My experience developing a full session with Pixelmator Photo

Discuss Photomator and photo editing.
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2022-03-15 21:43:23

So I’ve been using Pixelmator Photo for a few photos now and then, but in the last few days I processed an entire photo shoot using this app exclusively for the first time, that is around 350 photos of a single photo shoot session.

I used an iPad Pro 12.9” 2018, 256GB, 4GB RAM. The photos were taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark III.

I’d like to share my thoughts.

The good:

Apart from the fact that I’D LOVE to have local adjustments, the actual adjustment of a photo in Pixelmator Photo is a very nice experience. All controls behave as I expect them to. The colors I get are nice and vibrant. I can control highlights and shadows as I want. It doesn’t behave like my (Still) main tool: Lightroom, but I like what I see. The results are very good in my opinion.

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Now the not so good:

The work flow is not as fluid as it is with a tried and true tool like Lightroom on a computer. I love the fact that I can copy and paste the adjustments I did on one photo to multiple photos in a batch, but it is not as easy and fast as it is in Lr. It requires multiple steps: after adjusting the first photo, select Copy adjustments, exit the editing mode, enter “select” mode and then select the files where I want to paste the adjustments, and then select paste adjustments. It also takes much longer than Lr to actually paste the adjustments. It’s not that bad, but it is not as fluid.

Switching from one photo to the next is cumbersome. This time my photos were in a folder, not in my Photos app, so the process was: process one photo, press “done” and wait for it to save the adjustments creating a .photo file, double click the next photo. It takes much longer than simply pressing a “->” key or button, or selecting the next photo from a filmstrip. Still, not bad but I wish it was much faster.

I LOVE to have the R (Recent) preset group, great little feature. In it I can find the last few adjustments I made to the last few photos processed in one click. On the same note, I created and saved many personalized presets, but I can’t find how to remove the ones I don’t need anymore.

One thing that I hate but I’m sure it’s not Pixelmator’s fault: if I export the JPGs to my Photos app, the name of the files are changed for some random IMG_XXXX name. This is Apple’s doing I’m sure. So I exported to a folder instead and it preserved the original name of the files. Preserving the original names is important for me.

The bad:

When pasting adjustments to a number of photos in a batch, if I try to paste to a large number.. Pixelmator freezes and quit. So I stay under 10 photos.

When exporting JPGs in a batch from a large number of .photo files.. Pixelmator slows down after a number of files and then freezes and quit. So I stay under 100 photos at a time but I believe I should go lower because it can quit on me, 50 would be a good number.

During my time processing this photo shoot, Pixelmator Photo froze many, many times specially when pasting adjustments or exporting jpgs, but also more than a few times after pressing “done” when finished adjusting a photo.

________

All things considered, it was a good experience that could be better, I loved working on my iPad in a comfortable position for a change. The bad thing is that it took me two sittings to process and export my photo shoot, when in Lightroom it would only take one afternoon. This is due to my inexperience using Pixelmator to its full capacity, but also due to work flow bottlenecks and the many times Pixelmator Photo failed on me and quit. I’m planning to process other photo shoots with it, hoping I get faster at it… but I REALLY need local adjustments to get rid of Lr once and for all.
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2022-03-16 15:58:24

I like using it too. Although I'm a Photos user, I did use Lightroom until my iMac got too old, and I switched to an iPad Pro (I just didn't get along with the cloud based Lightroom, and I wanted out of the subscription system).
When pasting adjustments to a number of photos in a batch, if I try to paste to a large number.. Pixelmator freezes and quit. So I stay under 10 photos.

When exporting JPGs in a batch from a large number of .photo files.. Pixelmator slows down after a number of files and then freezes and quit. So I stay under 100 photos at a time but I believe I should go lower because it can quit on me, 50 would be a good number.
Funnily enough, I see exactly those issues using Raw Power here, but Pixelmator behaves just fine. I can edit a few hundred images and not see a crash or any slow downs.

Although I am using a 2020 iPad Pro, which has 6GB of RAM, and mine is the 512GB storage model. I also use 2TB of iCloud storage.

