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How do you process RAW files: Affinity Photo or other?


Preferred application for RAW processing  

40 members have voted

  1. 1. What application do you use for processing RAW files?

    • Affinity Photo
    • Commercial application (Adobe Camera RAW, DxO, ON1 RAW, Capture One, Paintshop Pro, etc.)
    • Open source application (Darktable, Rawtherapee, UFRAW, etc.)
    • Other


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Very interested to learn a few things about how folks are handling RAW files.

  • As in the poll:  Are you using Affinity Photo (AP), commercial app of some type, or an open source app?  
  • What are the main reasons that led you to use AP, or another app, for your RAW processing?

Currently, I use the AP RAW feature for most files.  In a few cases that need more nuanced RAW handling, I use darktable--it has richer settings and options for a variety of things, including denoise and dehaze, that I find harder or impossible to do in AP.  It also enables you to save non-destructive edits to RAW DNG files in an .xmp sidecar file.  I've tried all the leading open source RAW handlers, as well as ON1 RAW 2020 (free trial version), Paintshop Pro (2019 version), and a few others.  In general, AP RAW gets very good results on probably 90% of my files, and I like its cleaner interface, it's just simpler to use.  Also, it's convenient to not have to use a separate RAW processing app in my workflow, if I don't have to.  

A few random thoughts about AP RAW handling in 1.8:  

  • The Batch feature in AP handles RAW files quite well.  Current simple workflow:  use Adobe DNG convertor to bulk convert my Canon .CR3 files to DNG.  It's extremely fast, and high quality output.  Then use Adobe Bridge as my DAM, to tag the DNG files with all the IPTC metadata I use, and create collections.  Bridge has all the IPTC/XMP metadata fields I use, and it'll save the metadata in the DNG source files where I want it.  I can load a bunch of the tagged DNG files into AP 1.8 beta, it'll batch convert all those to my preferred output types and preserve all the metadata from the DNG source files into the output, so that I have fully tagged .afphoto, .tiff, or .jpg files.  
  • It's great to see the improved metadata editing capabilities in 1.8 beta.  These work quite well so far.  They also don't destroy metadata written by other programs.  One suggestion I'd make is integrating more metadata editing capabilities into the batch processing module.  Another suggestion is expand the number of IPTC fields that can be edited---the IPTC subject code field is missing, to give just one example.  And finally, it would help to make metadata edits on DNG source files and save the metadata IN the file itself, as Adobe Bridge enables. 
  • One other feature I hope AP 1.8 will add:  non-destructive editing of RAW and DNG files.  Save the edits in an open standard XMP file (like darktable and other apps do).  This enables saving basic photo processing edits to the much smaller standard DNG files, rather than forcing you to save in .afphoto format (where file sizes can be up to 10x larger) just to save your non-destructive edits.  
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  • 8 months later...

I have loved using Affinity Photo for Windows since it was released and used it exclusively to process my RAW files..... until yesterday! I was reading a few posts on DPReview about the results obtained by various software programs for processing RAW files. One poster said that he's tried ON1, DxOMark, Affinity Photo, Capture 1, Luminar, etc. and described the results obtained from each of the programs. His one comment that caught my eye was that he would never use Affinity for this task! I was curious to see if I could determine why this was. So I downloaded trial versions of some of the programs or got friends who were using non-Affinity programs to help me out. I loaded a Nikon RAW file (NEF) into Affinity and exported it to a TIFF RGB 16-bit JPG without making any adjustments and asked the others to do the same thing. It was a simple IN & OUT process. In my opinion, Photo and Luminar had the worst results and DxO had the best. Here are the photos for your comparison.

 

I'd love to hear comments from the pros &/or from those who may think that my "test" was flawed and why. If not, I am hoping that Affinity has plans to improve its RAW processing.

