John Rostron

I have Photo as my default image editor, so when I want to process a batch of image files, I will either: Double-click on an individual file in Windows Explorer, which opens just that file in Photo. I can repeat this to open other files.Or: Select a group of images (control-click), then right-click and select Open. I tend to process files individually or in small batches (less than six). You are using PSP as a DAM (digital assets manager) Affinity are thinking about prouducing a DAM, but only thinking about it. You can emulate a DAM by having an explorer window showing just a single row of icons at the bottom of your screen, with Photo occupying the rest. Or you could use a free DAM (such as Irfanview or Faststone) and tell it to open the files in Photo. John

The Topaz plug-ins I use are all pre-Topaz Studio. The new versions may not integrate as well. John

These postings confound two aspects of Smart Objects. Affinity offers a similar workflow/functionality to that of PS smart objects, but they do not have the same structure and are thus not interchangeable. Affinity cannot read PSD smart objects, but PS may or may not be able to read the Affinity equivalent. If will all depend on whether the user needs to transfer image files between AF and PS. If not, then AF will offer all the user needs. John

They all work for me on Windows except Topaz Remask. John

Are you addressing the OP, @TheSemiUnprofessional, or @walt.farrell? The various layers of the document will all be cropped to the same size, which is what I presume the OP wanted. John

I have, so far, managed to avoid using any social media, apps or otherwise. Like @Dominic, I find the Affinity forums provide all that I want. John

If you load your images into a stack as in the video, and then ungroup, you can export the individual layers (hide the others while you export each) as separate files. John

I use a first pass with (legacy) Bridge to set the metadata and keywords, then use Acdsee. John

No, I just uninstalled them from my system. I still retain legacy PS5, Dreamweaver CS3 and Bridge CS3 for occasional use,but have removed all CC software. I do notice some CC software creeping back uninvited. I suspect that I have not properly uninstalled the CC controller. John

Digital Camera Magazine recently offered Sketch Drawer for free so I downloaded it. I tried it on @toltec's Penguin picture and it looked like this: Not all that different from @toltec's final image. I would have like to have said that getting this in Sketch Drawer was dead simple, but it was not. It involved a great deal of trial and error and a fiddly interface. I probably would not have bought it at the current price, but since it was free, I may try it on other images. The free offer is now over, it you want to try it, it is available from here.

Apologies. I was trying to copy part of your message from one message to another on a tablet. I thought I had copied the entire sentence, but later discovered the end was missing. Rather than back-track many steps, I guessed, and guessed wrong!

I do not have C1 so I cannot comment on it use. I was implying that you do not need to edit in C1, not that you do not need it as a library. John

In a recent post on loading files for HDR @owenr said: "You can't drag from C1 directly into the HDR merge files list, but if you click Add at the bottom of the list, then a file open dialog appears, into which you can drag the raws from C1 and then click Open, and that places the raws into the dialog" John

If you prefer to merge the raw files, then all you need do is to open Affinity, selct the HDR merge dialogue, click Add and select your raw fies. No need to open them in Affinity first, or even to open them in Capture One at all. I still don't know what you mean by 'image information'. Do you mean metadata? Or perhaps the data in a sidecar file. The former would be included in the raw file as loaded. Affinity will not read sidecar files. John