Workflow Tips: Moving from Adobe PS/ACR to Affinity Photo

[EarthMurmurs]

Hi everyone, 

I'm trialling AP, and with the limited trial time (10 days), am trying to replicate my workflow to determine if the move with work for me. 

Most of my photography is focus stacked, and I aim for 10-15 image per subject. Here's my process

1. Open all RAW (DNG) files from Bridge, into ACR

2. Select all, then work the exposure/contrast, texture, shadows/highlights, then some selective colour adjustments (saturation & luminance

3. Close ACR to save changes to all

4. Import all DNG files using the focus stack procedure

5. Edit the merge layer, with healing brush, clone stamp and content-aware fill. 

6. Export as JPG


What I'm having some trouble with in Affinity is the following: 

Adjusting multiple RAW files

A forum post from as recently as a month ago suggests this is not possible. I guess the alternative is to make my changes to one image, create a temporary preset, then apply that preset, one at a time, to the remaining images. That is a HUGE amount of work. Are there any workarounds ? 

Adobe's ACR also has a 'Color Mixer' panel for selective color adjustments of saturation & luminance. ie; if I want to increase saturation on orange only, I can do so by click/drag over that color. Is this possible in Affinity ? 

No Content Aware Fill

When I'm working on the merged PSD, I use the content aware fill to draw around the selected area, and apply the process. It appears this doesnt exist in Affinity, and I'm resigned to using the healing brush for spot edits, or the 'inpainting' tool for larger areas. This probably isn't a game-changer, but are these the Affinity alternatives ? It remains to be seen how accurate I can remove elements

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by EarthMurmurs

[EarthMurmurs]

I se there is a HSL adjustment panel once a RAW is 'developed', which more or less allows color mixer changes, but it's very crude and doesn't seem to be taking advantage of the deep-level RAW data that can be adjusted. (I'm assuming post-Develop, I'm no longer working in RAW, right?)

[Dan C]

Hi @EarthMurmurs,

Welcome to the forums

8 hours ago, EarthMurmurs said:

A forum post from as recently as a month ago suggests this is not possible. I guess the alternative is to make my changes to one image, create a temporary preset, then apply that preset, one at a time, to the remaining images. That is a HUGE amount of work. Are there any workarounds ? 

Unfortunately this is correct, opening a RAW file, applying the changes and then saving this as a Preset to apply to other RAW files is the best method to develop multiple RAW files using the same settings in Affinity Photo - my apologies.

8 hours ago, EarthMurmurs said:

Adobe's ACR also has a 'Color Mixer' panel for selective color adjustments of saturation & luminance. ie; if I want to increase saturation on orange only, I can do so by click/drag over that color. Is this possible in Affinity ? 

There are a few options to selectively change certain colours in Affinity when developing RAW files - such as a Curves adjustment under the Tones Studio, with Red selected as the channel, instead of Master - however this does not allow for certain colours to be 'picked' and adjusted as you've described, you'll need to use a HSL adjustment once the image is developed for this in Affinity.

8 hours ago, EarthMurmurs said:

doesn't seem to be taking advantage of the deep-level RAW data that can be adjusted. (I'm assuming post-Develop, I'm no longer working in RAW, right?)

That's correct, once you've 'Developed' the image and moved to the Photo Persona, you're now editing a rasterised Pixel layer, rather than the RAW data itself.

9 hours ago, EarthMurmurs said:

When I'm working on the merged PSD, I use the content aware fill to draw around the selected area, and apply the process. It appears this doesnt exist in Affinity, and I'm resigned to using the healing brush for spot edits, or the 'inpainting' tool for larger areas. This probably isn't a game-changer, but are these the Affinity alternatives ? It remains to be seen how accurate I can remove elements

I can confirm that we recommend using Inpainting as an alternative to Content Aware Fill in PS, you can create your selection in Affinity Photo, then use Edit > Inpaint to apply inpainting to the selection you have made. You can also manually paint within the selection using the Inpainting Brush, and the Inpainting will be confined to the selection itself.

I hope this clears things up!

[EarthMurmurs]

Hi Dan, 

Thanks so much for your thoughtful response. As much as I wanted Affinity to work, I can't see how this is going to be viable for my needs. 

Applying presents to each individual image (when I shoot 10-15 for focus stacking) is, without exaggeration, 15x slower than the same task in ACR

And the inability to make non-destructive colour adjustments to the RAW image is not a compromise for me. 

I've no doubt, after spending a few hours trialling Affinity Photo yesterday, that it's a great software for many photo editing needs, and a perpetual licence pricing that's very reasonable for amateurs and hobbyists (as I am), so I hope these features might be considered in a future version release. 

All the best, and have a great day 👍

 

[MichaelCox]

I agree that being able to develop multiple RAW files at one time, when those multiple images are of the same subject, same lighting, etc, would be very useful. Suggestion: in the Develop module, a new command: Apply Develop To Selected (or Apply to All).