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.
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| 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:)
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