Great thread!
Bottom line: if you want to learn Photoshop editing (not just basic tweaks you can do more easily on a smartphone app) then just get Affinity Photo. Perhaps there are others that can do the job, but AP has a great price and the interface is similar to current Photoshop CC (good and bad depending on your perspective). Caveat: RAW conversion controls are a bit limited, similar to Photoshop 10 years ago, NOT as powerful as current, as detailed below.
Last year, I seriously looked at Affinity Photo and Adobe Photoshop CC (dreaded subscription). Also did a deep dive in Darktable on Linux (Ubuntu). Are of these are amazing, but it all depends on your needs and current workflow (steps in how you process your pics). Actually, none of these is really easy to learn for a rank beginner, but all are extremely powerful.
I have been frozen in Photoshop CS 5 for years, trying to avoid the Adobe CC's subscription model. Wanted to see if could get help with processing subjects shot in terrible light, as in most birding and "tourist" landscape photo where I'm rarely out in good light.Well, I ended up with Photoshop CC subscription and it has been amazing. No regrets. Thinking about playing with Adobe Lightroom, but with the database disabled. I prefer the sidecar database files used by Bridge/PS (also Darktable!)
Here are my thoughts on Affinity Photo (and why I didn't switch).
Affinity Photo
Pros:
- Excellent masking capability (easy to selectively edit only certain regions of a pics, I use this on almost every pictures, esp. w/ birds)
- Amazing content-aware delete (knock out stuff/people and replace with background). Surprised that it was BETTER than Adobe, although Adobe has caught up with their rolling CC updates. Still amazing for the price...
- Full layer capability, including adjustment layers (non destructive editing, burn/dodge that can be increased/decreased with a slider or on/off with a single button)
- Excellent vignette tool (quick burn of corners, helps "settle" a pic, popular for portraits)
- Interface similar to Photoshop (virtually no retraining, but maybe overwhelming for beginner--too much like Photoshop!)
- 16 bit workflow and color management (pretty common now, but NOT always!)
CON (only 1 con for my workflow):
- Very limited RAW conversion controls that make it hard to wrangle difficult lighting (excessive contrast that characterizes 80% of my pics). Don't get me wrong, the controls are decent, comparable to Photoshop 5 of a decade ago, but certainly no longer competitive. Hopefully, Affinity Photo makes great improvement to the RAW module. If so, I'll be back!
Darktable, random thoughts:
- AMAZING "fly-over" slide sorter view that allows you to easily pan and zoom over all your images in a folder. A single click toggles between image sorting and image editing. Crazy fast, just plain slick... Does anyone else have this
- Powerful editing tools, but huge learning curve, even from Photoshop. I should have started with a good workflow tutorial instead of running it like Photoshop.
- Not a true pixel-level editor like Affinity Photo or PS or even GIMP (free-
open source).
- Powerful on ancient hardware-like linux!
- Uses sidecar files to store RAW editing data just like Adobe Bridge+Photoshop (no database issues or importing)
GIMP, random thoughts (I hate this program!):
- No adjustment layers (eg no curves, levels, saturation that can be endless tweaked)-supposed to be coming, eventually, but PS had this 2 decades ago
- No 16-bit editing-supposed to be coming, eventually... (common even 15 yrs ago)
- Masking tools very limited, no functional "quick select/smart select", even PS 3 was far better.
- Content aware fill/delete must be "installed" as a plugin. Got it w*rking, but PS 5 had it w*rking better, a decade ago.
- Even basic navigation pan/zoom was a pain
I really wanted to switch to Linux and Darktable. Nearly did, but couldn't find a true pixel editor like Affinity or PS to do heavier editing after RAW conversion in Darktable. GIMP didn't cut it for me, not even close. Pulled the plug on my Linux development box, continuing to pay the Apple Mac tax...
Feel free to PM w/ any ??