Affinity Photo 2 display color problem

[Dave T24]

Affinity is not rendering colors accurately in Develop (Image 2) - very dark

Color Management settings are SRGB.  I tried changing to my Benq profile, but it made no difference 

All other software on my Windows 11 PC renders accurately (Image 1)

 

I want to end my Photoshop subscription and change to Affinity if I can solve this problem

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2024 by Dave T24
Photo sequence numbers

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Affinity forums, @Dave T24.

Many RAW developer applications apply a bunch of default adjustments to the files, but in general Affinity does not. It is thus common for files to look darker when initially Opened for development in Affinity Photo, until you apply some adjustments to them. You are getting more-or-less the RAW data as actually recorded in the camera sensor.

You can specify some options via the Assistant options in the Photo Settings, such as applying a Default Tone Curve, which may help. Note that you may need to close and reopen the image for the changes to take effect, though.

Perhaps this explains what you're seeing.

[mopperle]

1 hour ago, Dave T24 said:

All other software on my Windows 11 PC renders accurately (Image 1)

To add: most other software just displays the embedded (and already developed) jpeg. When I open a RAW file in a software like FastRawViewer which displays just the RAW data, pictures look totally different then e.g. in Lightroom, DxO Photolab or any other RAW-Developer.

[Dave T24]

I have now checked that the problem is related to the way Affinity displays my camera raw file - Sony A7R V

In Photoshop camera raw it is fine, but in Affinity it is much darker 

 

Edited November 6, 2024 by Dave T24

[mopperle]

You didnt read the posts with explanations?

[Pšenda]

8 hours ago, Dave T24 said:

but in Affinity it is much darker 

As explained in previous posts, this is the desired behavior of developing RAW files.

https://www.google.com/search?q=dark+RAW+site:forum.affinity.serif.com

[Dave T24]

Yes, I read the previous posts but not sure which is best answer, as all my other software also opens a raw file at the start, with much superior visibility.

So I asked Affinity support and got a solution as follows:

• In Photo 2 go to Settings -> Assistant
• Select ‘Develop Assistant’ to bring up a separate menu
• Set the ‘Tone Curve’ setting to ‘Apply Tone curve’
• Close the Develop assistant and settings
• Open the RAW file again
  
  Not sure why this is not a default setting, as it implies camera profile is lacking

Edited November 6, 2024 by Dave T24

[Pšenda]

7 minutes ago, Dave T24 said:

So I asked Affinity support and got a solution as follows:

Do you mean what Walt already recommended?

23 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

You can specify some options via the Assistant options in the Photo Settings, such as applying a Default Tone Curve, which may help. Note that you may need to close and reopen the image for the changes to take effect, though.

[Dave T24]

As a new Affinity user and member of this group it would be helpful if any suggestions not only suggest what I should do to correct this problem, but why.

Walter walt.farrell  can you explain why this is needed ?

 

I can see that it does improve the Raw file interpretation

 

Edited November 6, 2024 by Dave T24

[Pšenda]

9 minutes ago, Dave T24 said:

Walter walt.farrell  can you explain why this is needed ?

This is also stated here:

On 11/5/2024 at 4:34 PM, walt.farrell said:

Many RAW developer applications apply a bunch of default adjustments to the files, but in general Affinity does not. It is thus common for files to look darker when initially Opened for development in Affinity Photo, until you apply some adjustments to them. You are getting more-or-less the RAW data as actually recorded in the camera sensor.

It's simply Affinity's approach to develop RAW files that leaves it up to the user to do what they need and see fit, not what the application thinks they'll want to do. And either the user does it himself or uses the help of an assistant.

[Dave T24]

Thanks everyone. After looking at more raw files I can now see that the Assistant setting automatically adjusts the histogram to either reduce shadows and / or highlights if needed.  

[Old Bruce]

54 minutes ago, Dave T24 said:

Thanks everyone. After looking at more raw files I can now see that the Assistant setting automatically adjusts the histogram to either reduce shadows and / or highlights if needed.  

<Pedant on>

The image is adjusted, not the histogram. The histogram merely reports the dark/light areas in the image.

<Pedant off>

[Dave T24]

I know the image is changed, but its easier to see how it was changed in the histogram. Please do not assume complete ignorance

 

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, Dave T24 said:

Not sure why this is not a default setting, as it implies camera profile is lacking

I am not sure what you mean by "camera profile," since cameras do not as a rule do more than minimal processing on RAW sensor data, although they typically create thumbnail images that are used for in-camera previews and/or JPEG file output.

Anyway, you can set the Develop Assistant Settings for tone mapping, noise reduction, exposure bias, etc. to whatever you want, each of which will have some effect on how much or little pre-processing is done to to that data to produce a usable image.

There is a lot of good info about RAW files in the RAW, Actually Spotlight article.

[walt.farrell]

Note that the "default tone curve" you can tell Photo to apply is a generic one that is likely to work better on some images than on others. You may be better off learning how to do some adjustments in the Develop Persona manually to get an image you like, which you can then tailor to the camera you're using and the specific conditions that apply to each image.