File(s) can not be opened as they are read only....

[Geedee]

As a Windows user I have just bought a Mac and downloaded Affinity in the hope of advancing my photography hobby.

 

The issue I have is that my preferred storage system has been to utilise external hard drives for both JPEG and RAW files from my PC`s

 

I understand that Mac has a work around to allow these files to be viewed on their machines from a windows based file system.. NTFS .. which is not compatible with Mac`s OS...?

 

While I can open and view my drives JPEGs and Raw files on the Mac it seems I could not open them in Affinity..!!

 

If I open Affinity and try to open the files from my external drives I get a message informing me that the file(s) can not be opened as they are read only..!!

 

To try to work around that... I open my external drives files in Photo on the Mac, then if I open Affinity, I can upload the images from  Photo... BUT..!!

 

It seems the JPEGs can now be modified at in Affinity, and the RAW files seem to be available similarly, however they are not identified as RAW files within Affinity but as RGB which causes me to wonder if the data in my original RAW images may have been modified some degree  in the processes involved in accessing them in my drive and trying to load them into Affinity ...?

 

I am at the stage of not wishing to follow the process of copying my files into Affinity via the above process until I have a better understanding of whether or not I am working with the original RAW data my camera captured.

 

I have thought the "simple" way round this is to partition the drive on my new iMac and install Windows on that along with Affinity thus having all of my pre-Mac images available in their original form ready to be processed via Affinity... though that would be for me a bit of a disappointment taking up a lot of unnecessary space on my new Mac which I would prefer to best use of its operating and storage capacity..

 

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I would be grateful for any assistance you might be able to provide. Being a selective Luddite I have only the most basic of digital skills..

 

 

[firstdefence]

Without a 3rd party intermediary, files from an Partition formatted as NTFS will be read only because you cannot write back to that partition. There are apps that will allow you to read and write to an NTFS partition from a Mac. Ideally it would be far simpler to get a USB stick that is formatted to FAT32 which most are, or format to xFAT if you have files larger than 4GB such as Video and pass your images from the NTFS partition, onto the USB stick and then plug it into the Mac as both NTFS and Mac are OK with FAT32 and xFAT.

 

I never liked putting NTFS 3rd apps on my system but a nifty workaround for that is to get an external Hard drive formatted to FAT32 and if your router has the capability of having a USB device plugged into it, you basically get yourself a very simple image server that windows or Mac will accept. If you have read this and are saying Waaah!!! disregard and go back to the first paragraph lol!

[firstdefence]

3 hours ago, Geedee said:

It seems the JPEGs can now be modified at in Affinity, and the RAW files seem to be available similarly, however they are not identified as RAW files within Affinity but as RGB which causes me to wonder if the data in my original RAW images may have been modified some degree  in the processes involved in accessing them in my drive and trying to load them into Affinity ...?

What format are the RAW files and which camera are you taking them with?

[Geedee]

Many thanks for taking the time to respond ..... RAW files are unmodified photographic files direct from a camera that has both the capability to produce JPEG and RAW files.

 

I think different camera manufacturers use different names for their cameras raw files.

 

My camera being a Nikon D800 identifies its RAW files a NEF..  Nikon Electronic Format.

 

 RAW is the main identity used by photographers to identify unmodified images direct from the camera which are then thought of as being the foundation from which to apply post production (PP) processes to in order to create a finished image.

 

JPEG being accepted as a photographic file that has already been automatically modified by the CAMERA at the time the shutter button was depressed.

NOT to be confused with the capability some cameras have for the photographer to edit images in-camera once they have been taken.

 

My ideal is to be able to open all of the existing RAW files stored on my external drives via PC`s over a number of years and work on them in my new iMac using Affinity. Though given the number of files and their value to me I do not want to risk uploading them to the Mac in Photo, to then be able to open them in Affinity, and then find that they may have suffered a measure of corruption at some stage in the process..!!

 

I choose external drives as my main storage facility to avoid clogging up my computer and as security against computer failure and other data loss possibilities.

 

I have no issue relating to buying new external drives configured to work with my MAC and using the new drives as the storage for all my future photographic needs.

 

The change over to Mac has created this issue for me... or more correctly I have created it for myself... Duh!

 

Hope my lengthy explanation is not thought of as me trying to teach you Firstdefence.. I'm just trying to avoid confusing anyone taking the time to read this... (-:

 

 

[R C-R]

23 minutes ago, Geedee said:

I think different camera manufacturers use different names for their cameras raw files.

