Affinity Photo - ON1 Photo RAW workflow

[pragmarob]

I'm in the process of de-Adobe-ing my workflow. Affinity Photo seems to almost have parity with Ps features, and after trying out ON1 PR, it seems like a solid DAM and RAW editing software and even has some serverless AI features. My question is about the 'best' workflow to keep things as flexible and non-destructive as possible. Here's my current thinking:

1. ON1 indexes my photos
2. RAW edits/AI/DeNoise in ON1
3. Export a TIFF copy to Affinity for detailed pixel work
4. Finalize the image in Affinity, then save into TIFF with layers

This would keep the RAW files editable through ON1, and the pixel-based edits editable with Affinity Photo, while also maintaining DAM capability in ON1 (ON1, as most other DAMs can't show .afphoto files, and I don't like the idea of adding a third app just for DAM if there's a way to do it with two)

Appreciate any feedback!

[NotMyFault]

Sounds reasonable.

Just note that saving afphoto edits as tiffs does not help with compatibility. The DAM and other apps only read the embedded thumbnail from the TIF (which is a container format kind of agnostic to the actual content), but cannot interpret the layer structure. You still need to export in full resolution without layers, or into a format supporting layers for sharing or viewing the content in full quality.

[Dave.Kelly]

I use On1 and I use .psd as an interchange format. On1 can read these fine and so can AP. There is a preserve layer option in settings for AP.

[pragmarob]

Thanks for the feedback! I don't expect the DAM to see much beyond the embedded thumbnail. Those will be edited in Affinity exclusively, I just want to be able to see a thumbnail, which almost no DAM can for .afphoto files.
 

Dave, do you find an advantage to using PSD over TIFF? Can ON1 do more with PSDs?

[Dave.Kelly]

I used psd as suggested by Scott Davenport or was it free will photos. I do most of my edits in On1 and if I need I use the send to option in On1 browse. It is usually for cutting out selections or the Tone Mapping  persona. I duplicate the layer on import into Affinity then do the business and save, using the browse module of On1 to open the psd file. I have asked about other uses for Affinity in my workflow but there hasnt been any suggestions. I like the Effects module plus local for my editing.

[NotMyFault]

Would be great if one of you can write and share a quick tutorial (tutorial section of the forum) as similar question are raised occasionally 

[Dave.Kelly]

From Scott

https://scottdavenportphoto.com/blog/on1-photo-raw-and-affinity-photo-round-trips-plug-ins?rq=affinity photo

and Free Will Photos

https://youtu.be/Rkv2e2gcCyg

[pragmarob]

Installed Photo RAW 2025 today, and tried to fix a portrait where I had cut off part of a leather jacket

Not using Stability.ai (so local generation) yielded a very ugly result

Kinda disappointed, I don't want to add yet another subscription to fix these kinds of occasional issues

Going to have to think some more on this, if I have to go back to adobe for AI features, might as well go back all the way

[PaoloT]

4 hours ago, pragmarob said:

if I have to go back to adobe for AI features, might as well go back all the way

I would bet there will not be free AI features (apart for appetizers). CPU time has to be paid by someone.

Paolo

 

[pragmarob]

Not free for sure. I actually signed up for stability.ai and used a bit of the free initial credits on that same image, the results weren't any better: low res, ghosting, just ugly.

I'm still paying for photoshop (haven't switched yet, trying things out). The cheap photography plan contains 100 AI credits, based on my usage that should be enough. Honestly, if stability performed well I would have given it serious consideration, but no such luck.

[Beazo]

I found that when using psd from Affinity back into ON1, if I opened the psd in ON1 edit mode, it would create a .onphoto file - even if I didn’t make any edits. It doesn’t do this in the browse module.  I don’t need yet another version of the file. So instead, I send it from Affinity back to ON1 as a layered tiff for asset management and exports into jpg. ON1 can’t see the layers but if I need to edit the layers again I just reopen it in Affinity and save the new edits, which then appear in the same tiff in the ON1 browse.  Similar to a Lightroom > photoshop roundtrip. 

[pragmarob]

That's a great tip! Thank you

I've always been partial to open standard formats, and generally liked TIFF even when using PS. The thing is I later learned that when you save as TIFF (in Affinity or in PS), they're just embedding their proprietary format into a TIFF wrapper. I see that as less of an issue with Affinity, mainly because I own the app. Worst case if I move to an OS that doesn't support it or I decide not to upgrade to Affinity 3 or whatever, I can quickly drop Win10 in a non networked VM and still access my layers