Geedee

Redphoenix, sorry that I misunderstood you... Perhaps I have done so again, though if you look in the TUTORIALS section of this site and beam up HOW TO BATCH PROCESS MULTIPLE PHOTOS USING AFFINITI PHOTO posted July 31st, hopefully that might provide an answer..

Redphoenix, I experienced a similar frustration in terms of seeking to quickly view quite a number of RAW files in order to then process them via Affiniti. I have limited experience but happy to share my thinking in the hope it might help. My camera is a Nikon, thus my files are identified as NEF and I like to keep them as such, and stored in a file system other than might be created by any post processing programme or process I might be inclined to use at any time that may care to identify them in any way that they can not be opened in any other PP programme...Thus two considerations were prioritised when seeking to simplify my workflow.. I found that Nikon made ViewNX-I freely available for download and with that programme I can open my raw files direct from the card (via card reader) or from any file I have created in my remote hard drives or within my computer...and have them displayed in a manner which I can quickly scroll through them in thumbnail dimensions any one of which can be selected from the side panel to be enlarged within the main panel.. at which stage I can decide if or not, I want to process it within Affiniti... Of course Nikon ViewNX-I provides various options within it's programming relative to the now selected image.. HOWEVER.. I just use it as a JPEG viewer Given that Affiniti seems not to cover that process... but I could be mistaken..? Having identified the image I now want to process I tend to click on it within whatever storage system it is located and then EDIT. OPEN WITH and choose AFFINITI... Of course I can select multiple images from within their storage to open within Affiniti... Though as with everything I guess size matters, and in this case file sizes relative to processing capability of the computer you are using..? Hope if you were left looking for answers this ramble might have helped..

Not sure if Nifty has baled out on this, but if not and he has as Wosven has suggested, downloaded his images from his camera using Affiniti to do so and that as a result has tried to open them in Lightroom which does not recognise the file type thus thinking he has now locked his images into Affinity only software operations.... Then I suspect if he uses the EXPORT facility within Affiniti he may be able to remove the .afphoto designation from his images that seems to be causing his issues...? However I suspect he may not be able to recover the image as a RAW file, though not entirely sure.

R C-R Thanks for the response. I bow to your knowledge for sure.. and admit to my lack thereof, though the question raised by Nifty was relative to a similar issue I experienced in other photo programmes some time back in that he was unable to open his images in pp software other than Affiniti, AFTER they had been downloaded from his camera via Affiniti... Whereas prior to using Affiniti to download his camera's images he previously opened them in Lightroom which it seems was his normal workflow (?) and that he (like me) had thought that issue might have been caused by the change in file naming, the new suffix applied to his images (.afphoto) which caused his issue seemed logically Affiniti related..? I use both Mac and Windows and my remote hard drives are configured to plug and play in both systems (thanks to help provided here (-:) I should have taken more time re my answer to Nifty for which I apologise, perhaps I should have suggested that he might care to create a file system within Documents for his photo files and download from his camera directly to there, using that as his storage under the designation (or not) which his camera applies to them .... Selecting files from his chosen storage location using OPEN WITH and selecting Affiniti, Lightroom or whatever other PP software he cares to choose and hopefully without the limitations he is currently experiencing...? Just thinking in type, claiming zero expertise

Hi Nifty, I AM NO EXPERT...being a selective Luddite and in no way skilled in understanding much in the way of that which seems to go on in the background of my machines I am VERY, some would say overly sensitive to any thought of programmes identifying MY files as theirs, and in such a way as you report, thus I download my photographs directly to a remote drive via a card reader and open copies of them from the drive into which ever PP programme I use... Though in truth I suspect you could do the same thing by creating a file for your images within your "C" drive in a file you create and not within any programme as such. In which case your images will retain the identity your camera created for them as in .JPEG or I'm my case with a Nikon camera and RAW files they are identified as NEF files.... With such identities it would seem that any quality photo programme will open these files..... and if you foul up any image during processing by miss clicking anything... you are not dependant on having been careful to utilise the the non-destructive facilities in the programmes prescribed manner as your ORIGINAL will still be wherever you chose to store it... I store my images remotely for both space saving on my desktop and security on two drives one a mirror of the other and to have done so in both Windows and Mac compatability. I also do not SAVE any modified files within a PP programme I EXPORT them to remote drives thus again avoid being identified as other than which I care to identify them as... Admittedly I suspect that I may well be missing out on some advantages relative to identity filing and storage within the programme.. but it works for me up till now. My GUESS is that once you modify a file using any of the many facilities in a PP programme that they may only be sure to be visible and further adjustable within that one programme and thus the requirement for that programme to identify that file as one modified within it's software. Like you I am relatively new to Affiniti and have yet to learn of it's many wonders and have used basic aspects of Adobe Elements, also Nikon View, Nikon Capture having become used to certain aspects of these programmes in time it can be frustrating to struggle to find that which appeared basic stuff in another programme... though hopefully we will get there... (-:

