Miscellaneous Will the new Affinity mean the end of Photoshop?

[Pete Thomas]

Many of us ditched Photoshop when they switched to a subscription model, there wasa very nice alternative Afinity which was a reasonably priced one-off payment.

Fast forward a few years, the new version of Affinity is free.

How can it be free, is there a catch?

Well, you can have it free but along with a (free subscription) to Canva. If you have Canva premium you can unlock the new added AI tools, so perhaps that is the reason for it being free, ie a teaser for a bigger more powerful AI version. The more cynical theroy is that your creative work is being sold on to, and training, AI. There is an opt out privacy policy, which I haven't yet had a chance to peruse.

 

[jonf]

How did Affinity work for photo editing? I was a bit put off by the cartoonish images on their web site to be honest, which made it look like a tool intended for graphical web content rather than photo editing. I've used GIMP for a few years as well as Paintshop Pro, purely for image editing.

 

[Pete Thomas]

I was a bit put off by the cartoonish images on their web site to be honest, which made it look like a tool intended for graphical web content rather than photo editing.

It worked much better than Photoshop for me. You may have been looking at Affinity Designer rather than Affinity Photo.

 

[h4yn0nnym0u5e]

Should this be in the photography thread?!

 

[Pete Thomas]

Should this be in the photography thread?!

Not really, I posted it in regard to discussion around their new business model, not about its functions. I think it's best to keep the photography thread about photography. Photo manipulation is only a part of affinity, which is as much about vector graphics and layout designing.

 

[Jimmymack]

I don’t really understand what’s happening here, as a paid up user of Affinity, but I expect that I might not like it in the long run.

 

[PiccoloPirate]

Photoshop Elements and the video version, can still be purchased outright.
I have an older version, that works for our needs.
Thanks for the Affinity news.
Most of our Photo work, is for the items used in the non-skiing part of Biathlon, so no posting here, but I did use Photo, for this bag, for my guitar playing brother.

 

[lig]

I’m going to wait and see. I’m actually not very good with any of the photo apps.

Most of the time I just used Topaz Photo along with Apple Photos for everything.

I’ve had Affinity for a few years because I didn’t want to subscribe to the Adobe apps but when the LR+PS combos fell to $10/month and they started to be pretty good on iPad I jumped in.

To further complicate things Topaz is now a full on subscription even though I bought a “perpetual” license. I’m effectively stuck on version 4.0x now unless I start subscribing.

I’ll check out the new Affinty/Canva offering but will use Topaz until it becomes unusable. I love the AI removal in Lightroom and actually never use Photoshop. I should probably take some lessons tbh.

 

[PiccoloPirate]

Just read that Photoshop Elements, if purchased, is only for 3 years.

 

[PigSquealer]

I’ve been out of the graphic arts business for thirteen years. At the time PS was considered the most stable for imaging transfer.
Art design to final printing image. The software was always expensive. Glad to see an option.

 

[Ballymenaboy]

been with photoshop for many years and sticking with it

 

[Jimmymack]

I was just reading on a photo forum that Adobe are upping the price of monthly Photoshop subscriptions by something approaching 50% but are maintaining the annual cost at around £120.

 

[atwl77]

There's always a catch. Maybe not now, but later down the road once they have enough people lured in.

I recently cancelled my Adobe subscription and in the process of learning GIMP. It's still fiddly, but 3 is so much better than 2, interface-wise. I miss some of Photoshop's tools, but probably something I can eventually get used to in GIMP. We'll see...

 

[Jimmymack]

The question is for me is will Affinity keep developing for users outside the Canva membership? I paid for Affinity and would happily pay for any major update - to Affinity 3 but I somehow don't expect it will appear. It's not the paying that bothers me it's having to subscribe. So, for some of us, Affinity 2 will be as good as it gets.

If I'm going to be stuck with a subscription model I may as well sign up to Photoshop, annual payment of course.

 

[Tenor Viol]

At present unknown, but certainly the suspicion with the photography community that I'm in is that Canva want a move to a subscription model, which is the antithesis of Affinity's ethos...

It remains to be seen if a V3 of Affinity apps appears in due course, or if V2 is the end of the road for the perpetual licence purchase.

This is what happened to Sibelius when Avid took it over.

 

[MikeMorrell]

Thanks, @Pete Thomas!

I once tried out Affinity some 5-6 years back (probably the first version). I liked it, but not enough to switch from my monthly Adobe 'Photographers licence' (Lightroom + Photoshop). Mainly because - at that time - Affinity didn't seem to offer any good alternative to Adobe Lightroom. Which I use to quickly scan, rate and select from from all (often 'burst') shots that I take. I also use Lightroom to post-process 90% of my photos. Occasionally (10%), I link (seamlessly) from Lightroom to Photoshop. Mainly to apply various plug-in filters (which I also have in Lightroom) in 'layers', each with a fine degree of 'transparency' (= applicability). Photoshop also allows me to apply the same filter to various degrees on different layers. And to compare the effects of each and select the one I'm most happy with.

I'm now used to working with both Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. So, for me it would be a learing curve to start to use Affinity. But I'll check the new version out. I'm sure that Affinity is (as is GIMP) now an even more attractive allterative for Photoshop than it was 5-6 years ago.

I'm reallyinterestedto find out whether the 'new' Affinity provides any alternative to Adobe Lightroom!

 

[LostCircuits]

After more than 20 years with Photoshop it would be a rather steep curve to transition to anything else. I worked with GIMP and some other packages but I am also using PS for a lot of different tasks.

For example, the county wanted a survey of my property since there were three different hand measured surveys on file ranging from 75 to 90 acres (it's heavily mountainous terrain). A new survey would have been upward of $10k given the 50some corners of the parcel.

I put in the coordinates, overlaid it with the aerial Google map and then used the distance markers for calibration and the pixel count to determine the overall plot size. My estimate was within 1% of that of the county clerk using different software and they called it good.

I've used PS a lot for some mechanical designs after my SolidWorks expired and it always worked great (minus the 3D view).

As for my private use, I am still on PS6, which does pretty much everything I need and it's perpetual. Of course, now I need to upgrade to Win11 and that may nuke my licenses but we'll see.

 

[progger]

Ugh, I love Affinity and I've been using it for years, switched from Photoshop/Illustrator many moons ago. I'm still using Affinity 2, bought the whole suite a couple years ago and I really like it. I was worried something like this would happen when they were acquired by Canva. The whole point was to have quality graphic design and editing tools that don't require any kind of subscription or internet connection and just work on your computer. I'm not sure who will provide that, going forward.

 

[Jimmymack]

I used PS6 for as long as I could, eventually I had to upgrade the Mac and that was it so I switched to Affinity. It is a hard road,
feels clunky to me and I am nowhere near as skilled with it and while it does what I need I don’t find it to be as sensitive as PS or as intuitive.

I don’t do as much photography as I used to anyway and I’ve more or less switched to using DXO for doing the RAW conversion and a most of the processing and only export to Affinity for the final touches. DXO is hardly easy to use but I’m used to it. I assume that Affinity can do most of things I took for granted with PS but can’t be bothered to plough through the tutorials.

I’ll upgrade the DXO side when they put it on offer and I expect that it will do most of what I need. If Affinity is to become subscription software and I decide I need more then I may as well go back to Photoshop.

 

[Pete Thomas]

I assume that Affinity can do most of things I took for granted

I found that it could and in some cases more useful, being non-destructive

but can’t be bothered to plough through the tutorials.

I hear you there!