Raw developing

[Stefan Johnsson]

Hey!

Just got Affinity Photo. It looks promising, but it's very different from the Camera Raw to Photoshop workflow I'm use to. I process, or develop to use your term, in Camera raw. The changes I do there are always "saved". Not sure how it works just that I can open the file again and the changes are there. I assume it's a profile that is applied and that camera raw links to that file. Is there any way to do that in Affinity? I get that I can save in the Affinity file format, but this creates a file 10 times bigger or more. I also get that I can save a profile in the develop persona, but it's not linked to any image. What am I missing here? 

 

The other thing is lens correction. Is there a way to add corrections from Canon like in Camera raw? 

 

Alos, it looks like Affinity is using a lot more CPU because the fan on my Macbook Pro is working hard after a few minutes of work with Raw files. With Camera Raw or Photoshop it never does that. Any reason for this?

 

Lastly, masking when applying sharpening to a raw file I could not see an option for. Is this available in the develop persona?

 

Thanks,

Stefan Johnsson

[MEB]

Hi Stefan Johnsson,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

 

1. Camera RAW uses sidecar .xmp files (depends on Preferences set up) to store the changes/edits you perform on each RAW file so you can retrieve/edit them later. Currently Affinity doesn't support non-destructive RAW editing, so there's no way to keep your changes other than exporting the adjustment's presets as a generic independent files which you can apply to any RAW image. Saving the file in our native file format will not retain Develop Persona adjustements. As soon as you press the Develop button the adjustments are applied "destructively" to the I'mage.

 

2. Currently there's no automatic/profiled lens correction yet. There's a Profiles adjustment in the Basic panel but it's not functional yet. You can do it manually from the Lens panel in the Lens Correction section/sliders. You can also change the RAW engine used by Affinity Photo to Apple (Core Image RAW) which do apply lens correction to the image.

 

3. What's the format (RAW) and size of the images you are working with?

 

4. You can use overlays to mask specific adjustments from the Basic panel. Check the Overlays panel on the right of the interface (Develop Persona only).

 

You are continuously improving Affinity Photo so some of those features may come in future version/updates.

[Stefan Johnsson]

Thanks for the reply!

 

All those answers are a bummer, and real deal breakers for me to use the program. Why is it designed like that?

 

Any idea how you ask for a refund?

[MEB]

Hi Stefan,

Affinity Photo is relatively recent. We are still adding/improving workflows/features.

Take a look at the latest Beta's thread here to get an idea of what's coming.

We also intend to launch our DAM solution later which will work seamlessly with Affinity Photo.

Regarding lens correction you can also change the RAW engine used by Affinity Photo to Apple (Core Image RAW) which do apply lens correction to the image.

 

You can get a refund clicking on the Report a Problem link on the invoice you will receive from Apple on your e-mail.

[Stefan Johnsson]

Thanks for the fast reply! I asked for a refund like you suggested. 

 

I would really like to use the app but with without a non-destructive raw processing workflow it's not useful to me. Hope you guys make that happen and I can come back. 

[MJSfoto1956]

FWIW, I use DxO Optics Pro for all my RAW processing and wouldn't dream of changing my (destructive) conversion methodology. I'm a happy camper with Affinity Photo as is (although it would be cool to integrate with DxO, hint hint). YMMV.

 

Michael

[Stefan Johnsson]

MJSfoto 1956: You want to use a different program than Affinity for raw processing and your still happy with Affinity's methodology? Would it not be better if Affinity's develop persona supported non-destructive raw like DxO Optics Pro? Then you could use that part of Affinity instead of buying and using two programs.  

 

MEB: I forgot to answer that the raw files are Canon's CR2. When save in the Affinity format a file that's only been processed becomes around 300mb. 

[Fixx]

Some of us prefer to use separate non-destructive raw developer/DAM and do just the pixel honing in AP. There are some merits in keeping these separate.

[MJSfoto1956]

MJSfoto 1956: You want to use a different program than Affinity for raw processing and your still happy with Affinity's methodology? Would it not be better if Affinity's develop persona supported non-destructive raw like DxO Optics Pro? Then you could use that part of Affinity instead of buying and using two programs.  

 

 

Yes. I doubt Affinity Engineers (good as they are) will be able to match, much less surpass, DxO's engineers with regard to RAW processing (and vice versa). This is why I would like to see AP do a better job "integrating" with the top RAW processors out there.  YMMV

 

Michael

[Ulysses]

Some of us prefer to use separate non-destructive raw developer/DAM and do just the pixel honing in AP. There are some merits in keeping these separate.

 

My thoughts exactly. At least for the present time, I see Affinity Photo as a brand new piece of software that may well become part of my larger goal of making a break from the Adobe products. While all of the features we're accustomed to using for a long time now in Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom are not yet present in AP, the developers seem to be getting there in surprisingly quick fashion. 

 

That's okay with me because AP has a rather deep learning curve, and it's going to take time to make a full transition anyway. When you're in the middle of a busy work season, time is at a premium, so I can continue to learn the AP interface and tools while the developers continue to improve it.  :) 

 

For now, AP is mostly like Photoshop without the camera raw module depth, even though it's certainly able to work with raw files. 

[Stefan Johnsson]

I also prefer the raw processing separate from my photo editing like how Photoshop/Camera Raw works. That separate but integrated workflow is what I was hoping for. The choice of the modules or personas in one app seemed like a strange choice to me. Would in not work more efficient if they where separate apps?

 

I don't want to sound like it's not great that someone is working on an alternative to Adobe. I get that this is very hard to do.

 

My disappointment with Affinity Photo is that the description sounded like it already had a full Photoshop replacement workflow.

[David4]

Hi Stefan,

Should you really actually receive a 'refund' let all of us know.

I tried the refund thing, and was told NO! ! ! ! .  Now I am delighted is was refused.   I have learned more about Affinity Photo, and learning AF is a pleasure.

 

You can get a refund clicking on the Report a Problem link on the invoice you will receive from Apple on your e-mail.

 

Kind Regards,

 

David

[Stefan Johnsson]

Will let you know... If Affinity don't do refunds they have every right to. I just thought I would ask because I have no real use for the editing part without a solid reliable processing module.

 

What is your workflow from raw to jpg with Affinity? Do you keep the 300mb files around? Do you use the develop persona?

 

I just did very minimum edits in Photoshop because I could get very close to a look I liked with just Camera Raw with most photos. Just don't like Adobe and there prescription model.

[Stefan Johnsson]

There was a promotional link to DxO Optics Pro 9 for free at Dpreview... so I tried it. It does not have local adjustments available.

 

Now I understand that with a separate non-destructive raw developer, and photo editor you're talking about no local adjustments at all in the raw stage. I don't understand what the benefit of that would be, other than maybe ease of use in the tool you make the adjustment with.

 

Surely, you will have more latitude to work with in the raw file? So, doing at least a rough targeted adjustment at that stage must then give a better image quality, no? Not even with a gradient filter in the sky? If there's something I'm missing here I want to learn.

 

Thanks!

[Stefan Johnsson]

Ok, I was watching some tutorials and learned the trick of doing two separate raw processing and then merging them in a photo editor then combining them by selecting the exposure you want. This should work as way to get the same latitude as local raw adjustments. Will work on that.