NO HSL colour adjustment in the AF Photo 2 Raw Converter ?

[cloudescape]

Hi, is there really no HSL adjustment  raw module in the AF Photo 2 ? There seems to be no way to adjust specific colour tones, single colour saturation or single colour brightness. Those are basics for any raw converter? Any no option for luma curve?

Greets!

[R C-R]

Curves in Tones will not do what you want?

Also, what do you mean by "single color"? One specific color among the millions the RAW file might include?

[Ldina]

Nope. You’ll have to do that in the Photo Persona. You MUST go to Photo anyway in order to even save your file, so you can do that non-destructively there. I do minimal adjustment in Develop and do most my work in Photo. Just a slightly different way of working.

[Bound by Beans]

In Photo the develop persona processes RAW files granting access to all original image data. Upon developing the image transitions to the photo persona where edits are applied to a rasterized version, potentially limiting adjustments compared to the RAW data. That's precisely the point of working with RAW data.

When converting vibrant photos from RAW to sRGB, certain colors may be lost or altered due to sRGB's narrower color gamut. This is especially noticeable in highly saturated greens and blues, which sRGB cannot fully represent. Consequently, these colors may appear less vivid or slightly different after conversion. To minimize color loss when converting from RAW to sRGB, perform HSL adjustments in the RAW format or within a wider-gamut color space before finalizing in sRGB. The goal is to accurately capture specific colors and ensure they fit within the more limited sRGB or AdobeRGB color spaces -  they are usually the ones to aim for.

In Adobe Camera Raw, the HSL panel is invaluable and wonderful to work with. Other quality RAW converters offer similar robust color tools—because, as I mentioned, the essence of RAW is precisely to edit and ensure colors. Affinity Photo misses the mark entirely.

[Ldina]

20 hours ago, Bound by Beans said:

In Photo the develop persona processes RAW files granting access to all original image data. Upon developing the image transitions to the photo persona where edits are applied to a rasterized version, potentially limiting adjustments compared to the RAW data. That's precisely the point of working with RAW data.

True, especially if making BIG moves in terms of tone, contrast, color, etc. It's always wise that big moves should be made on the RAW data, whenever possible. Affinity offers RAW Layer Linked, which is not available in ACR or LR, so you can go back and forth between personas and reedit RAW data as desired. So, get your tonal range, saturation, contrast and WB close, leaving adequate headroom for further editing when developing RAW files to avoid unnecessary damage, banding, harshness, etc. If that is done, there is plenty of headroom in a 16 bit file for significant adjustment in the Photo Persona without incurring damage. It's the BIG moves that can damage a file (even in a RAW file, though less so).

If one is concerned with maximizing color gamut, why would you export to sRGB to begin with, other than web posting (and most apps and browsers are color managed these days, so that's less of an issue). If exporting to sRGB, you'll end up clipping many carefully wrought colors created in RAW in the 32-bit ROMM RGB color space that is the default working space inside the Develop Persona (and in ACR as well).  

If one uses ACR or LR, and never intends to open the image in PS or AfPhoto, then these tools are understandably more important. Some people want to avoid editing their images a dedicated photo editor entirely, and for that workflow, it makes total sense (and is needed). For those workflows, a dedicated photo editor, like Affinity Photo or PS, is an afterthought and only used when absolutely necessary. Affinity Photo is designed precisely as a dedicated, one-at-a-time photo editor, and ALL images developed in the Develop Persona MUST be sent to Photo, even to simply save or export the file. If that's not your intended workflow, Affinity Photo is the wrong product.

Would it be nice to have these extra tools in the Develop Persona? Sure. Are they really needed? No. I've been doing this professionally for 30 years as a director of marketing and advertising for a large corporation, so I believe I have a pretty good handle on it. 

Are there better, more powerful RAW processors on the market? Yes. Many offer more features, custom profiles, different "flavors", save time, etc. If you don't want to edit the exported RAW file after development, they make sense. I'm all for them and if you like them, use them. If shooting RAW, the best accuracy will almost always be obtained using the OEM's RAW Processing software. Who knows their camera's sensors, algorithms, processing and nuances better? I've used many RAW processors, and my final images wouldn't be any better over what I get using the Affinity Develop Persona combined with AfPhoto. I love that RAW Layer Linked feature, which is an important reason I use the Develop Persona.  It keeps 16-bit file sizes VERY small and allows me to tweak RAW settings at any time, without having to start over (even after performing dozens of local edits in the Photo Persona). I can't do that with any other RAW processors I've tried, including ACR or LR. 

