Pito Salas Posted July 20, 2023 Share Posted July 20, 2023 From what I can tell, Affinity itself doesn't help me much with my thousands of images. I've been using MacOS Photos.app for that. But I bet it's not the best way. I don't find the combination that convenient. What do you do, what's your best practice? For context, assume a MacOS and thousands of photos currently stored in/with Photos.app. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff stokerg Posted July 21, 2023 Staff Share Posted July 21, 2023 Hi @Pito Salas, I personally use and have always used an organised folder structure in Finder to organise my images from my DSLR, which suits me great and has for years now. I only use the Photos.app to store images shot on my iPhone. I know some users use DAM (digital assets management) software for managing their collection and it would be worth either waiting for a reply from them or doing a search of the Forums for 'DAM recommendations' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardMH Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 Neofinder might do what you want. I use the windows version so not sure about macs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v_kyr Posted July 21, 2023 Share Posted July 21, 2023 There is NO best practice, just different workflows & tools which work for individual users and might for others (due to certain individual reasons/demands) possibly not. - Overall the whole is more a matter of image organization/management, image tagging, adding additional searchable meta information to images, etc. Thus for finding and referencing stored images. So there are different approaches possible like using ... Plain File/Folder (Finder/system) based organizations Image Viewer/Browser software usage, based on structured folder and/or an internal accompanied database More mature Image Cataloging software, which usually comes with some own database system along Using a DAM (Digital Assets Software), where a real DAM offers much more things here than all the before named software tools For simple image management even free opensource projects like Darktable could be used. And for overall more/better image cataloging digiKam could be used. - Though Apple macOS Photos offers partly similar things here. PaulEC 1 Quote ☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan ☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pito Salas Posted July 23, 2023 Author Share Posted July 23, 2023 My preference is to continue using macOS photos.app. It does the job ok for me. It has nice cloud based saving, searching, face recognition etc but… it seems that if I launch affinity from photos.app and the save, the resulting history (.aphoto file) is not saved. Is the same true for other photo cataloging apps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markw Posted July 24, 2023 Share Posted July 24, 2023 21 hours ago, Pito Salas said: it seems that if I launch affinity from photos.app and the save, the resulting history (.aphoto file) is not saved. After editing an image stored in Apple Photos with Affinity Photo you can still access the “temporary” working file that AP created during the editing process by going to Recent in AP where it will be called; Apple Photos Document. Reopen it and then use ‘Save As…’ if you wish to permanently keep it. Note that this document will only contain the last Apple Photos image to have been edited in this way, so if you are wanting to keep AP working files for multiple images stored in Apple Photos you need to do the 'Save As…' thing immediately after processing each Apple Photos image. Quote macOS 10.15.7 | 15" Macbook Pro, 2017 | 4 Core i7 3.1GHz CPU | Radeon Pro 555 2GB GPU + Integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 1.536GB | 16GB RAM | Wacom Intuos4 M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R C-R Posted July 24, 2023 Share Posted July 24, 2023 5 hours ago, markw said: Note that this document will only contain the last Apple Photos image to have been edited in this way, so if you are wanting to keep AP working files for multiple images stored in Apple Photos you need to do the 'Save As…' thing immediately after processing each Apple Photos image. It may be different in later or other versions of Apple Photos than I use with Catalina but for me, Save as.. is always greyed out when using Edit in AP from Apple Photos. To keep an independent version of the Apple Photos file to edit in AP (or any other app) in Apple Photos I use the File > Export ... option in that app. Quote All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7 Affinity Photo 1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artbsurf Posted July 24, 2023 Share Posted July 24, 2023 Does Neofinder actually let you link it to photo2 for edit. Since Affinity won't fix their .exe problem, or include a viewer in the app, I need a different file viewer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markw Posted July 24, 2023 Share Posted July 24, 2023 I perhaps could have been clearer🤔, sorry!☺️ After the edited file has gone back to Apple Photos (my version is; Version 5.0 (161.0.120) ), in Affinity Photo (current retail and latest beta version) go to: File > Open Recent or use the 'Recent' tab in the Account window. There is where I see the “temporary” .aphoto file called ‘Apple Photos Document’. I can reopen it again now in Affinity Photo and use ‘Save As…’ to keep it in a new location of my choice. Interestingly, if after passing the edited image back to Apple Photos, Apple Photos then claims that it has encountered a problem and does’t retain the edits made by Affinity Photo, all is not lost. As the temporary working file with all the edits is still available in Affinity Photo it can be reopened and the image exported manually from it, in the format of your choice, which can the be added to Apple Photos as a new import. Quote macOS 10.15.7 | 15" Macbook Pro, 2017 | 4 Core i7 3.1GHz CPU | Radeon Pro 555 2GB GPU + Integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 1.536GB | 16GB RAM | Wacom Intuos4 M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardMH Posted July 24, 2023 Share Posted July 24, 2023 6 hours ago, artbsurf said: Does Neofinder actually let you link it to photo2 for edit. Since Affinity won't fix their .exe problem, or include a viewer in the app, I need a different file viewer. I run the Windows version abeMeda and the short answer there is yes. Disadvantage is it doesn't do "live" catalogue updates. So more for the heavy lifting. I use FastRawViewer and Affinity Photo itself to manage my day to day editing. FastRawViewer also works with MSIX but sadly doesn't list .afphoto files. