I am looking for a relatively easy to use photo editor for my son. He is a Windows user. Affinity Photo looks good. Any experience with that or other suggestions?
Easy Photo Editor for Windows
- Thread starter RecalcitrantRon
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Photoshop Elements is a good choice. A good organizer and it combines elements of Light room and photoshop. About $100 no subscription.
www.adobe.com
Easy photo editing software - Adobe Photoshop Elements 2024
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DripDryMcFleye
Well-known member
I second the Elements recommendation. I have both 2014 and 2021 versions. Elements is set up to be used in your choice of Quick, Guided and Expert modes. Get the Scot Kelby book to go with it and he will be off to a great start.
Dan291
Member
Depends on how involved he wants to get. I use an old copy of PS CS6 and the last perpetual LR (v6.14?). Three of the Topaz programs work well with them. Just can’t pull the trigger on a subscription… close, but getting along very well with all I have now.
I’m trying to learn Affinity Photo. Like PS, it also has a serious learning curve. Very powerful.
I was gifted a copy of PS Elements 2020. It’s very useful, has a lot of similarities to full PS with a lot of presets and a less painful learning curve.
A lot of people use Elements+ with Photoshop elements for added functionality.
About Elements+
elementsplus.net
Calson
Well-known member
Affinity is the only application I have found that works with my older PSD and TIFF files with layers. Every other application I tried would fail on the import of these files. Affinity has been around long enough to have a lot of online tutorials and even a couple of books available which is very helpful. Having used Photoshop since version 1.0 the switch to Affinity was not very difficult and the application works well enough most of the time.
One also does not need to have an internet connection to use Affinity which is great for using it when traveling anywhere that the access is not present or speeds are too slow for Adobe authentication.
One also does not need to have an internet connection to use Affinity which is great for using it when traveling anywhere that the access is not present or speeds are too slow for Adobe authentication.
I would also suggest Photoshop Elements. He will get some Lightroom and Photoshop tool experience if so desired. Start with the Guided Mode first, and then expand.
It also supports raw and .jpg
www.adobe.com
It also supports raw and .jpg
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It supports raw and jpg and Guided Mode and "expert" as you learn. LOTS of how-to videos on YouTube.
It supports raw and jpg and Guided Mode and "expert" as you learn. LOTS of how-to videos on YouTube.
Bill Schone
Well-known member
Ron, not familiar with Elements, but it certainly has been around & as you can see even with these few comments, highly regarded. I use Affinity & find that it certainly does what I’m capable of doing with it & I know it can do much more. I use Affinity in special situations, stacking, stitching panos. With my Astro photography I use a StarSpikes filter to emphasize certain stars or constellations. I also use DxO PhotoLab 4 for optic corrections, noise reduction, ClearView filter & smart lighting. And the I have recently started using Luminar AI. I normally pre-process in DxO as just outlined, then open in Luminar AI to use some of my saved templates & with Astro I take blue hour foregrounds & then use the Sky replacement tool in Luminar AI to bring in my edited Milky Way or star photo, taken later that night. I tend to simply prefer a “template” approach to my landscapes & Luminar AI seems to fit that situation nicely, although I also normally do further edits after applying the templates. DxO also provides a “template” environment, which I had used a lot of in the past. DxO also implements the control point methodology for masking, which I found much easier to get on top of than masking in Affinity. But I know in reading reviews & comments of of others on this forum, once you get on top of the masking learning curve, it’s not difficult. I just never seemed to be able to get there.
Additionally each product addresses or doesn’t address digital asset management, so if you just want an editor then the DAM issue isn’t relevant, but once you start down a path with learning an editor it’s difficult to go a different direction, mind you I’m speaking from a “senior “ age with no editing experience until the relative recent past. I know all younger folks could change course with less issues than I would have!
Back to your original question, my limited knowledge with Affinity, supplemented with many reviews indicate Affinity to be a touch notch editor.
Sorry for the long discourse, your son probably could have used each editor out there & made his own decision in shorter time than this took to read!
Additionally each product addresses or doesn’t address digital asset management, so if you just want an editor then the DAM issue isn’t relevant, but once you start down a path with learning an editor it’s difficult to go a different direction, mind you I’m speaking from a “senior “ age with no editing experience until the relative recent past. I know all younger folks could change course with less issues than I would have!
Back to your original question, my limited knowledge with Affinity, supplemented with many reviews indicate Affinity to be a touch notch editor.
Sorry for the long discourse, your son probably could have used each editor out there & made his own decision in shorter time than this took to read!
Luminar is probably one of the easiest software programs on the market today. Affinity is much like PS, a good program but might be somewhat complex. I'm a PS and LrC user myself.
Thanks for the info everyone.