Raw vs Photo Persona editing

[karlthefirst]

Hi everyone, thanks in advance, as this is my first time posting a question to the forums. I’m new to RAW editing on Affinity Photo and Affinity for iPad and I’m having trouble figuring out whether to make certain edits in the Develop or Photo persona. So let’s say I have a landscape that needs lightening in the foreground and darkening in the sky. I know there’s an Overlay tool in the Develop Persona, but if I’m more comfortable making selections and editing for brightness, etc in that manner, is there any disadvantage to jumping through the development process and then making my edits with selections in the Photo Persona? Or does some of the RAW data get removed once I’ve “developed” the image by exiting the Develop Persona? In other words, in order to take full advantage of the data available in the RAW file, must I stay in the Develop Persona, or is there no data loss during the development process? Thanks so much for any clarification!

[pixelcoder]

Hi and welcome,

 

there is no quality loss I would say, its like developing the photo in Lightroom and do fine tuning by sending it to Photoshop. The file stays high quality until you save it out to jpeg for example. Then it gets converted to 8Bit . At least that is what I guess the program does, since when you safe it in the native ap format and go to the project overview you can see that there is a little symbol with "16Bit" on it, wich means high quality. 

 

So I would say there is no right way, both are right and you can do what feels more comfortable for you. When you like editing outside the develop persona go for it. That is what I do to. I just do basic adjustments like shadows and highlights (yay new algorithm rocks) there and the rest in Photo Persona with all the layers and bells and whistles.

 

cheers,

Lutz

 

 

 

 

 

[karlthefirst]

OK GREAT, thanks so much Lutz. I find the Develop persona good in that all the sliders are there and the fine-tuning of the overall photo goes quickly, but once I get into wanting to make adjustments to particular parts of a photo, I find the selection tool in the Photo persona much easier and more accurate than the overlay tools in Develop. Just wanted to make sure I wasn’t tossing out the RAW data when I switch, as AP sort of makes the “develop” process sound very final. Thanks again for getting back to me so quickly.

best,

karl 

 

[karlthefirst]

Oh, since I have you here, one other question on the Develop persona. Do you (or does anyone else on the forums) have the issue that only certain options are available in Develop prior to actually developing? I can use all the sliders and toggles in the “Basic” studio, but the Lens, Details, and other studios within Develop are all grayed out until after I run the development process in the Basic Studio. Is that normal or is something wrong with the way in which I’m importing my files?

Thanks,

Karl

[DM1]

Tested on raw file here and Develop studio tools icons are grey until selected (tapped)at which point they turn white and open a menu of options. All functions appear to be available to me.

[karlthefirst]

Hmm, thanks for the reply. I wonder if I’m not tapping in the right place. I should have said that this is in the app on an iPad Pro, can’t recall if I’ve had the same problem on the desktop version. But the toggle buttons at the top of each section of develop tools is grayed out so I can’t toggle it. But then once I develop and am sent into Photo persona, I can go BACK to Develop persona and they’re all working. Which I guess is fine, except that the whole idea of the Develop persona is that you get your overall stuff done, develop once, and then move onto the details. Thanks again for your help though!

[DM1]

18 hours ago, karlthefirst said:

 

Hmm, thanks for the reply. I wonder if I’m not tapping in the right place. I should have said that this is in the app on an iPad Pro,

 

Here's an example. Didn't have a raw file handy but it works the same. In Develop persona note the Studios down the right side of screen. All greyed out except top one. The blue circle is my Apple Pencil tapping the Studio icon. You can see the range of options that are available. Hope this helps. You will need a browser other than Safari to download and view this screen recording. I use iCabMobile and or Documents by Readdle (free) and has a built in browser.

 

D65A9DFF-C893-46BC-8860-C28FDAE12749.MP4

[karlthefirst]

Hey, thanks for making the video. I downloaded iCabMobile just so I could watch it, but when I paste your link into the browser window it asks if I want to download the file. Then I can’t find the file anywhere. Sorry, i’m a newbie to 3rd-party iOS web browsers. Any ideas?

[smadell]

In iCab, say “yes” to downloading the file. Then, click on the icon shaped like a circle with the downward-pointing arrow. This opens a list of downloaded files. Click on the movie file and choose Display File from the menu.