I 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.
@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.
@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.

@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.