There is more to it than just the name. There are a great many different raw image formats & essentially no standardization among them -- even among different camera models from one manufacturer the formats they use can have significant differences. This is why RAW support is specified by camera model instead of by extension or brand name.

 

Also, raw files do not contain images (except for thumbnails) as such, just the (more or less) 'raw' sensor & other data that can be processed ("developed") into an image.

[firstdefence]

1 hour ago, Geedee said:

Many thanks for taking the time to respond ..... RAW files are unmodified photographic files direct from a camera that has both the capability to produce JPEG and RAW files.

 

I think different camera manufacturers use different names for their cameras raw files.

 

My camera being a Nikon D800 identifies its RAW files a NEF..  Nikon Electronic Format.

 

 RAW is the main identity used by photographers to identify unmodified images direct from the camera which are then thought of as being the foundation from which to apply post production (PP) processes to in order to create a finished image.

 

JPEG being accepted as a photographic file that has already been automatically modified by the CAMERA at the time the shutter button was depressed.

NOT to be confused with the capability some cameras have for the photographer to edit images in-camera once they have been taken.

 

My ideal is to be able to open all of the existing RAW files stored on my external drives via PC`s over a number of years and work on them in my new iMac using Affinity. Though given the number of files and their value to me I do not want to risk uploading them to the Mac in Photo, to then be able to open them in Affinity, and then find that they may have suffered a measure of corruption at some stage in the process..!!

 

I choose external drives as my main storage facility to avoid clogging up my computer and as security against computer failure and other data loss possibilities.

 

I have no issue relating to buying new external drives configured to work with my MAC and using the new drives as the storage for all my future photographic needs.

 

The change over to Mac has created this issue for me... or more correctly I have created it for myself... Duh!

 

Hope my lengthy explanation is not thought of as me trying to teach you Firstdefence.. I'm just trying to avoid confusing anyone taking the time to read this... (-:

 

 

lol! no @Geedee you type away, if a novice is reading it I'm sure it will help. I know bit about photography  I also have a Nikon and have NEF files as the RAW format. Nice Camera by the way.

 

the reason I asked about the Raw format and camera was because Affinity may not support your camera yet. List of supported cameras Here. Yours is supported by the way. 

 

Changing to Mac is a good move in my eyes, much easier to work on.

[Geedee]

Many thanks for adding to my education R-C-R... I guess the important factor in that regard is that regardless of RAW format I imagine they can be handled in mainstream photo editing software...?

 

While my cameras RAW files are NEF. they can be opened and modified in Nikons PP application.. NX2..  various Adobe PP applications and no doubt others (?)

 

Firstdefence.. I think you are correct in using a memory stick as a means of transferring my RAW files in such a way as they are recognised as RAW on my Mac when opened with Affinity.

 

As part of my initial testing (blundering) yesterday, to try to find a way of by-passing Affiniti`s identification of my EXTERNAL DRIVE`s data as READ ONLY and as such would not open them, I had then tried to use affinity to open the RAW files stored on the FLASH CARD from my camera, at which time Affinity opened the files and identified them as RAW files in the top left of the Affinity display.

 

After reading your suggestion I plugged up my card reader and one of my remote drives and via the MAC I copied the RAW file from the remote drive over to the flash card in the reader, and when I opened Affinity I was then able to open the RAW file from the flash card, which was a wooopee moment.. THANKS.... BUT, seems for me everything digital has a but..!

 

With any one of my RAW files being circa 100MB using this process for batch conversion might take some time..?

 

However..(-:  As I am only likely to be seeking to be working on one image at a time or at best perhaps a handful this may just work out fine. 

 

I guess that I may be trying to work round systems the operation of which I do not understand, and that I only really know what I want of them, which all seems a bit.. err... Duh! 

 

Bought the D800 when it first came out, dropped it and the attached 16-35 f4 in a lake while visiting Canada, circa four years ago...  After a careful drying out process it and the lens are still working fine, though  last year the lens showed signs of internal fungal(?) growth which Nikon cleaned out... Modern cameras circuitry must be well sealed, well Nikons sure seem to be..

 

Thanks for the heads up on "supported" Cameras I will have a look at what that equates to... Lens support for Nikkors would be interesting...?

 

I came to Mac for the Retina display in the hope of advancing my enjoyment of photography... though I have hears of IT professionals complaining they have more issues with Macs than PCs..!

