Photo Editing Software

When it comes to non-freeware software I usually prefer products for which I can pay a one-time price to download and use the software. As new versions of the software become available, providing that significant new features have been added and providing that I use the software quite a lot, I will upgrade to a newer version after a few years. I cannot stand being forced to purchase a subscription for software that I use occasionally but that I really need to have at certain times. This is why I refuse to buy Adobe products.

For many years I have used a product called Corel Paintshop Pro to edit digital photographs. It works very well. The latest version is currently being sold for C$79.99 which is reasonable.

In a recent video article on Trainmasters TV, Joe Fugate highlighted a video editing software called Affinity Photo. Its regular price is C$69.99 but at that time it was on sale for C$34.99. I tried the free trial version for a couple of days and worked my way through the many excellent video tutorials and decided to purchase the product. I think it is fantastic. Reviews I have read online suggest that is very close to Adobe Photoshop in terms of functionality.

One feature that is particularly effective is called the Inpainting Brush Tool. If you have a photograph with an object that you want to remove, Paintshop Pro is able to do so using a clone tool or with an object replacement tool. However, the object replacement tool is not particularly intuitive which means I have to read the instructions whenever I need to use it. The Inpainting Brush Tool in Affinity Photo is as easy as two clicks of the mouse - first to select the tool and second to hover a circle over the object you want to be removed. The size of the circle can be increased or decreased if you like (one more mouse click or the square bracket keys on the keyboard).

Following is a photograph I took in Lisbon, Portugal in 2018. As you can see, someone's black dog is in the picture.



If I want to remove the dog, with two clicks of the mouse the photograph looks like this:



I find many of the features of Affinity Photo to be intuitive. Those that I have learned from watching several video tutorials are easy to remember because they are logically designed. I recommend giving Affinity Photo a try.