RAW Images Open Up Too Dark

[mizuhito]

All of a sudden, all my RAW images open in Affinity Photo about 1ev darker than they should be.

 

I’ve used Edit->Defaults->Factory Reset several times; doesn’t help.  I’ve quit the application.  I’ve rebooted the system.

 

If I open the same RAW file in other applications, such as Apple Photos or Graphic Converter, the image looks just fine.  My camera writes a JPEG and a RAW file for each image and if I open the corresponding JPEG in Affinity Photo, it looks just fine.  But the RAW is too dark.  This just started happening; wasn’t always that way.

 

Is there some setting I might have changed accidentally, something I can check?  This is very frustrating.  Thanks.

[IanSG]

Have a look in the Develop persona's Assistant Manager and check that the tone curve is set to "Apply tone curve" and that the assistant is enabled.

[Keith Reeder]

Have you enabled a highlight protection option in camera - something like Canon's Highlight Tone Priority? 

[mizuhito]

Thanks, IanSG.  I didn’t know about that assistant.  Setting the tone curve to "Apply tone curve” didn’t help (and the assistant was already enabled).  However, I found that setting the RAW Engine to Apple (Core Image RAW) from Serif Labs did cause the RAW image to look as it should.  Should I be using Serif?  Setting it back to Serif causes it to be dark again.  Could you please suggest what other settings in this dialog should be used, e.g., Exposure bias is currently set to “Take no action”; is that correct?

[Keith Reeder]

 

 

Should I be using Serif?  Setting it back to Serif causes it to be dark again

 

Maybe you could answer my question, Mizuhito?

[mizuhito]

Hi Keith.  No, I don’t think so.  I don’t have a Canon and I haven’t changed any of the camera settings wrt dynamic range.  I’m opening some RAW images that had previously looked fine when I opened them in AF, so something has changed within the app.  Maybe I need to reinstall.  Thanks for your help.

[EdD]

Mizuhito, have you watched the RAW Development tutorials James Ritson (from Serif) does? I think they might explain what you're seeing. They're listed part way down  on this page: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/10119-in-house-affinity-photo-video-tutorials/Hope this helps.

 

Ed

[mizuhito]

Thanks, Ed.  Am going through them one by one now.  Anything in particular that I should pay careful attention to?

[EdD]

Hi Mizuhito

 

What I was thinking about with this group of tutorials was that James demonstrates quite a variety of RAW settings and the effects of the changes that I hoped might help to resolve your problem.

 

Ed

[Keith Reeder]

Hi Keith.  No, I don’t think so.  

 

I recommend that you check - most modern cameras have an equivalent to the Canon HTP setting, and the symptoms you describe exactly match what would happen if your camera is in a highlight protection mode.

[qwz]

Adobe (Lightroom and Photoshop's Camera Raw plug-in) uses a hidden exposure correction for RAW files. Sometimes it matches a in-camera JPEG looks.

App will show you a zero exposure bit actually 1, 1 1/2 or some other correction will be applied.

 

Use a RAW Digger software to see how your RAW files are actually exposed. Maybe you and you camera underexposes it significantly (like many of them do - to preserve highlights). 

[mizuhito]

Hi Keith, et al., and thanks again for all  your help.  I’m convinced that this is not a setting-in-the-camera issue.  The primary evidence in support of this is that when I change the setting within AF from SerifLabs RAW Engine to Apple (Core Image RAW) the image looks perfect within AF.  (I need to quit and restart the application for this to take effect.)  Additionally, I downloaded some RAW files from an internet site I found (rawsamples.ch) and they, too, look very dark when opened in my AF (with Serif Labs RAW Engine) but normal within other apps (such as GraphicConverter).  So these files do not come from my camera.  

 

It seems that I made a change in AF to one RAW image that is “sticking” to all others and I can’t figure out how to “unstick” it.  I was experimenting with the “poor-man’s HDR” by using a single RAW and saving it with three different exposures to then merge later on.  The change I made to decrease exposure is now applied to all subsequent images I open.  I’m sure there’s some checkbox somewhere I need to uncheck or setting I inadvertently changed but I haven’t found it.  Either that, or the tone curve that AF is applying is somehow messed up.  I guess for now, I’ll just use the Apple RAW engine.  

 

The tutorial vids were extremely helpful. They seem to suggest that the greatest latitude in adjusting an image comes from *not* applying a tone curve in RAW processing and then using a variety of adjustments later on.  I’m going to look into RAW Digger, too.  Thanks again.

[v_kyr]

Maybe you set/added a preset in the basic or tones panel etc. and that is always used now? - If that's the case, you can switch back to the default preset or delete a previously added preset.

