Problem with opening Canon RAW files - Affinity Photos V2

[Chemicon]

If the RAW file display issue will be resolved? I've seen forum threads about this phenomenon from over a year ago and the issue still persists on macOS Sonoma 14.6.1. Changing the raw engine to Apple's helps somewhat, but the file is still displayed slightly differently than in the manufacturer's program (digital photo professional 4).

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Affinity forums.

It's not clear what Raw file display issue you're talking about. There have been many different issues over the years, and most that I can recall have been with specific new cameras or with specific options that are not supported. There is no such thing as a "Canon RAW file". Each specific camera model creates its own files, and each must be treated differently by applications.

So:

1. What camera are you working with?
2. What issue are you having? Or which issue are you talking about, if it is already mentioned in the forums?

[NotMyFault]

10 hours ago, Chemicon said:

but the file is still displayed slightly differently than in the manufacturer's program (digital photo professional 4).

No app, even Photoshop, will produce the same result as DPP for reasons explain over and over again in the older posts.

If getting identical results is critical for your work, use DPP for RAW development.

many users want to use more creative workflows like panorama stitching, stacking, etc and then the differences do not matter. If they do, use DPP and export as tiff/16 and do the later steps in Photo.

[Chemicon]

Thank you for the quick reply.

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There is no such thing as a "Canon RAW file"

I thought that the .CR3 format was a certain Canon standard, so I wrote "Canon RAW file". I didn't know that the files differ depending on the camera model. I'm sorry.

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1. What issue are you having? Or which issue are you talking about, if it is already mentioned in the forums?

This is a link to a thread that describes a quite similar problem:

I set the recommended option in this thread and it is much better, but there are still differences. Currently, the difference in the photos looks a bit like in this thread:

A little bit of informations about my setup: 

Canon EOS 250d 50mm f/1.8 (.CR3 files)

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No app, even Photoshop, will produce the same result as DPP for reasons explain over and over again in the older posts

I understand that different software may show RAW files slightly differently, but it is strange that the free RawTherapee program shows them apparently like in DPP4 and the paid Affinity photos spoils the colors so much. From the second thread I mentioned, thomaso said: "The forum has reports that some image capture information contained in RAW metadata is ignored when opened in Affinity, but taken into account when opened in the camera brand's software. This may be inconvenient but a way to do initial development … and then continue in Affinity.". From what I understand, the problem is in the RAW engine. Since I'm experiencing a similar situation, the problem must still exist. Moreover, if some data is lost, as thomaso wrote, you will not be able to extract as much from such a photo as you can in another program. I admit that this worries me a little. I thought I could use this program to process RAW files which has more RAW processing capabilities than DPP4.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[walt.farrell]

18 minutes ago, Chemicon said:

From what I understand, the problem is in the RAW engine. Since I'm experiencing a similar situation, the problem must still exist. Moreover, if some data is lost, as thomaso wrote, you will not be able to extract as much from such a photo as you can in another program. I admit that this worries me a little. I thought I could use this program to process RAW files which has more RAW processing capabilities than DPP4.

The issue is that software from the camera manufacturer understands more of the manufacturer-specific (and sometimes proprietary) data than Affinity understands. With Affinity you are starting with the actual Raw data, without all the camera settings applied that the camera would use to produce a JPG.

You can still produce an image that looks like the camera's JPG image would look, but you have to do a bunch of work manually, and learn how to adjust your camera's Raw images to incorporate those automatic camera functions.

Some other Raw developer programs may apply more of the built-in camera settings, if they understand them all. Or they may provide some subset. But camera manufacturers are always making small changes to the format and content of the data they record. Sometimes that will happen even within the same camera model with different builds of the camera firmware.

Affinity Photo just gives you the image data that is physically present in the file, and not the information about any adjustments the camera suggests based on various image modes you may be using from the camera settings (which are really for the JPG files it produces).

[Chemicon]

I discovered something very strange. I started changing the option in Develop Assistant settings to whatever and testing, then I went back to the settings I had at the beginning, but it didn't help. Then I turned off the laptop and when I turned it on again and opened the file again, the image looks a little bit different. I am sending in the attachment what the problem looked like for me before:

DPP4:.

AP2 Serif Labs:

AP2 Apple:

After restarting the computer, the photo looks like this in affinity photos with default settings:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 8, 2024 by Chemicon

[Chemicon]

Quote

The issue is that software from the camera manufacturer understands more of the manufacturer-specific (and sometimes proprietary) data than Affinity understands. With Affinity you are starting with the actual Raw data, without all the camera settings applied that the camera would use to produce a JPG.

You can still produce an image that looks like the camera's JPG image would look, but you have to do a bunch of work manually, and learn how to adjust your camera's Raw images to incorporate those automatic camera functions.

Some other Raw developer programs may apply more of the built-in camera settings, if they understand them all. Or they may provide some subset. But camera manufacturers are always making small changes to the format and content of the data they record. Sometimes that will happen even within the same camera model with different builds of the camera firmware.

Affinity Photo just gives you the image data that is physically present in the file, and not the information about any adjustments the camera suggests based on various image modes you may be using from the camera settings (which are really for the JPG files it produces).

Thanks for the clarification. Now I understand. I thought information was being lost related to the raw data itself.

[walt.farrell]

3 minutes ago, Chemicon said:

I started changing the option in Develop Assistant settings to whatever and testing, then I went back to the settings I had at the beginning, but it didn't help.

You should Cancel the Develop process, modify the Assistant Settings, and re-Open the image. Changes to the Assistant Settings may not affect files that are already in-process.

[Chemicon]

3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

You should Cancel the Develop process, modify the Assistant Settings, and re-Open the image. Changes to the Assistant Settings may not affect files that are already in-process.

Maybe I haven't done this before. Anyway, thank you for explaining where these differences come from. The most important thing for me is that this lost data does not affect the information that is important in the photo processing itself, but is only additional information generated by the camera.

[NotMyFault]

55 minutes ago, Chemicon said:

understand that different software may show RAW files slightly differently, but it is strange that the free RawTherapee program shows them apparently like in DPP4 and the paid Affinity photos spoils the colors so much

Affiniy uses LibRaw in general, the same raw engine is used by RawTherapy. But there is one exception: Affinity implemented own code for CR3 file at a time where this format was missing in libRaw. I don't know if Affinity removed this own code after libRaw started to support CR3.

Then, Affinity does not apply any shareping, saturation increase, noise reduction etc by default, in contrast to almost every other App on earth.

Assistant settings like exposure bias and apply tone curve may further increase the rendering differences.

And Affinity lacks behind RawTherapy by typically > 6-12 month due to the relase cycle. It may got a little faster as Affinity reduced the time between releases.