Crappy downsizing in Affinity Photo for iPad

[martinmint]

I saw your app on 9to5 and liked the idea and went and bought it on the appstore. It looks very promising and is all very well executed. But here comes the but: The final results after downsizing does not measure up to Lightroom (on Mac) at all. If Adobe hadn't been so sloppy their iOS apps i wouldn't even be here. They're ok but the either cannot sharpen files (Lightroom iOS) or not downsize them (Photoshop iOS). So i was hoping for Affinity.

 

See the results that i attached, one done with Lightroom on my Mac and one done with Affinity on my iPad. They are comparable but even though i did not do any sharpening the downsized result created with Affinity looks crappy with halos and jagged edges. And yes, i did try all three downsizing methods.

 

I asked for a refund from Apple but obviously they are not willing to do that. So could i have my money back?

[MattP]

Is there a link to the original file so we can try the same thing? I'm sorry you're experiencing problems, but the choice of 5 resamplers we have available should be able to produce excellent results when downscaling, so I'm surprised you're seeing these results...

 

Thanks in advance,

Matt

[martinmint]

Is there a link to the original file so we can try the same thing? I'm sorry you're experiencing problems, but the choice of 5 resamplers we have available should be able to produce excellent results when downscaling, so I'm surprised you're seeing these results...

 

Thanks in advance,

Matt

 

I will make the original file available later. If you can show me a way to get the same results as with Lightroom i would be delighted because that's exactly what i need when i am "on the road".

[James Ritson]

When you say you're tried all three resampling methods, which ones did you try, as there are actually five? - are you resampling on export or by resizing the document?

 

The result you've posted looks like Lanczos resampling (either non-separable or separable). Whilst Lanczos is exceedingly sharp, it's renowned for ringing because of its brick-wall impulse response and overshoot. If you have lots of fine detail with tricky variations in contrast (the trees and branches against the sky in your image being a prime example), I'd recommend Bicubic or even Bilinear. You should find Bicubic provides a good middle ground between sharpness and artefacting.

 

Lightroom likely uses Bicubic or Bilinear - stick to these and you should find comparable results. Definitely avoid Nearest Neighbour as that will be too soft. Hope that helps.

[martinmint]

When you say you're tried all three resampling methods, which ones did you try, as there are actually five? - are you resampling on export or by resizing the document?

 

The result you've posted looks like Lanczos resampling (either non-separable or separable). Whilst Lanczos is exceedingly sharp, it's renowned for ringing because of its brick-wall impulse response and overshoot. If you have lots of fine detail with tricky variations in contrast (the trees and branches against the sky in your image being a prime example), I'd recommend Bicubic or even Bilinear. You should find Bicubic provides a good middle ground between sharpness and artefacting.

 

Lightroom likely uses Bicubic or Bilinear - stick to these and you should find comparable results. Definitely avoid Nearest Neighbour as that will be too soft. Hope that helps.

 

 

I did resize on export i think (where you can enter the exact pixel size). I did use bicubic and bilinear and nearest neighbour but they all didn't look good. The one here is bilinear i think.

 

Where can i find the other two other resampling methods?

 

I will try this again later. 

[MattP]

Use the document menu at the top left and choose 'Resize' - there are many options, including additional samplers :)

[martinmint]

Here's the original file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6hrk6q09fpbpucx/L1030991.DNG?dl=0

My target size is 1600x1060

[MEB]

Here's what I get after converting to Black & White and exporting as PNG using Lanczos 3 (separable) as the resample algorithm:

 

[martinmint]

Use the document menu at the top left and choose 'Resize' - there are many options, including additional samplers :)

 

Ok, i tried it again, Clarity was the culprit. As soon as i use that i get the bad results. If i don't use it the bilinear downsizing is indeed fine. So you might want to look into the Clarity. Or maybe it's fine and the one from Lightroom is just different. There it's no problem to use it with 20-30%

 

Sorry for the inconvenience! :)

[martinmint]

Here's what I get after converting to Black & White and exporting as PNG using Lanczos 3 (separable) as the resample algorithm:

 

L1030991.png

 

 

Maybe it's a matter of the screens we're using but your Lanczos version wouldn't be ok for me either :) Too jaggy edges. But ok, i've found a way now by not using the clarity slider.

[MEB]

Yes, Lanczos tends to sharp a bit. Use Bicubic instead if you still find the image a bit too sharp.

[martinmint]

Yes, Lanczos tends to sharp a bit. Use Bicubic instead if you still find the image a bit too sharp.

 

Will do, thanks!

 

BTW: Is there any way to set a standard export destination? It always wants to use iCloud but i use Dropbox. Would be nice if i could set Dropbox as standard.

[MEB]

Will do, thanks!

 

BTW: Is there any way to set a standard export destination? It always wants to use iCloud but i use Dropbox. Would be nice if i could set Dropbox as standard.

 

Hi martinmint,

No, currently there's no way to set a default export destination.

[MattP]

I'm glad you were able to find the problem :)  It's a shame you didn't mention you'd used clarity though or I could've just told you that there's a known side-effect of clarity which is slight 'halo' or 'ringing' effect in certain images - yours shows it particularly badly... Either way, I'm glad you're able to use the application now, and we're already looking into the clarity issue :)

 

Thanks!

Matt