Doug B

I totally agree with your assessments here.  I wonder though, about the new file/folder system in iOS 11. I'm betting that it will be strictly cloud based and not machine local. That, would be like a step forward and two giant steps back, UNLESS they implemented something like Dropbox, where you don't need to store files locally on your desktop machine's drive, and only via the web.
 
Of course, the better solution, as you noted, would be to have an actual physical storage device for these things. But without a non-proprietary way to hook up to such a thing, it's already a dead in the water idea. Apple will NEVER let its users have access to a physical file system. Even if root is hidden. Still too much of as security risk.
 
I've used the Sandisk Media Drive for a while, and it's a pretty cool solution, but at the end of the day, its battery will eventually die, and you also have to make sure that it is charged before really working with it. Not very elegant or practical IMO.
 
Doug

I should add a side note:
 
The alternative to making the RAW processing algorithms as good as ACR or Capture One Pro 10's is to simply make the workflow non-destructive, so that people can send their work from the iPad to a desktop app such as the previously mentioned apps. Wow, was that or was that not a great way to plug a non-destructive workflow again? Iol

I totally agree with your assessments here.  I wonder though, about the new file/folder system in iOS 11. I'm betting that it will be strictly cloud based and not machine local. That, would be like a step forward and two giant steps back, UNLESS they implemented something like Dropbox, where you don't need to store files locally on your desktop machine's drive, and only via the web.
 
Of course, the better solution, as you noted, would be to have an actual physical storage device for these things. But without a non-proprietary way to hook up to such a thing, it's already a dead in the water idea. Apple will NEVER let its users have access to a physical file system. Even if root is hidden. Still too much of as security risk.
 
I've used the Sandisk Media Drive for a while, and it's a pretty cool solution, but at the end of the day, its battery will eventually die, and you also have to make sure that it is charged before really working with it. Not very elegant or practical IMO.
 
Doug

So dark that we can't see it yet!! :D

I totally agree with your assessments here.  I wonder though, about the new file/folder system in iOS 11. I'm betting that it will be strictly cloud based and not machine local. That, would be like a step forward and two giant steps back, UNLESS they implemented something like Dropbox, where you don't need to store files locally on your desktop machine's drive, and only via the web.
 
Of course, the better solution, as you noted, would be to have an actual physical storage device for these things. But without a non-proprietary way to hook up to such a thing, it's already a dead in the water idea. Apple will NEVER let its users have access to a physical file system. Even if root is hidden. Still too much of as security risk.
 
I've used the Sandisk Media Drive for a while, and it's a pretty cool solution, but at the end of the day, its battery will eventually die, and you also have to make sure that it is charged before really working with it. Not very elegant or practical IMO.
 
Doug

YES. Please. And before the mods and devs get totally sick of me asking for it.. .Non destructive editing to go with said DAM!

AP is just an image editor with a further option to import a developed RAW.
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/42040-affinity-ipad-version-is-not-worth-the-money/?p=210361
 
I think Lightroom mobile is still the best software for you.
 
Probably the best improvement in AP IOS now is to store the RAW preferences to paste the setting to the next RAW in order to apply the same development.

After my experience with Affinity on iPad you can develop a RAW image, but afterwards this development is gone and you cannot go back and edit your development parameters (like color temperature or b/w conversion or any other setting). 
 
For my work such a nondestructive RAW file development is of basic importance for further post processing. Is there any plan for such an improvement ??  As long as this feature is not available Affinity for me cannot rival Lightroom mobile...
 
Regards, Stephan

Just add the rotation lock check box.

It can be really tricky to make a small correction with just a finger. I am happy that i own the apple pencil. It would be nice if i could scale up or down the curve-graph when i doubletab one of the square-areas.
 
I also really miss the picker-tool for curves. At the moment it is hard to find the right correction point.

I pinned this one. let's see what affinity will do with the memory management ( based to 2gb ram, the current standard)  for managing groups of RAW and editing in CMYK. They made a miracle with AP IOS but maybe it's not enough.

Even if it is possible, would involve a new separate module for non-destructive management of some features and much memory and computing power (even to generate RAW previews based on grid zoom) - this probably means raising the minimum requirements 4gb of ram. The memory limits depend on the market, unfortunately.
  Working on a single CYMK full frame file of 23/50 mil. RAW require a lot of memory.   I'm hoping to see in future a new app, a lightroom killer made by Affinity ( on desktop) this make sense for me but is a dream.

