Skip to main content

Affinity photo editor vs Photoshop CC

In the last post, we talked about an open source free photo editing software called Darktable and compared it with Lightroom Classic CC.  This post we will focus on another amazing software called Affinity photo editor, developed by Serif, a company based in the UK. Affinity photo editor is available for Windows and Apple Mac machines as a software to download. Affinity photo has the RAW processing features of Lightroom and image editing features of Photoshop. I first thought of doing a comparison between Lightroom Classic CC and Affinity photo but both of them have very different functionalities, and the comparison did not produce very meaningful results. One of them is known for its digital asset management capabilities and the other for its high-end tools. 
Affinity photo is a really strong contender for Photoshop CC. Both have great RAW image support and tons of very similar tools. Here are some of the major differences between Photoshop and Affinity photo: 

-Lesser Affinity photo plugins availability as compared to Photoshop. It does support Nik collection as that's the one I personally use. 
-Affinity photo is faster than Photoshop, my personal opinion. My machine is a 500 GB SSD and 16 GB RAM with an AMD A10 processor. 
-Context-aware delete from Photoshop is called as in painting brush tool in Affinity photo editor. Both have the exact same functionality but different naming. 
-Neat selection brush. I really loved the selection brush offered in Affinity photo, it is very smooth. 
-PSD Format support. Yes, PSD files are supported by Affinity photo which could make the transition smoother in case you want to switch.
-The .afphoto native format for Affinity photo is not supported by Lightroom. This is one of the points you need to consider if you want to combine Affinity photo editor and Lightroom Classic CC in your workflow. 
-Cheaper. Even though Affinity photo cannot replace 100% of the Photoshop features, it is still an attractive option because it is available at a fraction of the standalone Photoshop pricing. If you do not like paying money every month to Adobe, Affinity photo might be worth considering. 
Affinity photo editor vs Adobe Photoshop CC
Affinity photo editor vs Photoshop CC
Both of the software are raster editors and designed for pixel manipulation, not digital asset management. If you like working with Lightroom and do not need the advanced photoshop based tools, then Affinity photo would be an overkill for you. It's a huge tool with a steep learning curve, just like Photoshop. The good thing here is Affinity photo comes with a lot of tutorials that can be accessed from the application itself which is really cool. If you need photoshop like functionalities bat cheap cost, then Affinity photo is a very close option. Adobe Photoshop has been on the market for over a decade now which is the reason for its excellent community support and wide knowledge base. Hopefully, Affinity Photo will catch up as more and more people start to use it. 

It's rumoured that Affinity is creating a new software equivalent of Lightroom. I am eagerly waiting for it to come into the photo management market. Affinity has another software called Affinity Designer which is very similar to Adobe Illustrator. Hope this post was informative enough to help you know some of the major differences between both the software. Share the photography love by sharing this post:)
Reactions:

Comments

  1. Yogesh24 May 2019 at 04:21

    Thanks for the useful information, give more updates like , First time I visit your channel really nice, here after a daily visit.
    logo design company chennai

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

sRGB vs Adobe RGB colour space explained

Digital images are everywhere, both offline and online. Each digital image is made up of a large number of square sized individual pixels. Zoom into an image at 2000 % or more in any of the viewers, you will see these pixels. Here is an example:


In order to categorize pixel colours, RGB and CMYK are the two widely used colour models. According to the RGB colour model, each pixel colour can be considered as an addition of different shades of red/green/blue light. These light shades are calculated according to the bit depth of the image. Jpeg images are usually 8 bits per colour channel (red, blue or green), which means 2^8 ( 256) different shades of each red/blue/green colour are possible. Few examples to make it clear how different colours shades are represented:
Red: (255, 0, 0)
Green: (0,255,0)
Blue: (0,0,255)
White: (255, 255, 255)
Black:  (0,0,0)



What does CMYK do? It is a subtractive colour model for printing purposes and stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. According to …
1 comment
Read more

Digital photography histogram explained for better photos

The ability to read histograms in digital photography is an excellent skill that every photographer should have. Getting a properly exposed shot is crucial when it comes to photography, and using the histogram is a solid way to achieve it. That 2 to 3 inch LCD screen located on digital cameras is only a quick way to look at the photo exposure and its details. In harsh lighting or vivid ambient lighting conditions, it can prove to be misleading to the human eye. Sometimes the LCD brightness level can also create issues with judging the exposure of a shot. So what does histogram explain about an image? How can histogram help you to take better images? In this beginner-friendly post, I will try to answer these questions. You can consider it as a tutorial or cheat sheet for digital photography histograms.
Photography histogram image examples: The histogram is basically a mathematical way of representing data, and it applies to digital image information too. In digital photography, histogr…
1 comment
Read more

Darktable vs Lightroom Classic CC

I first heard about Darktable software in 2016 and actually was quite fascinated with the name itself.  Within a few hours of hearing about it, I went to the official Darktable website and downloaded it on my Linux machine. Have been using it for quite a while now alongside Adobe Lightroom Classic CC and hence decided to write this small review post. If you are looking for a free Adobe Lightroom alternative, this might be or might not be for you depending on what you need.  Darktable is a free open source post-processing software which can do non-destructive RAW photo editing and photo management. Non-destructive means it does not change the original RAW file, all the edits are written to a sidecar file. It has evolved through so many phases of bug fixing and operating system compatibility. The latest version is available for Linux, MacOS, and Windows. Being an open source software it doesn't surprise me that it is available in 21 language translations. That's the power of op…
Post a Comment
Read more