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Questions on exposure merging?


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In reviewing the tutorial videos I've a few questions on exposure merging.

 

When, and why, to choose between Manual Exposure Merging and Stacking Exposure Merging?

 

What difference will HDR offer in a future version of Affinity Photo over Exposure Merging?

 

I see in the Stacking Exposure Merging the sample uses TIFF files. Can this be done with RAW files and or JPG's? or Affinity Photo files?

 

Is there a reason the start files were TIFFS and not JPGs?

 

So if one needs a TIFF or other file format, does one fully develop RAW files if that's what one is shooting, before merging the exported TIFF file?

 

What is the workflow difference if one starts with RAW?

 

Thanks in advance for any enlightenment on these processes.

 

Cheers - Timber

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Hi Timber, thanks for posting, hope these answer your questions:

 

When, and why, to choose between Manual Exposure Merging and Stacking Exposure Merging?

 

Stacking automatically aligns your images and is a quicker process, that's all there is to it! Manual exposure merging involves aligning the images by hand then masking specific areas. It's more precise but also more time consuming.

 

What difference will HDR offer in a future version of Affinity Photo over Exposure Merging?

 

HDR is a different beast entirely. With exposure merging you're simply merging exposures in an 8-bit or 16-bit integer document to "average" the exposures. HDR will work in 32-bit floating point and you'll be able to use tone mapping and exposure fusion to achieve the results HDR is more typically associated with.

 

I see in the Stacking Exposure Merging the sample uses TIFF files. Can this be done with RAW files and or JPG's? or Affinity Photo files?

 

Yes, you can stack any image format that Photo supports, including RAW. Stacking RAW files takes a little longer as Photo has to decode them first.

 

Is there a reason the start files were TIFFS and not JPGs?

 

TIFFs are lossless (I'm a quality control freak!).

 

So if one needs a TIFF or other file format, does one fully develop RAW files if that's what one is shooting, before merging the exported TIFF file?

 

No, you can just add your RAW files straight into the Stacking file dialog, no need to spend time developing them beforehand.

 

What is the workflow difference if one starts with RAW?

 

None, it just takes a little longer. It's worth noting that your RAW files will be decoded using whichever RAW engine you've chosen in the Develop persona (see video Maximising Raw Latitude for more info).

 

 

Hope that helps!

 

Thanks

Product Expert (Affinity Photo) & Product Expert Team Leader

@JamesR_Affinity for tutorial sneak peeks and more
Official Affinity Photo tutorials

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