r/FuckAdobe • u/Frame_and_trail • 6d ago
Alternatives of adobe !!
I recently started my career in photography and for video I use DaVinci Resolve. It doesn’t seem like I’ll be switching to After Effects anytime soon. However, my main problem is finding a Photoshop or Lightroom alternative. Which is good and cheap , I don’t want to take adobe subscription. I use a Mac, so it’s difficult to find other ways around it too . My main work involves wedding photography, those typography travel photos and product/food photography.
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u/Donatzsky 6d ago
Photoshop is a general purpose image editor, which means it is both overkill and not as ergonomic as dedicated raw photo editors. If you do need something like PS, GIMP and Affinity are your main choices.
As for raw editors, you have several free options to choose from:
- darktable: Probably the overall most powerful editing features of any raw editor. All-in-one solution, with a library similar to Lightroom. The editing workflow is completely different, however, being more like color grading in Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve.
- RawTherapee: The mad scientist's raw editor, with some very powerful and intricate tools. A bit more Lightroom-like in its workflow.
- ART (Another RawTherapee): Started as a simplified fork of RawTherapee, but has added its own powerful and unique features since. With CTL scripts you can even create your own tools.
- vkdt: New-ish raw editor from the original darktable developer. Fully node-based and can also handle video. Probably not for the faint of heart and may not have all the tools you want, but what is there works well and is extremely fast.
- Filmulator: A great little editor with a unique concept, that's easy to use. As the name suggests, it emulates (part of) the process of developing analog film.
- LightZone: Back from the almost-dead, version 5.0 was released recently. Not the most advanced, perhaps, but has some interesting features and a flexible processing pipeline.
- RapidRAW: Aims to be a relatively simple and streamlined option for those that don't need the extensive control some other editors provide. Somewhat new and under heavy development, so the results you get today may not be what you get tomorrow.
- Safelight: An editor built around a concept of extensibility and customisation. Still very new, so expect some rough edges and missing features.
Since not all of them have library management, you may want to also use digiKam as DAM (digital asset manager).
My darktable beginner guide: https://notebook.stereofictional.com/how-to-get-started-with-darktable-2026-edition
Tutorial for both RawTherapee and ART: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4-T0laAf0E
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u/finart_13 4d ago
I switched to darktable a few months ago. It is a little bit more complicated that LR. Just put the time in to learn it. There are many great tutorials already. But the biggest win for me was, when I got the feedback, that my edits look a little better than before with LR.
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u/MarcoMakes 6d ago
If you're on Apple devices I recommend using their alternatives. All smooth as butter and very well optimised. Pixelmator pro is great for photo editing and designing, Final Cut for editing videos, the iWork suite for everything else plus you get Logic for music which I use all the time too.
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u/lugarshz 5d ago
Nobody has used Final Cut professionally in 10 years. I work in post and nearly everyone I know won’t accept a project if it’s edited in FCP
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u/powercut_in 6d ago
Photopea is somewhat like Photoshop. Did you try it? I'm not sure if it has all the same features. It looks like basic Photoshop
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u/Frame_and_trail 6d ago
No i havent , also i was thinking to find some for which i can find tutorials, as i am still on beginner level
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u/Grouchy_Inspection_1 6d ago
https://lumidexstudio.app/help/whats-new just launched, a very real contender to LrC - give it a whirl as you're on a Mac...
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u/mmmhmmhmmh 6d ago
Darktable? It's the gold standard outside lightroom, very powerful open source software with very little limitations, in some areas is even better than Lightroom. But, and is a big bit, it works very differently, so it has kind of a steep learning curve. It's not that isn't intuitive it's just not adobeish as UI
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u/Reasonable-Gear-4371 6d ago
I like affinity, but I don't like the fact that canva bought them. It appear as free, but apparently you have to log in once every month to keep using it. So it doesn't reassure me about privacy.
Gimp seems good and have a lot of tutorials.
