Import and Export questions

[Greg14]

I have been a long time Aperture user and know it like the back of my hand.

I have a Photo Elements version but rarely use it as Aperture handles 98%
I have not downloaded El Capitan yet, for fear of losing my Aperture files and usage.
I unfortunately purchased Capture One Pro 8 and have all but given up on it.
I am looking for something else that is understandable, there is a difference between understandable and easy.
I see 3 choices for me:
(1)
I downloaded a trial version of Corel AfterShot 2 and the trial version doe not allow you to set up a DAM, unless I cannot figure it out and in that case I would not want it.
 (2)
Lightroom purchase, $149.00,  Its Lightroom
(3)
Affinity $49.00
I like the layout of the Adjustments and Image area and it combines Aperture and PSE.
Yes I know it should be compared to PS, PSE is good enough for me.

So here is my question:
What do I need to do for a DAM to use Affinity?
(1)
Do I have to import my Camera/SD Card to a secondary file, i.e. Photos, Desk top folder?
(2)
Can I import directly to Affinity, say 100 images, will the show up in a thumbnail in their bin and I can adjust those I want to and discard the others?
(3)
Where do I export them to?
I would prefer both Photos and an external Hard Drive as B/U.
(D)
Do they export as a Raw File with excess to the original and its version or Jpeg.
If Jpeg, is the RAW original and version kept in Affinity and where?

Greg

[MEB]

Hi Greg,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Affinity Photo is not a DAM software like Lightroom or Aperture. It doesn't manage photo libraries nor you can import a few dozens images from you camera to sort them with it. It's a RAW converter/processor and photo editor similar to Photoshop plus Camera RAW, so you will have to use it in conjunction with other application for managing your libraries.

It has a Media Browser which you can use to access images from iPhoto, Photos, Aperture and your Pictures folder (or simply use File ▸ Open and select the Media section from the Finder dialog) but it doesn't save your images back to those libraries automatically. You will have to set up the DAM software to use an external editor to get the images updated automatically. Aperture allows this but currently due to some format incompatibilities, its interaction with Affinity Photo is still limited.

[Greg14]

Thanks.
Is there any lost of quality in the export back to a DAM program or any one it particular.
Photos is the obvious choice for me as I already have about 3000 pictures in it along with all the albums separating them.

Would I be better off creating a folder on my external HD and drag and drop into it?
I would do that anyway, but is it better to go from the HD back to Photos ?

Please forgive my lack of knowledge in asking a lot of questions, I am 72 and am trying to learn as fast as possible.
Hopefully the Q&A works for others as well.
 

I actually purchased Capture One Pro 8, but found it too confusing and their Tutorials are awful and the forum is unreliable.
Other then that !!!!!!!!
I have check out your Tutorials and they are very understanding as is your interface. 

[CPP]

Hi Greg,

 

I use Media Pro as a DAM. It started life as iView Media Pro, was purchased by Microsoft who renamed it Expression Media but did not do much with it. It was then sold to Phase One (the owners of Capture One Pro) but Phase One do not seem to be developing it further which is a shame since it is a great DAM.

 

As far as I am concerned a major advantage it offers over Photos is that rather than employing its own file storage structure you manage the storage of your photos wherever you like. Media Pro then builds a database recording where the photos are and you can view thumbnails of them in Media Pro. You double click on a thumbnail to view the original photo from wherever it is stored. It can also support slideshows. It is very fast: my database contains some 13,000 photos but it can go much much more than that. Also you can index and classify your photos in numerous different ways. Media Pro can handle various different file formats: jpeg, Tiff, PSD, PDF, RAW, but unfortunately not Afphoto files. Media Pro also supports editing apps so that you can open photos for editing by Affinity Photo from within Media Pro.

 

My ideal scenario would be for Serif the owners of Affinity Photo to purchase Media Pro and continue its development.

 

Sorry if this sounds like a sales pitch for Media Pro but the question of a suitable DAM seems to come up fairly often and I think this is a great candidate.

[Greg14]

I just checked and saw that it is owned by Phase One.
They are not responsive to questions and their Tutorials are poor for the Capture One 8.
I do not want to go down that road of frustration.

Any other suggestions ?

[CPP]

Agree totally that the support Phase One provide is poor. However Media Pro is a fairly mature and stable product that doesn't need much support. The development was done by organisations other than Phase One, who as far as I can see have not added much value.

[anon1]

The only way to not loose quality for further edit is to go for tiff or psd format. In tiff you'll loose all layer structure (maybe layered tiffs are supported in the future though) but also in psd you´ll loose some layers (live perspective distortion for example)

 

If you choose afphoto you can´t preview those in normal resolution because it´s a closed format and not supported by any DAM product 

 

if you only export to jpg or png or whatever and you´re fine with that you can use almost any DAM to save the foto back into it but that´s not what one normally wants to do right? 

 

So I´m personally very exited about the Affinity DAM :)