Why IMHO the i9/Vega iMac is a great machine for photo editing (mostly)

[Reality4711]

FRV + Affinity Photo on late 2013 MP & 32" LG 4K now has no lag at all using Beta 0f 1.7 AP.

The rewritten core of the software seems to have born fruit. Not being a tech all I can say is it is well worth considering AP over other manipulation progs. at the moment.

They tell us that the general performance improvements come from using all GPU power that is available on your machine. In my case the poorest 300GPUs are now flying by comparison to previously.

Working with multiple layer (10+), lots of brushes but most work done in RAW development (RAFs at 50MB). Outputing for print mostly 150 MB tiffs.

If you have AP already, why not try it and compare.

 

[mdelrossi]

@Reality4711 what do you shoot? Website?

Back on topic, I love affinity on the iPad, the desktop is another story, old dog new tricks kinda thing. Been using Photoshop since the beginning , and I’m just used to the workflow.
RFV, is one I’ve downloaded, but haven’t really delved into much yet.

 

[Bohemien]

I love Affinity Photo. Does everything I needed from Photoshop, but I wouldn't consider myself a "power user" (so I don't know if it offers every filter PS has and if it has the same scripting features, I think they're called "actions" in PS). I do nearly all RAW conversion work in Capture One (previously LR6), only go to AP if I need to do more complex healing brush work or need to do a "beauty retouch", i.e. frequency separation for skin work or even some light liquifying. AP does all of that perfectly.

Really well programmed, the Serif stuff. I also use Affinity Designer, which is fantastic, and am looking forward to the release of Publisher.

 

[Reality4711]

@Reality4711 what do you shoot? Website?

Back on topic, I love affinity on the iPad, the desktop is another story, old dog new tricks kinda thing. Been using Photoshop since the beginning , and I’m just used to the workflow.
RFV, is one I’ve downloaded, but haven’t really delved into much yet.

Sorry - not quite clear what your question is?

 

[mdelrossi]

@Reality4711 , what types of photos do you shoot? Do you have a website?
I’m always curious to see others work.

 

[Bohemien]

If you have AP already, why not try it and compare.

I did now-and drawing masks (or drawing in adjustments directly) works completely without a lag in Affinity Photo 1.6.7. So maybe there is a way of speeding this process up, also for RAW processors like C1 Pro or Lightroom...?

 

[Kchuphotography]

I did now-and drawing masks (or drawing in adjustments directly) works completely without a lag in Affinity Photo 1.6.7. So maybe there is a way of speeding this process up, also for RAW processors like C1 Pro or Lightroom...?

Does it lag when making global adjustments? Everything is said about working in layers but globally do dragging sliders lag? I tried out the i5/580x/ssd/40gb but I get delay when dragging sliders.. Was wondering if going i9/vega or i9/580x would fix the problem..

 

[Reality4711]

@Reality4711 what do you shoot? Website?

Back on topic, I love affinity on the iPad, the desktop is another story, old dog new tricks kinda thing. Been using Photoshop since the beginning , and I’m just used to the workflow.
RFV, is one I’ve downloaded, but haven’t really delved into much yet.

Started with PS on a Windows machine/s.

Nearly killed my little business.

12" G4 laptop with 40gb hard drive and 1.3GHz CPU fixed all that on an old CRT display.

Got away from PS asap and finally settled on AP. Cannot see me moving from it in the future.

Realized that so few of the thousands of functions were actually needed to produce a saleable image 'if' I took the right picture in the first place. Thank you Mr David Bailey for free advice whilst having a pee.

 

[smirking]

Realized that so few of the thousands of functions were actually needed to produce a saleable image 'if' I took the right picture in the first place.

I assume that you mostly shoot landscapes and architecture? There's no way I'd be able to survive without asset management functionality. Most of my photography is street and events.

 

[Reality4711]

I assume that you mostly shoot landscapes and architecture? There's no way I'd be able to survive without asset management functionality. Most of my photography is street and events.

Sorry, but no.

Career spans sports (mostly dogs & horses), portraiture (mostly glamour), a bit of event stuff but pretty much client choice and I provide.

So called 'asset management' is probably good for bulk photography but if you do not deal in bulk just a complex inconvenience.