 

 

Untitled.tiff

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Crikey, if you ask 66 people you'll get 77½ answers at least
I started shooting raw with a Nikon D70 quite a while back
I've tried Nikon's own software, ACR, RawShooter, Lightroom, SilkyPix, RawTherapee, DxO now Photolab, APhoto
Photolab's lens corrections, denoising (Prime), perspective corrections (Viewpoint 3), local adjustments beat everything else in my not so humble opinion
It has no dam capability but I don't need that. Capture one is also highly regarded if you do need it
If you watch James Ritson's tutorial

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/tutorials/photo/desktop/video/331997643/


he can work magic but in the time it takes, even allowing for slowing down so that mere mortals can follow I can develop a whole film in Photolab
Or to get off the pot, Photolab is superb

Microsoft Windows 11 Home, Intel i7-1360P 2.20 GHz, 32 GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Intel Iris Xe
Affinity Photo - 24/05/20, Affinity Publisher - 06/12/20, KTM Superduke - 27/09/10

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Hi David,

 

Thanks for your input. I agree with you about getting differing answers from different people, but in my little test, I was only looking at conversions from Nikon NEF to JPG. I am very comfortable working with the Photo and Develop Personae and understand how to improve my shots using both. However, if I am working with a lower quality RAW conversion to start with, isn't that crippling my ability to match other softwares' results?

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Personally I doubt that „untouched RAW development“ is the idea behind RAW development. I think the basic idea behind using RAW is to be able to get sensor data out of a picture that will be lost if developed „untouched“. If I develop untouched, I can use the JPG instead that was done by an automatic process. 

Personally my issue is not with the RAW development feature. This offers quite a lot of possibilities, if you look behind the plain „adjust the histogram“ story. My issue is that it is done more or less picture by picture. I would really like to see a DAM capability, that would allow for presets for the development stage, just like LR does it. You often have a series of shots that could use the same development, because they were taken under the same conditions. Here the most efficient workflow (which includes some tagging and metadata actions as well) is not supported by Affinity Photo.

On the RAW Developer I miss one feature the most: Lens support for my iPhone 11 Pro Max, from which I take a lot of RAW images using the Halide Photo app. Especially the shots from the superwide lens could be improved a lot by a standard lens profile. Not available at the lensfun-Ressource, at least last time I looked for it.

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1 hour ago, PaulW61 said:

Hi David,

 

Thanks for your input. I agree with you about getting differing answers from different people, but in my little test, I was only looking at conversions from Nikon NEF to JPG. I am very comfortable working with the Photo and Develop Personae and understand how to improve my shots using both. However, if I am working with a lower quality RAW conversion to start with, isn't that crippling my ability to match other softwares' results?

If you shoot Nikon, drop what you are doing and grab the Free Nikon Express for Capture One.

Capture One is the best RAW development software.  The Express version will get your started (and for free) and if you like what it does the paid - Pro Nikon for Full Capture One (if you shoot different camera systems) are then options that offer more advanced control and features.  

I've tried all the RAW converters on the Market (and own most of them), Capture One is the most refined and professional for RAW development.  

It is nice that Affinity has the development persona built in, but I never use it expecting to get world class results.  Maybe they will create a fully developed RAW editing program down the line.   

 

As for the millions of answers/opinions....this is true.  But If everyone was gifed a copy of each platform, I don't think you would have many that do not choose C1 if they are stirictly developing the RAW adn then exporting into a pixel based editor such as Affinity Photo.  Other options exist on the market becuase C1 is expensive, and some people want cheap and also options to put creative effects on an image (beyond just color grading) without leaving the application.  

Darktable is nice for a free program, but it feels VERY clunky compared to C1.  

 

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Pardon my ignorance, but when you say that Capture One is the best RAW development software, do you mean that it has more and better adjustment tools within the RAW environment or that it does the best job of extracting the most out of RAW files prior to making any adjustments?

I consider myself to be a bit of a novice with photo editing software and likely use no more than 20-25 of Affinity Photo's features. My question is whether by using Affinity I am starting off with a compromised image with which to work?

