Affinity Photo vs Photoshop - Worth the Switch?

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Affinity photo is a great alternative to

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photoshop but it was only available on

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Mac. It's finally available on Windows

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and I'll be testing the public beta. You

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can find out where to get Affinity Photo

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in the video description. I spent the entire

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day playing around with Affinity Photo

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and today, you and I will be exploring

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the features comparing the pros and cons

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between Photoshop and finding out if

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it's worth to switch from Photoshop to

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Affinity photo. So, if you're interested

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keep watching and let's find out more

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about this Photoshop competitor. When you

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first use affinity photo, you'll find

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that it's very similar to Photoshop. The

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filters, adjustment layers, and even the

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keyboard shortcuts are mostly the same.

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But there are some great features that

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make Affinity Photo standout. Disclaimer,

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this is not a paid product review and

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Serif the company behind the software

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you're about to see, they don't even know

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that I'm making this video. What you're

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seeing is my honest opinion.

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Also keep in mind, I'm using a free

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public beta released which just came out.

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So, I don't have too much time to play

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around with every single feature. So, with

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that said; here's my favorite things

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about Affinity photo. First,

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by default the layers act sort of like

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smart objects. In Photoshop for example

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you can resize them up and down without

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losing any image quality. You can also

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apply filters which are like smart

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filters in Photoshop. The layers remember

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any live filters that you supplied and

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you can always go back to change the

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settings or remove it. But unlike smart

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objects in Photoshop, you can actually

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paint in the layer if you want. You can

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do raster adjustments to the layers and

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layers act like both smart objects and

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layers at the same time. So, this is

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something that I wish Photoshop will

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have and hopefully eventually Adobe will

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see it. And will be like ok this is a great idea,

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we should put it in our product. Just a

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note, not all filters on Affinity photo can

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be applied as live filters or smart

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filters as we're used to calling it in

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Photoshop.

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For example, the haze removal filter can

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only be applied as a regular filter

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which means that you should do it on a

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separate layer because you can't remove

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it or change the settings.

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Speaking of the haze filter, that's my

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second favorite feature. Haze removal is

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also available in Lightroom and

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Photoshop's camera raw filter but they're

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not the same thing.

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The haze removal filter in Affinity

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photo is way better,

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there's more parameters to adjust. Such as

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the distance setting which lets you

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specify how far into the distance the

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haze removal should reach. For example,

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you can remove haze in the foreground but

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leave it visible in the background or you

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can go all the way and remove it from the

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foreground to background.

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The results are also better than

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Lightroom or Photoshop, There's still some

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glowing or halo effect around the edges,

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but it's not as pronounced as Adobe's

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haze removal, and the colors are

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also a lot better. In Lightroom or Photoshop,

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if you push the haze removal too far, we

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get a lot of color artifacts in Affinity

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photo, it's still there, but it's a lot

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less. My third favorite feature in Affinity

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photo is the curves adjustment. You can

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change the mode from RGB to other colors

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like CMYK or lab, but unlike Photoshop

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you don't actually need to change your

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document's color mode you can access

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these in RGB mode. Now, I wouldn't say

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this is a necessary feature but it's

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definitely cool to be able to play with

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curves in a different way. And I think it

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will open up some new color grading

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techniques.

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There's a lot more features in affinity

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photo such as the frequency separation

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filter and a really cool lighting filter.

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I really like Affinity photo and I

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think the developers did an amazing job

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creating this. But, there are some things

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I don't like. First of all, Affinity photo

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has something called "Personas" which is a

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pretty ambiguous term. Personas are

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basically different workspaces. For

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example, we're currently in the photo

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persona which is simply the main photo

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editor.

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There's also one liquefied persona for

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liquefying your photo. A developed persona

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for the raw image processor, a tone

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mapping persona for the HDR stuff and

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finally an expert persona for exporting

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and saving your document.

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The problem of personas is that they

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don't really make any sense,

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it's not like in Lightroom where you

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have a library module, a develop module, etc

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and they're all in sequential order to a

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typical workflow. Personas in Affinity

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photo are really just anything that

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changes the workspace.

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I mean couldn't they just moved some of

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the personas into the filters menu. It's

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totally okay for the filters to change

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your workspace temporarily. For example

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in Photoshop, the blur filter gallery

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does this. It changes your entire

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workspace and it works perfectly fine;

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and it brings another question. What if

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Affinity photo released this new filters

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that also use different workspaces? Are

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they really going to add more personas

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until you can't fit anymore? I don't know,

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personas to me seemed like a fancy term

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for something that's unnecessary.

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Speaking of personas, the raw editor or

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develop persona isn't nearly as good or as

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powerful as Adobe camera raw filter. It's

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decent and it has all of the basics, but,

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don't expect much from it.

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The last point I want to make is that

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a lot of minor cracks and some of them

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are not sure if they're bugs or just

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something that they never really paid

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attention to. Like when you're using

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the lighting filter and you moved the light

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to a different spot, then you make some

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adjustments, after making those

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adjustments your light will move back to

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the top left corner and you have to move

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it back in position again. So, I hope

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that's a bug. I'm pretty sure that's a

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bug but something that I'm not so sure

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it's a bug is if you want to cancel out

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of a dialogue or window, you would

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naturally press the Escape key right?

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The escapee is just one of those

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shortcuts that we used so often and

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don't even realize it.

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It's in every software, it's same thing as

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cancel. But there are some filters in

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Affinity photo where if you press the

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Escape key, instead of cancelling, it applies

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the filter as if you click the ok button.

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So I hope these are bugs in the Windows

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public beta and not something that's

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actually in the stable Mac version.

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Time for the ultimate question, should

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you switch to Affinity photo? For most

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people the answer is No.

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First of all, if you use Lightroom CC and

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I'm not talking about Lightroom 6 by the way,

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those are completely different. Then you

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already have Photoshop CC as part of

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your subscription. Right now, Affinity

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photo isn't as good as Photoshop and it

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has a long way to go before it can catch

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up. There are unique features in both;

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Affinity photo and Photoshop but overall,

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the additional features in Photoshop

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outweigh the additional features in

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Affinity photo. Photoshop also does a lot,

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more than people realize.

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For example, you can work with 3d models and

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do 3d printing. It has enough factor

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tools that you can create an entire

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effective project from it and you can

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even trim and color grade videos. But,

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it's not always about the price. If you

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already have a Lightroom and Photoshop

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CC subscription, you might still want to

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buy Affinity photo for some of the stuff

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that it can do better and Photoshop. Like

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curves adjustment or the haze removal

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filter. So it all comes down to this,

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currently, Mac version goes for seven

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dollars. For what it offers, Affinity

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photo is very well price and is a best

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alternative if you can't afford Photoshop.

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If you can afford photoshop and you're

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deciding which one to learn, then stick

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with photoshop. It's not that much harder

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if you're professional photographer and

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you're already making money from it, then

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you should still use Photoshop as your

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main editing software but maybe there are

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stuff in Affinity photo that you might

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find useful.

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Keep in mind that there are presets and

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plugins that costs more and do less, so

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for 70$, Affinity photo is

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still a great deal even if you don't use

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all of it.

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Hey thanks for watching this video and I

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hope you found that useful. Now it's just

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a very brief look at the Affinity photo

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but I want to know what you guys think.

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Do you think of Affinity photo is awesome

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or do you think it's sucks? Let me know

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your honest opinion in the comments

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below.