Batch Processing in Affinity Photo

[cisco]

Hello everyone! 

 

I'm new to the Affinity scene and love it so far. I've been a Lightroom user for years and decided that it's time to put the presets and sliders aside for a while and really take control of my editing. Enter Affinity.

 

The purpose of this thread is to discuss workflows used when editing multiple photos from a photoshoot. I can't seem to figure out a truly effective way to edit 50+ photos without creating a mess.

 

Any pointers, videos, web articles, or books are welcome.

 

Thank you all for the support and I look forward to reading your responses.

[finary]

I have the same issue. I really trusted AffinityPhoto to substitute PS Lightroom, but this lack of feature is a huge disappointment.

IfI open 8+ RAW images, Affinity crashes and I have to restart....

[MEB]

Hi cisco, finara,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Affinity Photo is more comparable to Adobe Photoshop + Camera RAW than Lightroom in the sense that it doesn't manage libraries neither let you apply the settings you have used in one image to multiple images simultaneously (directly). It does have Batch job functionality but the macros you can apply there are created in Photo Persona (not it Develop Persona where RAW's are converted/developed by the user) and imply that the RAW was automatically processed without user interference. It's not really a direct substitute for Lightroom.

[Chintan]

Hi cisco, finara,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Affinity Photo is more comparable to Adobe Photoshop + Camera RAW than Lightroom in the sense that it doesn't manage libraries neither let you apply the settings you have used in one image to multiple images simultaneously (directly). It does have Batch job functionality but the macros you can apply there are created in Photo Persona (not it Develop Persona where RAW's are converted/developed by the user) and imply that the RAW was automatically processed without user interference. It's not really a direct substitute for Lightroom.

 

So if I have 10 raw files from a similar scene, and I develop one of them, I can't apply the same edits to the rest? Meaning I have to develop them one by one? 

[MEB]

Hi Chintan,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

You can save presets for each category in Develop Persona (Basic, Lens, Details etc) and apply each one to each image, but it's not the same as Lightroom where you can replicate the edits on a bunch of images in a single step.

[Chintan]

Hi Chintan,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

You can save presets for each category in Develop Persona (Basic, Lens, Details etc) and apply each one to each image, but it's not the same as Lightroom where you can replicate the edits on a bunch of images in a single step.

 

so it's more like save a preset and apply that preset to each photo I open, right? It does it one at a time which can give me a chance to decided whether to use the preset or not

 

Does that also mean I can save more than one preset?

 

And I've never used lightroom or any other raw processing program

[Chintan]

So I started using affinity photo and the developing part is proving very time consuming

 

I got the idea on how to use presets, I had to experiment to understand how it works (there's no tutorial or help article on how to use presets)

 

But it looks like there is a glitch in it - where if I save a preset and then open a new file, the new preset is selected but it doesn't apply the changes - I have to switch back to default preset and then the new preset to effect the changes

[Sempervivum]

I'm disappointed of this lack of feature too. In Photoshop Elements it's no problem to apply the settings of Camera Raw to a set of raw images and save this set for use in other software.

[Kevin Brine]

It really is a shame this option isn't part of the program. Deal breaker for me unfortunately.

[Klumper]

Hi MEB 

Can you confirm that the ability to batch process RAW files has not been added to Affinity?

 

[Richard Liu]

I apologize for asking a related question instead of offering an answer.  If I create a batch job consisting of RAW photos, does the batch job "develop" them before manipulating them?  By "develop" I mean, does it apply any default operations configured in the Develop Assistant (e. g., lens correction, de-noising, etc.).  I understand that the macros that can be applied are created in the Photo Persona; however, when I open a RAW file in Affinity Photo, I'm taken by the Develop Assistant to the Develop Persona.  So I would expect the same to happen "behind the scenes" when a batch job opens a RAW file, i. e., apply any default processing configured in the Develop Assistant, develop, then drop the result into the Photo Persona.  Question:  Does this in fact happen?

Thanks

[Richard Liu]

I can reply now to my own question.  No, when RAW files are batch processed, any default processing configured in the Develop Assistant is not performed.  At least, lens correction is definitely not.  I don't know what other configurable develop defaults are ignored.  Above all, I have no idea why they should be.  It would seem to be such a simple thing to honor them in a batch job, or, at least, make that an option.

[AlanPC]

I'm having the same issue, just got back from a shoot, have 400 RAW files, it's nearly 1AM and have realized that at my current rate it will be, literally, daylight before I'm finished.

As an image editor I love it but as RAW processor I can't use this. I'll have to find something else to process the raw files then tweak and edit with Affinity. In fact I already know what software I'll be using, as the 30 day free trial has expired and for now I'm trying to do this with Affinity, but I just can't. That other software is $200 but it has much better noise reduction and I can process an entire folder of raw files, just tell it to get going and come back an hour or two later. 

If there's any updates on this issue, do tell?

 

[Casper Hane]

I'd like to add a +1 to this thread.

I want to start using Affinity Photo for my complete workflow for photogrammetry, but i really need to be able to apply Develop Persona presets to a batch of multiple images (often 300+). 

[Pink Panther]

+1 For this feature!

Just waiting for that! :D

[doodlerboy]

To the developers of this program. 

 

How do you screw this up and not have this be a feature? This is clearly something that is needed, and it's been 3 YEARS since this thread started, and I'm sure more. WTF guys!

[AlanPC]

It DOES have some basic "start new batch job" feature, but it does nothing much except convert tiffs into jpg for example, or to strip metadata.

I can't use it for RAW files though.

 

[Pink Panther]

@MEB Hey brow, do you have any status about this one?

Thanks!

[fannypack]

Any update on the status of this feature?

[prach138]

Adding a comment in hopes that they implement this feature! I would pay for it.

[Sempervivum]

Installed version 1.8 today. Cannot find this feature neither in the program nor in the release notes. Seems to me that it has not been implemented in this version?

[MEB]

Hi Sempervivum, all,
There wasn't changes/improvements here in v1.8, sorry.

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, MEB said:

Hi Sempervivum, all,
There wasn't changes/improvements here in v1.8, sorry.

Just curious but in the Affinity Photo for macOS - 1.8.1 (was 1.8.0) topic in the News & Info forum, one of the New Features & Improvements items is "Improved handling of RAW files when using batch processing."

Do you know if this is (for now) a Mac only improvement or how it has been improved?

[MEB]

R C-R,
That's item refers to other improvement for both Mac and Windows (batched raw files appear darker - more info/details here) not to what's being requested on this thread (apply same preset/edits to multiple RAW files at once).

[Jon R]

Hi

Just another user wondering if there are any plans to enable batch processing of RAW file edits similar to in the Photo Persona but in the Develop Persona?

Please tell me something is coming soon or at least why this is taking so long or not possible.