[Septimus]

Did you ever resolve this because I have exactly the same problem. I have raised it previously and I know I'm not alone but nothing seems to have been done to fix it

[owlp]

Hi, I downloaded the trail version of Affinity Photo (for Windows) and I was already going to buy the product when I run into the same problem. I really hope, that there is a fix for that soon, because I've looked for a serious (cheaper) Photoshop alternative for quite a while.

[owlp]

Update: for now I'm using a "workaround" for this problem (which affects all my Canon EOS cameras - Highlight tone priority is Disabled on all of them) ... I'm using Digital Photo Professional 4 to convert the images to TIF and switch then from Photo Persona to Develop Persona.

PS: still testing the trial version, but probably will buy the software, I really like it.

[BrentB]

This has nothing to do with in-camera settings - it's something with the Serif engine.

 

I can view RAW files from three different cameras (Canon, Nikon, Sony) and compare them with their corresponding .jpg files in Preview, Lightroom and Adobe RAW and they all look nearly identical in terms of exposure.  Opening them in Affinity Photo, however, they appear very, very, very underexposed.  This is the first thing I noticed when using the application.  And this is with "Apply Tone Curve" on - if I turn that off they look like hell.

 

To get things close, I have to use Apple Core Image RAW with the Tone Curve applied as well.

[andre.lang]

Same problem!!!!! I thought it was my camera, but its not. Its definitely an affinity photo error. 

I open the RAW up in develop and its ok! I open it in Photo and its super dark!!!

 

I was fretting for ages that I thought I had a camera issue. 

 

Any one solve this? 

[John Rostron]

1 hour ago, andre.lang said:

Same problem!!!!! I thought it was my camera, but its not. Its definitely an affinity photo error. 

I open the RAW up in develop and its ok! I open it in Photo and its super dark!!!

When you say, "I open the RAW up in develop", do you mean that you opened a raw file in Affinity Photo and it appeared in the Develop persona? When you say "I open it in Photo", are you implying that you can open a raw file in Photo, or are you loading the jpeg version? Makes a big difference!

John

[andre.lang]

On 3/23/2018 at 7:20 PM, John Rostron said:

When you say, "I open the RAW up in develop", do you mean that you opened a raw file in Affinity Photo and it appeared in the Develop persona? When you say "I open it in Photo", are you implying that you can open a raw file in Photo, or are you loading the jpeg version? Makes a big difference!

John

 

Raw photo in Photo persona. EG if I do a stack, The images are a few stops darker individually than they are in develop persona.. 

[John Rostron]

1 hour ago, andre.lang said:

 

Raw photo in Photo persona. EG if I do a stack, The images are a few stops darker individually than they are in develop persona.. 

That makes sense. Opening raw files into the stack operations seems to be a sort of limbo between Develop and Photo personas. AP seems to apply its own development before stacking. I never stack raw files, I develop them first, export and then load them into a stack.

John

[andre.lang]

On 3/26/2018 at 10:40 PM, John Rostron said:

That makes sense. Opening raw files into the stack operations seems to be a sort of limbo between Develop and Photo personas. AP seems to apply its own development before stacking. I never stack raw files, I develop them first, export and then load them into a stack.

John

Does Not explain why it was working for me a few months ago no problem ever. Still a bug! 

[lepr]

.

 

[John Rostron]

17 hours ago, andre.lang said:

Does Not explain why it was working for me a few months ago no problem ever. Still a bug! 

Yes,, I would agree that is a bug. I have never had such problems with my sony .awr files, so it may be specific to certain camera raw files.

 

17 hours ago, owenr said:

The same problem occurs when developing raw files with the New Batch Job command: the Develop Assistant settings are ignored and no lens correction, noise reduction or the auto Tone Curve are applied, and some other darkening tone curve is applied instead, and the resulting images are 16 bpc sRGB, regardless of the RGB profile choice in the app preferences. Altogether useless.

The bug seems to be that AP ignores any default presets for raw files in anything but the Develop Persona. It ignores them when creating stacks, merges and in batch processing.

@andre.lang, @owenr, I would suggest that you report this problem in either the Bug reports or Feature Requests, whatever you deem appropriate. I would also specify the camera models that are giving you problems.

John

[Gregory St. Laurent]

4 hours ago, John Rostron said:

Yes,, I would agree that is a bug. I have never had such problems with my sony .awr files, so it may be specific to certain camera raw files.

 

The bug seems to be that AP ignores any default presets for raw files in anything but the Develop Persona. It ignores them when creating stacks, merges and in batch processing.

@andre.lang, @owenr, I would suggest that you report this problem in either the Bug reports or Feature Requests, whatever you deem appropriate. I would also specify the camera models that are giving you problems.

John

I have been talking about this issue for a while now. It has gotten a little better in the latest version in my opinion, but is still not accurately displaying the true exposure levels.