 

Yup, bought the Affinity Workbook too so need to be locked up in a rubber room with the new Mac, my drives and the Workbook in the hope of.. err.. non destructive learning

 

Thanks again Firstdefence  I was beginning to get somewhat frustrated..

[firstdefence]

Part of my Job is IT and I have about a 60/40 split of PC's to Macs, I'd say that approx 95% of all the work I do is PC/Windows related, with issues such as hardware failure and replacement, Malware removal, Data recovery, general junk removal and the getting a system back to working reasonably well. Mac issues are more about the use of, Upgrading or people getting their head around Apple ID's lol!

 

I have to say Macs are, for me at least, a pleasure to use and my Retina screen is pretty damn cool.

[Geedee]

First defence, thanks for the words of comfort re my conversion as some might have it... to the dark side (-:  While we are chatting I wonder do you have any thoughts on anti virus for Mac..? I use Norton on my PC. 

[R C-R]

9 minutes ago, Geedee said:

While we are chatting I wonder do you have any thoughts on anti virus for Mac..?

I am interested in hearing what @firstdefence has to say about it but personally, I think the best thing you can do on a Mac in this respect is just to keep the OS updated to the latest version, use common sense about what you download, & be careful about the sites you visit.

[firstdefence]

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

I am interested in hearing what @firstdefence has to say about it but personally, I think the best thing you can do on a Mac in this respect is just to keep the OS updated to the latest version, use common sense about what you download, & be careful about the sites you visit.

I've used Mac for at least 6 years and in that time I have not had an active antivirus/malware app on any of the Mac OS X versions From Leopard to High Sierra.

 

On a PC I would have had CCleaner (the clean version), Malwarebytes and probably Avast or Bitdefender, not to mention all the security apps from Bleepingcomputers on a USB Stick. I Never liked Norton nor McAfee they are resource eaters and choke a system. I think a lot of antivirus companies like to keep people in a state of fear, its good for business. Having multiple names for the same virus makes it look like their are more out there than there is, that's not to say there aren't a lot, there are plenty, but a lot of them are effectively nullified by security patches. I sometimes think they are just playing with us, I mean if you wanted to make big bucks, why go after the little guy, why not screw up the financial cartel's and hold them to ransom, makes you wonder why they don't get hit doesn't it?

 

My take on this is if you feel more comfortable with an antivirus app on the system then put one on, the system will handle it and at least you have some peace of mind. As always make backups, I spend a lot of time getting data back for people who have been hit by ransomware and the like, if they only had an offsite backup, it would have saved them a lot of money. That leads me to where a lot of malware comes from, email scams, data mining, hijacked sites dropping trojans and many other avenues all connected to the internet. 

 

Mac's are not the target for the criminals because the bad guys are playing the odds, windows has a larger user base to scam and a system full of known holes and plenty more to be found. Windows security really is appalling so why wouldn't the bad guys go for the easy target. Not to brag but I can get into any windows system within 2 mins; I'm allowing for boot times lol! I'd just blank the user account password and I'm in. The irony is you can use a windows disc to do this, although my fav is the systemrescuecd

 

Macs aren't as secure as most Mac users would like to think, but they do a better job than windows and that's all they need to do. "I only need to run faster than you" is a good adage here.

 

The best defence is knowledge and like R C-R said Common-sense, which ain't that common thank god or I'd be out of a job  I have people who ring me to ask me if they should reply to the email from the Bank of Skotchland asking for account details as their account has been suspended, or the guy from Nigeria asking for $2000 to cover the cost of transferring the 12 million dollars gifted to them Sigh!

 

oh never put Mackeeper on your system they are the exception to the rule in the Mac world, if your unsure about anything on a Mac or any app, ask here first and I'll let you know if its OK.

 

 

[Geedee]

Thanks for sharing your thinking RC-R, Seems I must lead a boring life for in all the years I have used Norton the only thing that showed up were the cookies it cleared out of my system..

 

First defence, thanks also, you confirmed for me that which I thought in terms of PC`s outnumbering  Apple initially though I do wonder if that might have changed to some degree given even old dudes like me have finally ..err..turned..(-:  

 

I liked to know my cookies were binned every time I ran a virus check..as it seemed to cut down tracking a tad. Does Apple have a similar task.. Yeah asking too many questions..hmm.

