Affinity Photo for beginner?

[Trogdor796]

I recently got a 10.5" iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard, and am loving it so far. I'm using it to take notes and make to-do lists at work, and just for general consumption. I'm also thinking of the other things I can use it for, and remembered them showing of Affinity Photo at WWDC.


I'm not a professional photographer by any means. The only camera I own/use is my iPhone 7 Plus, and I just take photo's casually. I've never used photoshop or any other professional photo editor for more than 5 minutes. That being said, I do occasionally have photos that I'd like to touch up and refine, and I feel that the Apple Pencil and iPad Pro could make this task very intuitive. I'd also like to get a bit more involved in photo editing.


Do you guys think Affinity Pro would be a good fit for me? I'm trying to decide while it's still at it's $20 price. I have no doubt that it's a great app from all the reviews and demonstrations I've seen. I just want to make sure that all of it's power wouldn't be wasted on someone like me, who doesn't own a fancy camera or have a lot of experience with photo editing. I do work in IT though, and am quick to learn when it comes to technology and software.


Thanks for reading!

 

[B.A.T]

You don't need an expensive DSLR camera to have fun with it. Photos from all cameras look better after they have some pp done on them. If you're the type of person that will play with the app (and once you see how much better your photos look you'll probably be inspired to use it more) then go for it. Who knows you might get the photo bug after awhile.

 

[JD2015]

I use IPhone plus for photography.
Plenty of free photo apps that are great to use:-
Photoshop fix
Photoshop express
Snapseed

AF is also a amazing and has lots of inbuilt tutorials. I would buy it now whilst it is at this price.

 

[IPadNParadise]

I started as a beginner with Affinity Photo on my MBP in November 2015. It was not too difficult after watching the tutorials. Also, if you get really stuck, there is an Affinity Photo Forum. I have enjoyed the new Affinity Photo for iPad.

 

[Trogdor796]

Thanks everyone, I just bought it!

 

[seadragon]

It's a great app!

 

[Bryan Bowler]

I'm a guy that makes my living off photography and let me be very upfront with you: there is no badge of honor for being a professional photographer and there is nothing wrong with being a "beginner" that just uses an iPhone for their camera. Photography is the art and enjoyment of creating inspiring images and everyone does that, whether you're a beginner or a person that makes a living off it. It sounds like creating images gives you joy and that is all that matters.

As for Affinity, I'm glad you got it. It'a a very nice app and you'll be able to do wonderful things with your photos once you take the time to learn how to use it.

Enjoy!

 

[AstroDrew]

Quick questions: How is the learning curve of this app? and Is it worth buying for casual amateur photographer as me to edit photos?

 

[SDColorado]

Quick questions: How is the learning curve of this app? and Is it worth buying for casual amateur photographer as me to edit photos?

It works very well, even for the casual photographer. The tutorials are easy to follow and you can go as deep as you want, or stick with the basics.

But if you are just looking for something to do some fast and simple edits, before sharing/posting, I find VSCO is a pretty good tool as well. Sort of opposite ends of the spectrum.

 

[seadragon]

I'm a guy that makes my living off photography and let me be very upfront with you: there is no badge of honor for being a professional photographer and there is nothing wrong with being a "beginner" that just uses an iPhone for their camera. Photography is the art and enjoyment of creating inspiring images and everyone does that, whether you're a beginner or a person that makes a living off it. It sounds like creating images gives you joy and that is all that matters.

As for Affinity, I'm glad you got it. It'a a very nice app and you'll be able to do wonderful things with your photos once you take the time to learn how to use it.

Enjoy!

Just want to say this is a fantastic post. That's the beauty of photography, everyone can enjoy it.

 

[kingalexthe1st]

Everyone starts their photoshop/affinity journey somewhere - you'll either love it and get really in to it, or be 'meh'. I say go for it. You have 14 days to refund if you don't like it (though Apple doesn't make this easy to do, unsurprisingly. Google how to do it if you don't know). I personally think it's great, though I'm not a power user by any means.

 

[iPadDad]

Thanks everyone, I just bought it!

Good move! If you want to be a light user of Affinity Photo then be a light user, but if you want to get more involved and do more you don't want to be stuck with something hat is limited, and for $20 you just can't go wrong.

 

[IPadNParadise]

Although I am a big user and supporter of Affinity Photo, I just gotta say...for the casual photographer, improving your photos is quite good with the builtin Apple Photo editing capabilities.

 

[CE3]

I just spent an hour or so with Affinity photo. My primary photo editing workflow is Adobe CameraRaw > Photoshop and various PS Plugins. Any Photoshop familiarity makes the Affinity interface very intuitive and easy to navigate with little to no assistance.

I was extremely impressed with the performance on the 10.5 iPad Pro.

Before importing a few RAW photos to my iPad to play with, I ran them through CameraRaw to make sure the appropriate lens profile corrections had been made. I then exported as a dng and decided to select the option to "embed original RAW file". I probably shouldn't have selected that option because it ended up doubling the file size (and these are quite large 42MP Sony A7rii RAW files to begin with)!

Ultimately, I don't think Affinity will work for me as a go-to RAW editor and PS replacement. I wasn't able to restore highlight and shadow detail nearly as effectively in Affinity vs CameraRaw. But this program is 100% proof that the iPad can be a serious photo editing tool, and I look forward to seeing how apps like this evolve. The RAW file I edited was 84.8 MB, 7952 x 5304 pixels, and Affinity and the iPad Pro handled it without breaking a sweat.

Edit: Here are the downscaled / low quality comparison shots.

First is the Affinity edit with the highlights way down, shadows way up, a little contrast. I played with curves a bit, added a vibrance and levels layer.. Nothing too fancy, but everything I tried worked really well.

And here are some quick adjustments in ACR & PS on the Mac for comparison:

ACR did a much better job handling highlights and shadows.