But, all said, Raw Power is also a worthwhile addition to your toolset, both apps are very good value for money, and work very well on an iPad.
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2022-03-16 22:00:51

Just curious. For the 350 images, how much space are the .PHOTOS files taking up for you? I mostly like the results I get from the app, but the .PHOTOS files were taking up way too much space for my liking. For example, I did 1 ProRAW image taken with my iPhone 12 Pro, the image is about 20mb, the .PHOTOS is about 83mb. Similarly a raw from my Fuji, 56mb, the .PHOTOS is 220mb.
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2022-03-17 04:32:59

by Andy Hewitt But, all said, Raw Power is also a worthwhile addition to your toolset, both apps are very good value for money, and work very well on an iPad.
Thanks for the advice. I'm going to try RAW Power. The first time I saw it in the App Store I was not a fan of the interface, but I'll bite. I'm going to buy and try it.
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2022-03-17 04:35:19

by Nadeem Just curious. For the 350 images, how much space are the .PHOTOS files taking up for you? I mostly like the results I get from the app, but the .PHOTOS files were taking up way too much space for my liking. For example, I did 1 ProRAW image taken with my iPhone 12 Pro, the image is about 20mb, the .PHOTOS is about 83mb. Similarly a raw from my Fuji, 56mb, the .PHOTOS is 220mb.
I had the same experience before. For some reason I didn't have the same experience this time, only one file was super large, while the others were just a little more than the actual RAW file. Not bad. I already deleted the unprocessed RAW files from my iPad (I have them on a hard drive). I'm keeping the .Photo files for a few days until my client approves and I can move on.

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2022-03-17 16:29:50

It does depend on what adjustments are applied. I've had a look at a few here, and checked a few different processes.

Now I have been re-editing a bunch of old Olympus E-1 Raw images lately, which are 5MP, and around 10.7MB each, so I've been using Super Resolution on them (which is working brilliantly on these old images I might say), then applying some basic adjustments.

These are ending up between 110MB and 160MB for the sidecar files and a 23.2MB JPEG file into Photos.

With only basic adjustments, I get an 11.2MB sidecar file and a 7.6MB JPEG into Photos.

With just Noise Reduction and basic adjustments, it's at 66MB for the sidecar file and 6.7MB for the JPEG in Photos.

Looking at a more recent Nikon Raw at 24MP and 23.1MB, for basic adjustments I get a 23.5MB sidecar file and a 17.1MB JPEG into Photos.

Now, I've tried that using Super Res, but that's hit the limitation on increasing resolution (although as I understand it, Pixelmator still applies some cleaning up of the image in this process), and it's stayed at the same pixel count (i.e. 6000x4000). Strangely enough the JPEG in Photos reduced slight to 17MB, but the sidecar file has ballooned to 291MB.

It seems that as long as you're only using basic adjustments, then you're storage requirements are going to increase by 2-3x the original image file. But, if you start applying some of the ML enhancements, such as super res and noise reduction, then it can be more than 10x the original file size.

FWIW, the same basic adjusted image from Raw Power only produces a 3.3MB JPEG in Photos, and no other sidecar files, and still maintains non-destructive editing. Looking inside the Photos library reveals that it actually uses standard XML/XMP sidecar files within the database, which are usually only a few KB, so it can be done. Even discounting the Super Res application, it's still using less extra space.

For me to maintain a non-destructive workflow, I'm mainly using Raw Power, and using Pixelmator to work on my older images that need a bit of resolution increase, or noise reduction.

We have of course had an explanation from the Pixelmator team, so I guess they're just chosen a different approach to the non-destructive workflow solution (as have others too). But it does make using this on an iPad very limited.

Cheers.
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2022-03-17 23:39:28

@Andy Hewitt that is interesting information and certainly lines up with my images as I didn't do any Super Res nor Noise Reduction, just basic adjustments.

I've been using RAW Power as well. Along with it's more space efficient sidecars, I like its highlight reduction a bit better and that it has a few more adjustments like clarity. I also like that they added support for compressed raw formats (Fuji for me) since Apple doesn't support them. If Pixelmator could do something about the .PHOTOS file sizes I'd happily use it exclusively. I'm also trying a bit in Affinity Photo, though that doesn't do non-destructive raw processing.
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2022-03-18 02:32:33

It seems I need to try RAW Power. I'll get it in the next few days. Any word from the developers about local adjustments? Ok perhaps this is not the place :stuck_out_tongue: .. I will look for their forums too and see what they're up to.

I do like Pixelmator's interface, I like the batch processing (if it didn't crash and was a bit speedier). I feel like this app is in the middle of their trip to become a great app, but it's not there yet. I'll always keep checking it and using it, even if I find something better. I believe that in time they will take it where it has to be and I will always welcome a good raw developing app.

