Peter FalkinghamI am sick of trying to find good alternatives, and I really really want to install photoshop (have sub through work) but I really really _really_ don't want to install creative cloud.
Adam S. Smith@PeterFalkingham Is Gimp not up to the task? I ask because I also miss Photoshop, which I don’t have on my new computer, so I’m trying (but failing) to give Gimp a chance. I can’t work out if it’s just a learning curve I need to get over or if it’s fundamentally inferior.
@AdamStuartSmith I've never got on with Gimp. Affinity Photo is a fine replacement, but is crashing on my sony ARW raw files, and lacks the cool ai filters of photoshop.
John Conway@PeterFalkingham @AdamStuartSmith What OS are you on? Because I’ve used a couple of Mac-only alternatives.
@john @AdamStuartSmith Windows 11. I think the problem is Affinity does all the basic stuff for composition/edits, but lacks the ai filters (resize, recolour, refocus etc) and the good raw editing. The latter I might just need to use some janky open source like RawTherapee (which is OK, but ugly), and the former (ai filters) I'm just not going to get.
@PeterFalkingham @AdamStuartSmith You’re in Photoshop-land for sure.
@john I'm interested what you use other than photoshop (do you do most stuff in photoshop?)
@PeterFalkingham
I do a lot of stuff on an iPad now, because the pen experience is so much better (half the latency of a Wacom). The best painting app is Procreate.
On my computer I use Photoshop, although Affinity Photo and Pixelmator Pro both work for me. Painting is not really demanding in terms of features, they basically just have to avoided screwing it up.
Jens Lallensack@john @PeterFalkingham Did you try Krita? It made huge progress recently, and it's free.
@JensLallensack Krita is awesome, but no good for RAW files I think. Affinity Photo covers most of my JPG editing needs well enough.
@PeterFalkingham Yes, Krita is for drawing specifically.
Mike Taylor 🦕@AdamStuartSmith @PeterFalkingham I grew up on the GIMP and have never found it a problem. The few times I've tried to use PhotoShop I found it clunky and awkward. My conclusion: they are probably pretty much equivalent, but it's difficult to make the sideways step in either direction. My advice would be to stick with it.
@mike GIMP lacks a lot of the advanced functionality I use like object selection and AI filters that are just miles ahead in Photoshop (miles ahead of almost anything, really).
In this case, what prompted my outburst was less than stellar ARW raw support in Affinity Photo. CameraRaw (part of photoshop/lightroom) is also hard to beat with FOSS software. Plus I think GIMP is slow and Ugly, but that's just me - give Krita a go, I find it the superior free bitmap editor.
In this case, what prompted my outburst was less than stellar ARW raw support in Affinity Photo. CameraRaw (part of photoshop/lightroom) is also hard to beat with FOSS software. Plus I think GIMP is slow and Ugly, but that's just me - give Krita a go, I find it the superior free bitmap editor.
@PeterFalkingham What does RAW support get you? I know photographers are always going on about it, but I just don't get it.
@mike Much bigger dynamic range, and more data to work with than a JPEG - so it's easier to brighten the dark areas or darken the bright areas of an image later, for instance. Basically, more info stored in the image than in a JPG or TIFF.
More complexly, it's the raw data from the sensor of the camera, before any processing or denoising etc is applied.
I don't often use them, but in this case I've got some sunset/snowy pictures I'd like to play with contrast and exposure on.
@PeterFalkingham Ah, hidden dynamic range in the dark areas is a pretty big win!
Bernard Rose Photography@PeterFalkingham try Affinity, fully featured alternative and reasonable priced stand alone, available PC or MAC
@brpimages I have affinity photo, but my Sony raw files keep making it crash :(
@PeterFalkingham maybe it needs an upgrade patch, have you contacted them?
rocksfind@PeterFalkingham You could probably bypass installing Creative Cloud by pirating the Photoshop software specifically. Wouldn't recommend it if you aren't experienced with doing such things, though.