YES. Please. And before the mods and devs get totally sick of me asking for it.. .Non destructive editing to go with said DAM!

I totally agree with your assessments here.  I wonder though, about the new file/folder system in iOS 11. I'm betting that it will be strictly cloud based and not machine local. That, would be like a step forward and two giant steps back, UNLESS they implemented something like Dropbox, where you don't need to store files locally on your desktop machine's drive, and only via the web.
 
Of course, the better solution, as you noted, would be to have an actual physical storage device for these things. But without a non-proprietary way to hook up to such a thing, it's already a dead in the water idea. Apple will NEVER let its users have access to a physical file system. Even if root is hidden. Still too much of as security risk.
 
I've used the Sandisk Media Drive for a while, and it's a pretty cool solution, but at the end of the day, its battery will eventually die, and you also have to make sure that it is charged before really working with it. Not very elegant or practical IMO.
 
Doug

I totally agree with your assessments here.  I wonder though, about the new file/folder system in iOS 11. I'm betting that it will be strictly cloud based and not machine local. That, would be like a step forward and two giant steps back, UNLESS they implemented something like Dropbox, where you don't need to store files locally on your desktop machine's drive, and only via the web.
 
Of course, the better solution, as you noted, would be to have an actual physical storage device for these things. But without a non-proprietary way to hook up to such a thing, it's already a dead in the water idea. Apple will NEVER let its users have access to a physical file system. Even if root is hidden. Still too much of as security risk.
 
I've used the Sandisk Media Drive for a while, and it's a pretty cool solution, but at the end of the day, its battery will eventually die, and you also have to make sure that it is charged before really working with it. Not very elegant or practical IMO.
 
Doug

no :)
Everything you have written makes sense to me as well, the problem is the device memory and limits imposed by apple (which are changing, fortunately).
Any further improvement of raw management raises the minimum requirements of the device.
Maybe we have to wait 2 to 3 years, with 80% of market made with  ipad with 4 or 8gb (or more) of memory

Yes!!!! I am hoping here.
 
I would love to see a Light Room style app for the iPad (and Mac), to complement Affinity Photo.
 
Is this on the road map at all?
 
Jayce

I totally agree with your assessments here.  I wonder though, about the new file/folder system in iOS 11. I'm betting that it will be strictly cloud based and not machine local. That, would be like a step forward and two giant steps back, UNLESS they implemented something like Dropbox, where you don't need to store files locally on your desktop machine's drive, and only via the web.
 
Of course, the better solution, as you noted, would be to have an actual physical storage device for these things. But without a non-proprietary way to hook up to such a thing, it's already a dead in the water idea. Apple will NEVER let its users have access to a physical file system. Even if root is hidden. Still too much of as security risk.
 
I've used the Sandisk Media Drive for a while, and it's a pretty cool solution, but at the end of the day, its battery will eventually die, and you also have to make sure that it is charged before really working with it. Not very elegant or practical IMO.
 
Doug

I totally agree with your assessments here.  I wonder though, about the new file/folder system in iOS 11. I'm betting that it will be strictly cloud based and not machine local. That, would be like a step forward and two giant steps back, UNLESS they implemented something like Dropbox, where you don't need to store files locally on your desktop machine's drive, and only via the web.
 
Of course, the better solution, as you noted, would be to have an actual physical storage device for these things. But without a non-proprietary way to hook up to such a thing, it's already a dead in the water idea. Apple will NEVER let its users have access to a physical file system. Even if root is hidden. Still too much of as security risk.
 
I've used the Sandisk Media Drive for a while, and it's a pretty cool solution, but at the end of the day, its battery will eventually die, and you also have to make sure that it is charged before really working with it. Not very elegant or practical IMO.
 
Doug

To preface, I should state that I use an Fuji XT-1 and XT-2. Also still have but barely use my D300. 



I didn’t start this topic with the intention of picking a fight. I absolutely adore Affinity Photo on my Mac and it has completely taken over PS duties for me. That said, what it has NOT done on the Mac, and I suspect even less so in the case with the iOS version, is take over as my RAW processor. And there's a very good reason for this. The RAW decoding and demosaicing algorithms have a long way to go where RAW processing is concerned. I use AP mainly for things like cloning, skin retouching and a few other things as such. It is excellent for such things, and saves a lot of time compared to messing about in LR or other apps. 