Meanwhile, I was heartbroken when I found out that Capture One is coming to the iPad.. with a subscription model. Oh well, I guess it's not for me but I was truly disappointed.

thanks guys for sharing your thoughts.
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2022-03-18 10:48:28

by Nadeem @Andy Hewitt that is interesting information and certainly lines up with my images as I didn't do any Super Res nor Noise Reduction, just basic adjustments.

I've been using RAW Power as well. Along with it's more space efficient sidecars, I like its highlight reduction a bit better and that it has a few more adjustments like clarity. I also like that they added support for compressed raw formats (Fuji for me) since Apple doesn't support them. If Pixelmator could do something about the .PHOTOS file sizes I'd happily use it exclusively. I'm also trying a bit in Affinity Photo, though that doesn't do non-destructive raw processing.
Yeah, Affinity does do non-destructive editing, it’s more integrated into Photos on a desktop version, but only works externally on an iPad, it also produces huge additional sidecar files. With that it’s best to work within Affinity first, then import the final version into your photo app.

I like using Raw Power for the Raw Develop tab, where you have fine control over pee-edit noise reduction and sharpening. Usually I find no further work in needed there.

For me, Pixelmator falls between Raw Power and Affinity, where it offers more tools than Raw Power, but integrates with Photos better than Affinity does on an iPad.

To be fair, on an iPad, they’re all so reasonably priced, I reckon it’s a no-brainier to just own the lot of them, and use as fits each need the best. They’re still cheaper than a year’s subscription to Lightroom, and IMHO work much better as a set of tools in conjunction with Photos, as you have a lot of choice as to what to use (Lightroom mobile only offers Photoshop as an additional editor).
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2022-03-21 23:20:54

by Andy Hewitt 2022-03-18 16:48:28 I reckon it’s a no-brainier to just own the lot of them, and use as fits each need the best. They’re still cheaper than a year’s subscription to Lightroom, and IMHO work much better as a set of tools in conjunction with Photos, as you have a lot of choice as to what to use (Lightroom mobile only offers Photoshop as an additional editor).
Have you tried Darkroom? They offer subscription but also a one time fee of $50. Seems like a good idea to try with monthly subscription before committing to the one time fee. I haven’t tried it myself and if you have, please share your thoughts on it.
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2022-03-22 15:53:33

by Cantisani
Have you tried Darkroom? They offer subscription but also a one time fee of $50. Seems like a good idea to try with monthly subscription before committing to the one time fee. I haven’t tried it myself and if you have, please share your thoughts on it.
Yes, I have tried it, but found it hard to justify adding to my collection of editing tools. It's definitely a good editor, but for me it doesn't add much to my Pixelmator + Raw Power + Photos arsenal.

It also suffers with a similar issue to Affinity Photos (a real power house editor but...) where the Photos library browser is plain awful, it only displays your albums as a complete flat-list in some random order, so you have to manually scroll down the whole lot to find where you want to be.

I have my library organised into a variety of folders and albums, accumulatively containing hundreds of albums, so this approach is completely unusable to me.

So to me, Darkroom is actually, comparatively, quite an expensive choice.
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2022-03-22 20:00:36

Thanks for sharing that. I might try Darkroom later.

I have to say.. WOW man, Raw Power interface SUCKS lol.. and I mean the editing controls. They’re all over the place, it barely makes sense. Also the way the different panels open and close, for me it feels so unpolished. One thing that I really hated is the way the Split Tone panel works. The color wheels are too small, arranged side by side instead of vertically, and well.. so cumbersome.

The Gentlemen need to take some cues from Pixelmator’s Interface designers, that’s one thing I absolutely love about Pixelmator Photo. These guys know how to design a beautiful, functional and pleasant interface to work with, and that is huge, since you spend a lot of time working with those controls. Of course, these are my first impressions, I’ll keep working with it and see if it grows on me.

But I mean, if we put them side by side.. RAW Power’s interface is just not there and Pixelmator’s looks super polished, beautiful and functional.
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2022-03-23 05:58:08

But I mean, if we put them side by side.. RAW Power’s interface is just not there and Pixelmator’s looks super polished, beautiful and functional.
I understand what you're saying for sure, and fully agree. I just find I can manage to workaround the individual foibles of any app, and as long as it gets the end result I need, I'll work with it (so some extent).