Thanks guys you have been a great help in expanding my understanding and confusion in equal measures..(-: Grabbed the camera and lens combo that I captured the moon photo of where it seems I hit the hexadecimal (?) max read out in the reporting of Subject Distance. Again I has two cards in the camera one recording JPEG and the other NEF (RAW) images... when opened in Affiniti the distance reading was 0 from both cards, JPEG and RAW of the same image....Perhaps something changed in the camera, though that would not explain the subject distance being unavailable in stored images... Yeah, I have taken up too much of your time already, I shall root around elsewhere.. THANKS.

Hi R C-R Thanks for your patience re my lack of understanding... No one else has access to these files/photos, I have not gone through every photo I have stored though have spent a bit of time searching for subject distance in any of the JPEGs and found in all cases that the subject distance was blank..???? Raw Exif data has differences from that displayed when sourced from the JPEG version of the same image (my camera can be set to record both RAW and JPEG for each image captured)... It would seem the image its self determines which version of EXIF reader displays on screen... In 2001 it seems EXIF was ver 0221.. 2006, ver 0221 and 2017 ver 0230 I came across this by chance while opening EXIF from my photos taken in those years. When using Windows.... Logic (?) causes me to ask where is the EXIF display generated on to which the data is populated..and where is the decision taken as to that which will OR not be displayed.. So yeah, plenty of options to contemplate as to where the issue might lie... Could have been in either EXIF updates or Windows updates and why is Subject Distance not even a field in Affiniti`s method of reading EXIF/Metadata... Seems to me that it is possible to clear the subject distance on every image anywhere through an "update" processes...Yeah getting too much like a conspiracy theorist for comfort... (-: I do wonder if I am the only photographer who suffers a measure of frustration as the result of EXIF data inaccessibility...

RC-R. I have read the Subject Distance from numerous JPEG files in the past that were created on both my old D70s some years back and my D800 if I beam the same files EXIF up today, it is as if the Subject Distance data has been erased... Perhaps someone somewhere does not want cameras to be used as rangefinders. Given Autofocus is all about assessing distance to subject accurately I suspect that is where the data is generated..? As for EXIF well I guess it is just software and can be controlled like any other..?

Somewhat overwhelmed with your willingness to assist my slooooow learning process guys, Thanks so much. RC-R, Thanks for the heads up on viewing EXIF in Affinity using the process View - Studio - and tick EXIF to display..... Which it did...(-: Yeah, selecting ALL within Affiniti. creates an avalanche of data though importantly for my purposed SUBJECT DISTANCE was not listed...? Which is not entirely surprising given it used to be available in EXIF generated within my D800 and opened via Windows VIEWER... Though that capability disappeared a while back...? SUBJECT DISTANCE was very useful for me as a hobby photographer when seeking Constructive Criticism (CC) on my photos from other like minded folk on a photographic forum where part of the ability for others to provide CC it was handy to be able to provide much of the EXIF data.... f stop - exposure time - ISO - exposure bias - Lens focal length - max aperture - metering mode - subject distance - flash in use or not - and 35mm focal length in use on the lens. When at a time that SUBJECT DISTANCE did display in my EXIF I took an image of the moon and the EXIF listed the distance as 4294967295 meters...(-: One of the smart guys determined that was a hexadecimal maximum at which the measurement of distance to point of focus maxed out...??? The lens in use at the time was a Tamron 150-600 @ 600mm I looked at the links you provided RC-R and was interested to find that in the Photo MetaData link there was a subject Standards: Exif which listed the history of EXIF standard with dates and versions listed from Version 1 in Oct 95 through to Version 2.21 in Sept 2003 with a Description as to the changes or upgrades if you prefer, though that it only goes to 2003 as which time I suspect SUBJECT DISTANCE may have been available OR added later AND perhaps removed at some later time...Hmm..? FIRSTDEFENCE , thanks for your thinking on Preview and the amount of EXIF available there though it seems to be in a somewhat redacted format..? V_KYR, thanks to you too, I found Preview Inspector to be handy for retrieving some EXIF data from JPEG files while in Affiniti which up until that point I had been unable to do though as in Preview the available data was limited and less than that of the iPhone in the example..!! RC-R, in general I tend to collect EXIF from the photos either directly from the card or the drive they are stored on before any PP has been applied using whatever programme access is provided through to retrieve the data... Formerly Windows Viewer.. As you suggest it is worth considering how much data you might wish to EXPORT when sharing images such as GPS which McAffee found out to his cost though in the EXIF box brought up in Windows via PROPERTIES on any image, there was the option to remove EXIF data from the image being viewed which could be very handy.. Another possible consideration dependant on the EXIF structure if an image has been subjected to PP and opened in a programme by another on a device that may not have that same PP software loaded, then it seems possible that issues could arise if something embarrassing had been cloned out, but appeared as captured in the "original" image.... oops..! Thanks again guys.. BUT.. my head hurts..(-:

