Move photo from Photos into Affinity, edit it then move back into Photos

[Fred Luskin]

I want to edit a Photos picture in Affinity. How do I move that picture into Affinity from either "Extensions" in the Photos editing domaine or directly from Photos into Affinity THEN move the edited picture back into Photos replacing the original?

[MEB]

Hi Fred Luskin,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

You can use Affinity Photo Media Browser (menu View ▸ Media Browser...) to browse the images in Apple Photos library. Double-click them to open in Affinity, edit the image then go to menu Save and select Save Flattened. Note there's no way to recover the original image in Apple Photos if you only have a JPG version there (no RAW). You may want to duplicate the image in Apple Photos first before editing it in Affinity Photo.

 

You can also access Apple Photos library in Affinity Photo going to menu File ▸ Open... then scrolling down a little to the Media section (on the left) in the Open dialog.

[R C-R]

External Editors for Photos is an extension for the OS X Photos app that is cheap ($0.99 US) & getting very good reviews in the Mac App Store, including one from a user who says it works well with Affinity. I have not bought it (yet) but I think several Affinity forum users have & also have reported good results when using it with it Affinity Photo.

 

Note that it requires OS X 10.11 El Capitan or later since earlier OS versions do not support extensions for the Photos app.

[MEB]

Currently the External Editors extension only offers one advantage due to a bug in Affinity Photo - it correctly writes the JPG as en edited version in Apple Photos which allows to recover the original JPG stored in Apple Photos if necessary. It doesn't offer any advantage when working with RAW files since it can't keep track of the image after sending it to Affinity Photo as a RAW file.

[R C-R]

MEB, thanks for the clarification about the bug with RAW files. Still, I think for the price it is probably worth getting -- perhaps the bug (in Affinity, right?) will be fixed at some point in the not too distant future; & even if it is not, the extension would be handy to have for use with other graphics editors ... & maybe some of the stand alone versions of the now free Nik collection, too?

[MEB]

The bug refers to how Affinity sends back the JPG to Apple Photos - apparently it overwrites the original. The RAW files don't work because the file is sent as a RAW to Affinity Photo and then processed to Photo Persona and saved either as an .afphoto file which the extension doesn't recognise or exported to a format of your choice and in this case the extension can't keep track of the file.

 

As an extension itself, yes its quite useful and worth the price. I've bought it myself as soon as i knew about it.

[Bewildered21]

I am also having trouble with this.  I can open the photo from Photos on my Mac ok in Affinity, work on it but then I can't export it back to Photos.  I export it to desktop, but when I try and move it back into Photos it tell me it is an Unsupported File Type.  I am not up with all the technical stuff.  I just need some simple step by step instructions on how to get my edited photo back into Photos.  Is there a way to do it?  I apologise if this has already been answered before.