Customer name/date of shoot/ general description > subfile of outputs - end of.

Nowadays choice is made from email jpgs with the odd alteration (crops etc) via reply.

Money up front via Paypal and images sent Low Res for posting ; Hi Res for printing and of course postal if print requested.

Job done, master file put in file tree library and hope for another customer

Thats the way I have always worked (45 yrs or so) both film and digital.

I have never needed the management software. I cannot remember the last time someone asked me for an image that I took more than 18 months earlier. The odd anniversary (12 months) maybe.

Arty type stuff, corporate, agency work and press yep I get all these need library/reference; even stock photographers but I can think of very few reasons why a jobbing photographer would need their images in 20/30 years so why bother.

I am not well known and never will be; but have earned a decent living without taking my stuff too seriously (or myself).

Seems to me the the most famous are usually the best at self marketing and being bloody good photographers of course the rest of us (well me anyway) realized many years ago that the world has shrunk and what we create quickly (very) is passed on or over not to be seen again. Might seem sad or dismissive but ultimately must be true.

We hold up in awe the work of our heroes of the past. What we will never see (or look for) are the others! Those photographers who's work was hung on living room walls or boardroom walls but now gone and not missed. My work paid the bills but will not be needed in the future. I think that applies to an exceedingly large proportion of our fellow contributor here on MR..

 

[kis]

Got the exact same machine, and it's fantastic for photo editing. Extremely fast, completely quiet

 

[smirking]

So called 'asset management' is probably good for bulk photography but if you do not deal in bulk just a complex inconvenience.

Well, it's certainly not a requirement, but for other use cases different from yours, DAM is pretty important. I do have to reach back deep into the archives for my work... years and many years actually. I'm not sure what bulk photography is, but my use case is more journalistic in nature.

Like you though, I've soured on anything has heavy handed as Photoshop. Capture One Pro blends (better than) good enough photo editing that handles 99% of any edits I could want to do to my photos with built in asset management.

 

[Reality4711]

'I'm not sure what bulk photography is, but my use case is more journalistic in nature.'

Bulk - stock images, reportage, event coverage historically weighty stuff (politics), paparazzi.

Anything really where you are making the library the product rather than the single image.

 

[tomscott1988]

Thought I would chime in.

Received two of these last week. Use 5DMKIVs 5DSr and 6DMKIIs and this is the only machine I've ever used where Lightroom is completely fluid.

Makes the iMac in my sig feel very slow indeed, yet its still adequate but this feels incredibly fast.

Couldn't believe how good it is.

They are both i9s Vega 1TB SSD and 64gb of ram. Every slider renders perfectly regardless how quick you move it. Even with heavily edited photos with a lot of the heavy computational stuff already done the sliders are completely fluid. Makes small adjustments a breeze.

The speed of import and export I'm not really bothered about its the UI speed that frustrated me.

Absolutely chuffed to bits with them and will make editing weddings so much more productive.

 

[Bohemien]

Does it lag when making global adjustments? Everything is said about working in layers but globally do dragging sliders lag? I tried out the i5/580x/ssd/40gb but I get delay when dragging sliders.. Was wondering if going i9/vega or i9/580x would fix the problem..

There is a slight lag, but maybe it's not as obvious as when drawing a mask. E.g. when I grab the exposure slider and yank it over to the right, it takes "a blink of the eye" until I see the completely overexposed picture. Nothing that affects the workflow too much I'd say-when drawing masks, the lag is more evident and annoying.

What really annoys me too is that after the latest update (12.1.0.150), cropping the photo has become VERY laggy. The lines showing the rule of thirds when resizing the cropped area lag behind by a very noticeable amount-looks pretty stupid. This was not the case before, so I'd guess it's definitely a software problem...

 

[Macintosh IIcx]

There is a slight lag, but maybe it's not as obvious as when drawing a mask. E.g. when I grab the exposure slider and yank it over to the right, it takes "a blink of the eye" until I see the completely overexposed picture. Nothing that affects the workflow too much I'd say-when drawing masks, the lag is more evident and annoying.

Hi Bohemien,

Regarding Capture One and drawing masks: What is your experience if you turn off OpenCL for display (the top option)? You might experience a more smooth performance by using the CPU only.