After trying PSE 14, and (finally) figuring out that it does not support Photos on El Capitan, I am tossing this over the side and looking at either Pixlemator or Affinity Serif. I have downloaded the trial on each, and am starting to stumble my way through them, and wanted to seek opinions or viewpoints of those more experienced than myself who have been using these tools. What do you think are the pros and cons of them and is one a better tool than the other? They are priced competitively, so no big difference there. Neither of them seem intuitive to me (old guy, used to manuals), but each seems to offer a little bit different option. The only downside I have run across in web searches seem to say that Affinity is a bit slow to make change or respond to change requests which makes me wonder how they got the big award from Apple this past year. My photography tends to be more towards landscape and nature, if that makes any difference. Thanks for your advice.
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Thoughts on Pixlemator vs. Affinity Serif
- Thread starter High Desert
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I am thinking that (initially) a pixel editor is more in line as I am a hobbyist that wants to go forward with my photography skill. I am using Photos as the DAM, so will take a look at your suggestion, Macphun apps. Thx
I'd say in ease of use, Photos and Pixelmator are easiest, then MacPhun, then Affinity Photos. If the idea of "layer masks" is alien to you, and you haven't been doing a lot in RAW, and you haven't thought of Photoshop, then I'd agree, start with MacPhun. PS: It does have layer masks, but easier to use, and to use without them 
Affinity and MacPhun have demos available, I believe. Look at those. And also look at the tutorials; they have learning curves and if the tutorials don't help you, choose another product.
Affinity and MacPhun have demos available, I believe. Look at those. And also look at the tutorials; they have learning curves and if the tutorials don't help you, choose another product.
Thanks robgendreau - I downloaded trial versions of Pixlemator and Affinity this morning and worked with them some. Pixlemator is definitely more intuitive than Affinity and it seems to be more in line with Photoshop, operationally. I will have to look for MacPhun demos as I have not run across it very often, but have herd it frequently mentioned.
Macphun videos on the apps in the Creative Kit and on Aurora HDR.
https://macphun.com/videoguides
http://aurorahdr.com/video-gallery
https://macphun.com/videoguides
http://aurorahdr.com/video-gallery
So, after using the Pixlemator and Affinity Photo trial demos, I have settled on going with Affinity. It is a massive package that offers just about everything PS offers, but at a 1X cost of $49. The support team seems to be committed to current and future development with a catalog / DAM in the future. Being a newbie to these types of software, AP was a bit overwhelming to begin with, but as you use it, things become clearer, plus having to understand the "English" terminologies used by tutorials, which, btw are quite good. Looking forward to becoming adept on this piece of software. Thanks to responders for offering potential solutions.
I have been using Pixelmator for years. It's my favorite editor and is simple. Only complaint is it doesn't work with .eps or .ai.
I have both and usually end up using Affinity when I need more than what's built into Photos.
Affinity is fantastic. And really, the great thing about using Photos as a light-weight DAM is that it has hooks into some of the Affinity, MacPhun, Pixelmator and DxO functionality via extensions. First generation extensions, it has to be said, but still compelling.
I have both Affinity Photo (and Designer) and Pixelmator.
IMHO, Affinity blows it out of the water. It's a little trickier to use but way more powerful from what i've seen.
If you're wanting to do design work, check out Affinity Designer. It's a vector art based program and useful for doing 'pixel work' if what you mean is what i'm thinking.
IMHO, Affinity blows it out of the water. It's a little trickier to use but way more powerful from what i've seen.
If you're wanting to do design work, check out Affinity Designer. It's a vector art based program and useful for doing 'pixel work' if what you mean is what i'm thinking.
Most of the time I don't.
My photos fall into three buckets:
- The JPEG is fine (thanks Olympus!)
- The JPEG is not fine, but global adjustments are all it needs.
- I want to make local adjustments.
Understood.
I shot ORF and routinely use Lr Develop Module presets during import. For B&W images I will usually go to Tonality. I use Noiseless often and Snapheal when I need to remove dust spots or other distractions. I like very much that the edited TIF is returned to my Lr library.
I shot ORF and routinely use Lr Develop Module presets during import. For B&W images I will usually go to Tonality. I use Noiseless often and Snapheal when I need to remove dust spots or other distractions. I like very much that the edited TIF is returned to my Lr library.
Yeah, B&W conversion is one place where, even if all I want are global adjustments, Photos just isn't good enough. The adjustment just doesn't make sense. Fortunately, B&W conversion frequently goes with local adjustments for me, so it's not that big a deal.
All of this is not to say that I wouldn't prefer to have a round-trip functionality. It's one of those maddening things that's like 90% there: Affinity, et al can already open JPEGs from the system photos library. All that is needed is the ability to access the raw photo (maybe not a problem if you shoot raw only now that I think about it), and save a file back to be used as the "finished" image.
Huh, I guess someone made a roundtrip extension: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/external-editors-for-photos/id1074021862?mt=12
You can definitely do extensions from Photos to a app and get the edited image back. I have set up my Macphun apps as extensions to Photos. But I use them from Lr because it is a far more powerful DAM and lets me do a referenced file system.
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You can also use Automator actions to facilitate a sort of round trip. One to open in whichever editor(s) you want from Photos, and then say a folder action so that you can save back to say an "edited" folder which can automatically import the TIFF say and place it in a particular album in Photos. There might be a way to send it back to autoimport to the location of the original, but that would probably require a script of some sort.
I have both and haven't really touched Pixelmator in about a year (except to test their TouchBar implementation). I think that tells something about my preferences.
Affinity Photo is just so much more powerful and more performant than Pixelmator in my experience. I also like Affinity's UI more.
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Just when I'm about to buy Affinity Photo, the price went up $10.00
I'll wait until it drops again... Grrr!
I'll wait until it drops again... Grrr!
I guess only Serif has their product Affinity Photo on desktop and tablet. The iPad version of Photo is a killer. Can't wait to see how the dust settles with the IOS 11 and High Sierra launches. We need Affinity Photo to be able to read and write its own files on IOS and have the ability to access external drives, not just cloud drives. The cloud does little go no good in the Massai Mara, one of national parks in Utah, or a beach in Alaska shooting brown bears.