Split toning with midtone feature in develop persona VS photo persona (Any difference in image quality preservation?)

[johnpdelacruz26]

Hello guys. I would like to ask why is there no midtone in split toning in develop persona? Is there a specific reason?

Thank you.

[NotMyFault]

Hi,

to start, i assume you request targets Affinity Photo, and was opened in the Designer section of the forum by mistake. The moderators might move the post into the correct section.

Next, the philosophy of Photo (my personal Interpretation) is to keep Develop Persona as basic as possible, to foster a pure non-destructive edit style. Working in Develop Persona is destructive (no live adjustments or filters). So i would suggest to offer this in Photo Persona as live adjustment.

Finally, a 3 way split tone filter is more a UI comfort function than an essential feature. You could achieve the same tonal grading using other methods, e.g. blend ranges on HSL adjustments. 
 

There are already areas with redundancy in features, but adding more has potential disadvantages:

• confusing users which feature to use
• more code to maintain, more potential for bugs
• issues to implement a feature requiring so much „real estate“ on screen, covering too much of the workspace especially on iPad

All explained here should be read as explanation why the requested feature might not come soon. It is not intended to dis-value the request.

[johnpdelacruz26]

@NotMyFault Thanks for the response. Im new to photo editing. My main concern was maybe after clicking the develop button, the quality of the image will quickly degrade if I color grade in the photo persona. My thinking was maybe if I color grade in the develop persona the final quality of the color graded image will be better if compared with working with the photo persona.

I am not sure if these are correct assumptions. I am happy to be informed.

[Old Bruce]

22 minutes ago, johnpdelacruz26 said:

My main concern was maybe after clicking the develop button, the quality of the image will quickly degrade if I color grade in the photo persona. My thinking was maybe if I color grade in the develop persona the final quality of the color graded image will be better if compared with working with the photo persona.

I may be completely wrong but isn't colour grading something that is done near the very end of the editing process?

[NotMyFault]

19 minutes ago, johnpdelacruz26 said:

@NotMyFault Thanks for the response. Im new to photo editing. My main concern was maybe after clicking the develop button, the quality of the image will quickly degrade if I color grade in the photo persona. My thinking was maybe if I color grade in the develop persona the final quality of the color graded image will be better if compared with working with the photo persona.

I am not sure if these are correct assumptions. I am happy to be informed.

This totally depends on the target color format and profile.

When you choose 16 bit formats (e.g. RGB/16), you have plenty room for color grading without risk of reduced quality.

When you choose RGB/8, quality degrades quite a bit, and limits your ability to color grade.

So the best practice is:

RAW (32 bit): essential exposure / highlights / shadow correction (use the histogram), lens corrections incl. CA, nothing else

Photo Persona: Switch to RGB/16, do all further edits

Finalize: Resize for export, sharpening, Export as JPEG (or any other format suitable)

[johnpdelacruz26]

2 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

I may be completely wrong but isn't colour grading something that is done near the very end of the editing process?

I believe that is mostly the case. My main concern is will it affect the final image quality differently between adjusting it in develop vs photo persona. I am not very familar with all the technicalities but maybe there is a quality loss difference?

If there is, and for some reason the develop persona will preserves the image quality better than the photo persona when it comes to basic color grading, I would prefer the develop persona then as an option. That is if my theory/guess is right but I have no idea with any of these things.

[Old Bruce]

For what it is worth, as far as colour corrections go I only worry about the White Balance and Colour Fringinging in the Develop persona. I do know that Colour Grading is different from Colour Correction. With the Develop Persona I aim at getting a neutral starting point.

[johnpdelacruz26]

11 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

This totally depends on the target color format and profile.

When you choose 16 bit formats (e.g. RGB/16), you have plenty room for color grading without risk of reduced quality.

When you choose RGB/8, quality degrades quite a bit, and limits your ability to color grade.

So the best practice is:

RAW (32 bit): essential exposure / highlights / shadow correction (use the histogram), lens corrections incl. CA, nothing else

Photo Persona: Switch to RGB/16, do all further edits

Finalize: Resize for export, sharpening, Export as JPEG (or any other format suitable)

Thank you. I will take note of all these things.