Feedback on RAW processing.

[Doug B]

I'm going to be as diplomatic as possible, but I'm also not going to sugar coat or be PC about things.

 

While I absolutely LOVE Affinity Photo for what it does right, I am equally unsatisfied with what it doesn't do right at the same time. There's a real catch .22 I feel, with AP in that so many people have moved away from Adobe, singing praises that it is THE PS killer etc etc.. Especially for two distinct groups of people.

 

The first group, are those who by principle, don't like being told that they don't own the software they paid for, and don't like being held hostage to a monthly subscription fee. Personally speaking, I think that as long as the company you're paying the sub fee to, listens to its user base, and offers an even return on the investment, that it's fine. But Adobe aren't really that great in those areas, IMO.

 

The second group, whom are also a niche group *I happen to be one of them*, but growing in numbers annually, are Fuji Film users. We are dissatisfied with the way that Adobe/ACR does its demosaicing for sharpening, as it can literally ruin a shot. However.. That is not to say that ACR does a poor job in general when it comes to other basic RAW processing, because it doesn't.

 

It actually does a great job with highlight and shadow recovery, kelvin, curves, contrast and noise reduction. It also does a great job with how it resizes and exports. It also has some really amazing tools, right inside of ACR, not even LR that people often overlook. But I digress. My point is coming...

 

And here it is: For all of the things that ACR does right, I feel that Affinity photo has quite a ways to go when trying to match those features. I personally wouldn't touch Affinity for RAW processing with a 50 foot pole right now. It's.. well, not good. (See? Diplomatic) Since I've deleted LR/adobe stuff from my machine, I can't even compare it to the next best thing, which is Capture One Pro 10. Now that.. is software that pretty much gets those things right.

 

I still think that LR does a better job with highlight recovery vs Capture One, but when compared to Affinity or On1 Photo RAW? No comparison, LR is still king, and the latter two stink on ice. Sorry, that was NOT diplomatic.

 

In my ever so humble opinion, I can never ever recommend Affinity Photo to anyone wanting to get away from their current DAM such as LR/Capture One etc in favor of it. I just don't really see the point of even having the develop module in its current state. I know that's harsh, sorry. And while one can make the argument that you should just "get it right in camera", so that you don't have to mess with highlights or shadows or contr... Yeah, that's not very sensible. Those things exist for a reason.

 

I guess that all I'm saying is that Affinity for the iPad will never be great, until AP for the desktop is much improved in those areas. After all, it has to look up to its big brother/sister, no?

 

Concerned,

 

Doug

[Doug B]

I should add a side note:

 

The alternative to making the RAW processing algorithms as good as ACR or Capture One Pro 10's is to simply make the workflow non-destructive, so that people can send their work from the iPad to a desktop app such as the previously mentioned apps. Wow, was that or was that not a great way to plug a non-destructive workflow again? Iol

[kirkt]

Fortunately, there are plenty of raw converters out there besides LR/ACR.  You may want to try Iridient Digital's X-Transformer if you are having trouble finding a good Fuji demosaic/raw converter.

 

http://www.iridientdigital.com/products/xtransformer.html

 

If you use a Mac, give their full-fledged raw converter a try on your Fuji files:

 

http://www.iridientdigital.com/products/iridientdeveloper.html

 

kirk