Starting again from scratch. What do I need?

W

Withers

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Edit My Images
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After many years of faithful service my old iMac is about to be retired. All my images are safely backed up. So. I’ve pushed the boat out til it’s pretty much disappeared over the horizon :) and the new (spec’d up to the eyeballs) iMac is due to arrive on Friday.

I subscribe to CC for the requisite tenner a month, have used Nik and other stuff, but it occurred to me that this might be the time to review my editing software and workflow and make a new start. I’m pretty competent with PS, LR et al and am a keen and reasonably competent amateur, who happily photographs pretty much anything as the mood and opportunity takes me.

So, a new machine, a completely fresh start, a blank page ....... do I stick with CC, add in Affinity or do something else entirely. There seem to be more choices out there these days. WWYD? .....
 
Stick with what you know,why go to the trouble of learning something new .
 
If you need a DAM then you have the option cc or capture one, if you do not need DAM then affinity photo is a good alternative to PS.
 
One thing to note is that if you end your Adobe subscription, you lose access to all your previous edits. I am about to end my subscription so am busily going through saving them all as full size jpegs - perhaps you've done that as you went along. Luckily I had colour coded them so they are fairly easy to find.
EDIT: Just to clarify, others have said this is not so, but I was told in an online chat with Adobe that I would be unable to open my catalogs when I end my subscription.

There are lots of tutorials on Affinity on YouTube and many of the shortcuts are the same as Photoshop.

I am planning on using DxO Photolab 3. It's a bit slow when you export but I really like the way it renders the raw files and I seem to need to do less processing - I've only been using it properly for a week or so. The prime noise reduction in it is very good and the Nik plugins work with it.
 
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I use Affinity, wouldn't consider going back to CC.
 
I migrated from PS CC to Affinity a while back, when ePHOTOzine had a members 50% offer. (Still available).
Affinity is deliberately built to resemble PS and thereby capture their customers, so I found the transition very easy. There are loads of excellent YouTube tutorials to help you in the beginning...
 
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Bebop said:
One thing to note is that if you end your Adobe subscription, you lose access to all your previous edits. I am about to end my subscription so am busily going through saving them all as full size jpegs - perhaps you've done that as you went along. Luckily I had colour coded them so they are fairly easy to find.

There are lots of tutorials on Affinity on YouTube and many of the shortcuts are the same as Photoshop.

I am planning on using DxO Photolab 3. It's a bit slow when you export but I really like the way it renders the raw files and I seem to need to do less processing - I've only been using it properly for a week or so. The prime noise reduction in it is very good and the Nik plugins work with it.
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You don’t lose your edits, unless something has changed recently.
You can still import export manage metadata and perform simple edits without a subscription.

edit
It is just the develop and map modules that are locked. And no syncing with Adobe cloud.
All features in library, print, web and slideshow are still available.
 
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Rapscallion said:
You don’t lose your edits, unless something has changed recently.
You can still import export manage metadata and perform simple edits without a subscription.

edit
It is just the develop and map modules that are locked. And no syncing with Adobe cloud.
All features in library, print, web and slideshow are still available.
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That's really interesting, thank you. I had an online chat with Adobe and they said I wouldn't be able to open the catalog.

It would save me a complete headache if I could still export and it's a bonus if I can use it to import. At the moment I date time stamp my photos on import and I have been looking at alternatives. I don't mind not being able to edit any further, but I felt quite upset that I couldn't still export the work I had already done. This made me even more determined to leave.
 
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On1 to replace Lightroom.
Affinity photo replaces Photoshop.
 
redsnappa said:
I know it's the 'Internet' but why do why do people make statements about subjects they have no knowledge about.
I ended my Adobe subscription back in May and all my edits are still there. How do I know this? I can see the edits when opening the library module of Lightroom CC. You can also export these edits

I've used Affinity & On1RAW for for over 5 months and the learning curve with these new applications was not as steep as I envisaged. I would not go back to Adobe even if they halved the price of the subscription.
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I’m trying to get my head round the myriad products and was looking at On1 so can you tell me why you use Affinity too please, is On1 alone not enough?
 
redsnappa said:
I know it's the 'Internet' but why do why do people make statements about subjects they have no knowledge about.
I ended my Adobe subscription back in May and all my edits are still there. How do I know this? I can see the edits when opening the library module of Lightroom CC. You can also export these edits

I've used Affinity & On1RAW for for over 5 months and the learning curve with these new applications was not as steep as I envisaged. I would not go back to Adobe even if they halved the price of the subscription.
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Are you talking about me? You didn't read all of the posts then? I'm really pleased to hear about your edits - it's great news for me, but I really think your response is unwarranted. Just YESTERDAY, I had an online chat with Adobe to find out what the implications were of ending my subscription. She told me that I would be unable to access the catalog. This came from Adobe, so I believed it and I thought it was fair to share this with the original poster. My subscription will end on the 17th, so I'm really hoping you're right and the Adobe person was wrong.
 
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scotty38 said:
I’m trying to get my head round the myriad products and was looking at On1 so can you tell me why you use Affinity too please, is On1 alone not enough?
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Most of the time I just use On1 but although On1 has layers and can do a number of things that would have required Photoshop, there are a few things that Affinity Photo does better.
I tend to use Affinity if I'm building a composite of many layers.
The "Inpainting" brush in Affinity is the best object removal tool I have come across, much better than the eraser in On1.
I've been experimenting with Focus Stacking, and although this is supported by On1, I find that Affinity does a much better job.
 
Brian G said:
Most of the time I just use On1 but although On1 has layers and can do a number of things that would have required Photoshop, there are a few things that Affinity Photo does better.
I tend to use Affinity if I'm building a composite of many layers.
The "Inpainting" brush in Affinity is the best object removal tool I have come across, much better than the eraser in On1.
I've been experimenting with Focus Stacking, and although this is supported by On1, I find that Affinity does a much better job.
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Thanks, I cannot say in all honesty that I fully know what those things are but I understand the point....
 
scotty38 said:
Thanks, I cannot say in all honesty that I fully know what those things are but I understand the point....
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There was a time when all the tutorials and instructional material related to Photoshop.
With it's recent rise in popularity, there are now many tutorials available for Affinity, both from the company (Serif) and third party.
 
Rapscallion said:
Some details on what you can do without a subscription to Lightroom (quite a lot!)

www.lightroomqueen.com

What happens to my photos if I cancel my Adobe subscription? | The Lightroom Queen

Now, if your subscription or trial version expires, you can continue to use Lightroom with the exception of the Develop module, Map module and mobile sync.
www.lightroomqueen.com
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Thank you so much for that Phil. That's really helpful and makes life so much easier. I have edited my original post - I didn't want to mislead people, and obviously I believed what Adobe told me. I cannot think why she told me I wouldn't be able to access my catalogs - perhaps it is a ploy to keep people subscribing?
 
I have added Affinity Publisher to my software as I didn't want to fork out for In Design. It's a learning curve but I love learning new stuff so it's all good.
 
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