Thanks for jumping in guys, the book is ordered RC-R. Hope it is along the lines of Mac for dummies....(-: First defence while there may be apps that operate differently to FINDER I really am trying to keep my Mac simple and as yet am only just past the stage of switching it on....(-: I might have expected Affiniti to be able to display EXIF data in a similar usable format to that available in Windows.... Though even in Windows it seems EXIF has altered in recent times in that it seems the SUBJECT DISTANCE field no longer gives a read out. My very basic expectation of a PP programme is that it would provide a simple means of displaying EXIF for any and all images...hmm.

Wonderful art work... of a Wonderful car... Wonder what Vic Berris would think of the processes you involved.. (-:

Thanks AGAIN v_kyr.. The NX2 prog is a disc that came with my D800 when new circa 4years ago... I have only used NX2 in the recent past for basic tasks, the plan being to try to advance my PP abilities with my recent purchases Mac/Affinity. As for workflow, well I guess you can see it is not actually "flowing" as yet. perhaps in the near future and with help things might improve, though I am still suffering a measure of Windows withdrawal when it comes to tasks that seemed more simply achieved than on my Mac, but then that was expected I guess. Things like right clicking on a photo to open properties and checking EXIF which seemed to have more usable detail presented in a way that seem`d.. err .. logical than that which I have available now...hmm.

v_kyr many thanks for taking time to further ease my photo filing frustrations, I am somewhat more relaxed now..Even though you used the word "should" in reference to some aspects of digital data manipulation..(-: I am somewhat confused at your suggestion I might find advantage by uploading my version of NX2 to my iMac as it seems to have limited functionality relative to PP in terms of selective process applications which of course Affinity has be the bucket load, not that I expect to be using other than a fraction of them anytime soon. Are you suggesting that there is some functionality within NX2 that I should make use of with my RAW files prior to opening them with Affinity for selective area processing..? Sorry to ask so many questions of you... Sigh..

Thanks for the valued input v_kyr, I am now somewhat reassured. I guess my flawed logic differs somewhat from the "normally"expected operation of PP programmes and file manipulation, in that if I want to use a specific programme to open specific data in a specific file, my expectations would be that I would open the programme of my choice as a first step, then within that programme request to open the data to be worked with... Logical..? Also along the same line of thought would be that in moving and storing data within a computer using it`s native operating system, would not result in intervention by another process to add tags or alter the way that same data displays when opened using the computer`s basic operating system...? My frustration is related to my obvious lack of knowledge, when seeing that the RAW data from my camera seems to be automatically branded by any PP programme, more so when I do not understand the need for such I.D. alteration, or know what effect that change in appearance might have should I wish to open my data in a programme other than the one that has to some degree modified my file..? I try to keep things as simple as possible, thus other than Affinity I have avoided loading any other software to my new iMac. I have used NX2 and Adobe Elements on my PC. but have no intention of loading them on the Mac. Thanks v-kyr, for increasing my knowledge in this area and reducing my frustration... a bit (-:

Hi v-kyr. If High Sierra is the OS in a 2017 iMac, then that is what I am running.... My Flashcard adopts a D800 I.D. from my camera and contains NEF files. I sought to avoid using Affinity or iPhoto as a means of copying from my flashcard via USB as directly (?) as possible to the folders that I had created on the Mac in the hope of avoiding automated processes that might seek to imprint themselves on my RAW data though as I suspected this has proven to be part of the operation of some, if not all PP programmes..? As I typed even when viewing the contents of the flashcard there has been some measure of control / I.D. alteration (Affinity enable etc) and the Colourful "A" of Affinity seems to display sporadically over some of the NEFs when viewing them in COVER FLOW, which is a tad frustrating... hmm. My hope is that this will not inhibit my ability to view my photos on another device that may not have Affinity loaded... Or that any photos which I may have subjected to Affinity PP processes will also display in the form of the end product of those PP processes... Yup all a tad complex for a selective Luddite such as I... (-: Thanks for your detailed input v_kyr.

