Problematic fix of lightest parts of photo in Affinity Photo2

[Petr Zachrdla]

I've a problem with fixing lightest parts of raw files in Affinity Photo2 opposite to Photoshop. It looks like the opened raw file is opened with lost of information in the light parts of photo. When I try to fix it I can do nothing with that. I attached the video where you can see my problem with comments in written form. You can try it by yourself. I attached the raw file.

39 seville --lapseoftheshutter.com--.cr2

[NotMyFault]

The raw file seems severely overexposed in the highlights. 

When you reduce exposure by -2, the histogram and "show EDR clipping" will finally recover all out-blown highlights (which is surprising). You can then use a combination of increased lightness (ca. 20%) and reduced highlights -50%.

The results will further differ if you use Serif RAW or Apple RAW engine, and the other settings in Development Assistant.

You won't get identical results to PS, but with a bit more effort you can achieve a great looking photo.

There is no "absolute truth" in RAW development, as it is always an "interpretation" of data in the RAW files, and using lots of secret sauce / corporate intellectual property for "colour science" which is not shared between camera vendors and software vendors.

[Petr Zachrdla]

@NotMyFault  Thank you for answer. I'm not sure if you catch the point of the problem. We've the same raw file. When you open the file in CameraRaw, you are able to see the cable's shadow between cable and ledge. In Affinity Photo 2 for Windows, this part of data is missing. There is something different I see like a bug.

Nothing can help to reslove this problem (brightness, exposure, blackpoint, contrast, curves). 

I don't expect the same functionality like a Photoshop has even though I would appreciate to change terrible algorithm for contrast (solving through the curves is better, because you need to move Blacks and Whites to the middle, not just to limit levels of inputs the Shadows to middle and Highlights to do nothing like Affinity do) and missing White, Black function when you want to change just darkest and brightest parts but we talk about competition of image editors. And I would like to have the Affinity Photo editor like a tool that can replace Photoshop.

At the moment, we are in Affinity Photo 2 for Windows thread. Apple RAW engine is irrelevant.

So, I still see this problem as a bug.
 

[NotMyFault]

2 hours ago, Petr Zachrdla said:

Nothing can help to reslove this problem (brightness, exposure, blackpoint, contrast, curves). 

I got the almost same definition of cable shadow by clarity moved to the max.

The main difference of Photo to other RAW converters is: by default, no sharpening is applied, and all information like canon picture profiles (saturation, clarity, sharpness, noise reduction etc) gets ignored, and replaced by global presets.

I use a Canon camera and CR2 RAW files, too. If such details get relevant, I use Canon DPP for RAW conversion, export as TIFF/16 and then all remaining processing in Photo. 

[Petr Zachrdla]

@NotMyFault Sorry man but I don't want to deform the image by using Clarify. I don't need to add more local contrast. I need to decrease the light in the brightest part of image. I tried to use your trick but the result are not good for me.

Simply. I just want to open the file and move Highlights slider (or another White slider) to the left. Done. 

No other little helpers like Canon DPP. 

If the Photoshop is able to fix it why the Affinity developers wouldn't help us?

[NotMyFault]

8 minutes ago, Petr Zachrdla said:

If the Photoshop is able to fix it why the Affinity developers wouldn't help us?

Adobe is one of the mega corporations with almost unlimited financial resources - mostly coming from their advertising parts, and probably with backing from Canon and other camera brands which may open their secrets (for money or free) to boost compatibility. Canon DPP integrates specifically with Photoshop, and not a single other Imaging Software.

Serif uses a free software (LibRAW) with occasional self-developed stop gap additions (e.g. to support CR3 before LibRAW offered it). Or optionally AppleRAW on Apple devices.

Canon uses patents, strict terms and conditions for use of canon’s API and encryption of parts of metadata in RAW files.

You may expect a tiny little bit too much.

But it’s not up to me (ordinary user) to decide if bug or not, a moderator will probably give definite answers.

[Petr Zachrdla]

@NotMyFault You haven't to explain me how big and rich Adobe company is. The aim of this forum is to move the Affinity Photo to the next level. Not crying on the reasons why something is not possible. I expect that Affinity want to be a strong competitor for Adobe and want to provide a pro tool, not an argument "You may expect a tiny little bit too much" 😉

[AlainP]

What is needed to fix this is a good masking function in the Develop module. In this case a Luminance based mask would make it very easy to recover the sky. 

The actual Overlays function makes it awful to select area based on lightness, darkness or any other. That is why I never use Photo for RAW editing.

[NotMyFault]

22 minutes ago, Petr Zachrdla said:

@NotMyFault You haven't to explain me how big and rich Adobe company is. The aim of this forum is to move the Affinity Photo to the next level. Not crying on the reasons why something is not possible. I expect that Affinity want to be a strong competitor for Adobe and want to provide a pro tool, not an argument "You may expect a tiny little bit too much" 😉

I simply try to provide some realism. 
 

I see no commercial viability for Affinity trying to compete with Adobe, C1 and some other specialist RAW developers. It will not happen the next 5-10 years, and it makes no sense for Serif to spend $$$ or developers in trying.

Serif has its niche (one time cost, broad but not leading functionality, excellent interactive performance, 3 OS platforms). For RAW development, it is always 1-3 years behind as long as they continue with LibRAW. And I bet they will do.

 

[Petr Zachrdla]

@NotMyFault  "One time cost instead of monthly payment. Who are they probably competing with?" 🤔  

Okay. I'll wait for moderator opinon and after that will move on.

[Petr Zachrdla]

@NotMyFault I tried to resolve this image in Darktable (it's open source app) and I got better results. I still think the problem is Developer persona.

I attached the file that was opened in Darktable and saved to OpenEXR. 

[Chris B]

Hey Petr Zachrdla,

We have identified 2 potential issues here:

1. Highlights being blown out
2. Poor chromatic abberation and fringing correction

Both issues have been logged with the developers.

[Petr Zachrdla]

@Chris B Thank you Chris for response. There is no doubt the photo is overexposed in highlights but Adobe Camera Raw or free Darktable are able to reconstruct the highlights. Someone wrote that Adobe has a much much bigger budget but it doesn't explain why Darktable has a feature that is able to fix it. 

 

[RichardMH]

LibRaw has 10 highlight recovery algorithms and it seems the one Serif has chosen isn't the best in some cases. Its an ongoing problem with no sign of resolution. I just use another raw convertor and send a tiff to Photo. (Capture One Express is free for some cameras)