RAW file lost details and sharpness once uploaded on Affinity Photo

[VancouverIslandPhoto]

Hello,

I would like to understand why I see finer details when I look at a preview of my RAW file on my MacBook Pro compared to when I open that same image in Affinity Photo.

In Affinity Photo, the image lacks clarity and sharpness that is observable in the preview of RAW file. The image looks degraded and lost lots of details. Can someone please help me figure this out and fix it, please?

Thank you.

[v_kyr]

The preview of the RAW file probably show an embedded JPG portion of that, which was already processed in cam and written out together embedded in the RAW file. - Though there are also third party previewers available, which would really process/develop the RAW file and then showing a preview of the processed/developed RAW instead.

In Affinity Photo when opening a RAW file there aren't automatically much cam vendor specific settings preapplied (like sharpness, contrast ... etc.) in contrast to what other RAW converter software does as default then preapply. Thus RAWs in APh often look plain dull, unsharp and not that much clearly in contrast to other RAW converter software or via the cam processed JPGs here.

You would have for your specific cam in APh setup/adjust some WB, sharpening, contrast ... values as presets, so they are always initially applied then.

 

[Ron P.]

In the Assistant Manager, check the boxes to Tone Curve & Exposure Bias, to have AP apply those, and your RAW file should not appear flat.

[VancouverIslandPhoto]

18 hours ago, v_kyr said:

The preview of the RAW file probably show an embedded JPG portion of that, which was already processed in cam and written out together embedded in the RAW file. - Though there are also third party previewers available, which would really process/develop the RAW file and then showing a preview of the processed/developed RAW instead.

In Affinity Photo when opening a RAW file there aren't automatically much cam vendor specific settings preapplied (like sharpness, contrast ... etc.) in contrast to what other RAW converter software does as default then preapply. Thus RAWs in APh often look plain dull, unsharp and not that much clearly in contrast to other RAW converter software or via the cam processed JPGs here.

You would have for your specific cam in APh setup/adjust some WB, sharpening, contrast ... values as presets, so they are always initially applied then.

 

There is no embedded JPG portion. My camera is set up for RAW only, not RAW and JPEG. Even after retouching the sharpness of the image in Affinity Photo, I cannot get the same definition as seen in the Preview on my Mac. The file has lost that information when I opened it in Affinity Photo, therefore I cannot ''get it back''. Below is a screenshot with the image in AP on the left and the same part of the image in Preview (MacBook Pro). I have zoomed in on a detail to show the difference.

The boxes for Tone Curve and Exposure Bias are both checked. The issue seems to be with the file loosing info when uploaded onto APhoto but I'd like to know if anyone else has encountered this problem and how to fix it.

 

9 hours ago, Ron P. said:

In the Assistant Manager, check the boxes to Tone Curve & Exposure Bias, to have AP apply those, and your RAW file should not appear flat.

 

18 hours ago, v_kyr said:

The preview of the RAW file probably show an embedded JPG portion of that, which was already processed in cam and written out together embedded in the RAW file. - Though there are also third party previewers available, which would really process/develop the RAW file and then showing a preview of the processed/developed RAW instead.

In Affinity Photo when opening a RAW file there aren't automatically much cam vendor specific settings preapplied (like sharpness, contrast ... etc.) in contrast to what other RAW converter software does as default then preapply. Thus RAWs in APh often look plain dull, unsharp and not that much clearly in contrast to other RAW converter software or via the cam processed JPGs here.

You would have for your specific cam in APh setup/adjust some WB, sharpening, contrast ... values as presets, so they are always initially applied then.

 

 

[v_kyr]

19 minutes ago, VancouverIslandPhoto said:

There is no embedded JPG portion. My camera is set up for RAW only, not RAW and JPEG.

• Embedded JPG when shooting RAW
• Those JPEG's embedded in every RAW file
• How to Extract Preview JPGs from RAW Files
• Understanding What is stored in a Canon RAW .CR2 file, How and Why
• ... etc.
• Make yourself a Google search what your RAW file does all contain!

[VancouverIslandPhoto]

1 hour ago, v_kyr said:

• Embedded JPG when shooting RAW
• Those JPEG's embedded in every RAW file
• How to Extract Preview JPGs from RAW Files
• Understanding What is stored in a Canon RAW .CR2 file, How and Why
• ... etc.
• Make yourself a Google search what your RAW file does all contain!

Are you saying that the embedded JPG in my RAW files is causing the lost of information (sharpness) when I upload a RAW file in Affinity Photo?

[walt.farrell]

36 minutes ago, VancouverIslandPhoto said:

Are you saying that the embedded JPG in my RAW files is causing the lost of information (sharpness) when I upload a RAW file in Affinity Photo?

No.

But Affinity Photo does very little processing of a RAW file by default, when compared with other programs that can handle RAW files.

In particular, many other programs automatically apply some sharpening to the RAW data, but Affinity Photo doesn't. So you will need to apply some yourself.

[v_kyr]

36 minutes ago, VancouverIslandPhoto said:

Are you saying that the embedded JPG in my RAW files is causing the lost of information (sharpness) when I upload a RAW file in Affinity Photo?

NO, I've just said that what you see in preview and looks sharp and Ok there is an by the cam processed JPG which is already an embedded part of the RAW. So I gave you an explanation for ...

