[Confused with RAW/Affinity compatibility (split)]

Mr. Ritson and Mr. Fixx, thank you both for your help with my understanding!  

With both of your inputs, it makes sense now, why Aperture (an Apple product) and Affinity Photo are different.  I'm new to this field so the concepts of a "sidecar file" and "raster format" are completely new to me!  That's probably where I got hung up in my question to begin with.  Although I don't understand the hard techie details, this idea of being able to store the changes "re-developing" a RAW file explains why there is no Develop button in Aperture, yet there is one in Affinity Photo.

Again, thank you for your time and attention.  This conversation, at least on my end, has been very informative and enjoyable!

Until my next newbie question!

[Confused with RAW/Affinity compatibility (split)]

Hello Mr. Ritson!

Thank you for the "wall of text"!  That often comes with complete and clear answers (just like your tutorials, by the way, which I nearly binge watch in the evenings).  I greatly appreciated your response, and I also enjoyed reading the link you provided on raw files.  I've taken your advice from here and from one of your tutorials and have changed the Affinity Photo setting to 32-bit.  I don't know why people would NOT do this, other than larger file sizes.  Who wouldn't want to be working on their photos with all the information from the raw data?

Anyway, what I meant by Canon raw converter was the drop down menu in the Develop Assistant that allows the user to choose the RAW Engine as "Apple (Core Image RAW)".  My question: If I already have converted the raw data from the file using the Apple RAW Engine, then what does the Develop button accomplish?  The data has already been "developed" into the picture that I am manipulating in the Develop Persona.  Why then the need to Develop it again by pressing the Develop button? 

It's kind of moot at this point, as you have already kindly informed us of the ability to develop with 32-bit, instead of with 16 or 8-bit.  But, academically, my question still remains because another program I have used (but I love Affinity Photo the best since getting it two days ago!) allows the user to do adjustments directly on that image processed from the raw data WITHOUT having to press a develop button once the data is initially transferred/processed into the image.  I understand that, in the other program, when the image is then exported as a JPEG, or TIFF, or whatever, then in effect it is being "developed" at that point.  But why the Develop button in Affinity Photo BEFORE exporting in a different file format?  My guess is that it is because some users would like to work in a smaller color space, or different color space, when utilizing layers, effects, etc., and that is the first step in changing those parameters?  But I am a newbie so I hardly understand color spaces, etc.

Thanks again, and I look forward to learning from more of your great tutorials!

 

[Confused with RAW/Affinity compatibility (split)]

Hello Everybody,

I understand the original poster's question (from this thread) and why he asked it.  I had the same question.  But reading through all of your helpful replies,  there is still something unanswered in my mind.  That is, if Affinity Photo is supposedly the program that "develops" the raw information into the photo that we can see and work on, what is the photo that gets loaded into the Develop viewer BEFORE any changes are made by us?  Isn't that starting/original photo already the raw information processed into a photo (before the develop button is pushed)?

In that case it seems that Affinity Photo is not the raw developer but, instead, the Canon raw developer (if it is a CR2 file) is the raw developer.  It processed the raw data first, before the Develop button was hit.  In other words, the data has already been converted into a photo before being placed into the Affinity Photo Develop Persona.

What then does the Develop Persona do to that photo?  By hitting Develop, do we lose even more information?

Like the original poster, I want to have the most information possible when making the adjustments.  It seems that by hitting Develop on an ALREADY DEVELOPED photo may be taking an extra step and losing more information than if I worked on the original picture made directly from the raw converter (the Canon raw converter).

Please correct my thinking if it is in error.  Thanks!

P.S. Aperture does not have a Develop button.  You get the raw processed file and you work on that.  No further "development" needed.  Like the Original Poster, I don't understand the developing part of Affinity Photo.