What file format would one use if developing the RAW in C1 and then exporting to Affinity? Is this the best method?

https://blog.thomasfitzgeraldphotography.com/blog/2020/3/working-with-capture-one-and-affinity-photo

Thanks to everyone for your comments!

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File format? - Usually the most powerful common denominator between the apps supported (i/o load/write) file formats here and that would be TIFF. But that also highly depends on the respective TIFF implementation support an app uses, since the TIFF file format is a pretty complex one and not all apps can do handle it equally good.

In terms of RAW development software, as a Nikonian I can only tell which apps do a pretty good job with Nikon's NEF raw file format:

  • Nikon Capture NX-D (would be always my first choice, since no need to ask, they know most of their own NEF format and their cam/lens specifics in contrast to that)
  • Capture One
  • DxO
  • Lightroom/ACR

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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I would like to vote in this poll, but nothing I do seems to have any effect. I have tried tapping on all the usual places, on the label at the left, on the bar and even on the number at the right (which gives me the list of voters).  I am logged in.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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9 minutes ago, John Rostron said:

I would like to vote in this poll, but nothing I do seems to have any effect. I have tried tapping on all the usual places, on the label at the left, on the bar and even on the number at the right (which gives me the list of voters).  I am logged in.

That seems odd. All the buttons seem to work for me (though I have not gone to the extent of actually voting).

Perhaps an issue with your browser, or browser cache? Or, if you're using a mobile device rather than a computer, an issue there?

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
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Thanks, @walt.farrellI have tried this in Chrome on my Windows Desktop and on my Android Tablet. And also in Firefox on my Desktop. I cannot get any reaction from any of these.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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1 hour ago, John Rostron said:

I would like to vote in this poll, but nothing I do seems to have any effect. I have tried tapping on all the usual places, on the label at the left, on the bar and even on the number at the right (which gives me the list of voters).  I am logged in.

John

You already voted for the Affinity Photo choice in December 2019.

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2 hours ago, anon2 said:

You already voted for the Affinity Photo choice in December 2019.

That could well account for it. I did not notice this, even when I clicked to see who had voted. Think of it as a Senior Moment.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

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22 hours ago, 78deluxe said:

If you shoot Nikon, drop what you are doing and grab the Free Nikon Express for Capture One.

Capture One is the best RAW development software.  The Express version will get your started (and for free) and if you like what it does the paid - Pro Nikon for Full Capture One (if you shoot different camera systems) are then options that offer more advanced control and features.  

I've tried all the RAW converters on the Market (and own most of them), Capture One is the most refined and professional for RAW development.  

Agreed.

Capture One is the best RAW processor out there. Remember that RAW data is not converted like currency A to B - data is rather interpreted by algorithms written to meet an aesthetic goal. All open source RAW developing programs have no aesthetic goal and Adobe doesn't really either. They perform pixel enhancing maneuvers that makes images look digital and dull. Fujifilm, Olympus and Phase One (Capture One) are different. They develop organic images that look natural and appealing. Photo is built on open source algorithms and is light years away from the above.

Unfortunately Capture One is an expensive companion... unless you have one of the cameras supported by the Express Edition. Check out DxO PhotoLab - there is a trial and a discount from time to time. Perhaps a Halloween discount soon. It is also excellent. And the price is fair.

A great camera with a lousy RAW developer is beyond pointless - so if photography matters to you, invest accordingly.

  • "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface."
  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
  • “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius
  • Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver.
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On 12/18/2019 at 9:28 PM, timlt said:

What are the main reasons that led you to use AP, or another app, for your RAW processing?

I only use Lightroom because of its ...

– entirely non destructive workflow
– sync options
DAM features
– more intuitive UI (all adjustments options in one view, collapsible if wanted)
– more flexible, customizable UI (auto-open/close sections)
– advantages with two monitors

macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1

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On 9/4/2020 at 6:01 PM, PaulW61 said:

Pardon my ignorance, but when you say that Capture One is the best RAW development software, do you mean that it has more and better adjustment tools within the RAW environment or that it does the best job of extracting the most out of RAW files prior to making any adjustments?

