Are there auto-enhancement tools in the develop persona in Affinity 2.5.5?

[Dave Wong]

Hi,

  I am relatively new to Affinity Photo 2. Can I ask if there are auto-enhancement tools in the develop persona in Affinity 2.5.5? For instance, there are auto-levels and auto-contrast in the photo persona. Are such options available in the develop persona?

Thanks,

Dave

[Ldina]

@Dave Wong I don't believe the Develop Persona has any auto enhancement tools (if they're there, I can't find them!). There are a few very minor ones you can set using the Assistant, e.g., noise reduction, whether the persona will apply your camera's exposure bias, etc (the Assistant looks like a little robot head in the Develop Persona toolbar. BTW, changes made in the Assistant only take effect when the next RAW image is opened).

You can create Presets in the various panels of the Develop Persona (i.e., Basic, Lens, Detail, Tones and Overlay panels), where you alter color balance, exposure, lens, noise, etc, then save them, but when used, the preset will apply those exact settings you saved (which you can tweak afterwards, if needed). They do not make changes by analyzing the image first (except a few on the Lens Panel, Chromatic Aberration from Image, etc). I do have a number of presets I've created and use them when needed, mainly as a time saver.

I use the Develop Persona to bring a highly editable image into Photo, where I do most of my work non-destructively. To me, a highly editable image is usually one that leaves some headroom at the dark and bright ends of the histogram (no white or black clipping), isn't too contrasty or saturated, avoids undesired shadow or highlight clipping, has a WB that is close, and has a reasonable tonal distribution. Some images are exceptions, of course, but in general, an image like this easy to edit and shape. 

If you're new to Affinity, I suggest experimenting with the RAW Layer Linked or Embedded feature when Developing. This allows you to go back and forth between Photo and the Develop Persona and is non-destructive. If you deliver a Pixel Layer (the traditional approach), edits in the Develop Persona are baked into the image when converting RAW to pixel data. My standard workflow uses RAW Layer Linked when editing. This provides flexibility and keeps my AfPhoto file sizes small. 

[luxBorealis]

Being a Lightroom user, I am new to Affinity Photo 2. I find the lack of Auto Enhancements/Adjustments in the Develop Persona shocking. I am NOT a ‘push button’ processor of images, but having, as a minimum, Auto White Point and Auto Black Point seems essential. Otherwise, it is impossible to accurately nail down each point. Doing it visually is a waste of time as one cannot see precisely where the whitest white and blackest black is on a screen.

[Ldina]

@luxBorealis LR is designed to make quick edits, synchronize them (if desired), etc. AP is designed to be a single image editor (like PS and others), so it’s not designed to be a database digital asset manager/editor. When you develop a RAW file in Develop Persona, you have to bring the image in AP to save or export it, and you have auto adjustments available there if you want to use them, so I don’t see a problem. No, AP doesn’t have white, black and gray pickers in Curves, which would be nice, but I do fine without them.

There are lots of tools available to set whites, grays and blacks, but the two programs have their own ways of doing things. Long-time Adobe users want Affinity to work the way they are accustomed to working (I did too when transitioning). I like some Adobe ways better, but there are some things I like better about Affinity’s way of doing things. And it’s not “impossible” to nail down each point, it’s just done differently. If you plan on using Affinity, you’ll need to accept those differences, until or unless Serif decides to change them.