Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

DNG as export option


Recommended Posts

It would be real nice to have DNG format supported as an export option.
Scenario:

  • Shoot multiple images in camera native DNG format.
  • Import multiple images into Affinity Photo and assemble panorama. (Think HDR also)
  • Export completed panorama as DNG.
  • Import completed panorama into another RAW processor (in my case Capture One Pro) for catalogue use and further development.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How could you export to DNG? Isn’t it a raw format? You can convert to DNG from other raw formats (e.g. by using the Adobe DNG Converter) but I don’t see how you could hope to export a processed image to a raw format.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

TIFF is a RAW format. In fact most proprietary RAW formats are TIFF variations. 

My issue is that with Affinity and Capture One, when I do a round trip (Capture One -> Affinity -> Capture One) I have to use do a TIFF conversion. When I export the TIFF back to Capture One, even though I have enabled all of the EXIF information to be included, Affinity Photo is stripping the majority of the information out. 

Now in my case when I am using Affinity Photo to create a panorama, I start out in Affinity Photo. I create the panorama from DNG files as that is the RAW format I use with my current camera body. I do not do any other development of the combined images. I then have to export the panorama out as a TIFF in Affinity Photo (with all EXIF information explicitly included) in order to import the panorama into Capture One. On import into Capture One, the majority of EXIF information (Camera manufacture, Camera Model, GPS, Lens information, owner, copyright, etc.) has been stripped out. I have verified this by using ExifTool. If Affinity Photo can export using PSD and TIFF they should be able to export it as DNG. Or at least they should be able to support panorama output that has all the EXIF information available.

I also have a copy of Lightroom v6.14 (perpetual license) that creates panoramas from my DNG files. The resulting file is a DNG with all EXIF information included. However, the ability to create panorama files using the techniques available in Affinity Photo is - shall we say - weak in Lightroom. I have no desire to go to Adobe's licensing scheme for Lightroom and I have not, nor will I every use Photoshop. I am using Affinity Photo for those rare occasions where Capture One is not able to do what I need.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, PDL said:

TIFF is a RAW format. In fact most proprietary RAW formats are TIFF variations. 

My issue is that with Affinity and Capture One, when I do a round trip (Capture One -> Affinity -> Capture One) I have to use do a TIFF conversion. When I export the TIFF back to Capture One, even though I have enabled all of the EXIF information to be included, Affinity Photo is stripping the majority of the information out. 

Your first assertion (TIFF is a RAW format) is not true, but your second one (most proprietary RAW formats are TIFF variations) has some truth in it as they will mostly use similar compression methods as the Tiff file, as does the DNG format. Given the whole rationale of RAW formats (including DNG) it is not really logical to export or save files as RAW or DNG, even if theoretically possible. I would have thought that 16-bit tiff export would encompass all the necessary information that was available for almost all purposes. Failing that, for 32-bit images, then EXR would serve (or even .afphoto).

The critical element missing for you is the preservation of EXIF information. If Affinity can fix this then this should solve your problems. If you consider it a bug (and I would agree with that), then you should post this  in the Bug report forum.

John

Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC

CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Especially with the upcoming Develop-Adjustment Layer it would be very desirable to completely embed the RAW file into the .afphoto - document: Pretty much in the same way one can embed a ACR/Lightroom edited RAW file as a Smart Object in Photoshop. Upon double-click in the Layer-stack one re-enters the Develop-Workspace. One of the options found here is to completely reset all edits and to export as a .dng. If things were set up that way we could safely discard the source RAW-file and had everything neatly together inside the afphoto-file. Such an option will let file size increase which some fellow users won't like – one probably therefore should make full embedding optional.

PS: I still don't use Photo regularly for various reasons, but I just loaded a vanilla Canon RAW file just for testing if I'm not missing something.
My goodness – loading the file took ages on .104 (with a pretty beefy machine), without any feedback that the program is at all doing something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I started using Afinity Photo in mid-May last year and then in October also started using DxO PhotoLab. I mainly wanted a viewing ability to preview my RAW images and sort/cull out images as well as the ability to edit RAW files. I use Pentax and my RAW files are PEF. Open a file in DxO and after editing I process and export into Affinity Photo  DEVELOP as a .dng file. A copy is saved in the same folder as the PEF file but in DNG format alongside the side car file DOP. So files saved in the RAW folder is  IMGP8479.PEF then IMGP8479.PEF.DOP and IMGP8479_DxO.dng. The PEF file maybe 18Mb, the DNG file would be at least 60Mb file size, though an .afphoto maybe vey much larger depending on the subsequent editing.

As regards the EXIF information I have recently discovered that if I use the DxO PhotoLab route to edit a Pentax  PEF file and then into process and export the image into AP Develop as a .dng then the EXIF information is retained and when I subsequently save the file as a .afphoto file and export the image to .jpg then all the EXIF information is available regardless of which DPI setting I have used in the Photo Personae. Have re-sized images in all DPI settings 72,96,144,191,300 and 400 and the Exif information is maintained for all copies produced. Reference to post by Spennells Pensioner (trying to re-size document for club work) Monday 5th March. Tried to reproduce his problem but could not until I realised that the files I was using had all been pre-processed via DxO. It is only when bringing a RAW image into AP Develop and then save as .afphoto to subsequently export as a .jpg that I am then forced to lose the Exif information if I want to preserve the DPI settings  I have struggled with Affinity Photo with regard to preserving Exif information with image files with Photo Club work and have on occasions have resorted to opening the windows file information with a right click on the jpeg image and then properties and then the details tab to manually re-write information back into the file. Still very much on a learning curve on both editing suites. Quite happy with my two choices at this time.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...
  • 10 months later...

Any news on this?

I know it’s about 3,5 years after the initial post, but I tried to to the exact as @PDLI have exported DNGs from Capture One and imported them into Affinity Photo's Panorama tool. Stitching works fine, but I can't export the document as a DNG, so it can't be fully edited in Capture One.

Since DNG is an open format I wonder if it is difficult to bake it into Affinity Photo?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No word from Affinity. If you have Lightroom or Capture One you can export DNG's. 

I do not know if Photoshop will export DNG's, but I don't care since instead of Adobe I have Affinity. 

I agree that Affinity should use DNG as an export. I also am a primarily Capture One user and use Affinity for panorama stitching and focus stacking. The panorama component of Affinity my be of little or no use to me since Capture One is going to include that feature next year. I do not export images out of Capture One as DNG's as my camera uses DNG's as its RAW format. It would be nice to have a transparent (file/format wise) flow between products. 

Personally, I doubt that Affinity will support DNG export ever. Something I will have to live with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.