Thanks or taking the time to reply v_kyr Other than Affinity and the OS my (new) 2017 Mac came with, I have no other programmes installed. When I now plug up my flash card and open it from Finder- File- Open, In the flash card listing it displays AFFINITI ENABLE and if I hover the pointer over that display bar it changes to Affinity Openable.. ! Sorry to be such a dunce but file managers as add-ons are outside my level of understanding at this stage, I merely used the most direct route (?) from my flash card to the new sub folder I had created via FINDER- DOCUMENTS and creating A folder with sub folders.... as opposed to going through Affinity.. Thanks again (-:

I'm back... just out of the rubber room long enough to bug you with some more questions (-: Unsure whether I should start a new thread or continue on in this one as my question is related to in this thread, given that my ideals are to have a filing system for my pictures that is entirely free of any photo programme, thus should any photo programme I might use either fail or be replaced by me for another, that the photos that I have stored my files are accessible in whatever photo programme I chose to open or work on them with..? Today I have been creating a photo filing system on my Mac which I hope to populate in a way that provides the above.... HOWEVER when I select a number of RAW (NEF) files from a FLASH card accessed via my card reader by copying a group of them from the card, and pasting them in the new file I have created for them... The AFFINITI logo appears in the transfer dialogue box... Why is this when I am essentially using my Mac`s processes to download direct from a card reader without asking for any involvement from Affinity...? And what if any Affinity related processes have been applied to my files..? Would this inhibit to any degree my ability to open these photos in another software package. Would any photos that have had PP processes applied to them in Affinity still retain the appearance of those processes if opened in another programme i.e. Photo or whatever..? Many thanks for taking time to read this far..... I am an OLD novice and at the very early stages of using a Mac... Ain`t even started on Affinity yet though I have the Workbook (-:

Thanks for the input folks, much appreciated even though a fair percentage of it was way over my head. Main thing is that I now have a better understanding and slightly more confidence that I can get started by setting up a filing system for my pics using the Mac and now can open data from my hard drives within Affinity and hopefully begin enjoying the advances to my photographic possibilities that the combination of moving over to Mac and Affinity may hopefully provide... Thanks all.

Thanks R C-R, I'm ever the slow learner, not too aware of all of the many digital possibilities, and that my desire is not to be tied to any one Photo programme, I prefer to keep both my original and PP`d images on external hard drives as opposed to having them stored inside a file system within a photo programme which may in time fail.. Also have no desire to use whizz-bang facial recognition or any other trickery to ease the filing process..Showing my age I guess...(-:

Thanks for the help guys. I suspect that in buying into Mac and Affinity at the same time I have given myself a real up hill challenge. I bought into the idea that Mac is intuitive but having spent much of last night trying to create a file system for my pictures that is as logical (for me) as the one I have created in Windows, I am somewhat frustrated... Jeez even deleting with any sort of confidence in what and where I am deleting pictures or files is quite beyond me at this moment in time.... My good lady has been a Macbook user for a number of years and it seems this 2017 iMacs OS defeats her abilities too.. AND I have not begun to explore Affinity.... Now where did I put that key to the rubber room...!!!

Thanks for sharing your thinking RC-R, Seems I must lead a boring life for in all the years I have used Norton the only thing that showed up were the cookies it cleared out of my system.. First defence, thanks also, you confirmed for me that which I thought in terms of PC`s outnumbering Apple initially though I do wonder if that might have changed to some degree given even old dudes like me have finally ..err..turned..(-: I liked to know my cookies were binned every time I ran a virus check..as it seemed to cut down tracking a tad. Does Apple have a similar task.. Yeah asking too many questions..hmm. BTW, I live in Skotchland..!!! (-:

First defence, thanks for the words of comfort re my conversion as some might have it... to the dark side (-: While we are chatting I wonder do you have any thoughts on anti virus for Mac..? I use Norton on my PC.

