Pixelmator purchased by Apple

[Oíche]

That’s the main reason I didn’t like Luminar, aside from the very limited catalog/photo management tools. Their editing suite is heavily focused on AI “we know how to edit this photo better than you do” tools, and I much prefer my own adjustments.

Well I ended up buying a lifetime license for £32, there are many things I don't like about it in comparison to LR CC, mainly the interface, but it has some good features like search for "lighthouse" and it sifted through 26,000 and seemed to do a good job... LR can't do that. It also runs quick on base model Mac M1 mini 8GB and I've these photos on an external SSD so it's surprisingly quick, faster than LR CC was last time I used it.

I've only played about with it for a few hours but you can have fun and get photo "art" that LR can't do.

I actually like this one, fake sky but the masking is impressive. This was impossible not so long ago and some people even did it manually at pixel level in Photoshop and this took 2 seconds

• RICOH IMAGING COMPANY, LTD. - PENTAX K-70
• HD PENTAX-DA 20-40mm F2.8-4 ED Limited DC WR
• 40.0 mm
• ƒ/8
• 1/125 sec
• Center-Weighted Average
• Manual exposure
• 0.7
• ISO 100

 

[pdk42]

Well I ended up buying a lifetime license for £32, there are many things I don't like about it in comparison to LR CC, mainly the interface, but it has some good features like search for "lighthouse" and it sifted through 26,000 and seemed to do a good job... LR can't do that. It also runs quick on base model Mac M1 mini 8GB and I've these photos on an external SSD so it's surprisingly quick, faster than LR CC was last time I used it.

I've only played about with it for a few hours but you can have fun and get photo "art" that LR can't do.

I actually like this one, fake sky but the masking is impressive. This was impossible not so long ago and some people even did it manually at pixel level in Photoshop and this took 2 seconds View attachment 7898

Is the sky really fake ?

It's a nice shot actually.

 

[Oíche]

Is the sky really fake ?

It's a nice shot actually.

Yeah you can never see the Milky Way over Belfast like this, especially during the day.

It's just one of the default skies that comes with Luminar but I'm assuming you can use your own so at least it would be all your own photography.

This has opened my mind where I'd be taking skies for the purpose of merging them. What's the point having to always include a featureless blue sky or something just because it is "real"?

I think it's better art than that banana taped to a wall anyway

 

[pdk42]

Yeah you can never see the Milky Way over Belfast like this, especially during the day.

It's just one of the default skies that comes with Luminar but I'm assuming you can use your own so at least it would be all your own photography.

This has opened my mind where I'd be taking skies for the purpose of merging them. What's the point having to always include a featureless blue sky or something just because it is "real"?

I think it's better art than that banana taped to a wall anyway

I don't really have any objections to sky replacement. It's the final result that matters.

 

[PJD]

Also: I especially like that Apple Preview can export images in _10-bit_ HEIC/HEIF compressed format. AF2 can't export to HEIC/HEIF at all, and PPro can export _8-bit_ HEIC/HEIF. I use lightly-compressed 10-bit HEIC/HEIF files to archive non-critical edited images which consume less storage than 16-bit PNGs, but the 10-bit HEIC/HEIFs look very good. Hopefully all these apps will soon add "JPEG-XL" support. We'll see.

I just noticed that Affinity Photo 2 (the current version 2.5.6 for Mac) can export to JPEG-XL format, and the export color depth can be set as high as 32-bit, _BUT_ the exported image doesn't include EXIF metadata! I posted a question on their support forum asking if this is a bug (seems like it to me).

 

[CharlesH]

I just noticed that Affinity Photo 2 (the current version 2.5.6 for Mac) can export to JPEG-XL format, and the export color depth can be set as high as 32-bit, _BUT_ the exported image doesn't include EXIF metadata!

?????? ........ I wonder, are you working to see HDR photos on the new HDR monitor you just purchased? If so, Pixelmator Pro can edit and display photos in HDR.

 

[Nevyn72]

I just noticed that Affinity Photo 2 (the current version 2.5.6 for Mac) can export to JPEG-XL format, and the export color depth can be set as high as 32-bit, _BUT_ the exported image doesn't include EXIF metadata! I posted a question on their support forum asking if this is a bug (seems like it to me).

I just checked, also the latest beta (2.6.0) on WIndows doesn't support it yet

 

[PJD]

?????? ........ I wonder, are you working to see HDR photos on the new HDR monitor you just purchased? If so, Pixelmator Pro can edit and display photos in HDR.

No, I'd like to export to 16-bit JPEG-XL files to archive many (but not all) of my edited photos in a compressed but high bit-depth format.

For the past few months I've been using HEIC/HEIF 10-bit format for this purpose, but JPEG-XL is allegedly capable of higher-quality. Currently, to create 10-bit HEIC/HEIF versions of my edited photos I import edited 16-bit PNGs into Apple's Preview app and then export to 10-bit HEIC/HEIF.

 

[Oíche]

I'd like to export to 16-bit JPEG-XL

Your new monitor is 10 bit, what are you going to view these on?

 

[CharlesH]

No, I'd like to export to 16-bit JPEG-XL files to archive many (but not all) of my edited photos in a compressed but high bit-depth format.

Got it.

Good idea. I just archive the RAWs, but there is always the potential down the road that newer RAW converters won't be able to read older RAWs, or read them correctly.

By the way Lightroom Classic has 16-bit lossless JPEG XL export with full metadata. I just tried it and it works well.

 

[PJD]

Your new monitor is 10 bit, what are you going to view these on?

Doesn't really have anything to do with my new monitor.

The edited images I save as full-resolution 10-bit HEIC/HEIF files, and (at some point possibly) full-res 16-bit JPEG-XL files, require far less storage space than PNGs or TIFFs, but are high-enough quality for further editing if I ever need to. These are photos I like well enough to edit & keep, but aren't what I consider my best/favorite edited photos. The latter I save as full-res 16-bit PNG (plus the original camera RAW file), and occasionally also in Pixelmator Pro's proprietary full-res 16-bit project format.