Macros: improve to enable workflow for digitizing negatives

[PLShutterbug]

Semi-longtime Affinity user here, continually frustrated that it is half done. You guys really need to start charging maintenance (or release a paid 2.0, then 3.0, etc. yearly or at least every 18 months or so) so you can afford to hire more people to improve your products faster. Your prices are very reasonable; there is no reason you should not be getting $60/year instead of $60 every 3 - or 4 - or ... 5 now? years. You're giving your software away and leaving a LOT of money on the table. Sorry for that mini-rant.

I'm trying to use Affinity to digitize a thousands of negatives from my childhood and early adulthood, that my dad took - even from my parents' wedding in 1952 (which was done using an early version of Kodacolor). A key to doing this reasonably will be to automate reversal and color-caste correction of rolls of negatives.

I just watched James's video about creating macros and that got me excited. Imagine my disappointment then, that I cannot record specific Fill Layer colors. I imagine this will also extend to adding points to curves. This dramatically decreases Affinity's utility.

Please increase the macro capability:

• Add support for every command and capability in Affinity. VOC to determine the commands to support first would be a very good first step.
• Add a way to apply settings absolutely (i.e.: Set Red Channel Shadow setting to X=0.01, Y=0.02)
• A scripting language would be really, really nice. Even an XML file that can be edited with Notepad++, with a solid tag definition schema, would be great.

If you already have the ability to support curves, fill layers etc. to automate a negative digitizing workflow, I'm all "ears."

Thanks for listening.

[carl123]

5 hours ago, PLShutterbug said:

Imagine my disappointment then, that I cannot record specific Fill Layer colors

You can't record adding a fill layer then changing its colour but you can record choosing the colour first and then adding the fill layer.

Is that what you need to do?

[PLShutterbug]

7 hours ago, carl123 said:

You can't record adding a fill layer then changing its colour but you can record choosing the colour first and then adding the fill layer.

Is that what you need to do?

Well ... I need to create a fill layer of a specific color. If I can accomplish that by choosing the color first and then adding the layer then that works.

I just tested and it does indeed work. I was able to create a macro to manage this workflow and apply it to two other images. I need to tweak it, but it does work.

Now the issue is how to edit things like the number, and position of curve adjustment points. In this workflow every image is exposed on the same film stock and under similar conditions, so the same adjustments should be applicable. Being able to change all the settings of a "Add Curves Adjustment" and other controls in a macro, via an Edit capability for that entire control, would be very helpful.

[carl123]

16 minutes ago, PLShutterbug said:

so the same adjustments should be applicable

I don't understand

If you add a curves layer, add points and adjust them they are saved with the macro

The same points and adjustments are replayed when you replay the macro on another image

If this is not what you want, please explain further

[PLShutterbug]

8 hours ago, carl123 said:

I don't understand

If you add a curves layer, add points and adjust them they are saved with the macro

The same points and adjustments are replayed when you replay the macro on another image

If this is not what you want, please explain further

I just meant that since all frames were shot on the same roll, they will require the same initial corrections to get to a common positive image.

If at some point I want to tweak that macro for a slightly different workflow (i.e.: digitize Kodacolor instead of Vericolor, so I have to adjust the mask color), it would be nice to be able to directly edit the color settings for the mask color instead of having to delete the macro step and then recreate it from scratch.

[rseals]

I discovered yesterday that the develop tab is not macro-recordable, so applying, say, "Remove Lens Vignette" isn't something I can automate for a batch of film neg scans.

Is "Remove Lens Vignette" something that is available outside of the Develop tab?

Also: are there best practices on maximizing bit depth for b&w neg scans taken with a dslr/mirrorless? Even RAW they come in as RGBA/32, so it seems to me that converting to Gray/16 is "losing" dynamic range. And BTW, you still can't use the Develop tab with Gray/16 documents - has to be an RGB.

[John Rostron]

I have just picked up on this thread and I was wondering why the OP was not using the scanner software to convert the negatives to a positive image. This would include removing the mask as well.

John

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, rseals said:

Also: are there best practices on maximizing bit depth for b&w neg scans taken with a dslr/mirrorless? Even RAW they come in as RGBA/32, so it seems to me that converting to Gray/16 is "losing" dynamic range. And BTW, you still can't use the Develop tab with Gray/16 documents - has to be an RGB.

16 bits of dynamic range is far higher than anything I was able to achieve with B&W film and Chemistry.