Capture One, DxO, ACR, LR, and other RAW processors all do a great job. No RAW processor is perfectly accurate because all the "colors" generated by a RAW file are synthesized from a table of voltages representing photons, and require algorithms, profiles and compromises to turn them into RGB pixel values. I'm fine with all those Apps and they are very good. The Develop Persona is also good, and like the others, has its strengths and weaknesses. It's designed to be paired directly with Photo, which is where the bulk of one's work should be done if using Affinity. 

[user_0815]

13 hours ago, Bound by Beans said:

In Photo the develop persona processes RAW files granting access to all original image data. Upon developing the image transitions to the photo persona where edits are applied to a rasterized version, potentially limiting adjustments compared to the RAW data. That's precisely the point of working with RAW data.

When converting vibrant photos from RAW to sRGB, certain colors may be lost or altered due to sRGB's narrower color gamut. This is especially noticeable in highly saturated greens and blues, which sRGB cannot fully represent. Consequently, these colors may appear less vivid or slightly different after conversion. To minimize color loss when converting from RAW to sRGB, perform HSL adjustments in the RAW format or within a wider-gamut color space before finalizing in sRGB. The goal is to accurately capture specific colors and ensure they fit within the more limited sRGB or AdobeRGB color spaces -  they are usually the ones to aim for.

In Adobe Camera Raw, the HSL panel is invaluable and wonderful to work with. Other quality RAW converters offer similar robust color tools—because, as I mentioned, the essence of RAW is precisely to edit and ensure colors. Affinity Photo misses the mark entirely.

Yes and no. When moving from the develop to the photo persona, you don't need to go directly to sRGB. You can go to Adobe RGB or a wide gamut (ROMM). This won't clip or criple the colour information. You can do the edits in the Photo persona with all the available tools (HSL, Colour Balance, Selective Colour...).

On a raw file you'll have access to the most amount of data. Most importantly tonal range (clipping), noise and white balance. You can always adjust the raw edits in the develop persona at any time. If I recall correctly from one of James' tutorials, working in 32bit HDR mode is unbounded so you won't even clip the tonal information which is in the raw file. You can set this in the Assistant in the develop persona (RAW output 16 or 32 bit). But I'm not 100% sure on the technical terms here. Perhaps someone else knows more or staff can confirm/correct this.

On the one hand it would be convenient to have more controls in the develop persona. On the ohter hand I find it convenient to have all my detailed adjustments as layers in the Photo persona. Personally I would be fine with either way.

[cloudescape]

How can I make this happen e.g. going to a wide gamut (ROMM) from the the raw converter?

[Ldina]

Tick the Profiles box in the Basic tab, use the Drop Down box and select your desired profile. You can choose any profile installed on your system. 

Another alternative is to set your Default Settings to your desired editing space for RGBA (e.g., Adobe RGB, DCI-P3, ProPhoto, ROMM RGB, etc).

[cloudescape]

Great thanks a lot! Hope the next version will give us HSL and Luma Gradients in Raw and all also all changes for the Gradient Masks.

[user_0815]

On 3/18/2025 at 3:10 PM, cloudescape said:

How can I make this happen e.g. going to a wide gamut (ROMM) from the the raw converter?

In the Develop Persona go to the "Basic" tab right at the bottom below Shadows & Highlights there is "Profile" to set the output colour profile. Now when you switch from the develop persona to the Photo persona, you will work in that particular colour profile. 

 

[NotMyFault]

While having some sympathy for such feature requests, they sound totally surreal as Affinity Photo lacks so many essential capabilities that it makes absolutely no sense to add any new feature unless Affinity gets the basics sorted out.

• Photo unable to render more than 8 bit color depth inside the app (except innRGB/32 mode), on all platforms
• still enforcing dither on gradients in all color depth and color formats
• No support for Camera profiles 
• unable to save recipes and apply to multiple images
• 8—12 month delay to include lensfun updates
• OCIO lagging behind 
• icc v4 color profile issues
• no method to mass-edit many RAW images
• no fast preview of multiple RAW files
• Bad handling of separate path for multiple file types
• forgetting to export metadata or wrongly adjusting metadata
• not handling additional channels in tiff files
• Still no scripting years after teasing the feature in a video
• Develop persona presets are laughable 
• Curves crippled in Develop Persona
• I still hate crop tool despite some improvements and it useless presets and painful UI
• Affinity not remembering user presets 

Develop Persona is a band aid and / alibi function to tick some marketing check boxes and has totally lost contact to all other commercial and free RAW converters.