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If the develop module covers your needs, you don't needed it. My needs are not covered, because I need non destructive raw processing with sidecar files integrated into a photo management software where the developed changes can be previewed. The tool must support body and lense profiles and auto correct photos according to these.

Hello, A few feature requests from me, especially related for landscape workflow: - "Smart objects" or more specifically, non-destructive RAW editing that I can go back and tweak. Must work for multiple RAWs stacked as layers. - Mask preview overlay - both ruby overlay and seeing the black and white rendition of the mask (and being able to brush on it) - Ability to apply levels adjustment to a mask itself (which seeing the black and white mask preview) Thanks!

There are a few ways, to achieve that. No 1. Use the Develop Persona. Make all the adjustments in the basics panel. brightness, contrast, white balance etc, then save as a "preset". Next time you load a photo into the Develop Persona, apply the preset and all your settings will be applied in one go. The Develop Persona is useful for far more than Raw files ! No 2. Save Presets for each Adjustment you make. You will have to apply them one by one to the new photos When you make an adjustment, click on Add preset. Give it a name and it will appear in the Adjustments panel under the appropriate section. You must use the adjustment panel in the Studio, the presets wont appear if you make a New Adjustment layer from the file menu. The Develop Persona is better, but you do not get non-destructive layers, although you can tweak the settings afterwards. Note in both cases, you can make a couple of edits and create a new preset. No 3. Adjustment layers are layers. You can copy and paste them between documents. Here I have grouped three layers. I can copy and paste them as a group. That will apply all the adjustments to the new file

Hi All, I have been watching the training tutorials on the develop module and have a question. When I click the Develop button to save the changes, is this permanent or are the changes saved separately so that I can go back to the original RAW file later if I am not happy with what I did? Thanks Tony

All that said, I am looking forward to the truly non-destructive raw processing promised by Serif in the dvelopment programme

Apparently, the Photos app in High Sierra has a new "Edit With" capability instead of (or as well as?) the old Extensions feature. Does anyone know how this works yet? In Sierra extensions, Photos passes the original or edited files and always expects to get a JPEG back, which is obviously not good for non-destructive RAW editing. Hoping this has been improved in some way. Everything I've read so far just says "Open a picture in a third‑party photo editing app like Photoshop or Pixelmator directly from Photos, and your edits will automatically be saved in your Photos library", which is VERY vague. Thanks...

I, along with quite a few others, have requested this as well. I think they know we want it and just need to figure out a good way to implement it. Other top requests are modifier keys and non-destructive RAW editing

Dear Developers (pun intended), 1) The export process is very cumbersone in general. Here several issues: In the export persona, why can I only export slices? This is confusing. By the way, it took me several minutes to find the "export" button since it is not always visible and somehow hidden on a tab (ther is no button on the layers tab). When I select accidentally a preset in "Exportvorgabe" [German Version] from the slices tab, this setting overrules my setting that I have chosen above. I cannot unselect it any more and have to leave the export persona and re-enter. That's Annoying. Furthermore, my procedure of developing/exporting pics from a photography session is to first adapt the selected pics to my needs (color, brightness etc.) and then export them all. This means I have more than one file opened. And here comes the issue: when I switch to the export persona with several files opened, I have to do this for every single opened file! This is cumbersone. You could at least introduce a button "export all opened files". Thats why I currently prefer exporting from the photo persona using the menu (file/export...). The problem here as well as in the export persona is that I have always to choose my own settings again, Affinity does not remember my settings from the last export. This should be urgently changed and was already mentioned elswhere here in the forum. 2) In the develop persona, I would like to have a bit sronger effects of some sliders. The Shadows and Lights slider has almost no effect in some pictures. 3) When using the overlay brush ("Overlay malen" in German version) in the develop persona, the "Klarheit" and the details/noise sliders are greyed out. Would love to have them active, too. 4) Non destructive RAW development would be very nice. Whenever I switch from develop persona to photo persona and back to develop persona, the slider settings are reset and I do not exactly know which settings I changed before. 5) Add a Catalog Persona where the user can rate, catalogue, set meta-tags etc. Finally, let me congratulate to this software! Affinity Photo is on its way to be the best software on the market. I stopped using Photoshop completely and I use Lightoom only occasionally. I also got the very impressive iPad version and Affinity Designer, the latter one replaces my good old Corel Draw. Keep up the excellent and customer-friendly way of software development. Regards Jens

I´ve given reasons why it is desirable to make some adjustment prior to the photo persona (dynamic range, while preserving speed and disk space, ease of use) "And really, if someone tells me that the demosaicing process is actually being done before I do any of the other things from the photos Persona, then that is very counterproductive toward producing a well developed image." - it´s done when before applying the adjustments in the develop persona and that´s the way PS works as well and people get great results with that You can just ignore the develop persona and go straight ahead in the pixel persona if you prefer to, others like the develop persona - it´s therefore also available for non-raw pixel layers in both PS and AP and will be non destructive in a future AP update (similar to PS smart objects) There are many different approaches in an application like this, why is there levels black point, white point, exposure and all stuff when you have curves?

