Church, Flowers and Grasses

This is St Tysilio’s Church at Menai Bridge, Anglesey.

The image was captured as a single RAW file at 2:50 pm on the 14th June 2024. Later, having had problems with my usual software, I developed the image you see here with Pixelmator Pro.

I’ve wanted to shoot and develop a successful photo of this little church for many years. Somehow, the shots I’d taken previously were always flawed.

Now, I have an image I’m quite happy with 😊

More Problems with On1 Photo RAW

Although I’ve loved On1 Photo RAW over the years, using it hasn’t been without problems. And this year it let me down badly on two successive holidays:

1. May – Kendal and River Kent
   
   I had the weird overlay problem and ended up abandoning the image I was working on. Even though I found a workaround, after all the problems, I’d lost all enthusiasm for it.
   
   I developed and published the footbridge photo instead.
   
   And support from On1 was terrible!
   
   
2. June – Anglesey, and the featured image here
   
   Having come back from a more successful week’s holiday in Anglesey, I had plenty of photos for potential development. One of which was the featured image in this post – the little church at Menai Bridge.
   
   While developing the image in Photo RAW, the AI generated masks moved off their subjects. I did the usual resetting and reinstalling, but after a time, the reapplied masking would slip off the subject again.
   
   I’ve had issues with masking in the past with Photo RAW, which had wasted much of my time and been very frustrating.

On1 Had To Go!

I had to move on from On1 Photo RAW and my reliance on it.

I needed to find something else I could work with that was more stable.

Alternatives

• Adobe? No! I will not return.
• DXO Photo Lab? I’ve been there, and it’s too expensive for what it is. Also, some of the tools are strange and hard to get along with.
• Capture One? I’ve been there also, and it’s far too expensive!
• Exposure X7? I’ve trialled this previously. The program hasn’t been updated for years and is still flawed.
• ACDSee for Mac? This software has no form of lens profiling! And it’s very much the poor relation of the Windows version.
• Photo Diretor? Looks to be great until you use it. It’s very slow and yields poor results.
• Luminar Neo? Maybe. I had the predecessor, Luminar AI. But their recent pricing is inconsistent which makes me feel uneasy about using it.
• Affinity Photo? Maybe, if I could tolerate the old-fashioned, destructive workflow. Once you’re down a rabbit hole, there’s no way out without starting over.
• Photomator? I like the interface, workflow, tools and speed, but there aren’t enough processing options or layered workflow.
• Pixelmator Pro? Yes! Everything that Photomator has (except a photo manager and a few other bits and bobs), but with image layers, adjustment layers, effects and totally non-destructive workflow! More below …

There are other softwares with what seems to be purely AI development, such as Topaz Labs AI, but I need full control.

Pixelmator Pro

As you can see from the above, I’ve looked at mostly everything available for Mac. The shortlist was Affinity Photo and Pixelmator Pro, with Luminar Neo as a uncomfortable possibility.

I’d tried Affinity and Luminar’s predecessor before, but Pixelmator Pro was new to me.

So I installed it for the 1 week trial.

It Just Makes Sense!

Everything is in one coherent workspace. There aren’t any different modules or personas – just one interface with layers on the left, tool categories top and tool sets on the right (photography workspace layout).

I was waiting for something unworkable to show along the learning curve, but so far, that just hasn’t happened.

Made for Mac and Fast!

I don’t understand the technical aspects, but Pixelmator software uses Mac operating system image technology – Metal or something 😊

In practice, this means that it’s realy fast! Tools work mostly in real time, so you’re not waiting to see the results of what you’ve just done. Sure, when you’ve got a massive stack of layers active on a file, there can be a slight lag, but it’s still the fastest RAW development software I’ve ever used.

Non-destructive

Workflow is totally non-destructive for developing and editing RAW files. You have layers to add adjustments and effects, and these can be hidden, adjusted or deleted at any time.

There are destructive tools, but those are for working with raster graphics and pixel images.

The repair too can be used non-destructively on its own layer, but if you use it directly on the image layer, that repair reflects any further tonal or colour edits. I suppose that choice depends if you repair early or late in your workflow.

I Bought the Software

After the 1 week trial, I was sufficiently impressed to buy it. At only £49.99 for a lifetime licence, it’s great value. And so far, I love it!

Needless to say, I’ve unsubscribed from On1 Photo RAW.

The Photo

I’ve spent lots of time on this photo while getting to know the software.

In total, I’ve used 23 adjustment / effects layers on this photo!

For future edits, I will group the adjustment and effects layers so they are tidier than what I have with this file. I haven’t yet taken the time to figure out how that’s done, but I expect it’s easy – like everything else!

Effects I’ve added include softening all the foliage and sky using “Bloom”, which adds a sort of glow. The original sun, which was badly flared, has been replaced using the “sunbeams” effect. And the sky has been augmented by partially blending in parts of another sky to balance the presence of clouds.

Now I can move on to develop another photo 😊

Comments welcome below …