Potential PSu Adopter Questions

[Grumpy Hec]

Hi All

At the moment I use Lightroom Classic and Photoshop and I'm used to that high level of interworking but every so often I review what DAMs/Editors are available. I'm seriously considering switching to PSu and using that for my DAM with PS as the editor or maybe dropping PS in favour of Affinity Photo 2 which, the lack of a DAM aside, addresses a large number of the reasons I had not adopted previously.

So far I have not installed the 30 day trial, partly because I anticipate the import from Lightroom process to take some considerable time as I have 110K images in that catalogue. Therefore, before I commit my PC to that task, I have some advanced questions I hope people on the forum can help me with.

Please bear with my if they seem trivial/obvious to more experienced PSu users but my limited knowledge so far is gleaned only from speed reading a couple of the manuals and some videos.

1) - when you open a raw file from PSu by clicking on the PS icon does it come up in ACR and can you open as a smart object?
2) - similarly when clicking on the Affinity Photo icon does it open in the raw editor?
3) - when saving in either PS or AP can you set PSu up to automatically associate the new PSD/afphoto as "versions" with the master (raw) file in a similar manner that happens with LRc/PS when the new version is stacked with the original automatically?
4) - does PSu fully recognise the .afphoto format, such that you can zoom in on a .afphoto image, or do you have to save a jpg as well?

Hope those questions make sense. I suspect that my thought process is apparent from the nature of the questions in that I'm hoping that the high level of integration I'm used to can be met, or nearly met, when using PSu.

Looking at PSu it is clearly an exceptionally capable and flexible tool and I am even considering dropping LRc in favour of it even if I stay with PS rather than switching to AP v2.

Thanks in anticipation.

Hector

[Hert]

First of all, a warm welcome to the forum.

1) - when you open a raw file from PSu by clicking on the PS icon does it come up in ACR and can you open as a smart object?
2) - similarly when clicking on the Affinity Photo icon does it open in the raw editor?

Affinity 2 does open in the RAW editor. I cannot test ACR now but I expect the same.

3) - when saving in either PS or AP can you set PSu up to automatically associate the new PSD/afphoto as "versions" with the master (raw) file in a similar manner that happens with LRc/PS when the new version is stacked with the original automatically?

You can use a verify folder to scan for changes and your file will show up. That also allows to version or stack the file. I recommend using stacking over versioning because it is more transparent and easier to comprehend.

4) - does PSu fully recognise the .afphoto format, such that you can zoom in on a .afphoto image, or do you have to save a jpg as well?

AFPHOTO is a closed format. PSU asks the OS to generate the thumbnail for AFPHOTO files and the OS hands that over to Affinity. Not a single tool outside of Serif knows how the AFPHOTO format is constructed. They do not document the format (afaik).

[wesstl]

I save files in the afphoto format and the only issue with PS 7 is with the large thumbnail. When I double click a tiff or jpeg or Raw file in Photo Supreme it opens the larger view. But when I double click an afphoto file it opens the file in Affinity Photo. Doesn't bother me too much but it is different than every other file format in PS 7.

[Grumpy Hec]

Many thanks for the reponses. Answers my questions very well.

After posing the question I had come to the realisation that .afphoto is a closed format. I do find that an odd decision by Serif as it hinders a usable workflow. Certainly from my personal perspective it is one of the reasons I have decided not to switch to Affinity Photo.

I am, however, still considering PSu as it does offer a lot. Just a question of balancing the pros and cons as always.

Thanks again

Hector

[HCS]

...

1) - when you open a raw file from PSu by clicking on the PS icon does it come up in ACR and can you open as a smart object?
2) - similarly when clicking on the Affinity Photo icon does it open in the raw editor?

Affinity 2 does open in the RAW editor. I cannot test ACR now but I expect the same.
...

Hi Hert, i'm wondering how you get files to open in Affinity 2 from PSU. I'm trying that (added affinity to the External Applications - Other Settings in the preferences), but nothing happens. I have it added from the windows apps folder (found that on the internet somewhere), that may not be the correct way, but i couldn't find the executable for Affinity otherwise.

I'm on Windows 10 for the PostgreSQL server version (Postgres 14).

To the OP, sorry to hijack your thread with this question.

[Hert]

Here's a batch that you can use:

Code: Select all

@echo off
set Params=
:loop
  set Params=%Params% %1
  shift
  if not "%~1"=="" goto loop

start /b affinityphoto2.exe %Params%
exit

Save as a batch file; eg Affinity2.bat

Then select that batch file as your external application

PS> Serif already announced that they will release a "standard" installer for their application as well.

[johnbarrett]

Thanks for that. Regrettably the new version still isn't going to be an EXE version

[Grumpy Hec]

I thought I would summarise my conclusions on PSu with particular reference to a possible move away from Adobe monthly subscriptions to Affinity Photo and a DAM of some sort.

Firstly, AP V2 addresses many of my issues with V1, which I will not delve into further here, save for two main issues and a few minor areas. The biggest single issue is relevant to this forum as it concerns the lack of a directly compatible DAM, either from Serif or elsewhere. PSu is a superb product which, from my perspective, makes it the best DAM I have investigated by some margin and much more feature rich than LRc, which is no slouch either. However, it is hampered in the context I am investigating it, through no fault of it's own I hasten to add, by the closed nature of the .afphoto file format and lack of direct interworking with AP. This, by its nature, restricts the functionality available when viewing images or saving images after editing, as I have to resynch/stack manually, and this is a deal breaker for me as it makes all the work to move away from LRc and set up PSu a lot of effort when, to some extent, I am reducing some areas of convenience and functionality.

Another area which finalised the decision was the upgrade policy and how much that may end up costing me on an annual basis. Taking a scenario of a major version change annually that is going to cost me approx. £100 a year before any similar upgrades to Affinity. This compares to £120 a year with several minor upgrades/fixes and at least one major upgrade each year with many added extras including the mobile functionality and websites. On that subject of websites, I am reworking mine and if I were to move away from Adobe I would have to pay another annual fee to someone, like say Squarespace and this makes the finances even more clear cut.

So balancing the finances with losses of convenience and some basic, and to my mind important, interworking functionality, even though other aspects are superior, my conclusion is to stick with Adobe for now. I will review this on a regular basis and especially PSu as I really do like it but this conclusion is the logical one for me at the moment.

Many thanks for the responses to my questions and I wish PSu and it's users all the best. I most certainly do not rule out joining you one day if circumstances change.

[Hert]

Thank you for your kind feedback.

I'd like to note that upgrading Photo Supreme to a new main version is optional. By skipping every other main version, the upgrade cost is halved. Skip two main versions and you get a quarter of the yearly cost, etc.

Looking forward to welcome you again in the near future.

[MarqsM]

Thanks for that. Regrettably the new version still isn't going to be an EXE version

Affinity will release them eventually since most users were not happy with that change (to say the least).
They have stated so here: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index. ... available/