 
I stopped using Lightroom about a year or so ago, and at times, am sorry to have done so. I’ve had to though, because the way it renders X-Trans files is quite poor, when compared to other applications on the Mac. I moved over to Capture One Pro 9 and now have 10. It's an excellent piece of software, and I thought I had settled on it, but recently, On1 has released new software that will likely rival Capture One Pro, and in not that long a period of time. 

 
Every piece of software has its strengths and weaknesses, and Capture One's biggest weakness/flaw is in how it handles its self as a DAM. The new ON1 Photo RAW is great in that sense, but currently, has issues with file exporting... (Which is being fixed and patched by next week) So I'm not ditching Capture One. Adobe's ACR is great for most users, and is what LR uses inside of its GUI, which again, is great for most, but poor for Fuji users. 

 
If Affinity was able to handle RAW processing like On1 or Capture One, it would be the ultimate all-in-one photo editor, IMO. But it doesn't, and so.. It is not. Here's where the problem lies for the mobile version:

If the intention is to begin editing while on the go, such as at an event/shoot etc, you absolutely MUST have Affinity demosaic and process the RAW file, in order that it sync's up to your desktop version of Affinity Photo *which I don't even think is a feature yet*. The problem with this is that once the file has been made a PSD/TIFF or afphoto, you can no longer get back what was in the RAW file. That's just how it goes. The changes are burned in, with not much more leverage than a jpg file at that point. 

 
So then, when I look at how AP handles things like highlight and shadow recovery, contrast and micro contrast and see how utterly terrible they are (and they really are), then there is zero chance that I would ever use the mobile version to do things like skin retouching or cloning before adjusting the RAW values. I can say the same thing for On1 Photo RAW though. When comparing the 3 apps, Capture One comes out well above the rest, without question.
 
Where Affinity Photo WILL work, is obviously after the color correction, sharpening, levels using another app like Capture One etc.. But this really leaves a very large gap in the RAW workflow on the iPad. Also, I’m speaking in terms of what-if’s, since there is no such thing as desktop and mobile sync without iCloud Drive. The issue I have with this, is that iCloud Drive takes up space on ones computer, and there is no dropbox-esque option, where you can access iCloud Drive solely via the web. Anyway, I don’t necessarily regret getting AP for the iPad, but after having thought things through, more than when I got excited to hear it was available and at the $20 price.. I think it’s safe for me to say that it won’t get much use in its current iteration.
 
I’m curious to know if others have thought about this as well, and what conclusions have been drawn as such.
 
I have attached 6 files. 3 are unedited. The other three have highlight recovery and negative exposure values added. I picked this photo specifically, because it was a misfire *finger twitched* and the settings cause the highlights to blow and exposure was hot. You can clearly see how well the three apps handle the amount of highlight recovery, and then highlight recovery with -exposure added to help. Capture One Pro is clearly, without challenge, the winner.
 
Doug


To preface, I should state that I use an Fuji XT-1 and XT-2. Also still have but barely use my D300. 



I didn’t start this topic with the intention of picking a fight. I absolutely adore Affinity Photo on my Mac and it has completely taken over PS duties for me. That said, what it has NOT done on the Mac, and I suspect even less so in the case with the iOS version, is take over as my RAW processor. And there's a very good reason for this. The RAW decoding and demosaicing algorithms have a long way to go where RAW processing is concerned. I use AP mainly for things like cloning, skin retouching and a few other things as such. It is excellent for such things, and saves a lot of time compared to messing about in LR or other apps. 

 
I stopped using Lightroom about a year or so ago, and at times, am sorry to have done so. I’ve had to though, because the way it renders X-Trans files is quite poor, when compared to other applications on the Mac. I moved over to Capture One Pro 9 and now have 10. It's an excellent piece of software, and I thought I had settled on it, but recently, On1 has released new software that will likely rival Capture One Pro, and in not that long a period of time. 

 
Every piece of software has its strengths and weaknesses, and Capture One's biggest weakness/flaw is in how it handles its self as a DAM. The new ON1 Photo RAW is great in that sense, but currently, has issues with file exporting... (Which is being fixed and patched by next week) So I'm not ditching Capture One. Adobe's ACR is great for most users, and is what LR uses inside of its GUI, which again, is great for most, but poor for Fuji users. 

