Digital Camera World - UK (2022-02)

Kit

Zone

ffinity Photo is the closest

thing to a Photoshop

alternative in this group.

Like Photoshop, it’s a

powerful, in-depth, technical image

enhancement tool. It’s also available

subscription-free – and, amazingly, is

the cheapest program in this roundup.

Where Photoshop is designed to

dovetail with Illustrator and InDesign,

Affinity Photo works alongside Affinity

Designer and Affinity Publisher. The

combined price for all three is little

more than the cost of one year’s

Photography Plan.

Affinity Photo does not offer any

image cataloguing tools or creative

one-click presets. But it does have

focus stacking, HDR merge, panorama

stitching, frequency separation

retouching tools, live image filters

and more. Its interface is busy and

technical, but its tools are a match

for Photoshop’s – and often better.

It can take a little work in the Develop

mode to get the best out of raw files.

apture One comes in an

‘all cameras’ edition, plus

a Nikon-only version at

around half the price

(and Fujifilm and Sony editions, too). All

editions are available for a one-off fee,

or on a monthly or annual subscription.

Capture One is a direct alternative

to Lightroom, offering the same

combination of image cataloguing,

non-destructive editing, local

adjustments and preset effects. It

does not offer cloud synchronisation

(though that’s planned), but is

strong on tethered shooting.

Apart from Capture One’s

sophisticated masking and colour

control, it has visibly superior raw

processing than Lightroom, with finer

detail and less noise. Capture One

and DxO PhotoLab (reviewed on

the next page) are easily the two

best raw processors here.

By the time you read this, Capture

One 22 will be out, adding panorama

stitching and HDR merge tools.

A C

Serif

Affinity Photo 1.10

£47.99/$54.99

A powerful Photoshop alternative

affinity.serif.com

Capture One

Capture One 22

£299/$299

A superb alternative to Lightroom

http://www.captureone.com

Digital Camera verdict Digital Camera verdict

4.5 Outstanding 4.5 Outstanding

Features Ease Results Value Features Results Value

of use

Ease

of use

Affinity Photo is

powerful and effective,

but not for beginners.

It’s also far cheaper

than any other program

of this calibre, and

a genuine Photoshop

rival for pros.

Capture One is much

more expensive than

Lightroom, but has a

better interface and

tools, and delivers

better results. It’s also

excellent for ‘sessions’-

based studio workflow.

114 DIGITAL CAMERA^ FEBRUARY 2022 http://www.digitalcameraworld.com

Group Test Photo-editing software

System requirements

Windows

Multicore Intel or AMD

processor; Windows 10

(version 1607 or later),

Windows 11

macOS

Muilticore Intel or Apple

Silicon processor; macOS

10.9 Mavericks or later

2GB RAM (4GB

recommended);

2.8GB hard disk space

System requirements

Windows

Intel or AMD processor with

two cores; Windows 8.1 64-bit

or later

macOS

Intel Core i3 (1st Generation)

or faster processor; macOS

10.13 High Sierra or later

8GB RAM; 10GB hard

disk space

4.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 4.5 5.0 5.0 3.0