I consider myself to be a bit of a novice with photo editing software and likely use no more than 20-25 of Affinity Photo's features. My question is whether by using Affinity I am starting off with a compromised image with which to work?

What file format would one use if developing the RAW in C1 and then exporting to Affinity? Is this the best method?

https://blog.thomasfitzgeraldphotography.com/blog/2020/3/working-with-capture-one-and-affinity-photo

Thanks to everyone for your comments!

I mean it is the best related to many factors.   The tools it provides for color adjustments are more advanced and refined than any other commercial RAW development program (in the PRO version).  The advanced Color Editor and Skin Color tabs are unique in the selection and adjustment of colors which you can then combine with tools that are similar to other programs (Levels with RGB and Luma, Levels) and it has a color wheel section similar to class leading Video Color Grading options.

The other tools just feel more refined than other options.

Capture One also creates a better starting point when working with a file.  They simply have better camera profiles than the competition.  Noise reduction isn't the best (but the current C1-20 is better than v13 was) and better than most of the competition.  Though noise reduction is really more relevant for people shooting with lower end cameras or in very low light and not able to control the light.  

 

Capture One will give you no only the best place to start with a RAW file, but also a better end result (assuming you know what you are doing).   Especially if you have the pro version and dive into Layers.

RAW processing is the most important step in getting a great image after it has been taken, and not getting the best result there will compromise your ability to get the best edit in Affinity in my experience. 

I export in "16 bit TIFF"uncompressed (then the ICC Profile will depend on the color space you want to work in) format out of Capture One into Affinity Photo, this provides a "lossless" version and the best quality for Affinity to work with.

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From the ones I know and have (none of them being from Adobe), the one I prefer for raw is DxO PhotoLab. It has an excellent automatic lens’ correction function, the DxO Smart Lighting does a good job, the new HSL tool is great, its Prime de-noising works very well and you can do Local Adjustments working with masks and linear gradients (lots of). I also have DxO ViewPoint, so I can also correct perspective.

I downloaded and installed Capture One Express for Sony. With the Pro version one would obviously be able to do much more than with the free one. I liked the program, but Capture One (any version) covers only a limited amount of profiles for lens’ corrections. At least for the ones that suit the Sony A mount cameras. It is missing a Tamron SP 17-50 mm that I have, several of the Sony lenses that I have and it has no Minolta lens covered (none).

ACDSee Ultimate is not bad for raw. It allows you to mask and use gradients (several), I like the way in which it allows you to manipulate colour, but I don’t like that much the Light EQ function. They make a lot of noise about it, but in my opinion it not only affects light, it also affects saturation quite a bit (as when one works with Tone Curves in RGB mode). Regarding automatic correction of lenses, it overdid a bit a correction for a photo I took with a Tokina 11-16 mm at a focal distance of 11 mm and turned a barrel distortion into a pincushion one (whilst DxO, Capture One and Affinity Photo did a similar if not equal fine distortion correction). The corrections seem to be OK for a longer focal distance and for other lenses with which I tried. 

Affinity Photo is fine for raw in my opinion. Fewer tools maybe than those more specialized in raw, but I think it does well what it does. My favourite now for editing tiff and jpg, but I also tried doing a HDR photo and a panorama directly loading the raw files into the program and allowing it to do the job automatically, and I think it did quite a good job. I think that what it offers in terms of developing raw might be sufficient for many, and my bet would be that Serif will be adding tools to Develop Persona in future versions of the program to come. 

Paintshop is totally basic concerning developing raw (I have version x6 but have tried version 2020 and 2021). Also, it has a vast list of lenses which distortions are supposed to be automatically corrected by the program but the ones I have that are in their list get no corrections done. I sent Corel an-mail with a raw file attached telling them that the program was not doing the due correction (just to let them know because I wouldn’t use Paintshop to develop raw though I think it is nice for editing tiff and jpg) and they answered me that I ought to do it manually (not what I expected as an answer).

