Pixelmator Pro or Affinity to edit photos ?

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Level 1

17 points

Pixelmator Pro or Affinity to edit photos ?

Hi,

Need a tool to edit photos but would prefer staying away from Photoshop / Lightroom.

I do not need a complex tool, just something a bit more comprehensive than the Photos App allowing me to edit my photos ?

Currently contemplating using either Pixelmator Pro or Affinity, which both sound like adequate editing tools, but which one to choose ?

I am a plane spotter, so I manly take plane photos thus needing editing tool to work on color, contrast, light etc...

I take all my photos in RAW format. I see that each app has a different approach to RAW file, but I don't know enough to understand the difference.

Anyone with experience in both app able to recommend which one I should choose ?

Thanks

P0mme

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.1), LaCie Thunderbt 2TB ext hard drive

Posted on Aug 23, 2018 12:46 AM

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Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

200,723 points

Aug 23, 2018 3:08 AM in response to P0mme

I am a plane spotter, so I manly take plane photos thus needing editing tool to work on color, contrast, light etc...

If you only need to enhance your photos with easy to use lighting and color corrections, easy retouching, and perhaps geometry corrections for the perspective or the horizon, but do not need fancy borders or other graphics, I would go for Luminar 2018. It is powerful, but at the same time very intuitive to use. (Enhance Your Workflow with the Latest Luminar Updates | Skylum Blog (ex-Macphun))

I tried both, Affinity and Pixelmator, but but do not like the user interface for either of them. But that is my personal taste. I am using Affinity now only as a photo editing extension from Photos. This way I can avoid the user interface. Pixelmator offers a lot of graphics composition tools that I am not interested in.

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Answer 2

Aug 23, 2018 3:41 AM in response to P0mme

I have used both apps and i suggest to Affinity Photo if you replace photoshop. it drives very big size of photo with much layers. one thing you should get used with Affinity Photo is layer control and selecting. in fact, photoshop's layer selecting is far superior. except this, you can replace photoshop.

About RAW processing, Affinity's RAW processing quality is not so satisfied to me. i still use Lightroom 4 for RAW processing.

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

166,050 points

Aug 23, 2018 3:08 AM in response to léonie

The problem with a question like this is you get everyone's preferences 😉 showing. I'm with Leonie about Luminar over the other two. But if you're shooting RAW you won't do better than Dxo PhotoLab... My 2 cents

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Answer 4

P0mme Author

Level 1

17 points

Aug 23, 2018 3:23 AM in response to Yer_Man

Thank you both Leonie and Terence for your prompt and valuable feedback as always.

Being budget conscious I will opt for DXO Optic Pro app which is an extension to the Photos App.

Plan B will be Affinity as indeed it can also be used as a Photos extension.

Luminar is appealing, but more expensive than Affinity. I will trial it in any case, it might be money well spent after all ....

Thanks again

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Pixelmator Pro or Affinity to edit photos ?

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