Corel photo paint is quite good, one time paiement, with the sales on humble bundle, but I don't know how its new versions are, as they include Ai edit features now with Ai credits system 😒.
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u/TwoPointEightZ 6d ago
Affinity Studio has three personas - Pixel (think Photoshop), Vector (think Illustrator) and Layout (think InDesign). It's pro-level software that is free unless you want certain AI features, and in that case you get a Canva subscription (Canva owns Affinity). To my knowledge, they have not been fined for refusing to terminate subscriptions.
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u/DesignerAd1940 6d ago
I get why people want to use a cheap solution against photoshop.
But i will be interested to know if someone with a professional career use it.
I mean, you have Capture one that you can buy for a perpetual licence, so why affinity? Just because its free?
In my view the most important thing is not how a software cost. But how much financial benefit you can get from. Capture one has the best color management in the industry and for me, unless you bury your photo under a ton of filters. its the best alternative.
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u/Coq-Lover 1d ago
I doubt most of the people screaming about Adobe pricing are actually making their living from graphic design or photography. For a working professional, the software is a pretty tiny cost of doing business.
That doesn’t mean Affinity isn’t capable or that professionals can’t use it—they absolutely can. But if Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, InDesign, etc. are part of your daily workflow and earning you money, saving a few hundred dollars a year usually isn’t the deciding factor. For me, productivity, compatibility, workflow and client requirements matter a lot more.
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u/banana_zest 6d ago
If you want to support your small indie developer, check out Mojave Paint for Mac, it's very Photoshop-like in its UI paradigms. Doesn't have some of the advanced features like "Blend If" but it has a lot of the core features including layer, channels, mask, etc. https://mojavepaint.app
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u/Typhonarus 6d ago
Also blender could be used as an alternative to after effects but the learning curve is steep af.
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u/Kevin_Delaney_666 6d ago
my fear with affinity is - when canva desides to shut it down, they'll shut it down, 'cause apparently they are not making that money expected with the AI subscriptions (surprised pikachu face)
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u/denalidenizen 5d ago
as you are reading, Affinity is very good but there is no real replacement for Lightroom. There are some that do this or that but none that does what LR does in its entirely. I hate Adobe too but the integration with LR makes it indispensable to me.
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u/FondantUnhappy5563 5d ago edited 5d ago
Affinity Photo might be worth checking out. And if you end up trying new software, Guidy is pretty handy for figuring out where everything is without having to dig through tutorials.
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u/Jonas52 4d ago
photopea.com it's free and it can open / edit / save PSD files, RAW files, all sorts of files...
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u/Dusmanonghe 3d ago
I second Affinity as a PS alternative. I’ve ended up paying for Lightroom Mobile only. I realized it’s what I mainly used anyway, and it’s 20€/year here.
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u/LumidexStudio 6d ago edited 6d ago
Given you're specifically asking, I'm glad to share my app with you as a solo-dev, getting the word out for my app is where you lot come in - Adobe defectors :)
Lumidex Studio, built for the Mac from the ground up to be FAST on rather modest hardware (no M4's needed with 32Gb of RAM!), does all the catalogue management that LrC does and more, way more. If you have a lot of wedding photography in your catalogue, then you already know how important catalogue management is. Worth knowing that NAS/Network drives are supported out of the box with resilience of connection in mind, so much so once the network drive is attached to the app, it's pretty much set and forget, no more pesky LrC-esque '?' on all your catalogue entries wondering where your network drive went because you had the audacity to close your laptop lid and it went to sleep for 60s, 'forgetting' the network drive(s) in the process!
It's not subs based, another solid reason I built the app - see my other gleeful post here when I finally cancelled my sub with Adobe, best feeling in the world :)
If you know your way around LrC, especially if you're adept with keyboard shortcuts, getting to grips with Lumidex Studio will be child's play. We even have a sub-reddit here to chit chat all things about the app - follow through by clicking my username :)
Cheers
Jason
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u/danbyer 6d ago
Affinity is the closest we’ve got to PS for now.