Issues exporting photos in AFP v1. to JPG / PNG: Blown-out highlights

[Tupperwar]

Disclaimer: Have owned the Affinity apps (v1) for a while, only using Publisher from time to time. Since going back to DSLR photography I've wanted to try RAW editing as I used to in PS years ago.

 

As I've stated in the title: when exporting .afphoto to JPG / PNG (and even tried PDF) my exports show very blown-out highlights and don't resemble the edited photo in AF Photo at all. Been reading different threads on the topic, but non seem to be as bad as what I'm experiencing and the suggested fixes (change color profile to sRGB etc.) don't seem to be doing the trick. What am I doing wrong here, and how do I go about simplifying PNG exports (intended for 10x15 up to A3 prints)?    [files attached below]

(don't know if it's relevant or not, but MacOS doesn't seem to be able to provide a good preview image of the .afphoto either in Finder and using Preview, probably not supported.)

Thank you guys in advance!

[Edited IMG_1702Test.afphoto + ]

[carl123]

Your APhoto file opens for me showing blown-out highlights that exactly match the image you supplied

If you are not seeing the blown-out highlights in APhoto your APhoto settings may be wrong

Can you upload a full-size screenshot of APhoto running with the above APhoto document opened?

[Hangman]

Hi @Tupperwar and welcome to the forums,

As @carl123 says, I'm likewise seeing blown-out highlights when opening your file, so it could ell be your APhoto settings...

Pulling back the highlights in the Develop Persona of Photo fixes that for me...

Resulting in a JPEG like this...

 

 

[Tupperwar]

Hi there!

Thanks for the quick reply.

23 minutes ago, carl123 said:

Can you upload a full-size screenshot of APhoto running with the above APhoto document opened?

I've tried taking a screenshot but this again shows the same result as the exported PNG. But it's definitely looking way different in AF Photo itself (file saved even closed program and reopend file to check if it looks different).

 

10 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Pulling back the highlights in the Develop Persona of Photo fixes that for me...

It does, but it drastically changes what I'm seeing. The only thing I could think of - to show what it looks like - was to take a short video showing it. Hope that this clarifies the difference.

 

Additional info: working on MacBook PRO 16" with screen set to half brightness (I've been wondering what brightness I should 'trust'. if I want to edit and share images, but that's an entirely different issue I guess).

edit: yes I took a video with my phone haha, don't have a screen recorder installed

Edited May 23, 2023 by Tupperwar

[carl123]

10 minutes ago, Tupperwar said:

Additional info: working on MacBook PRO 16" with screen set to half brightness (I've been wondering what brightness I should 'trust'. if I want to edit and share images, but that's an entirely different issue I guess).

I'm not sure what this "half brightness" thing is on a Mac or anything to do with Mac settings so I'll leave this up to the Mac experts/users to comment further

 

[Hangman]

41 minutes ago, Tupperwar said:

Additional info: working on MacBook PRO 16" with screen set to half brightness (I've been wondering what brightness I should 'trust'. if I want to edit and share images, but that's an entirely different issue I guess).

In an ideal world you would calibrate your monitor using professional calibration software...

Which Colour Profile do you have your MacBook Pro monitor set to?

I think part of the issue is that your APhoto document is set to RGB/32 (HDR) rather than RGB/8 or RGB/16 which is what you should be working in...

Are you able to upload the unedited RAW file on it's own so we can take a quick look?

[Pauls]

every time I've calibrated my monitor brightness is usually set quite high so you will be over adjusting to make it look right on your monitor setup. Using the 32 bit Linear colour workspace is contributing to the export problems too  i suspect- I would stick with 16 bit personally and you'll end up with closer matches even if you export to  a std sRGB colour workspace

[Tupperwar]

1 hour ago, carl123 said:

"half brightness"

Merely the brightness of the laptops monitor as on any laptop

 

51 minutes ago, Hangman said:

In an ideal world you would calibrate your monitor using professional calibration software...

used to do that with a Spyder back in the day, now I was hoping to simplify my life a bit haha

 

52 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Which Colour Profile do you have your MacBook Pro monitor set to?

(Apparently,) I've set it to Apple XDR Display (P3-1600nits)

 

52 minutes ago, Hangman said:

I think part of the issue is that your APhoto document is set to RGB/32 (HDR) rather than RGB/8 or RGB/16 which is what you should be working in...

HA! I've set it to 16bit and that does seem to help a lot, though didn't help when continue editing the .afphoto file I shared. When I reopened the CR2 Raw file it turned out that it set itself to RGB/32. Now I've set it to RGB/16 and made a quick test, this seems to work wonders. Can I set the RGB/16 as default ? (opened other Raw files and the showed to use RGB/32 as well by default).

 

59 minutes ago, Hangman said:

Are you able to upload the unedited RAW file on it's own so we can take a quick look?

IMG_1702.CR2   Is it opening with RGB/32 on your end as well? (I checked after developing) or anything else that might be causing such issues ?

 

My test set to RGB/16 looks like this now..

 

[Hangman]

1 hour ago, Tupperwar said:

Can I set the RGB/16 as default ?

You can, you set it in the Develop Assistant... then once you've made all your adjustments in the Develop Persona and click Develop you will end up with a 16 bit image...

[Tupperwar]

Great!! Thanks again so much, I feel quite relieved now that I know it's not such a big issue as I was afraid it would be.

[Hangman]

You are very welcome and happy editing...