Question to the authors. Why do you force a separate develop step when adjusting raw files?
I understand that raw files are processed differently. I shoot raw because I want that extra flexibility for post processing the file .. What I don’t understand is why you chose to add a completely separate step into the workflow.
When I work on images from a single event I’ll be working on files from different cameras and file formats ( JPG, NEF, CR2, DNG, TIFF). From the “keepers” the processing is pretty much the same, for all images adjustment, edits and export the processed images. I actually export two files. One a full sized “cooked” jpg and the other a smaller file suitable for WEB and sharing.
The adjustments are pretty standard :Crop/rotate, adjust WB, exposure, color, saturation/vibrance, sharpening. Occasionally I’ll remove / add elements and more advanced edits, but that's more the exception that the rule.
Using Affinity Photo I pretty much have to do those adjustments twice for the raw files. Just seems so redundant to me. And for me this makes my workflow much less efficient.
From a users perspective it would be much easier ( less cumbersome) if I could just stick with the Photo Persona and have the “extra” raw processing capabilities available. My workflow would be identical for all the images I have to manipulate. Under the covers I would expect that the software would process the files differently.But all that should be invisible to me.
I’ve tried Affinity Photo a few times since it became available for the MAC. I just haven’t been able to get an efficient workflow going using it however. I just don’t “get” how you envisioned Affinity Photo being used, and haven’t been able to get “into a groove” with it. I was an avid Aperture user, and have been using Lightroom since Apertures demise. Using both of those packages I can get from selected originals to processed/shareable image very quickly. Had to use Photoshop or Pixilator to do complex edits but that's maybe 5% of the work I need to do.
I bought Affinity Photo last week. My Lightroom subscription is coming due this month and as much as I really like working with LR on desktop and iPad Im looking to get away from the subscription model. I keep hoping that AP can be my "one tool" to adjust and edit images but I just need to work out how to fit it in. As an aside I use Photo Mechanic for ingestion, metadata editing, and culling as the pre step. So if you could work a little better with PM that would be great.
Thanks
Gary
