RAW Processing

[Mick O'Dwyer]

Been testing out AP for a couple of days now and there's a lot to love about it, especially for €40.

Really like the way it processes RAW files, it's almost as good as Capture One and better than Photoshop.

 

As a wedding photographer I can easily shoot thousands of images per day, which I narrow down to a couple of hundred. While I really like using AP, at the moment it's workflow is too slow - I know you have batch processing in the pipeline and that's eagerly awaited. What I'd ideally like is to be able to quickly see all files in a folder displayed on a scrollable dashboard, then by clicking on one to be able to see that larger and faff about with what adjustments I feel are necessary. Then to be able to click and copy ALL those adjustments, then click select similar images and apply those settings to those files. That would save me hours - which is where I'm losing time with AP at the moment. Obviously, I'd love to be able to batch output all these files together, rather than individually. It means i can work during the day making adjustments and output overnight or when I'm out on another shoot.

 

Secondly, if i process a RAW file and save those adjustment settings- brightness/contrast/shadow/etc - as a preset why doesn't it also save adjustments to the colour temp?

 

While I'm not sure of the advantage of saving separate presets for Basics, Lens, Details, Tones and Overlays over saving a preset with all those adjustments included - it means if i want to use the same settings of all those I have to create 5 presets and do 5 things where doing just one should be an option. It's not a big deal, but it would be nice to have as an option whether or not to collate multiple adjustment types as one preset.

 

Lastly, for now anyway, once I process a RAW file I can export it as a TIFF. However, if I reopen that RAW file again it opens with its default camera settings and all my adjustments aren't to be found. I know Capture One and Photoshop open RAW files in the amended state with all the last adjustments displayed. Perhaps there's some way of view this, but I'm damned if i can find it.

 

Aside from those quibbles I think you've done a massive job very well indeed.

 

Mike.

 

 

[petermerny]

This is a great programme have been using it for a couple of weeks but without batch processing of raw files is not going to be enough to move from photoshop which is a pity as the controls are much better than camera raw.

 

[JimGoshorn]

I wonder how they would write their data to the files and not interfere with any existing data in the files.

[Mick O'Dwyer]

Capture One and Photoshop write separate external files for setting, Jim, they're just a few kilobytes and store all RAW adjustment settings - the RAW file isn't altered, the saved settings are automatically loaded to a previously worked on RAW file when it's opened. It should allow, when processing a RAW file, to load the 'previously used settings' to a new file too - which would be useful.

 

I agree, Peter, I find it more useful to process RAWs but painfully slow when having to work with hundreds of images individually.

Until batch processing comes in I'll use it for personal work that isn't as intensive. 

[Voxen]

I'm sorry but Affinity Photo raw processing is very basic and way behind Capture One or Lightroom (camera raw).

I'm an intensive user of both of these programs and I ran several tests on AP and I can't even remotely catch image quality C1/LR provides.

 

Highlights recovery is awful, highlights/shadows adjustment makes ugly greyscales, clarity produces huge halos.

 

I purchased Affinity Photo that I beta tested because it's an awesome Photoshop replacement, in some areas it's even better than Photoshop. I want to move to AP for all my photography work but at this time I just can't process raw files with it. I really hope that raw processing has somewhat been left behind because of time constraints and that now the team will improve this part. If AP image quality matches LR or C1 I'm done with Adobe forever!

[JimGoshorn]

Mick,

 

I know about how the metadata is stored in XMP files (or placed inside the DNG if you convert the file). My question was how Serif will handle saving their data to existing files which have previously been processed. Can they append data or will they have to save a separate XMP. If they save a separate XMP, how will another app know which XMP they should use. I presume if data exists in the DNG and the other software handles DNG, it would give preference to the DNG metadata over the XMP?

 

Sorry I didn't pose the question more clearly.

[Robert King]

Am trying the AP trial right now.  Know little about this technology but have been shooting for many years and know what a great file looks like.  For me to stick with AP, it must be able to process RAWs and do a fine job of it.  My feelings are a mirror of Voxen's above.

Please focus on this Affinity.

 

And thanks

[matthiasbasler]

+1 for this feature request

 

For me also looks more like a bug, especially since the behaviour of this slider is now (in v1.5.1 on Windows) different to the behaviour shown in the tutorial video

(look at 1:35). In the video when the shadow slider ist increased it affects the lowest 20% of the histogram ... maybe not perfect, but good to work with. But in my 1.5.1 demo version it only affects the lowest 10% (or less), basically making all dark tones a uniform dark grey when set to 100%. This is certainly not what I expect and is different from what similar sliders in other applications (i.e. Adobe Raw) do.

 

Let me also note that the highlights slider just below shows quite the opposite extreme: It affects roughly the upper 60% of the histogram, thus also the mid tones. This is something that's acceptable for me, however.

 

Ideally I would expect both sliders to have a comparable (but opposite) effect on the histogram, such as compressing the darkest resp. brightest 50% (or so) of the tone curve while not affecting the opposite end of it.