Batch processing HDR?

[clfry]

I posted this as a feature request earlier because I didn't see an obvious way to do it, but it seems like such a no-brainer that I feel like maybe I'm missing something... Every program I have that does HDR has a way to batch process (Oloneo (my current main workhorse), Photomatix, Photoshop, Dynamic Photo, Aurora, etc). What's frustrating is that Affinity shows more promise for my style as an architectural photographer than any of these, but I desperately need batch to be able to use it at all...

[stokerg]

Hi clfry,

As you've found out, it's not possible to record a batch job for the HDR merge process.

I know you've already got a post in Feature Requests, which is the best place for any request as it means it will be seen by the Dev team but i'll still move this post over to that section of the Forums as it's the best place for it  

 

[Russ2]

Seconds up for this option. I do have SNS-HDR a software compiled by one person I beleive at home that can batch process HDR images yet large software developers seem unable  to do what is for people who use a lot of HDR in there every day photography a great option, Affinity Photo are not the only ones who left this out, On1 Raw 2018 also does not have the option either. Russ.

[clfry]

The reason I originally posted this in the discussion forum was in hope that someone might be able to offer a usable work around. I put in a preorder for Aurora HDR 2019, as it has effective chromatic aberration removal; maybe I can batch the HDR files in Aurora, but tonemap in Affinity when I do the rest of the edit.

[whizzrd]

@clfry I started work on an applescript automation solution for HDR Merge in Affinity Photo using Apple Automator's "watch me do" action, it is however not fully automatic and not really useable because you still  have to select the bracketed images by hand, however it does save me some clicks. 

Let me know if you're interested, i'll post the workflow somewhere

[clfry]

9 hours ago, whizzrd said:

@clfry I started work on an applescript automation solution for HDR Merge in Affinity Photo using Apple Automator's "watch me do" action, it is however not fully automatic and not really useable because you still  have to select the bracketed images by hand, however it does save me some clicks. 

Let me know if you're interested, i'll post the workflow somewhere

Thanks for the offer, but unfortunately a typical job will consist of 500-1000 frames, so I need the batches to be fully automated.

[whizzrd]

 

2 minutes ago, clfry said:

Thanks for the offer, but unfortunately a typical job will consist of 500-1000 frames, so I need the batches to be fully automated.

Yes, I was thinking that having command-line arguments to pass a set of bracketed images to Affinity Photo for HDR merge would be a good start, that way one could do some scripting using ExifTool to figure out if the images are bracketed and group several shots together, see this post below

 

[whizzrd]

exiftool -q -p '$ExposureBracketValue $FileName ' -if '$ShootingMode =~ /Exposure Bracketing/' * \
| while read ExposureBracketValue FileName; do test $ExposureBracketValue -eq 0 && echo ; echo -n $FileName ''\
|| echo -n $FileName ''; done

The hardest part is possibly determining which shots are bracketed and which ones are a bracketed group, code above is functional for Nikon NEF files where first shot is 0 EV

[martin.smekal]

Please, Affinity please!!!  this a the feature that might push vfx people/studios to use more of Affinity apps