Is it possible to edit a RAW and save it with Affinity settings?

[J.Ochando]

Hello community, glad to say hello. Recently installed Affinity Photo, the latest version 1.9.2

I have an important question, I do not know if it is possible to save a Raw edit made in "Persona developed" and save the raw file with those settings without having to pass the photo to "persona photo". What I want is after editing the raw and closing it, to be able to reopen it to continue with the editing I did previously, with the raw file without loss of quality. This is possible?

I hope you can shed light on this problem. Thanks

[John Rostron]

The direct answer to your question is no. Raw files cannot be modified, and Affinity Photo does not save a sidecar file recording the changes applied during development.

However, raw files are typically 12-bit. If you develop them they become 16-bit files by default unless you tell Photo otherwise (in the Document > Convert Format dialogue). If you then save the developed image as an .afphoto file or export to a 16-bit tiff, then you will retain the quality you are after. So, when you come back, if you load the .afphoto file, it will be as as it was when you saved it.

John

[J.Ochando]

Hi Jonh, thank you very much for your help. That is what you will need, a file next to the Raw with the encoding of the settings in Raw to be able to resume them again with the Raw file. I have done several different tests, also revealing the Raw and going to "Person photo" saving the file instead of exporting. But later, when you open that .affinity file, the photo opens in "Persona photo". It is a pity that Affinity does not save an extended file with Raw encoding to resume work later and that the changes are not lost.

Even so I am very surprised with the capabilities of Affinity Photo, being able to edit the Raw in this application is great.

One last thing, to clarify the workflow with Raw. We could say that when developing the Raw and going to the editor of "Persona Photo" is a process of "no return", right?. If we wanted to edit that Raw file another time, we would have to start over at "Persona Develope", right?

I apologize for the length of the text and for my way of expressing myself in English  

Thank you very much again.

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, J.Ochando said:

One last thing, to clarify the workflow with Raw. We could say that when developing the Raw and going to the editor of "Persona Photo" is a process of "no return", right?. If we wanted to edit that Raw file another time, we would have to start over at "Persona Develope", right?

 

Right.

Sadly.

What I do if I know I will want to come back is make a series of Presets for the image before I develop. I name the presets after the file name (the Raw File name something like IMG_0345.CR2 in my case) then I reload those presets and can continue later on. I actually think that this is more trouble than it is worth in that I have to be ruthless in cleaning up (deleting the presets) after a while.

Aside: your English is excellent, in this unilingual Anglophone's opinion, no need to apologize. Also the length of the text has allowed you to clearly express the problem you are experiencing.

[J.Ochando]

Thank you very much Old Bruce for your help and comment. Perfect, this is already cleared up. I'll keep experimenting with Affiniy Photo to see what the best workflow is. True, it seems too complex to make the preset as you comment. Do you know if there is an option to edit several Raw photos in bulk? That is, apply adjustments to several raw photos at the same time to export them.

PD: Thank you for your comment about my ingels :), you are very kind!

[MEB]

Hi @J.Ochando,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
There's no way to edit multiple RAW's in bulk as you usually can with software that include DAM capabilities (Lightroom etc), sorry. We hope to improve the app to allow non-destructive editing of RAW files either through a specific object/layer that retains the RAW editing settings or some other way later. Thanks for your feedback.

[Uwe T]

Hi J.Ochando,

be aware of the file size. Last week I bought a Sony A7C with a 24 MB pixel sensor. You can store an uncompressed RAW and an extra fine Jpeg in one shot which wasn't possible with the A7II. The Jpeg is 15MB, the RAW 45 MB BUT the edited RAW saved as afphoto was over 300 MB each.

I shot three pictures to see the difference between of Jpeg and RAW, developed them and it was over 1GB for all three to store them.

