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Personally, I have been having a hard time accepting AP as a replacement for PS. There is a performance issue and quality issue. 

I have attached a side-by-side example of a NEF image taken with my D750, both zoomed too 100% . The image were processed similarly, or as best I could. You can PS did a much better job, especially in regards to sharpeness.

Has anyone else done this comparison? If so, what were your results?

Screen Shot 2018-08-17 at 1.05.49 PM.png

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It's difficult to comment without a description of the steps you took.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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20 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

It's difficult to comment without a description of the steps you took.

Understood, but let's just look at the sharpness of the image. That has nothing to do with any color adjustments I might have made...which were minimal at the time I did this screenshot.

 

EDIT: Additionally, I did not take any steps. I just opened them up and this is the result.

 

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 Here are two more. Unedited shown at 100 and 200% Again, look at the sharpness of the image, especially the hair and skin. I can't help but notice the difference in the histogram as well. Perhaps there is some "auto adjusting" happening on import though I am pretty sure I have disabled that where I could. 

I am not pleased with the sharpening results. I am a bit fan of dumping Adobe, but not if this is the quality of results I get. Buuuut, Adobe will "give" me free software if I upload and sell a certain amount on their stock contributor site. :-)

Screen Shot 2018-08-17 at 2.20.11 PM.png

Screen Shot 2018-08-17 at 2.21.15 PM.png

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I see what you are looking at, the focus is off. But again, without knowing the processes that where done, it is hard to give any feedback or corrective actions. Looking at your pics at 100% & 200%, I see that the histograms are completely different, kind of indicating some process took place. This could be something in either PS or Affinity that is automatic on import.

Just some thoughts.

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3 minutes ago, bumz said:

I see what you are looking at, the focus is off. But again, without knowing the processes that where done, it is hard to give any feedback or corrective actions. Looking at your pics at 100% & 200%, I see that the histograms are completely different, kind of indicating some process took place. This could be something in either PS or Affinity that is automatic on import.

Just some thoughts.

Just to be clear, it's not the focus but the clarity.

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The Affinity Photo histogram for a raw file in the Develop Persona is always compressed to the left. Serif have said that it's a side-effect of Develop using a 32-bit linear space, but have agreed it should be improved.

The sharpness/clarity could be due to Camera Raw applying some adjustments automatically that Affinity Photo is not applying. Or it could be something else. It would help to have the actual .nef file in addition to your screen shots.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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Please post a screenshot of your Affinity Photo Develop Assistant window so we can see what options you have chosen.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Affinity have said before that they do not automatically apply any sharpness in the develop persona unlike other raw converters which do.  You should apply your own "sharpness" before leaving the develop persona.

If you have not done this, try it then compare the results again, if you have done it upload one of the raw files so others can see what they can do with it.

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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Sorry, I can't share the original as it belongs to the company I work for. Regardless, having you guys work on the file to get it to look like the PS is not the point or question I had. I just wondered if you experienced these yourselves.

Since I am not in the office I can't look at what settings have automatically been applied in Adobe Raw. 

11 hours ago, carl123 said:

Affinity have said before that they do not automatically apply any sharpness in the develop persona unlike other raw converters which do.  You should apply your own "sharpness" before leaving the develop persona.

If you have not done this, try it then compare the results again, if you have done it upload one of the raw files so others can see what they can do with it.

So, by applying sharpness in AP, in theory, should bring up the image to match the PS file? I will have to try that. 

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7 minutes ago, befehr said:

So, by applying sharpness in AP, in theory, should bring up the image to match the PS file?

Yes, I think so.

My impression is that except for the automatic adjustments that you can request via the Develop Assistant (Lens Correction, Noise Correction, Tone Curve, Exposure Bias) the Affinity Photo goal is to give you an untouched raw image, leaving you with all the decisions about how the image will look when developed.

Other raw developers do more of the work automatifcally for you, I think. That might be viewed as a benefit by some, but by others might be viewed as a detriment if they wanted to see the actual image and make the decisions themselves.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Yes, I think so.

My impression is that except for the automatic adjustments that you can request via the Develop Assistant (Lens Correction, Noise Correction, Tone Curve, Exposure Bias) the Affinity Photo goal is to give you an untouched raw image, leaving you with all the decisions about how the image will look when developed.

Other raw developers do more of the work automatifcally for you, I think. That might be viewed as a benefit by some, but by others might be viewed as a detriment if they wanted to see the actual image and make the decisions themselves.

