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Okay, after a bit more fiddling using NotMyFault's suggestions, I think I've got it. I set the Develop Assistant per the suggestions, then restarted AF, and while it started out with a very similar, washed out image, I could get a lot closer by tweaking the sliders. I couldn't get enough saturation in Develop (even with slider at max), but after applying the Develop I tweaked it a bit in Photo (see below). I wish I could figure out a default preset for my particular camera so that all imports from it go thru the same process.

Thanks NotMyFault. It's funny, as I recall some of the posts I've read on the subject say pretty much the opposite of what you're suggesting. But I did try your suggestions, and, probably due to my inability to figure out the best slider positions, I'm still nowhere close. In fact the image is more blown out. I'm curious what magic handwaving Nuke does to make the imported image so reasonable.

I know this has been discussed here before, and I've read a bunch of posts and checked out the Affinity videos on RAW files, but I still haven't figured out what the issue is. Any help would be appreciated. I imported a DNG image taken on my Samsung phone, and as you can see in the attached it's totally washed out. I imported the same image into Nuke, hooked up a viewer, and it looks fine (Affinity Photo on the left, Nuke on the right). No adjustments necessary in Nuke. I've set Develop Assistant tone curve setting to "Take no action" but even if I apply the tone curve it looks a little better, but not close to the "correct" image. My challenge is that no matter what Exposure, Saturation, etc., sliders I move in the Develop Persona, I can't get close to the rich color of the Nuke/correct image. Now this is my first time working with RAW files, so I could be doing something dumb, but I've tried cranking the Exposure up to get a decent histogram and adjusting all the other sliders but still it's washed out. Anyone? Thanks

Ahhh, okay, I got it. You need to right click on the spare channels holding the masks and select "Convert to grayscale layer", and then rename all layers (including the main image) with a .RGB or .RGBA extension.

Okay, I saw a post from the great Mr. Ritson saying I need to name the mask layers with a .RGB extension, and that seems to stop the export error. But the new EXR file seems to include the mask layers, but the contents are black/empty, as is the contents of the main image layer.

So I've make some masks by converting different selections into spare channels. Next I want to convert those spare channel masks into layers that will appear with my main image in an exported multilayer EXR file. I tried to add some pixel layers and convert the spare channels to selections in those pixel layers, then apply a mask to each, then delete the pixel layer and just save the masks, but that didn't seem to save the masks as layers. In fact I got an error when trying to export the multilayer EXR. And it was really complicated. Is there an easy way to do this? Thanks

Ahhh, okay. I had to double click on the adjustment layer to bring up the dialog with the Merge it in. Great, thanks much.

Lets say I have a pixel layer, and I apply an exposure adjustment to it. And I'm happy with the adjustment, so I want to make it final. I can select both the image and adjustment layers and Rasterize, which converts the two layers to one pixel layer with the exposure applied. And that seems to do what I want. But is that the correct way to finalize an adjustment? Doesn't seem right.

Okay, so one way to do this is to create a new pixel layer, then for each layer representing the R,G&B values create a corresponding spare channel. Then select the new pixel layer, and for each spare channel right click and select "Load to.." and choose the corresponding R, G, or B channel of the new pixel layer. You also have to make sure you've got full white in the alpha of the new pixel layer, and also that you make everything visible (channels, etc.) once you're done. I just wish there was a "import EXR layers as layers, not RGB channels" option.

Okay, I think I answered my own question. In Affinity Help under OpenEXR support it says: "Each channel is imported to a discrete layer in the Layers panel." I don't get it. Why not make a layer a layer, since you already can access the channels under the Channels tab? And it doesn't seem to apply to the main RGB image.

So I made a multilayer EXR in Nuke with the results of some 3D render passes. And when I import it into Affinity Photo, the added layers (not including the main image layer) are shown as 3 separate R, G & B layers for each of the render layers. Is this something that Affinity is doing, or did I set up the Nuke mulitlayer EXR incorrectly? I was expecting each layer would include the RGB channels, rather than each layer BEING an R, B, or G channel. Thanks