 

BTW, I live in Skotchland..!!! (-:

[firstdefence]

Hi @Geedee There are plugins/addon's/extensions for whatever browser you use, plus those same browsers have privacy controls built in. Safari has a rudimentary cookie manager.

 

 

Cookies aren't necessarily a bad thing but they can be a security risk so judicious monitoring of cookies can help keep your system tidy. leading a boring, also called, a normal life, ain't a bad thing either. There are plenty of cache cleaners, privacy cleaners etc for Mac's. Mac just love to log things, anything and pretty much everything you do, you can find these log files in an app called Console. they are small and are more beneficial if you ever do have issues. 

 

There are just so many cheap and cheerful Windows systems, just look at how many variations of HP laptops for £250-£350 there are, they create model numbers for the least little thing, I mean there are hundreds of models of HP laptops and people are more than happy to buy crappy, as long as it does FleaBay, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, oh and "The iTunes"   Then there are "Gamers" the vanguard of system tweaking to squeeze the last drop of frames per sec out of their system, lets not forget the Modders, the people with bioluminescent towers and liquid cooling, so there's a lot of PC varieties out there. Also remember there is Apple and then there is everyone else.

 

 

I love Scotland and the people, my mate moved to Thurso a while ago, so not a pop in for a cuppa journey lol!

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

Also remember there is Apple and then there is everyone else.

Aside from being insanely profitable, Apple is pretty much the only player in the game with a long history of designing both the OS & the hardware it runs on, including collaborating on chip level design with IBM, Motorola, & more recently Intel. (Not that many people remember that Apple was the "A" in the ill-fated AIM alliance, or that what is now Arm Holdings started off in 1990 as a joint venture between Acorn Computers, Apple, and VLSI.)

 

So yeah, in a sense there is Apple & then there is everybody else, but the only real significance here is that, as @firstdefence alluded to, Apple does not sell hundreds of different models assembled mostly from cheap, loosely specced off-the-shelf parts like just about everybody else. This makes them much less prone to hardware problems & easier to develop software for, but it does not make them inherently more secure.

[Geedee]

Thanks for the help guys. I suspect that in buying into Mac and Affinity at the same time I have given myself a real up hill challenge. I bought into the idea that Mac is intuitive but having spent much of last night trying to create a file system for my pictures that is as logical (for me) as the one I have created in Windows, I am somewhat frustrated... Jeez even deleting with any sort of confidence in what and where I am deleting pictures or files is quite beyond me at this moment in time.... My good lady has been a Macbook user for a number of years and it seems this 2017 iMacs OS defeats her abilities too.. AND I have not begun to explore Affinity.... Now where did I put that key to the rubber room...!!!

[R C-R]

11 minutes ago, Geedee said:

I bought into the idea that Mac is intuitive but having spent much of last night trying to create a file system for my pictures that is as logical (for me) as the one I have created in Windows...

For years, Apple has been trying to get users to move away from relying on traditional folder hierarchies to organize their document files with things like Smart Folders (which are really just saved searches) & Tags. (The links are to Apple's 'knowledge base' articles, which are pretty basic, but there are dozens of articles  on Mac support sites that explain how to use them in great detail.) They are very powerful organizational tools but because they are freeform they require quite a bit of thought & effort to set up.

 

The Affinity apps support Tags in save dialogs & both Tags & Smart Folders in open dialogs, so this might be something to think about.

[Geedee]

Thanks R C-R, I'm ever the slow learner, not too aware of all of the many digital possibilities, and that my desire is not to be tied to any one Photo programme, I prefer to keep both my original and PP`d images on external hard drives as opposed to having them stored inside a file system within a photo programme which may in time fail..  Also have no desire to use whizz-bang facial recognition or any other trickery to ease the filing  process..Showing my age I guess...(-: 

[kelldss]

thanks it was useful for me too.

[R C-R]

8 hours ago, Geedee said:

I'm ever the slow learner, not too aware of all of the many digital possibilities, and that my desire is not to be tied to any one Photo programme ...

Tags & Smart Folders are not tied to any app, but they are a 'Mac Only' thing so they do tie you to the Mac OS ... almost as if Apple wanted to do that on purpose 

[walt.farrell]

They're not Mac Only. Windows supports Smart Folders (saved searches).

And supposedly it supports file tags, too, but (a) only for some file types and (b) not in all applications and (c) I can't get them to work in Windows 10 even for some files that apparently should support them. But there are also 3rd-party tools for Windows that support file tagging.