[J.Ochando]

8 hours ago, MEB said:

Hola @ J.Ochando,
Bienvenido a los foros de Affinity
No hay forma de editar varios RAW de forma masiva, como suele hacerse con software que incluye capacidades DAM (Lightroom, etc.), lo siento. Esperamos mejorar la aplicación para permitir la edición no destructiva de archivos RAW, ya sea a través de un objeto / capa específico que conserva la configuración de edición RAW o de alguna otra manera más adelante. Gracias por tus comentarios.

Thank for your support MEB. Ok. Thanks to all of you for your comments, they are very helpful. I'm just testing Affinity Photo. I think it will be time to say some very good things about the program; the editing engine in Persona Developed for RAW files is great, and in particular there are two things that I really like, the way they apply the focus, I also really liked the effect of adding grain, very naturally. These two things may seem unimportant, but I was just surprised yesterday when I applied focus correction on multiple photos and I saw the subtlety with which he does it.

Thanks again friends.

[J.Ochando]

8 minutes ago, Uwe T said:

Hola J. Ochando,

tenga en cuenta el tamaño del archivo. La semana pasada compré un Sony A7C con un sensor de píxeles de 24 MB. Puede almacenar un RAW sin comprimir y un Jpeg extra fino en una sola toma, lo que no era posible con la A7II. El JPEG es de 15 MB, el RAW 45 MB PERO el RAW editado guardado como una foto tenía más de 300 MB cada uno.

Tomé tres fotografías para ver la diferencia entre Jpeg y RAW, las revele y tenía más de 1GB para que las tres las almacenaran.

Thank you very much. When you mean the saved edited RAW, are you referring to the Affinity Photo file when saving from Persona Photo instead of exporting?

[Uwe T]

Yes.

But I think, you don't recognize all the features you can do. When you put a RAW to AP it opens always in Develop Photo. After developing you can switch to Photo Persona and go on. You can go forward and backward between this Personas as you want. At the very end, you press save and it's saved as afphoto.

Only if you want a Jpeg you have to export it as another step.

Uwe

[J.Ochando]

Hola @Uwe T, yes, of course I do. I am very happy with Affinity Photo. About the workflow that you tell me, I think that is not really the case. Once you go from persona developed to persona photo, you can go back to persona developed, but you no longer work on the RAW file. You can do this test if you feel like it:

open a Raw in Affinity Photo, raise the exposure until there are burnt highlights (without infirmation), go to Persona Photo, go back to the Persona Developed table and you can check that those values of the highlights can no longer be recovered. 

Even so, I already told you that I think Affinity's RAW file editing engine is great. They are simply details that will surely improve step by step.

[MEB]

Hi @Uwe T,
As J. Ochando noted, after you press Develop in Develop Persona the edits you have made there are baked into the image when it switches to Photo Persona. If you go back to Develop Persona again you are basically starting as if it was a new image - there's no way to revert back the edits/changes you have made there previously. That's where a non-destructive approach would help and what we hope to improve so we can keep the original values intact/editable rather than bake them up to the image (destructively).

[vanLoo]

Hi, during the last days I am testing Affinity Photo as well and as a longtime Photoshop user I have to say, that the app really convinced me up to now - in other words, it blows my mind, last but not least considering the price. But finding a convenient workflow is an important part of the journey which, of course, includes Raw developement and image-organisation. As J.Ochando and MEB mentioned, there is no way to come back to the Raw-settings made in the Develop Persona, which is essential for me. At least it would be great to have this opportunity, just like in Camera Raw/Photoshop. For a professional process I also wish to have an integrated comfortable possibility for image-synchronization and comparison. As I said, I really appreciate the great potential of the application and maybe my comments are complaining on a high level, but these are the weaknesses, which I have to mention.

When I look at the complete Software offered by Serif, I am wondering, why they haven´t integrated an application for Raw developement and image-organisation, which would perfect the whole package.

[Josh Eddie Photography]

This is basically the only thing holding me back from fully embracing Affinity 100%. Lightroom is absolutely CRITICAL to me for this feature alone. 

And I don't just want/need an equivalent of Adobe Bridge and Photoshop. I need an Affinity Photo editor with a built in DAM. Affinity Aperture has a nice ring to it.