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pellefridell Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 Hi!! Just wanted to share my found and experiences trying to find a replacement for Aperture. I'm just a hobby photographer. I really have tried Apple Photos but it gets complicated when wanting to store pictures on external disks, and rating (using tags), and have not managed to get "finding missing pictures" to work properly. I might get it a third og fourth chance.. 🙂 I don't want to go subscription on LR or Capture One, and the price for a perpetual on Capture one is a bit steep (€349, but it might be the solution) At the moment I'm using ACD See, working quite well but is more a viewer. So if you store pictures manually in folders its really good. It does display .afphoto files (but that might be something with Serif's implementation of thumbnails in MacOS). I'm on version 8 (OSX Sonoma) and have not upgraded to 10. Best, Pelle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loukash Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 3 hours ago, pellefridell said: a replacement for Aperture Aperture may still work on current MacOS with a little help from Retroactive: https://github.com/cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive While I can't report anything about Aperture as I never had a license, Retroactive does work, and thanks to it I'm successfully using my beloved iTunes 10.7 (!) on MacOS Ventura… Quote MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StMichealMinion Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Having just purchased Affinity Photo I am confused on this subject. For example: I can open a picture from my macOS Photos.app but when select save I do not see the changes in the Photos.app. Where did it save too? Is the only solution to export the photo to the file system then import into the photos.app? What workflow works best, especially when dealing with raw files? Thank you in advance for any help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardMH Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 It will be saved as a .afphoto file. Click on Open Recent and it should be there. I don't have a Mac so don't know if Photos.app can see .afphoto files. When you hit Save it should give you a window where you can choose where to save it. If you want a tiff or jpeg use Export. Workflow depends on how you've set things up in your file system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StMichealMinion Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 1 minute ago, RichardMH said: It will be saved as a .afphoto file. Click on Open Recent and it should be there. I don't have a Mac so don't know if Photos.app can see .afphoto files. When you hit Save it should give you a window where you can choose where to save it. If you want a tiff or jpeg use Export. Workflow depends on how you've set things up in your file system. Thank you for your response. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R C-R Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 4 hours ago, StMichealMinion said: I can open a picture from my macOS Photos.app but when select save I do not see the changes in the Photos.app. Where did it save too? How exactly are you opening the file in Affinity Photo? Where is the file located, somewhere in Photos Library.photoslibrary in your Home folder or somewhere else? The usual way to edit a Photos library file in AP is to open it in the Mac Photos app, click on the Edit Photo button, & then from the Extensions popup list choose Affinity Photo. Is that what you are doing? Quote All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7 Affinity Photo 1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StMichealMinion Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 (edited) @R C-R Yes that is exactly how I am doing it. It fails repeatedly. You save then close and then are returned to the Photos.app window to save changes, that is when the failure occurs. Edited February 18 by StMichealMinion grammer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loukash Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 1 hour ago, RichardMH said: don't know if Photos.app can see .afphoto files It can't. You need to export as JPEG, TIFF or similar. Quote MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StMichealMinion Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 (edited) The point is that the software can directly receive files from the photos.app but can't replace the finished product back in photos.app in a seamless way. Edited February 18 by StMichealMinion replace typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R C-R Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 8 minutes ago, StMichealMinion said: The point is that the software can directly receive files from the photos.app but can replace the finished product back in photos.app in a seamless way. Are you saying it can do that or is that a typo? Quote All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7 Affinity Photo 1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StMichealMinion Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 typo, I meant CAN'T Good catch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardMH Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 XnView is a popular viewer and sees .afphoto files. John_the_heroic_coward 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StMichealMinion Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Thank you @RichardMH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v_kyr Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 On 1/12/2024 at 3:45 PM, loukash said: Aperture may still work on current MacOS with a little help from Retroactive: https://github.com/cormiertyshawn895/Retroactive While I can't report anything about Aperture as I never had a license ... Of course it does ... loukash 1 Quote ☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan ☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StMichealMinion Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Thank you for your reply @v_kyr. I am avoiding loading helper apps that I can't verify and I expect Affinity to have an answer. Which I doubt they do since this issue has been around for years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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