Many thanks for adding to my education R-C-R... I guess the important factor in that regard is that regardless of RAW format I imagine they can be handled in mainstream photo editing software...? While my cameras RAW files are NEF. they can be opened and modified in Nikons PP application.. NX2.. various Adobe PP applications and no doubt others (?) Firstdefence.. I think you are correct in using a memory stick as a means of transferring my RAW files in such a way as they are recognised as RAW on my Mac when opened with Affinity. As part of my initial testing (blundering) yesterday, to try to find a way of by-passing Affiniti`s identification of my EXTERNAL DRIVE`s data as READ ONLY and as such would not open them, I had then tried to use affinity to open the RAW files stored on the FLASH CARD from my camera, at which time Affinity opened the files and identified them as RAW files in the top left of the Affinity display. After reading your suggestion I plugged up my card reader and one of my remote drives and via the MAC I copied the RAW file from the remote drive over to the flash card in the reader, and when I opened Affinity I was then able to open the RAW file from the flash card, which was a wooopee moment.. THANKS.... BUT, seems for me everything digital has a but..! With any one of my RAW files being circa 100MB using this process for batch conversion might take some time..? However..(-: As I am only likely to be seeking to be working on one image at a time or at best perhaps a handful this may just work out fine. I guess that I may be trying to work round systems the operation of which I do not understand, and that I only really know what I want of them, which all seems a bit.. err... Duh! Bought the D800 when it first came out, dropped it and the attached 16-35 f4 in a lake while visiting Canada, circa four years ago... After a careful drying out process it and the lens are still working fine, though last year the lens showed signs of internal fungal(?) growth which Nikon cleaned out... Modern cameras circuitry must be well sealed, well Nikons sure seem to be.. Thanks for the heads up on "supported" Cameras I will have a look at what that equates to... Lens support for Nikkors would be interesting...? I came to Mac for the Retina display in the hope of advancing my enjoyment of photography... though I have hears of IT professionals complaining they have more issues with Macs than PCs..! Yup, bought the Affinity Workbook too so need to be locked up in a rubber room with the new Mac, my drives and the Workbook in the hope of.. err.. non destructive learning Thanks again Firstdefence I was beginning to get somewhat frustrated..

Many thanks for taking the time to respond ..... RAW files are unmodified photographic files direct from a camera that has both the capability to produce JPEG and RAW files. I think different camera manufacturers use different names for their cameras raw files. My camera being a Nikon D800 identifies its RAW files a NEF.. Nikon Electronic Format. RAW is the main identity used by photographers to identify unmodified images direct from the camera which are then thought of as being the foundation from which to apply post production (PP) processes to in order to create a finished image. JPEG being accepted as a photographic file that has already been automatically modified by the CAMERA at the time the shutter button was depressed. NOT to be confused with the capability some cameras have for the photographer to edit images in-camera once they have been taken. My ideal is to be able to open all of the existing RAW files stored on my external drives via PC`s over a number of years and work on them in my new iMac using Affinity. Though given the number of files and their value to me I do not want to risk uploading them to the Mac in Photo, to then be able to open them in Affinity, and then find that they may have suffered a measure of corruption at some stage in the process..!! I choose external drives as my main storage facility to avoid clogging up my computer and as security against computer failure and other data loss possibilities. I have no issue relating to buying new external drives configured to work with my MAC and using the new drives as the storage for all my future photographic needs. The change over to Mac has created this issue for me... or more correctly I have created it for myself... Duh! Hope my lengthy explanation is not thought of as me trying to teach you Firstdefence.. I'm just trying to avoid confusing anyone taking the time to read this... (-:

As a Windows user I have just bought a Mac and downloaded Affinity in the hope of advancing my photography hobby. The issue I have is that my preferred storage system has been to utilise external hard drives for both JPEG and RAW files from my PC`s I understand that Mac has a work around to allow these files to be viewed on their machines from a windows based file system.. NTFS .. which is not compatible with Mac`s OS...? While I can open and view my drives JPEGs and Raw files on the Mac it seems I could not open them in Affinity..!! If I open Affinity and try to open the files from my external drives I get a message informing me that the file(s) can not be opened as they are read only..!! To try to work around that... I open my external drives files in Photo on the Mac, then if I open Affinity, I can upload the images from Photo... BUT..!! It seems the JPEGs can now be modified at in Affinity, and the RAW files seem to be available similarly, however they are not identified as RAW files within Affinity but as RGB which causes me to wonder if the data in my original RAW images may have been modified some degree in the processes involved in accessing them in my drive and trying to load them into Affinity ...? I am at the stage of not wishing to follow the process of copying my files into Affinity via the above process until I have a better understanding of whether or not I am working with the original RAW data my camera captured. I have thought the "simple" way round this is to partition the drive on my new iMac and install Windows on that along with Affinity thus having all of my pre-Mac images available in their original form ready to be processed via Affinity... though that would be for me a bit of a disappointment taking up a lot of unnecessary space on my new Mac which I would prefer to best use of its operating and storage capacity.. Thanks for taking the time to read this and I would be grateful for any assistance you might be able to provide. Being a selective Luddite I have only the most basic of digital skills..