Anyway, just my subjective opinion.

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I am a darktable user. sometimes Rawtherapee too. I bought Affinity Photo when it had the 50% discount for one reason one: Focus Merging (neither of my other software can do that, and the Hugin/Enfuse combo gave my rather pathetic results. On top, it's 2020 and i don't want to use line commands).

Then I noticed Affinity Photo has also a great Panorama Merging function, darktable hasn't. 

The later, one more Affinity candy come to the table recently: *.X3F support (I do have a Sigma SD Quattro and I totally dislike the SigmaPhotoPro software) - that made made me to look more serious at Affinity Photo.

Status now: I get really good results when I convert color RAW to black & white, what better as darktable and very easy to use. With color I still struggle, but I work on it and learn more function. The layer concept it totally new to me. 

 

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  • 1 year later...

 

This theme/thread/poll should continue and be revived, companies and developers are making even more strides and the field is changing again very rapidly. With a Mac, processing with AI is just beginning as I see it, the PC world needs to catch up...

 

Digital Camera World hides this quote; (DPP4) "Digital Photo Professional does offer perhaps the best combination of sharpness and noise control of any raw processing tool – yes, including Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom. (ACR) So if you’re a Canon user, it very much makes sense to download it and give it a try." btw, If you bought a new Canon, the software is included as part of the package which comes with the camera. 

Of course I use Affinity for my Nikon D200 CCD sensor and Lumix G9. I was a subscriber to Adobe, and came back to using Affinity during that time only to discover my subscription was not worth the same value when it comes to Raw processing. But DPP4 is also limited, in fact depending on the subject and scene I can and do have better results using Affinity, especially when using a 3rd party lens (Tokina ATX 16-28 2.8) ? However, lighting optimizer and digital optimizer, enhancement features which are Canon proprietary and only work when using a Canon camera and lens combos. (eos 5ds r and 24-105 L, 100-300 L, 22-55, 50 1.4)  Fact of the reason, all other editware assumes and where DPP4 has actual Canon data it's exclusively permitted to access, data no other editware can apply/use. 

If you work with m4/3's or older 10meg CCD made files like I do, then resizing matters? (Lanczos 3)read all you want outside the sphere, it works for me, I'm a disciple...that makes using Developer worth it for me as well. 

It all depends on what you do, how much time you devote or don't want to devote...  Some people would rather be out shooting and dread the editing later....like fishing? It's great to catch fish, but who cleans them when we're done catching?

So which person are you; see a lid and your first inclination is ...make it a still subject? or ...lift that lid and see what's under it? 

 

 

DCW above had one of those best of the best things of 2022, rated Affinity #3 behind High Priced Fashion Designers; 'the Plan' and 'Cap One Off' (the two most majorly expensive are first and second, that's what a subscription is for...paying overhead)  and then hidden down below was a stack of highlighted links to other best of the best showdowns in 2022 on other pages, the one for Best Free Photo Editing, where down near its bottom and below Nikon NX, was... Canon Digital Processing spelled out fully (not simply as DPP4?) making it even more obscure. When you read the verdict DCW reveals above, it's as if they want to admit it but hide it at the same time?

Canon EOS DSLR using a Canon branded lens only, DPP4 is the best RAW processor for me. Affinity edits from there. All else, I find Affinity RAW processing best for me, however I have stone statue patience, I like editing a lot. 

 

I'm just a common and ordinary real person, I make no other claim to being anything other 

 

 

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I use Capture One or DxO for RAW processing and then Affinity for any editing or further adjustments. I had various friends process the identical RAW file in the varying tools that they used and Capture One and DxO yielded the best results. The resulting files were strictly output from the software with no enhancements or changes of any kind

I have attached a TIFF file that contains the outpts of eight of the popular programs if anyone wants to see the results (this file is also available as a much larger file for more critical evaluation).

8 RAW conversions.tiff

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