Thanks, Walt. I'll consider this and see if I can output comparable images without too much extra effort. Time is money. :-) 

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Unless Affinity Photo's RAW demosaicing is inferior to Photoshop's, the difference in sharpness that you're seeing is merely due to an unsharp mask that Adobe Camera Raw had used. Unsharp masks use a Gaussian blur to create the illusion of sharpness (true sharpness comes from either more sophisticated sharpening [use RawTherapee if you want more sophisticated sharpening], or from simply a sharper lens). 

Just enable detail refinement in Affinity Photo and mess with the sliders (be sure to adjust the radius to approximately match the lens's circle of confusion)

image.png.2a3fa4c0b14d98f7b0304e704d3290e5.png

As someone who's used several version of Photoshop over 7 years, though, I do have to say that Affinity Photo's detail refinement sliders are inferior to Adobe Camera Raw's. It lacks an adjustable threshold for where the sharpening is applied, hence introducing far more noise than Photoshop could otherwise avoid.

 

P.S. go to assistant manager image.png.3997fa0b6964a6c48f279733d3d5ecba.png and disable tone curves. Your image will be more bland but this gives you significantly more dynamic range to work with.

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  • 1 year later...
On 8/18/2018 at 7:15 PM, HuniSenpai said:

Unless Affinity Photo's RAW demosaicing is inferior to Photoshop's, the difference in sharpness that you're seeing is merely due to an unsharp mask that Adobe Camera Raw had used. Unsharp masks use a Gaussian blur to create the illusion of sharpness (true sharpness comes from either more sophisticated sharpening [use RawTherapee if you want more sophisticated sharpening], or from simply a sharper lens). 

Just enable detail refinement in Affinity Photo and mess with the sliders (be sure to adjust the radius to approximately match the lens's circle of confusion)

image.png.2a3fa4c0b14d98f7b0304e704d3290e5.png

As someone who's used several version of Photoshop over 7 years, though, I do have to say that Affinity Photo's detail refinement sliders are inferior to Adobe Camera Raw's. It lacks an adjustable threshold for where the sharpening is applied, hence introducing far more noise than Photoshop could otherwise avoid.

 

P.S. go to assistant manager image.png.3997fa0b6964a6c48f279733d3d5ecba.png and disable tone curves. Your image will be more bland but this gives you significantly more dynamic range to work with.

Hello HuniSenpai,

 

that it is a very interesting information what you have given and thank you very much for posting. I own Photoshop and just recently bought Affinity photo, I imported the same picture on both and Photoshop through Camera Raw apply much better sharpness to the one I can achieve in Affinity photo, I have tried all sorts of the combination for sharpness in Affinity and the results are definitely less impressive than Photoshop, the sharpness that comes out from the camera raw as default gives much better look, kind of natural look, more clear and does not seem to alter the colours and contrast. I really Like Affinity  but I prefer the sharpening of Photoshop and Camera Raw, is there any way that you aware of to achieve the same sharpness that comes out from camera raw (Photoshop) in affinity photo. At the moment I  prefer opening the raw files in Camera Raw and then export it to Affinity to complete the editing.

A response will be much appreciated.

Thanks in Advance,

Adriano

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 5/5/2020 at 6:49 PM, Panzotto said:

Hello HuniSenpai,

 

that it is a very interesting information what you have given and thank you very much for posting. I own Photoshop and just recently bought Affinity photo, I imported the same picture on both and Photoshop through Camera Raw apply much better sharpness to the one I can achieve in Affinity photo, I have tried all sorts of the combination for sharpness in Affinity and the results are definitely less impressive than Photoshop, the sharpness that comes out from the camera raw as default gives much better look, kind of natural look, more clear and does not seem to alter the colours and contrast. I really Like Affinity  but I prefer the sharpening of Photoshop and Camera Raw, is there any way that you aware of to achieve the same sharpness that comes out from camera raw (Photoshop) in affinity photo. At the moment I  prefer opening the raw files in Camera Raw and then export it to Affinity to complete the editing.

A response will be much appreciated.

Thanks in Advance,

Adriano

 

Hi Panzotto,

I'll tell you what I did to improve the sharpness in AP when using RAW files, in my case NEF and with a Mac computer. I opened the Develop Assistant and just switched The Motor Raw from Serif Labs to Apple (Core Image RAW). Then I just closed the Develop Assistant and opened again. And that's all. Now I can see de difference clearly and also the detail refinement using the sliders is working much better.

Hope this helps 

Captura de pantalla 2020-06-02 a las 16.40.43.png

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  • 2 years later...

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