Each does have it's own pros and cons of course, and only you can decide if they work best for you or not. Trialling is certainly the best way, but each does offer certain features that the other doesn't have, so I tend to use both depending on the images I'm working with.
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2022-03-23 07:52:22

I downloaded Darkroom. The good thing is that it lets you try it even before committing to the trial period (I think it is 3 days but you have to sign up for a subscription). It doesn’t export though, but I can get a feel of all the controls.

The interface is better than RAW Power’s, but I still like Pixelmator better in that regard. There are fewer controls in Darkroom. So far, RAW Power has more controls than Pixelmator Photo or Darkroom, but I really disliked its interface.

In RP I also noticed that zooming in and out is not smooth at all, and also the animation of the panels opening and closing is a bit jumpy, so that also degrades the experience. I’ll keep testing it, I already bought it so.. I hope I can get used to the interface, but so far, after a couple of hours testing RP, and a few minutes testing Darkroom I must say I like Pixelmator Photo better than the other two. I might change my mind if I can get used to RAW Power’s interface, for me that is the thing that stood out immediately, the interface feels very unpolished.

Darkroom feels nice and the interface is good.. but it’s $50 dollars and has fewer controls than the other two.. so I don’t think I will bite.. UNLESS they come up with local adjustments first.

Those $50 dollars get you the Mac version too though (and iPhone but I don’t care about that), so in the end is not a bad deal.

Ah, one thing I didn’t like: I can’t switch the panel to the left side. I’m left handed and sometimes my hand gets in the way, I’m adjusting something but I can’t see comfortably.

So far, personally:

1) Pixelmator Photo
2) RAW Power
3) Darkroom

It was hard to say what app was 2nd place. If only Darkroom had a few more features (controls) and the price for the iPad version was lower.. it would jump to 2nd or even 1st place. I need a lot more testing time though, but so far I feel that my first buy (Pixelmator) was the best choice. I need to like RAW Power lol.. it has a good number of features.

Still, none come close to Lightroom, and that is understandable. I feel that the first to come up with Local Adjustments (and it’s well implemented of course) will win the race to becoming the real alternative to Lr for certain.

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2022-03-23 16:17:46

The interface is better than RAW Power’s, but I still like Pixelmator better in that regard. There are fewer controls in Darkroom. So far, RAW Power has more controls than Pixelmator Photo or Darkroom, but I really disliked its interface.
Yeah, but I’ve spent a lot of time with darktable too, everything seems better after that ;-).
In RP I also noticed that zooming in and out is not smooth at all, and also the animation of the panels opening and closing is a bit jumpy, so that also degrades the experience. I’ll keep testing it, I already bought it so.. I hope I can get used to the interface, but so far, after a couple of hours testing RP, and a few minutes testing Darkroom I must say I like Pixelmator Photo better than the other two. I might change my mind if I can get used to RAW Power’s interface, for me that is the thing that stood out immediately, the interface feels very unpolished.
I haven’t noticed any issues with zooming or the panels opening, although iirc don’t I have a newer iPad here?

I do agree though that Pixelmator has one of the nicest UIs overall (barring a few silly annoyances, like the curved histogram corners, and some of the daft % based scales on the sliders).
Darkroom feels nice and the interface is good.. but it’s $50 dollars and has fewer controls than the other two.. so I don’t think I will bite.. UNLESS they come up with local adjustments first.

Those $50 dollars get you the Mac version too though (and iPhone but I don’t care about that), so in the end is not a bad deal.
As I said, my biggest gripe was the poor access to the Photos library, almost impossible to work with for me.
Ah, one thing I didn’t like: I can’t switch the panel to the left side. I’m left handed and sometimes my hand gets in the way, I’m adjusting something but I can’t see comfortably.
Not something that’s affected me :-).
So far, personally:

1) Pixelmator Photo
2) RAW Power
3) Darkroom
Similar, although I’d probably go

3) Photos
4) Affinity
It was hard to say what app was 2nd place. If only Darkroom had a few more features (controls) and the price for the iPad version was lower.. it would jump to 2nd or even 1st place. I need a lot more testing time though, but so far I feel that my first buy (Pixelmator) was the best choice. I need to like RAW Power lol.. it has a good number of features.
There are a couple of biggies for me. The main one is that RP is the only extension app for Photos that actually maintains a proper non-destructive editing workflow. It stores it’s data inside the Photos library, so you can carry out the same edits on any device. None of the others can do this, you can’t re-edit a Pixelmator edited photo on a Mac if you’ve edited on an iPad, the data files do not carry over, same for the others too.

