I use Affinity Photo and also Designer. Also Skylum Luminar. And my DAM is now Photos by Apple. Works brilliantly together, and goodby Adobe Creative suite.
Never bought into the Adobe subs model. I had Elements standalone year on year but got fed up of getting the new version for a new brush or something (I know a bit more went in but it felt like it....).
Jumped to Affinity as have a few here and it is great. I use Apple Photos for the DAM and the extension allows me to use Affinity full edit or six selected quick edits (on a Mac in Apple Photos edit section, not sure what other OS does). Affinity are supposed to be releasing a DAM at some point, be interesting if it will take over Apple Photos and do a different/better job seamlessly.
You can also get in on the Beta when it is available. The forums are helpful and worth a look if you are wonderingAffinity | Forum
I purchase Lightroom 6 from Amazon. I'm only a modest amateur, so not a heavy user. The subscription service doesn't make financial sense for me. Lightroom 6 is temendously powerful and does everything I need which is usually just developing and tweaking RAW photos.
Agree entirely - except that, eventually, you'll buy a camera that produces RAW files that LR6 won't read. Which is why most of us looking to move are in this predicament. There are work-rounds, but that introduces another step in the processing, which, when you've been used to the simple operation of importing into LR, is a PITA.
Once Luminar and Affinity have their respective DAM's up and running - they will run amok with people like us hanging on to the older version of LR.
Now, if, they could have a setting that just allowed the basic bare bones of LR-esque editing, they would truly rule the roost - ATM, they are, for me, too close to Photoshop than LR - and most of the time, I don't need all the extra bells & whistles.
New beta for affinity was out last Sunday as it happens. Not had a proper play with it yet. Usual caveats for a beta.
That’s one of the things that drew me to Luminar - you can set up different workspaces, with as many or as few bells and whistles showing as you like.When you first run it, it asks you what type of setup you’d like to start with, but you can then switch to different layouts, or even download custom ones from their website.
I'm still happy with Photoshop CS6 but it helps that I've got older cameras supported by older versions of ACR.
Those wanting to retain a Photoshop-style interface and shortcuts, etc then the Photopea project is worth a look. It's not fully comprehensive (e.g. sRGB only) but there's a lot that's familiar.
www.photopea.com
It opens within a web browser but the developer claims:
Photopea runs completely in your device, just like Sketch or Photoshop do. It does not upload any of your files to the internet. You can load Photopea.com, disconnect from the internet and keep using it completely offline. None of your files ever leaves your computer.
Oh! That’s good - while I bought it the other day, I didn’t know it could do that! Thanks.
I'll have to bear that in mind if/when I eventually change cameras. Thanks.
I have been a Lightroom/Photoshop and Luminar user for some years.As soon as Skylum issue their free upgrade later this month to all Luminar 2018 users, adding the Library function, then it will be goodbye to Adobe.I use Lightroom to keep order in my photo collection but carry out all my post processing in Luminar.I am certainly very happy with the results and flexibility that Luminar offers.