I have never been willing to pay what Adobe were asking for Photoshop and made do with Elements instead. (A familiarity option you failed to mention.) The original price was mad and when they went over to subscription, so you never even got anything for your money, they would have had to threaten me with a gun to get my dosh. About five years ago I took the plunge and bought Affinity 1 then migrated to version 2 when it arrived. It does everything I want it to, but I don't tend to work with loads of layers etc, simply because I am to lazy to learn the techniques, and I settle for a few tweaks. I am very pleased with my puchase, as long as things don't change, because of its recent takeover. I prefer to just capture the moment and if the scene is not right, for any reason, I don't take the picture. I have the naive notion to feel that heavy editing is cheating somehow. If I wanted to create something from the shot, I would just do a painting. I still think that is is best to expose correctly, perhaps use filters and sometimes even a tilt shift lens, so heavy editing is not required at all.
It certainly is a lot of money Paul, especially given the fact that you never actually own anything. I didn't include Elements since it's still Adobe and this video is only about alternatives. I have got a video on it here though th-cam.com/video/HQi3ldF2rSA/w-d-xo.html As for editing - I think it's a very necessary part of the image creation process. Ansel Adams used to do loads of dodging and burning with his images, and these days if you're shooting in RAW format, the captured image is not intended to be the final output. And if you're shooting JPG the camera will be processing the image for you. All that said, I agree, it's still very important to understand how to compose a good shot, work with the available light and get the correct exposure in camera. Thanks for watching. 😊
Good round up of various software, I have used Darktable which does take a lot to get to grips with but it is good. The video Robert was very informative and if you want to save money it is another way to go. 🐕👍👌🙏
I think if I had the time, I could dedicate an entire channel to Darktable! Great for some people, but I think some people will prefer the simplicity of Lightroom, Luminar or, to a certain extent, Affinity. Many thanks, as always, for watching. 😊
Free is always a good price! Lots of power in these editing tool...but still miles over my head! LOL Make sure to have yourselves an awesome week ahead!
Well in fairness to Lightroom, one of the things it has going for it, is how easy it is to use. You just need to remortgage your home to get it! 😂 Thanks for watching, hope you have a good one too. 😊
Nice overview. Regarding darktable: "it does have 'some' selective editing tools". LOL. It probably has the most extensive and powerful masking/local editing features of any raw editor (free or paid). It lacks the convenience of AI masking, but drawn + parametric masks are in almost all cases more accurate and almost as fast (once you have put in the time to learn how). "Better" is very subjective, but it is objectively much more powerful than Lightroom. LR is king if you want good-enough, fast. If you want full control DT (or RawTherapee) absolutely trashes LR, with a breadth and depth of tools that an LR user can only dream of. Performance can indeed be an issue if you don't have a GPU, but that has improved dramatically over the last few versions. And as long as you're careful with the heavy modules, such as diffuse/sharpen, running on CPU only is not a problem.
What? I already have a raw file app on my Mac? Unbelievable! I was frustrated because all of my fancy Adobe software is on my previous MacBook Pro (2012), and I had started the process of upgrading the OS (which would've been useless beaus one cannot upgrade a 2012 Mac to the latest OS). Hell, I'll just use Apple Photos on my newer MacBook! Thanks.
DXO Photo Lab and On1 Photo Raw are worth considering too.
Good suggestions John. I will put these on the list to cover in potential future videos. Thanks for watching. 😊
Other excellent alternatives are Radiant Photo and Boris Optics
I have never been willing to pay what Adobe were asking for Photoshop and made do with Elements instead. (A familiarity option you failed to mention.) The original price was mad and when they went over to subscription, so you never even got anything for your money, they would have had to threaten me with a gun to get my dosh. About five years ago I took the plunge and bought Affinity 1 then migrated to version 2 when it arrived. It does everything I want it to, but I don't tend to work with loads of layers etc, simply because I am to lazy to learn the techniques, and I settle for a few tweaks. I am very pleased with my puchase, as long as things don't change, because of its recent takeover.
I prefer to just capture the moment and if the scene is not right, for any reason, I don't take the picture. I have the naive notion to feel that heavy editing is cheating somehow. If I wanted to create something from the shot, I would just do a painting.
I still think that is is best to expose correctly, perhaps use filters and sometimes even a tilt shift lens, so heavy editing is not required at all.
Totally agree 👍
It certainly is a lot of money Paul, especially given the fact that you never actually own anything.
I didn't include Elements since it's still Adobe and this video is only about alternatives. I have got a video on it here though th-cam.com/video/HQi3ldF2rSA/w-d-xo.html
As for editing - I think it's a very necessary part of the image creation process. Ansel Adams used to do loads of dodging and burning with his images, and these days if you're shooting in RAW format, the captured image is not intended to be the final output. And if you're shooting JPG the camera will be processing the image for you.
All that said, I agree, it's still very important to understand how to compose a good shot, work with the available light and get the correct exposure in camera.
Thanks for watching. 😊
Good round up of various software, I have used Darktable which does take a lot to get to grips with but it is good. The video Robert was very informative and if you want to save money it is another way to go. 🐕👍👌🙏
I think if I had the time, I could dedicate an entire channel to Darktable! Great for some people, but I think some people will prefer the simplicity of Lightroom, Luminar or, to a certain extent, Affinity. Many thanks, as always, for watching. 😊
Free is always a good price! Lots of power in these editing tool...but still miles over my head! LOL Make sure to have yourselves an awesome week ahead!
Well in fairness to Lightroom, one of the things it has going for it, is how easy it is to use. You just need to remortgage your home to get it! 😂 Thanks for watching, hope you have a good one too. 😊
Tried them all, nothing is better the LR/PS
Nice overview.
Regarding darktable:
"it does have 'some' selective editing tools". LOL. It probably has the most extensive and powerful masking/local editing features of any raw editor (free or paid). It lacks the convenience of AI masking, but drawn + parametric masks are in almost all cases more accurate and almost as fast (once you have put in the time to learn how).
"Better" is very subjective, but it is objectively much more powerful than Lightroom. LR is king if you want good-enough, fast. If you want full control DT (or RawTherapee) absolutely trashes LR, with a breadth and depth of tools that an LR user can only dream of.
Performance can indeed be an issue if you don't have a GPU, but that has improved dramatically over the last few versions. And as long as you're careful with the heavy modules, such as diffuse/sharpen, running on CPU only is not a problem.
What? I already have a raw file app on my Mac? Unbelievable! I was frustrated because all of my fancy Adobe software is on my previous MacBook Pro (2012), and I had started the process of upgrading the OS (which would've been useless beaus one cannot upgrade a 2012 Mac to the latest OS). Hell, I'll just use Apple Photos on my newer MacBook! Thanks.
It’s not everyday Apple gives us something for free. I have to say I did not know about this feature on Macs.
Yeah, not sure why they don't really advertise the editing features either! Thanks for watching mate. 😊