Because I’m deleting the huge external sidecar files that Pixelmator creates, I’m breaking the non-destructive workflow, so any time I want to tweak something, I have to start again. With RP I maintain this data, so can go back and tweak an image.
Still, none come close to Lightroom, and that is understandable. I feel that the first to come up with Local Adjustments (and it’s well implemented of course) will win the race to becoming the real alternative to Lr for certain.
To some extent yes, but Lightroom for the cloud based/mobile setup is very feature crippled too, and does not offer anything like the experience of using Classic - even Photos has some better features (such as it can do virtual copies and red-eye repairs, Lightroom cannot). Also, Lightroom mobile/cloudy doesn’t work with any extension editors, other than Photoshop.

As I say, I find the combo of Photos, and a selection of the extension editors that are available, offers an excellent set of photo management and editing tools.

If you’re interested in a bit better photo management, also check out HashPhotos, that has excellent library organisation tools, some more editing tools, and better EXIF data viewing.

Cheers
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2022-03-23 20:47:32


Yeah, but I’ve spent a lot of time with darktable too, everything seems better after that ;-) .
I haven’t tried Darktable, and their website is not very compelling 😅. Of course, having a bad interface and workflow is something common to many open source apps.
I haven’t noticed any issues with zooming or the panels opening, although iirc don’t I have a newer iPad here?
Yours is 2020 mine 2018. Not very different though, processors are the same except yours has 1 more gpu core. And of course, 2GB of extra RAM. In any case, I tested it today and the “jumpyness” was gone. 🤷‍♂️
I do agree though that Pixelmator has one of the nicest UIs overall (barring a few silly annoyances, like the curved histogram corners, and some of the daft % based scales on the sliders).

As I said, my biggest gripe was the poor access to the Photos library, almost impossible to work with for me.
Agreed, they can certainly make some improvements there, as well as adding more much needed features.
Not something that’s affected me :-) .
It is very annoying.
Similar, although I’d probably go

3) Photos
4) Affinity
Photos and Affinity are different animals IMO.
There are a couple of biggies for me. The main one is that RP is the only extension app for Photos that actually maintains a proper non-destructive editing workflow. It stores it’s data inside the Photos library, so you can carry out the same edits on any device.
I need to keep testing RP. I mean, it looks like it has some very nice features that I haven’t used yet like this one that you mention.
To some extent yes, but Lightroom for the cloud based/mobile setup is very feature crippled too, and does not offer anything like the experience of using Classic - even Photos has some better features (such as it can do virtual copies and red-eye repairs, Lightroom cannot). Also, Lightroom mobile/cloudy doesn’t work with any extension editors, other than Photoshop.
Agreed, I was just comparing it to Lightroom classic on my iMac, since that’s what I use so far for 99% of my photos. Not a very fair comparison I know. I truly want to get rid of Adobe.
As I say, I find the combo of Photos, and a selection of the extension editors that are available, offers an excellent set of photo management and editing tools.

If you’re interested in a bit better photo management, also check out HashPhotos, that has excellent library organisation tools, some more editing tools, and better EXIF data viewing.


I’ll check that one, thanks!
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2022-03-23 21:26:03

I haven’t tried Darktable, and their website is not very compelling 😅. Of course, having a bad interface and workflow is something common to many open source apps.
Haha, yeah, very true. Often designed by techno-geeks with 'function over form' being the priority.
Yours is 2020 mine 2018. Not very different though, processors are the same except yours has 1 more gpu core. And of course, 2GB of extra RAM. In any case, I tested it today and the “jumpyness” was gone. 🤷‍♂️
OK, I think I know what that might be then. RP does build its own library index, and can take a while to complete, it might just have been running that in the background.

Photos and Affinity are different animals IMO.
For sure, Affinity is more of a Photoshop alternative, whereas Pixelmator and RP are Photos enhancements. However, this is only on the iPad. On a desktop, Affinity integrates very well with Photos.
I need to keep testing RP. I mean, it looks like it has some very nice features that I haven’t used yet like this one that you mention.
It took me a while to get used to it as well, but now I find it quite good (the Raw Processing panel is unique, and a throwback to Aperture, it gives very fine tune control over a few key elements of Raw editing).
Agreed, I was just comparing it to Lightroom classic on my iMac, since that’s what I use so far for 99% of my photos. Not a very fair comparison I know. I truly want to get rid of Adobe.
Yes, Lightroom Classic is, IMHO, very hard to beat, but likewise, I wanted rid of Adobe, and the subscription plan.

