Pixelmator Pro for the Apple iPad Pro

Pixelmator Pro for the Apple iPad Pro is an amazing piece of software.  You can pretty much do everything you want in the app.  I removed a few unwanted objects in this photo and edited a few other settings such as Brightness, colour correction, contrast, dark and light points and saturation.  It’s an amazing piece of an app.  I can edit a photo in a minute and a half and have it come out the way I want.  I love shooting with my Sony RX100 Mark VI and then editing everything on my Apple iPad Pro.

Pixelmator on the 2018 Apple iPad Pro

I went to Parc Omega yesterday to test out my new Sony a7ii camera with the new lens.  Took about 1800 or so shots.  I’m just processing them right now and I cam up to this shot of an American Field Buffalo with an American Field Buffalo calf.  As you can see from the photos above, one is more pleasing than the other.  The bottom shot has the result of what appears to be a very good meal.  With Pixelmator on the 2018 Apple iPad Pro, I was able to get rid of said poop and the image is more pleasing.  

I find it incredible that in 2019, I can sit at a local Tim Horton coffee shop and edit a roughly 47MB photo on a slab of glass that is roughly 5.7MM thick.  This slab has a 12.9” screen, 4GB of memory and a 512GB hard drive.  I wonder what we’re going to be using for photography in another 10 years and what we’re going to be editing on as well.  We live in interesting times.

Subscription versus ownership

Oh Adobe how you had me before the subscription service.  I was a big Photoshop and Lightroom user.  Now, not so much.  ON1 Photo Raw 18.5 and Serif' Affinity Photo are my software packages of choice.  Just as feature rich, just as if not more stable, ON1 Photo Raw 18.5 and Serif' Affinity Photo are the software of choice of hobbyist, semi-pro and pro photographers photo editing software.  Starting at $9.99US a month just for Lightroom and Photoshop and ending at $82.99US a month for all the software plus Adobe Stock is just not worth it.

When I was using the $9.99US option with Adobe, I just used Lightroom for 99.9% of my edits.  Lightroom was just fine.  I never went into Photoshop at all.  Maybe once ever six months to see some new features.  But that was about it.  Paying $9.99US was just not worth it.

I had asked some of photography buddies to see what they were using.  90% were using ON1 Photo Raw 18.5. For $99.99US (as of this time) you get a pretty damn good Digital Asset Management tool.  You get a discount on it now as well her for a grand total of $49.99. So basically this is what you will pay for Adobe in 5 months in a one time payment.  I'd say that's a lot better.  And you own the license to the software.  With Adobe's Creative Cloud, there is no license.  Everything is stored in the cloud as far as licensing goes.  You can still store your photos locally on your hard drive along with the programs.  But as soon as you stop paying for the subscription, the majority of the program stops working.  

ON1 Photo Raw 18.5 has a slight learning curve but I seem to pick it up easily.  All the concepts are pretty much the same.  Just the interface is a bit different.  Both ON1 Photo Raw 18.5 and Affinity Photo are great, proven programs with pretty much the same features as Photoshop and Lightroom.  If and when Serif comes out with a Digital Asset Management software, I will be switching over to that.

Now I gotta pack up my stuff so I can go fly my drone so I can edit more videos.