Edited Photos-Where are they?

[cburton13]

I am new to photo editing and just downloaded Affinity Photo.  I have seen some of the tutorials, however, I have not been able to find my edited photos except by right clicking on the Affinity icon and then clicking on photo in the list.  Is there a file they are stored in?

[R C-R]

They are stored wherever you save them to, like with any other app.

[mur_phy]

seems to be a bit of confusion. An application (app) or Program usually will have a default location chosen by the application developer but that can be changed by the user.

 

An image file edited in AP is still a file and you store files on your disk drive of choice and usually in a folder specific to the type/time/location etc so usually you will have created a folder for newly created files likely made by some camera/phone device.

 

When you do your original Save As you will have the opportunity to navigate your computer folders and select the location where you wish the file to reside. Also at that time, you may rename or add more detail to the current name of the file (personally if it is a camera created file I like to keep the file number even though more info is added) and click on save. With AP this will save the file with their proprietary file name .afphoto.

 

In order to view this image outside of an Affinity program, while the file is still open in AP again go to File and then look to the bottom of the list and click on Export. From there you will select the type of file extension you wish to save the file as and this usually will be .jpg but other choices are available.

 

You can repeat the process if you want the file to be saved in other file extensions at any time from the location where you saved the .afphoto (usually in the same location but personal preference may dictate one filing the images in different locations. Personally, I keep all edits in a folder called "edited" and then if I want duplicate .jpgs, I simply copy them elsewhere).

 

One additional comment -- please BU BU BU and I do mean that in triplicate. As an Admin in PC Tech in Paltalk, I so often have seen users come into the room with crocodile tears because they have lost their valuable image files. Something that is important to you should have a continuous B ack U p plus duplicate BU at least monthly with one secure locally and one secure externally off premises. Also, a BU on the same drive as the originals is not really a BU particularly if there is a full system failure. It is always a good idea to use a separate HDD for your documents including image files and the do the triple BU on External drives.

 

 

[RCIS719]

If I may jump in and add to this question.  I am new to photo editing as well, so this may be a ridiculous question, but, are your photos stored online, or are they stored on your computer? I am assuming they are stored on your computer.

[mur_phy]

Where you store images is strictly up to the user. Under most circumstances, a user will save to a local hard drive on the computer. As I mentioned above, it is a good idea, if you plan to do a lot of photography and image editing to have a secondary HDD to store your data which will include images. Then BU BU BU.

 

Now if you are going to be operating as a business, I would also recommend using a computer and BU drives that NEVER are connected to the internet and I would not even network those computers to a computer that is connected to the internet. If you are planning to send images to social media, clients etc. then transfer images via an SD card or thumb drive. Personally, if I was still operating a business, I would also format those devices after each usage or at least run a scan on each drive with my AV and Anti malware software.

 

Nothing worse than losing important personal or business images. Over the 17 years as an admin in PC Tech in Paltalk I have lost count of the number of times I have seen users come to the room in tears over having lost images from their system which have been important family or vacation images with no BU of those files.

 

Remember Murphy's Law -- If it is going to happen, it probably will. Also, it is not IF an HDD will fail, but WHEN!

 

Of course, also, if you want make use of Cloud storage but don't rely on that as your only source of BU. BU where you have control. Also be sure to have one BU off premises or at least how you can get it off premises very quickly. 

 

HTH

[RCIS719]

Thank you Mur_phy.  One additional question.  I have not yet chosen an editing program (I am a year in to the SLR world, and until next week, I have not had a computer that would support any program), though I am leaning toward Affinity, after some research (which, obviously is continuing).  I read on another forum post on here that Affinity does not currently have any kind of way to organize your photos in storage (separate files).  Is this accurate?  All your photos are just lumped in together? Also, I believe that post was specifically regarding the new Windows version; I would be using the Mac version. Is there a functionality difference between the two versions?

[mur_phy]

I suspect what you are speaking of is a program such as Lightroom or ON1 which have similar but different means of organizing images and doing ratings. Personally, I have never bothered spending time rating images. One, I don't take dozens and dozens of images, hoping or perhaps being able to choose what is best. I have to retrain myself to do this as for 33 years, I worked with a film camera and every time I turned the crank of the Hasselblad I had to say to myself -- $1. That was the cost of that frame of film and its processing and was not re-usable. Today we use image capture cards that are re-usable for years.