Granted, I have an Apple One subscription, but I had iCloud anyway for some time before that, and along with Music, TV and News etc., the additional cost of the full iCloud storage is negligible.
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2022-03-23 21:52:36

by Andy Hewitt 2022-03-23 00:00:00 It took me a while to get used to it as well, but now I find it quite good (the Raw Processing panel is unique, and a throwback to Aperture, it gives very fine tune control over a few key elements of Raw editing).
You know, there’s something else that did bother me in RAW Power and to some extent in Darkroom: The HSL Color tool. I tried to edit this image, and using the HSL Color I tried to edit the sky. As you can see it is a very soft graduation of blue. The first time I got a very notorious banding, and I mean, huge bands as if it was made of different colors. I just tried it again and alas, it works fine. Second image is processed with RP just now.

I feel that the color ranges are not as fine tuned or I don’t know how to call it. In Lightroom this tool is very useful, but in RP, I don’t know, I need to keep testing. It’s not as smooth a experience as I hoped.

Also, if I crop a photo and press “done” I get a black thumbnail. If I export I get a black image. If I open it again in the editor, it’s all there. So if I undo the cropping I can export fine, and the preview is saved correctly. Hopefully a known bug that will be squashed in the next update.

Image

RAW Power (now it works, it didn’t work correctly yesterday.. what?) Of course, I’m exaggerating the colors to test this thing. But if you watch closely, the part of the sky close to the mountains looks aweful, and if you compare to Pixelmator Photo.. Pixelmator does a better job.Image
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2022-03-26 04:59:49

It's not something I make use of much myself, it only pops up for me if I use the ML Auto button. In normal use though, I haven't really seen this phenomenon, although I does rear its ugly head when I've tried using LUTs in Raw Power. However, I have noticed that the sky recovery can be a bit strange if I push the adjustment sliders too far, but as you say, a little working with various adjustments ends up with a good result.

Now, having revisited some of my editing workflows, I did a little test on a blue sky heavy image, and to be honest, all it did was show me that Photos is actually much better than it's given credit for. I started with just trying the AI based 'Magic' settings, with which Photos and Pixelmator give a similar result, the Raw Power version was a little darker (but easily readjusted after).

That's certainly made me rethink my current workflow. Do I really need to lean on third party apps so much? If the end result is acceptable for most of my images, I seem to be adding an extra level of workflow, as well as a shed load of huge sidecar files to deal with.

Cheers.
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2022-03-26 09:00:51

Also, if I crop a photo and press “done” I get a black thumbnail. If I export I get a black image. If I open it again in the editor, it’s all there. So if I undo the cropping I can export fine, and the preview is saved correctly. Hopefully a known bug that will be squashed in the next update.
Well that's a new one, I haven't seen that before, but it's happening to me too now. Must be a new bug. I'll post a message to Nik.

Cheers.
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2022-03-27 05:53:42

by Andy Hewitt That's certainly made me rethink my current workflow. Do I really need to lean on third party apps so much? If the end result is acceptable for most of my images, I seem to be adding an extra level of workflow, as well as a shed load of huge sidecar files to deal with.
I’ll give Photos a try, but it doesn’t have enough controls for my taste. I don’t like relying on automagic buttons, they could be a good starting point, but I like or need to fine tune of course. In that regard I like that Pixelmator Photo offers ML on/off switches for many of its controls and go from there.
Well that's a new one, I haven't seen that before, but it's happening to me too now. Must be a new bug. I'll post a message to Nik.
Took me a moment to realize it was the cropping tool, but yes, it is a consistent behavior. I need to get into their forums and see what they’re talking about.
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2022-03-27 10:49:29

I’ll give Photos a try, but it doesn’t have enough controls for my taste. I don’t like relying on automagic buttons, they could be a good starting point, but I like or need to fine tune of course. In that regard I like that Pixelmator Photo offers ML on/off switches for many of its controls and go from there.
I suppose it all depends on your workflow preferences. I tend to prefer a minimalist approach, and use the least controls possible to adjust any image (I like to get to a look that represents the original scene without too much 'boosting'). I agree though that 'Magic', 'ML' or 'AI' buttons are very rarely actually any good.