Quote

I would like to understand why I see finer details when I look at a preview of my RAW file on my MacBook Pro

... and you answered ...

Quote

There is no embedded JPG portion. My camera is set up for RAW only, not RAW and JPEG.

... so I gave you links about the related informations (so you can read & understand), that any RAW file has always an embedded smaller JPG for previews embedded, no matter if you only strictly shoot RAW here. - Further I told you implecitely, that most OS browser based previewers of a RAW file, show you for quick turnarounds that better looking cam generated embedded JPG-preview image here instead.

I've also told that Affinity's RAW development component as default doesn't apply sharpinig/contrast and other settings in contrast to other RAW converter software and that you have to apply this yourself then for APh.

[VancouverIslandPhoto]

2 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

NO, I've just said that what you see in preview and looks sharp and Ok there is an by the cam processed JPG which is already an embedded part of the RAW. So I gave you an explanation for ...

... and you answered ...

... so I gave you links about the related informations (so you can read & understand), that any RAW file has always an embedded smaller JPG for previews embedded, no matter if you only strictly shoot RAW here. - Further I told you implecitely, that most OS browser based previewers of a RAW file, show you for quick turnarounds that better looking cam generated embedded JPG-preview image here instead.

I've also told that Affinity's RAW development component as default doesn't apply sharpinig/contrast and other settings in contrast to other RAW converter software and that you have to apply this yourself then for APh.

I am reading posts from other users who also have issues with the sharpness on Affinity Photo. It has nothing to do with JPEG but thanks for all the links. And please avoid using capital bold letters in your replies next time, it's not very 'friendly'.

[VancouverIslandPhoto]

8 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

No.

But Affinity Photo does very little processing of a RAW file by default, when compared with other programs that can handle RAW files.

In particular, many other programs automatically apply some sharpening to the RAW data, but Affinity Photo doesn't. So you will need to apply some yourself.

Thanks for your answer, Walt. Always very helpful. I am going to try a few things based on other posts on this subject. I guess I should have done that in the first place 🙃

[VancouverIslandPhoto]

12 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

No.

But Affinity Photo does very little processing of a RAW file by default, when compared with other programs that can handle RAW files.

In particular, many other programs automatically apply some sharpening to the RAW data, but Affinity Photo doesn't. So you will need to apply some yourself.

I am going to try this answer on a previous post: ''Apple's Preview.app uses the Apple RAW 'engine' built into the Mac OS to develop RAW files into a viewable form. This is the same engine that in Affinity Photo for Macs can be used as an alternative to the "Serif Labs" RAW engine by changing the engine in the Develop Assistant to "Apple (Core Image RAW)."

[v_kyr]

1 minute ago, VancouverIslandPhoto said:

It has nothing to do with JPEG but thanks for all the links.

Honestly it seems you don't understand what I wrote, I never said that it has something to do with the embedded JPGs here that in Affinity RAWs look dull (that was you who understood that the wrong way), those should look good. - Instead I said it's Affinity's default RAW file handling without any initial preprocessing for the RAW file!

[v_kyr]

2 minutes ago, VancouverIslandPhoto said:

I am going to try this answer on a previous post: ''Apple's Preview.app uses the Apple RAW 'engine' built into the Mac OS to develop RAW files into a viewable form. This is the same engine that in Affinity Photo for Macs can be used as an alternative to the "Serif Labs" RAW engine by changing the engine in the Develop Assistant to "Apple (Core Image RAW)."

Yes, if you are on a Mac, you can switch from the Serif RAW engine to the Apple RAW engine. The Apple RAW engine does some auto preprocessing here, meaning the results from that as default doesn't look that dull & flat as those the Serif engine produces.

[VancouverIslandPhoto]

35 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

No.

But Affinity Photo does very little processing of a RAW file by default, when compared with other programs that can handle RAW files.

In particular, many other programs automatically apply some sharpening to the RAW data, but Affinity Photo doesn't. So you will need to apply some yourself.

Here is a screenshot of the settings that seem to ''fix the sharpness issue'' in case someone else runs into that issue. Thanks again Walt for your input.

[KESagun]

Hi, I have got the same problem in Affinity. 

When I open my raw pics they look better in Fast stone Image Viewer than in Affinity. 
So I have decided to check how they look like in Capture One, and in this app they look just as in Image viewer, I mean 100% better.
So, yes, sorry, but Affinity makes something wrong with them. Just have a look. What shall I do?
 

[walt.farrell]

18 minutes ago, KESagun said:

When I open my raw pics they look better in Fast stone Image Viewer than in Affinity. 
So I have decided to check how they look like in Capture One, and in this app they look just as in Image viewer, I mean 100% better.

As mentioned above, Serif does very little initial processing on RAW images, compared with most other RAW image processors. It basically presents you with the data, and lets you decide how you want it to look.

In the Develop Assistant you can apply a default Tone Curve, or Noise Reduction, or the Exposure Bias set in your camera. But most other settings from your camera will be intentionally ignored.

Many other RAW engines also sharpen automatically, and Serif doesn't.

You can analyze what you don't like, and see if there are settings you can apply (such as the Tone Curve, or Exposure Bias) that will help. Or if it's sharpening, you can add a Detail Refinement.