Non destructive develop layer is on the roadmap (https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/10075-affinity-photo-feature-roadmap/), so I think it's being worked on... but yeah, I'd like to second this request, it's pretty important for raw development.

MEB, thanks for prompt response. That's really bad news, it means I still have to use LR for RAW development what makes much less sense... Do you know there is any plan to provide such functionality of non-destructive RAW development in AP?

Hi MEB, thank you for your fast reaction. I am not worried about a DAM, I use ACDSee as DAM. I am more concerned about a non-destructive workflow. As the edits I perform in the develop persona are "baked" into the file, I cannot go back and change them at a later time, I would have to start from scratch. That sets Affinity Photo apart from the likes of ACDSee Ultimate or On1 Photo 2017 that save all the edits of the develop mode into an XMP file before you step to the edit mode. I don't like it, but I could get used to it. Back to the topic of the thread, plug-ins. I understand that the DxO Viewpoint plug-in is too intimately connected to PS to ever work in Affinity. But there could be an easy solution to this "problem" if the standalone version of Viewpoint could be "called" directly from Affinity's export dialogue with a function like "export as ... and open with ..." Raw Therapee and DxO Optics Pro have that functionality.

Fantastic. Aperture's eventual collapse has me worried as I'm packing more and more photos in. Tried Lightroom every year but hate it's rigid "modes". For a photography DAM app, these are the killer features (excluding fast, stable, non-crap UI): Referenced files: let me choose where to store the RAW files (so many apps can use it), and the DAM generates previews for fast display that it stores within itself Easy backup: love this feature from Aperture, but it only works for managed libraries. Easily navigate a chronological library: three decades of digital photos and counting Smart albums (by any metadata just like Aperture) Mapping: I geotag everything and love exploring my map (please allow it to go fullscreen, not tiny windowed like Aperture) Stacks: for marking a set of photos as related (ex: to remember to make a panorama) Versions: unlimited versions from non-destructive edits Importing all my work from Aperture would be nice, but honestly it's just a viewer for me. I'd be very happy with a tool that just makes enjoying my photos and managing thousands of them a breeze.

Thanks for the detailed reply :) The only missing thing there that I'd want is non-destructive RAW editing - would you know are rough timescale for an update including that? Like,, a month, 6 months or a year? Thanks

This is something that was requested 2+ years ago, and they said it was planned, but still even today not delivered . https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/5087-non-destructive-cr2-raw-files-with-xmp/

Hi TomS, Welcome to the forums. Glad you're enjoying the software, non destructive RAW editing is something our developers want to add and is on our development roadmap.

Sad to hear that this "will take a while until that happens". I jumped on the AP wagon just a week ago, not only because a DAM is over a year in development it seems. At least forum posts lead to that conclusion. Using AP as a external editor is no real choice for anyone using RAW, or for everyone wanting a non destructive development. I am still using Aperture but concurrently try to find new ways for working on my photos, as I fear the day Aperture will stop working on my system. So hopefully Affinity is ready to serve that day, and I have not bet on the wrong horse.... best regards

Excellent work on this program! I've been using the Adobe suite as an art director for over a decade, and I'm impressived with the advancements you've made in Affinity Photo! Below are a list of Pro's and Con's that I noticed in a few days of playing around. By far, sorting out Pen Pressure issues is my primary concern before I could move an art team to this package. Thanks for listening! Pros: -love the global selection buttons at the top -love the non destructive output profiles -love the pressure sensitivity on paint selection tool -awesome addition of a post crop vignette! -nice right click delete of points in curves menu -love the golden spiral on the crop -sleek freq seperation -liquify reconstruct?! awesome -cool median brush tool -love the visual presets for adjustments -much improved patch tool! how do I constrain so it doesn't resize when I rotate? Cons: -Pen Pressure for brushes is a dealbreaker for professional artists. I see the force pressure to control size - but we really need flow controlled by pen pressure. Perhaps I just can't find it? -very slow to open camera raw file -development is the first step in a photo processing, but its the 3rd tab in the persona area...either this should change to the natural flow OR we should be able to just rearrange them. -awkward 2-step selection of numeric entry boxes -how do you delete a crop selection to start over? -how do you remove blemish removal tool points? -how do I go back to making global adjustments after I used the overlay gradient tool or overlay paint tool? -chromatic aberation reduction is very slow -space bar needs to activate the hand move tool in all personas -your progress bars need to be darkened - difficult to see the light blue line against the white. -drag to new duplicate layer would be functionality would be nice -alt or equivilent key for eyedropper selection on many tools is essential -there is a long delay after pen tool use -after i adjust the opacity of inner glow it automatically opens and puts focus on the outer shadow section. -unresponsive after double clicking the swatch selector while heart tool was selected. same thing when trying to hold 'ctrl' on heart & tear drop shapes and move. -Resizing text goes unresponsive after clicking export persona -I Love the concept of the export persona but a big export button would be nice. Felt strange to set my export options then duplicate this in the file>export menu just to export my file. I assume this persona is still being sorted out? -hard crash after clicking preserve alpa check in the radial blur menu. -Don't close palettes when I use magnifying glass. This is needed for almost all palettes.