[v_kyr]

Related to OSX and writing to NTFS filesystems you would need at least to enable Apple's experimental support for writing to NTFS drives which as default is disabled. However it's more or less a crippling task to set it up and it's also not that stable and performant than other third party driver solutions here. Thus I recommend instead better to use a third party driver like Tuxeda NTFS or Paragon NTFS here which are better and also more foolprove. - NOTE that some hard disk vendors (like Seagate, Toshiba etc.) offer and bundle Mac NTFS drivers for their drives, for example I once got an external Toshiba one which was NTFS preformated and came together with Tuxeda NTFS OSX drivers so that it could be used under OSX too. Seagate offers similar things here but instead the Paragon NTFS drivers.

However one of the best ways to exchange data between Win and OSX is to use always devices which are formated with the exFAT filesystem, since exFAT can be natively read/written by all OS and also doesn't have the 4 GB file size limitation of the older FAT32 here. All USB sticks I use between the different OSes are usually formated this way, since every system here Win/OSX/Linux can read/write with no problems that format.

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

They're not Mac Only. Windows supports Smart Folders (saved searches).

But I don't think the Windows version is compatible with Apple's, which is based on "Spotlight," Apple's name for their metadata indexing engine. It runs in the background, automatically gathering as many as several hundred kinds of metadata attributes, including about 35 image related ones, so it is possible to create & save searches like this one (not intended as a practical example):

I could add location, DPI, GPS coordinate, pixel dimensions, etc. to the search, as well as file system attributes like filename, filetype, various date values, & so on, plus user defined tags & comments. It is even possible (but not easy in the UI) to include booleans & 'raw' search queries. It is also extensible, so app developers can add their own metadata importers, although not many do. (Affinity does not.)

 

So it is very powerful but not portable to non-Apple systems. It has other drawbacks as well, the most significant being it can be quite a challenge to figure out what many of the attributes mean & how to use them to find what you want. (For example, "Exposure program" could be a number like in the above or a text string like "manual" or "aperture priority.")

[Geedee]

Thanks for the input folks, much appreciated even though a fair percentage of it was way over my head. Main thing is that I now have a better understanding and slightly more confidence that I can get started by setting up a filing system for my pics using the Mac and now can open data from my hard drives within Affinity and hopefully begin enjoying the advances to my photographic possibilities that the combination of moving over to Mac and Affinity may hopefully provide... Thanks all.  

[Geedee]

I'm back... just out of the rubber room long enough to bug you with some more questions (-:

 

Unsure whether I should start a new thread or continue on in this one as my question is related to in this thread, given that my ideals are to have a filing system for my pictures that is entirely free of any photo programme, thus should any photo programme I might use either fail or be replaced by me for another, that  the photos that I have stored my files are accessible in whatever photo programme I chose to open or work on them with..?

 

Today I have been creating a photo filing system on my Mac which I hope to populate in a way that provides the above.... HOWEVER when I select a number of RAW (NEF) files from a FLASH card accessed via my card reader by copying a group of them from the card, and pasting them in the new file I have created for them... The AFFINITI logo appears in the transfer dialogue box...

 

Why is this when I am essentially using my Mac`s processes to download direct from a card reader without asking for any involvement from Affinity...?  

 

And what if any Affinity related processes have been applied to my files..?

 

Would this inhibit to any degree my ability to open these photos in another software package.

 

Would any photos that have had PP processes applied to them in Affinity still retain the appearance of those processes if opened in another programme i.e. Photo or whatever..?

 

Many thanks for taking time to read this far..... I am an OLD novice and at the very early stages of using a Mac... Ain`t even started on Affinity yet though I have the Workbook (-:

 

[v_kyr]

Probably the NEF file extension has now been associated with Affinity as a default app for openning these from the Finder. If you can see your card reader mounted in the console and copy files from there over it shouldn't bother at all. On OSX usually Apple Photos kicks in if you connect and transfer files over from a card reader to the OSX images folders, it recognizes this and as default asks to read those in and store in it's image locations. - Do you have and use Nikon's transfer app installed?

However, never had the fact that Affinity kicks in in that image raw files transfer process and I doubt it will do anything here to the raws as default. Take a look which app is associated with NEF raw files on your Mac.

Personally I use a two windows file manager like TotalCommander (good old habits) on Macs too here for any file related management operations (mark/compare, copy, move, delete, change... etc.). It's more comfortable for performing such and other tasks.