Develop Persona versus Photo Persona

[Chris Potter]

Hi ,

Can anyone help me?

I have been using Affinity Photo for around 8 months now and beginning to get the hang of it slowly; I approached it they way I approach any new piece of software - on a "need to know basis" i.e. as I need a facility I research it and find out how it works. However the following is confusing me:

I use a Canon EOS 7D Mk 11 and shoot in RAW, Canon CR2 format.

When I open a RAW file in Affinity it takes me to the Develop Persona

Should I perform my editing in Develop Persona or switch to Photo Persona, what are the advantages/disadvantages of each?

None of the tutorials seem to address my dilemma!!

Chris

[v_kyr]

52 minutes ago, Chris Potter said:

When I open a RAW file in Affinity it takes me to the Develop Persona

That's right, it's the Affinity Photo module (the develop persona) which deals with RAW files development. So every RAW file you open will be handled and developed in that develop persona first, afterwards you can take it over to the Photo Persona for further tweaking and image manipulations.

All in all it's a similar processing like in PS/PSE (Photoshop/Elements) where when you open a RAW file, it first has to be developed as a RAW in Adobe Camera Raw and then can or will be taken over into PS/PSE for further image manipulation/processing.

[carl123]

 

[NotMyFault]

Hi Chris,

this is a good question. Some YouTubers (beside Affinity and James Ritson) covered this question in more detail.

There are 3 distinct types of functions:

1. Functions only available in develop persona
   1. E.g. Lens corrections like rotation, horizontal / vertical correction, refinement
2. Functions only available in photo persona
   1. Most of the good stuff like advanced adjustments, filters, using masks
3. Functions available in both personas
   1. like Curves, brightness, exposure

My basic advide would be to start in develop persona with "global" corrections (affecting the overall picture, no masks)

1. Exposure, highlights / contrast,
2. Lens correction
3. Detail Refinement and Noise removal

And the switch to photo persona.

Why?

If the exposure is off you need to correct it before any other step, e.g. reducing out-blown highligts, or raising general exposure.

Lens correction and Detail refinement is not available in Photo persona, so it should be done here.

Detail refinement and noise reduction are kind of opposite, so they need to be adjusted in combination.

But all these edits in Develop Persona are destructive. So after having corrected the beasics, it is advisable to switch to photo persona as soon as possible, as this will allow more non-destructive edits and using more advanced / fine-granular edits.

[AlejandroJ]

2 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

But all these edits in Develop Persona are destructive

Not really for what I know (though I might be mistaken).
The editing would be “destructive” in Photo Persona if instead of using an Adjustment Layer or a non-destructive Filter, you choose to use a destructive filter.

But adjustments in Develop Persona are non-destructive, you can go back and forth with your adjustments with no problem. Even more, there is no pixel image to affect or to be destructive with. Just data that can’t be edited. Of course, once you “develop”, what you get is the result of what you processed till developing and once done, it's done (though you can open again the same raw file and begin all over again from start). But this is because the program (this program) does not have the ability to keep a register (as could be through generating a sidecar file as might do other programs specialized on just developing Raw) of the adjustments made. Maybe this is what you meant. But this does not mean that the adjustments made in Develop Persona are destructive. Not at least for what I understand or believe.

[v_kyr]

4 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

But all these edits in Develop Persona are destructive.

Not really, since your initial RAW file isn't affected or modified at all by performing edits in the Develop Persona, you just have no real side car file to reapply any previously made changes for a future reuse there.

[NotMyFault]

Well, destructive has several possible meanings.

It is technically correct that Photo will not change raw files.

But you can use develop persona on e..g. Tiffs and save them - with destructive effect to the affected pixel layer. 

In my perspective this is destructive in comparison to adjustment layers as the settings applied in develop persons will destructively change the rgb pixel layer. If you go insane on the exposure and apply, you cannot re-enter develop persona and tweak exposure to re-gain out-blown highlights. 
 

If you use an exposure adjustment in photo persona instead, it would be non-destructive as you could re-adjust the sliders any time later and re-gain out-blown highlights. 
 

So please keep these different concepts of “destructive” in mind:

1. Photo cannot save files as RAW Format, so will never do any harm to them (non-destructive by being forced to save a copy in different format)

2.  Develop Persona (and Tone Map, Liquify etc) are destructive to the pixel layer. You cannot re-adjust the settings you have chosen before hitting apply. (destructive).  Re-opening Develop and applying inverse adjustment is possible, but could lead to loss of details

3. adjustment and filter layers and some other functions are truly non-destructive.

4  Applying  adjustment or filters directly is destructive to pixel layers  

using undo / history does not count for this discussion