Even the Pixelmator ML stuff does some very strange things for my tastes (even the Basic adjustments end up in very weird positions). I tend to try the ML buttons on a panel by panel basis, rather than use the ML Magic button, which seems to be too willing to apply many unnecessary adjustments - looking at where the adjusters end up, it makes me wonder what the 'experts' are doing there (they don't seem to be applied according to methods generally used when you see any 'expert' tutorials).

With Photos on the iPad I like the way you can adjust the effect that is applied by the 'Magic' button, sometimes that does get you nearer to what I want. One adjuster it does have that seems to work better than I expected is the 'Brilliance' adjuster. But it does seem to get a better 'starting point' than almost anything else I've tried an AI adjuster on.
Took me a moment to realize it was the cropping tool, but yes, it is a consistent behavior. I need to get into their forums and see what they’re talking about.
Not something that's been talked about as yet, so I think it is a new bug. I've also tested this on the Desktop version of RP, and the bug doesn't show up there, so is only apparent on the iPadOS version (for me at least).
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2022-03-30 07:53:57

Just to update this thread, after the last update to the app, it hasn’t crashed once. I’ve been copying and pasting edits, opening those edits, refining and closing the files, using the repair tool, cropping, no problems so far and it actually feels faster, the only thing I haven’t tried yet is exporting to JPG in a batch.

I’m excited, the app is completely usable now. Nice work Pixelmator team!
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2022-04-01 05:15:01

Yes, they have gradually managed to improve Pixelmator Photo, and it’s certainly getting there. I still have one or two gripes though, that have been mentioned already, but….

The rounded corners on the histogram seems a bit amateurish, it makes it useless as an editing tool. A simple fix to sort that I’d have thought.

No clipping overlay, this is a really useful tool, which has been around for many years (Aperture started that one I think).

Why all the percentages for the scales, that again seems a little pointless - I mean 200% sharpening! 200% of what? Surely exposure should be in stops.

And the still erratic behaviour of the filmstrip, it’s nice to see the addition of it, but when you reveal it again after editing, it doesn’t highlight the image you’ve been working on, usually it goes to the previous image you edited, sometimes it even flicks right back the the first image.

They’re just things that need improvement, and the end result is still excellent. However, the main reason I use Pixelmator over Raw Power is when I need to use the ML Super Enhance on my older low res images. That is a feature that seems to work very well (certainly on my Olympus E1 photos anyway). Other times is when I need the Repair tool, again an excellent tool that is simple and quite effective (brilliant for cleaning up old negative scans).

On another note, that crop problem with Raw Power was just a bug, and has been fixed in a beta test I ran for Nik, so I suspect there’ll be an update soon. It’s always worth contacting developers, most are willing to work out solutions to issues.

Cheers.
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2022-04-01 05:25:28

The rounded corners on the histogram seems a bit amateurish, it makes it useless as an editing tool. A simple fix to sort that I’d have thought.

No clipping overlay, this is a really useful tool, which has been around for many years (Aperture started that one I think).

Why all the percentages for the scales, that again seems a little pointless - I mean 200% sharpening! 200% of what? Surely exposure should be in stops.
I agree with all of the above. Exposure should be in stops, and I would add that temperature should be in Kelvins not percentages. I also would like to see an eye drop tool for temperature and tint, I mean it is super basic and helpful. Edit: I just realized there is one hidden behind a “secret” menu. Bad interface decision. Please add a visible button for the eye drop tool.
And the still erratic behaviour of the filmstrip, it’s nice to see the addition of it, but when you reveal it again after editing, it doesn’t highlight the image you’ve been working on, usually it goes to the previous image you edited, sometimes it even flicks right back the the first image.
The jumping to the first image also happens randomly when in Files mode as opposed to Photos mode.
when I need to use the ML Super Enhance on my older low res images. That is a feature that seems to work very well (certainly on my Olympus E1 photos anyway). Other times is when I need the Repair tool, again an excellent tool that is simple and quite effective (brilliant for cleaning up old negative scans).
Agreed, I like having these tools. A great plus.
On another note, that crop problem with Raw Power was just a bug, and has been fixed in a beta test I ran for Nik, so I suspect there’ll be an update soon.
Good to hear, thanks. I tried to register on their forums but somehow I managed to run out of opportunities and had to wait 15 or so minutes 😂 and gave up. I’ll try again later.