For example, I had about 200 pictures of a skylark taken within a short space of time and I doubt I picked the best ones: the volume was just too much. Add into that the time you're out with your camera, and other interests, and that doesn't leave much time for learning about photo editing. That said, I haven't done too bad with learning Affinity given the time I've devoted to it, and that's all down to the wealth of simple and quick tutorials on YouTube. I have a 20 page document with all my notes on the camera and Affinity so I won't be too disappointed in the event the weather is poor this weekend as it will give me a chance to go back to my learning notes and see what I've missed, what is very useful but I've forgotten and any other areas for more learning. When the weather's good, it's just too much of an opportunity to not get out and enjoy it!

As it stands, I tend to find the exposure and sharpening tools most useful for me because those are the main two areas where my technique with the camera is letting me down. But, thanks for the tip with layers and layer masks and I'll definitely be looking that at!