Hi Harrym & BPMH The use of a sidecar file is something that we are intending to include at some point so this functinality will come. A non-destructive RAW workflow has been on our roadmap for a little while

Have you ever worked in Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw, Capture One and the like? Imagine very nice interactive control for refinement of single images, but without layers. One may apply all tools globally to the whole image as in Affinty's Develop-Persona, but there's also various ways to apply these tools (and any combination of them) locally to just parts an image. If one looks at this concept at first one might come to the conclusion that this is some quick fluff for beginners, as it's so easy to use. In fact the underlying concept is totally non-destructive, allows users to freely combine various tools in one stroke, to dial in more strength for one tool while lowering the impact of another (at any point in time). I'm well familiar with layer based editing too – I'm just wondering if Serif is considering a highly attractive alternative concept as well.

Hi James, first off – thanks a lot for creating all these very well made video clips! When watching this particular clip I wonder if what you show here will remain the preferred or rather the exclusive way to deal with RAWs: Bring them in, apply a few global adjustments and hit develop. From there work with a 16-bit image using Layer based operations with adjustments and masks as well as extra channels for intricate details. There's no question that many people are very used to this editing principle. All steps are neatly organized in a stack and ready for further refinement. Then again there are likely people who say: I'm able to do all you show in this clip, without even leaving my preferred Raw Editor. I get the same level of control – but I don't need to fumble around with lots of layers, masks and channels – and am not even limited to using a single tool at a time. I just create an editing point and may brush in local sharpening and tonal adjustments and can even lighten up shadows within that same (pressure sensitive) stroke. Every aspect of this way of editing is non-destructive and may get further tweaked at any point in time. When it's time to add text or create a composition with other images I can still switch over to layer based editing. What would you say to this second group of users?

Its true, that layered TIFF is not just PSD embedded in TIFF but more like a TIFF container implementation of the PSD Format. Technically layered TIFF is practically as native to Photoshop as PSD - there is only one thing missing: Duotone. The same problems of compatibility with PSD account exactly the same to layered TIFF: One point is crucial - there always seems to be a mismatch between _import_ and _export_: 1) Import Import means how much of Photoshops features get recognized in PSD/TIFF and applied to their Affinity counterparts. Think of Grouped layers, layer modes, adjustment layers, smart objects (!) and so on. What about smart objects which use third party Smart filters? 2) Export Most people think PSD/TIF-Support is a symmetric thing - but this is absolutely not the case. Most non-Adobe programs can IMPORT more Photoshop-Features than they can export. This may sound illogical, but exporting from a Program like Affinity to PSD means mapping Affinity-native Features to Photoshops counterparts (which may not exist or not be really accessible). While on import the developers can extend their own Features to cope for Photoshop-Behaviours - this is not possible in the export direction. Conclusion: The route to support layered TIFF besides of PSD in Affinity opens up collaborating with tools of different vendors on some file to some degree (to the degree how good the TIFF/PSD export is - which is limited). The route to embed .aphoto into a TIFF would be perfect for collaboration with RAW workflow software like Capture One or Lightroom. It would be the PERFECT answer to all those questions about a DAM-Module. Those programs only need the merged down version of the image to export or to apply their own non-destructive adjustments on. Editing such a TIFF would just replace the internal .aphoto with a changed one and update the merged down layer. All nondestructive adjustments in the workflow software will then apply to this new merged down image. Since there is a .aphoto in the file, Affinity Photo can actually export any feature that is possible within this suite into it. It would also be possible to open the TIFF in Affinity Designer to add some vector stuff. The downside of this approach is, that any other program would just see the one merged layer and editing it with such a program may destroy the internal .aphoto. I personally really like the "embed .aphoto" approach - this would be the one approach that would allow me to drop my CC subscription. As long as "layered TIFFs" would only offer exporting limited features of Affinity Photo - this would be well... limited. So in an ideal world there would be both options supported. Or even all of those: 1) Flattened TIFF (as now) 2) Layered TIFF, compatibility maximized (as good as possible to Photoshop layered TIFF) 3) Layered TIFF, features maximized (contains .aphoto and a flattened Layer) 4) Layered TIFF complete (combination of 2 and 3 - no flattened Layer) To me only 2 and 3 are really relevant and if I had to choose only one it would be 3. ciao, Jochen

I think I read that the devs plan to make non destructive RAW development possible in the future... Or was it just that the RAW adjustment on any pixel layer will behave as a live filter some day.... I don´t know it exactly anymore.

I hope it comes with a RAW processor and the option to hand over image to other apps in a non destructive way to the original files.

I don't think it's RAW files that's the issue - just the way we export PSD in general. Though - why anyone would import a RAW file and export it as a PSD with no other modifications seems odd to me. Personally, I'd maintain my changes as non-destructive adjustments, so that PSD export would produce a more appropriate file.