Apple Photos extension performance change?

[Amosjl]

HI,

I've always used Affinity to edit my photos but through Apple Photos using the Affinity editing extension. It's been a few months since I last did any editing but am noticing a few glitches. Has anyone else encountered this?

They include:

- Extension working on second attempt only

- Shadows slider in Develop making virtually no noticeable difference to the image on screen

- Very hit and miss as to whether the edited photo is saved in Apple Photos after Saving and Closing in Affinity. Quite a few 'unable to complete the operation' notices whereby you have to start over.

- Notices in Apple Photos about a 16MB editing limit being exceeded and info about the file being flattened.

I always use the extension through Apple Photos as it just seems a more straight forward workflow for me but differences are starting to appear where I'm wondering if the extension is inferior in ability to accessing the file through Affinity instead. Opening the same files through Affinity without using Photos gives a very different experience and things like shadows and highlights behave much more competently. Saving a file edited this way doesn't save in Apple Photos though so not ideal.

Any help appreciated.

 

John.

[stokerg]

Hi @Amosjl,

I've just tried this and so far it's worked for myself.

Which version of MacOS are you using and did you purchase Affinity direct from us or via the Mac App Store?  I'm on Monterey 12.3.1 and using the Affinity store build.

1 hour ago, Amosjl said:

- Extension working on second attempt only

 

I just tried the Edit In Affinity Photo Extension on a number of images and it worked first time, on each image.  I also used the Develop Extension and Retouch Extension, all without issue.

 

1 hour ago, Amosjl said:

- Shadows slider in Develop making virtually no noticeable difference to the image on screen

 

Is this a RAW image you are opening when the shadows slider does have any effect or a JPG and you switch to the Develop Persona? If you could attach a sample image i'll be happy to see if i can replicate the issue  

1 hour ago, Amosjl said:

- Very hit and miss as to whether the edited photo is saved in Apple Photos after Saving and Closing in Affinity. Quite a few 'unable to complete the operation' notices whereby you have to start over.

 

This has been reported to us before. and is logged with the Dev team.  If you use File>Save and then close the image, the changes should be saved back.  If you Close the image and save when prompted, they won't be. 

1 hour ago, Amosjl said:

- Notices in Apple Photos about a 16MB editing limit being exceeded and info about the file being flattened.

 

This has also been reported to us before but we have not been able to replicate it in house as of yet.  Do you have an image that this always happens with or is it at random?

[Amosjl]

Hi and thanks for the reply,

I'm using an iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) with OS Monterey 12.2.1 (21D62).

It's only the Edit in Affinity Photo extension that struggles to open up the Affinity program, the others work fine, presumably because they don require the entire Affinity software to be opened?

Yes, editing RAW images.

Regards saving I simply Command S and Command W in Affinity and then Save Changes in Apple Photos. Failure can happen in either software but more common once in the Apple Photos screen. I have noticed that if I try to use the same extension process to edit a JPEG but switch to the Develop persona instead when Affinity opens before developing and carrying out more in the Photo persona, that that workflow leads to a far greater number of failures to save an incomplete operation warnings. Largely a RAW editor though.

If I get another 16MB notice I'll screenshot it and send.

Is there any computing constraint/editing limitations involved in using the extension through ApplePhotos as opposed to using Affinity o navigate to the same photo through the File Open route? Ive always done this and presume you get access to the same degree of editing 'power' so to speak.

 

Cheers,

 

John.

[stokerg]

11 minutes ago, Amosjl said:

It's only the Edit in Affinity Photo extension that struggles to open up the Affinity program, the others work fine, presumably because they don require the entire Affinity software to be opened?

 

I've just tried this again and managed to replicate it.  Took my 2nd try using Edit In Affinity Photo, for it to open Affinity.  I'll get this logged if it isn't already  

12 minutes ago, Amosjl said:

Is there any computing constraint/editing limitations involved in using the extension through ApplePhotos as opposed to using Affinity o navigate to the same photo through the File Open route? Ive always done this and presume you get access to the same degree of editing 'power' so to speak.

 

There shouldn't be but depending on how large your collect of images in Photos, having Photos open, while editing in Affinity would likely use more RAM, than just opening the RAW file directly in Affinity Photo, with Photos close.  But MacOS is pretty good at handling memory, so i can't see it causing too much a slow down.

[Amosjl]

Okido, that's worth noting as I always have Photos open whilst editing. Will keep an eye out for that.

Regards the computer constraint question I basically asking if the extension is a watered down version of Affinity or as capable in every respect?

Another quirk worth mentioning is that if for any reason I choose to cancel an edit and close in Affinity, the screen it returns me to will in fact be a summary of the PREVIOUS photo I edited rather than the current one i cancelled. Hence I have to be super careful not to hit Save Changes when doing this otherwise an unintentional overwrite of an unrelated photo occurs. This glitch has been around for years so thought I'd mention it.

I did manage to replicate the 16Mb warning too....see attached. No expert so not really sure what 'flattening' really means and if all my edits to date are suffering as a result?

Cheers,

John.