 

ON1 and Affinity are similar but somewhat currently different but I think soon Affinity will be adding a built in Browser. Both then will simply point the location on your own HDD where you put the images that you capture via your Camera/phone.

 

Just like any file that you create, you will simply make a folder and store images therein. I don't use MAC but let me explain further.

 

On a Windows O/S there is part of the O/S a pre-created default folder called Pictures. Of course if you use a secondary data drive then simply again, create a folder and name it Pictures or whatever you like.

 

Next when you do some photos, open Pictures and maybe create a folder called New and when you move the images from your image capture card put them into this destination folder.

 

Now unless the only images on the card are from a specific photo expedition --eg, you go to Niagara Falls and spend the day doing photos or you do you Aunt's 90th birthday etc. this is a start. If it is specific, create a folder called Niagara Falls if that is what you have captured.

 

However, lets say that on the card you have, pictures of your garden, a walk in the park with husband or dog, a birthday party etc. Now is the time to create new folders for each event and drag/drop or however you choose to move files into their appropriate folders.

 

Sometimes you may wish to rename or add the date of the birthday in the name now is a good time to do that also. Expand this idea. New baby -- photos go into that folder with a date of birth. Each year you will do more photos so another folder could be created. First birthday -- make a sub folder inside the latest folder of that year. Proceed in the same way. Also, then rather than having a scattering of these folder, create a Folder called My Family and then have one for each child and others for various family events such as XMAS etc. Have a folder for photos of yourself, husband etc.

 

Same thing for any other type of image making you do.

 

Now of course over the years things get more complicated as your whole Picture folder fills up with more and more images with more folders -- which again makes it necessary to think about how you want to store things and in what folders. Your search on your computer becomes very important as the number of files increase. 

 

I just did a look at Properties of my Picture Folder. 645 GB, 2514 Folders, 80912 files (or images)

 

I no longer work as a professional photographer so just imagine what a pro's storage must look like? Some wedding photographers do up to 6000 images on a job (crazy, I know). In 1974 I personally photographed 174 weddings so you can imagine what that would be like today as far as numbers of photos and storage space required. Still less than all the bags of negatives at that time however.

 

I don't know if you have ever heard of a program called Search Everything but it is freeware and is a great program for finding this that you may not remember under which folder you have placed a file if you need it in the future. I am not sure if posting of links is approved on this forum but a quick internet search using your default of favorite search engine will locate it. Now whether it works on a MAC I don't know.

 

What Affinity will do when they come out with their browser is to point to your Pictures folder and then allow you to browse your files from directly in their program rather than having to use the Open command which simply takes you to your own HDD where you now browse to the folder in which you have stored and image that you wish to work on.

 

HTH

[RCIS719]

I think I have a better understanding now, thank you.  I suppose I need to just get my hands on it, and try it on, so to speak.  This is totally new, unchartered territory for me. 

 

Kudos to you and your photography endeavor.  I sometimes wish I had gotten into photography in the film era (not that it is too late... yet), as it forces you to learn to be good much faster, I think, given the cost and time and energy required to process.

 

Thank you for your help.

[wlipp]

I edited my photos and saved them to a document. I now want to move them to book wright but do not know how to access the created affinity file. Please advise. thanks

[John Rostron]

42 minutes ago, wlipp said:

I edited my photos

Using what? Affinity Photo?

42 minutes ago, wlipp said:

and saved them to a document

How? By using Save? Save As? or Export? What do you mean by 'Document'?  Affinity uses the term 'document' to refer to th image file as loaded into your computer. You would save it as a document. What format did you sve it as? afphoto? jpg? png? tiff?

45 minutes ago, wlipp said:

access the created affinity file

Bu default, the Affinity apps save/export a file in the last folder you saved/exported a document to. At the point of saving/exporting you have the opportunity of changing the location.

Having said that, the save/export location often bamboozles many users, including experienced ones like myself. It behoves you to look carefully during the save/export process to see where your document is goint to be located.

John