 
If Affinity was able to handle RAW processing like On1 or Capture One, it would be the ultimate all-in-one photo editor, IMO. But it doesn't, and so.. It is not. Here's where the problem lies for the mobile version:

If the intention is to begin editing while on the go, such as at an event/shoot etc, you absolutely MUST have Affinity demosaic and process the RAW file, in order that it sync's up to your desktop version of Affinity Photo *which I don't even think is a feature yet*. The problem with this is that once the file has been made a PSD/TIFF or afphoto, you can no longer get back what was in the RAW file. That's just how it goes. The changes are burned in, with not much more leverage than a jpg file at that point. 

 
So then, when I look at how AP handles things like highlight and shadow recovery, contrast and micro contrast and see how utterly terrible they are (and they really are), then there is zero chance that I would ever use the mobile version to do things like skin retouching or cloning before adjusting the RAW values. I can say the same thing for On1 Photo RAW though. When comparing the 3 apps, Capture One comes out well above the rest, without question.
 
Where Affinity Photo WILL work, is obviously after the color correction, sharpening, levels using another app like Capture One etc.. But this really leaves a very large gap in the RAW workflow on the iPad. Also, I’m speaking in terms of what-if’s, since there is no such thing as desktop and mobile sync without iCloud Drive. The issue I have with this, is that iCloud Drive takes up space on ones computer, and there is no dropbox-esque option, where you can access iCloud Drive solely via the web. Anyway, I don’t necessarily regret getting AP for the iPad, but after having thought things through, more than when I got excited to hear it was available and at the $20 price.. I think it’s safe for me to say that it won’t get much use in its current iteration.
 
I’m curious to know if others have thought about this as well, and what conclusions have been drawn as such.
 
I have attached 6 files. 3 are unedited. The other three have highlight recovery and negative exposure values added. I picked this photo specifically, because it was a misfire *finger twitched* and the settings cause the highlights to blow and exposure was hot. You can clearly see how well the three apps handle the amount of highlight recovery, and then highlight recovery with -exposure added to help. Capture One Pro is clearly, without challenge, the winner.
 
Doug


Except I don't recall Cook ever saying such a thing. His words if I recall correctly, were more like "these products can replace a laptop for SOME people".  And honestly, until we see physical external storage that doesn't depend on being wireless, creating an ad-hoc network to connect, and needing to recharge a battery, it will NEVER replace a true laptop. Not to mention having a built in keyboard. You cannot call something it is not. The keyboard/mouse/trackpad are very specific tools which are needed to interface with items that require extremely fine and precise pixels on the display. Said pixels which are in greater abundance and are a lot closer together,  vs a tablet, where icons are the norm due to space constraints.
 
Two years you say? I will bet you all of my stock options vs yours or your annual salary, that will not happen. Betting man are you?   :P
 
Doug

It's a beta. No one should ever expect things to work properly or expect support from a beta. Not even Apple supports issues when the beta is installed. This is how it works and there are disclaimers that one must read and agree to when installing said beta. Please do not expect the Serif team to work on bugs with a beta release.
 
That's a pretty pompous and short sighted comment. The fact that YOU don't know any professional artists who utilize an iPad for illustration/graphic work or other image based work, does not speak for the industry on the whole. I guess that might put you, in the minority. Might want to broaden your perspective a bit.

It's a beta. No one should ever expect things to work properly or expect support from a beta. Not even Apple supports issues when the beta is installed. This is how it works and there are disclaimers that one must read and agree to when installing said beta. Please do not expect the Serif team to work on bugs with a beta release.
 
That's a pretty pompous and short sighted comment. The fact that YOU don't know any professional artists who utilize an iPad for illustration/graphic work or other image based work, does not speak for the industry on the whole. I guess that might put you, in the minority. Might want to broaden your perspective a bit.

I'm only half excited about an Affinity DAM. Adobe may be annoying in many respects, but many of its algorithms are impressive (highlight reduction for one) that leave every other DAM in the dust, and that includes Capture One that despite it's heavy handed RAW processing, has some equally impressive stuff.
 
So far Affinity's RAW processing is pretty poor. I do like how I can select a different RAW processing engine in Photo, but if that app itself has sub-par adjustments it'll just be a glorified Bridge application. A DAW to rule them all needs the best algorithms, not just a good UI.
 
Dislike for Adobe isn't reason enough to pick something that isn't as good, when Lightroom (despite it's many imperfections) is quite mature software, with solid adjustments and easy to use tools. If Serif (hi devs!) can match Aperture or Capture One in terms of organisation, and Lightroom for tech then that'd be something worth getting excited about.