dark files in affinity

[muhammadk]

When I open raw files from Nikon capture NX-D into affinity photo, the files are darker as compared to ones in capture NX-D  meaning exposure down by almost 1-2 stops.

Does any one knows what is the reason behind it and how one can fix this issue.

Thanks

[Dan C]

Hi muhammadk

What camera do your RAW files originate from please?

[muhammadk]

I am using Nikon D750 and the files are 14 bit NEF Nikon files

[Dan C]

Thanks for confirming that. If you open the RAW file directly in Affinity, rather than through Nikon Capture NX-D, does the image appear the same?

[muhammadk]

Yes. Even after opening directly, without going through view NX-i or capture NX-D, still the image appears darker as if under exposed by 1-2 stops.

[walt.farrell]

Is it simply, perhaps, that Affinity Photo shows you the raw data, without applying any of the in-camera adjustments you may have made (such as exposure adjustments, which primarily affect JPEG images made by the camera)?

View NX-i, on the other hand, would apply such adjustments to the raw data before displaying the image.

[Dan C]

Thanks for that muhammadk, I agree with Walts above post - Affinity Photo is using a different RAW engine and may not be applying the same automatic adjustments that NX-i or NX-D is to your image. I've tested a RAW file from your camera model and the image is slightly darker than it's JPEG equivalent (which is expected) but I certainly wouldn't say it's so dark it's a bug.

You're welcome to try opening your RAW files in out new 1.7 beta, we've made some changes to RAW processing that you may prefer over the live version

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/61-affinity-photo-beta-forums/

[muhammadk]

I know it's not a bug but I thought may be I need to adjust something in preferences/settings.

I will wait until version 1.7 is fully operational. no rush but thanks for letting me know that version 7 is coming.

One more question. I saw video for epic sky lift in tutorials and when inquired about the af macro in forums , I came  to know  that the offer has expired.

Is it available for purchase from anywhere, which is compatible with affinity photo or will it be available again in future?

[Dan C]

I understand, thanks for letting me know.

It's not something that we're currently advertising, but our sales team may be able to help you. I recommend emailing them directly - affinity@serif.com  

[muhammadk]

On 3/12/2019 at 4:52 AM, muhammadk said:

When I open raw files from Nikon capture NX-D into affinity photo, the files are darker as compared to ones in capture NX-D  meaning exposure down by almost 1-2 stops.

Does any one knows what is the reason behind it and how one can fix this issue.

Thanks

I have come across another thread with same reason, started in February 2017  under title, "RAW IMAGES OPEN TOO DARK". which shows its an ongoing issues which needs to be fixed due to some bug in develop persona. It has nothing to do with any in-camera adjustments applied by view NX-I or capture NX-D.

[muhammadk]

On 2/24/2017 at 12:11 PM, mizuhito said:

All of a sudden, all my RAW images open in Affinity Photo about 1ev darker than they should be.

 

I’ve used Edit->Defaults->Factory Reset several times; doesn’t help.  I’ve quit the application.  I’ve rebooted the system.

 

If I open the same RAW file in other applications, such as Apple Photos or Graphic Converter, the image looks just fine.  My camera writes a JPEG and a RAW file for each image and if I open the corresponding JPEG in Affinity Photo, it looks just fine.  But the RAW is too dark.  This just started happening; wasn’t always that way.

 

Is there some setting I might have changed accidentally, something I can check?  This is very frustrating.  Thanks.

 

On 2/24/2017 at 12:16 PM, IanSG said:

Have a look in the Develop persona's Assistant Manager and check that the tone curve is set to "Apply tone curve" and that the assistant is enabled.

 

On 2/24/2017 at 12:17 PM, Keith Reeder said:

Have you enabled a highlight protection option in camera - something like Canon's Highlight Tone Priority? 

 

On 2/24/2017 at 12:36 PM, mizuhito said:

Thanks, IanSG.  I didn’t know about that assistant.  Setting the tone curve to "Apply tone curve” didn’t help (and the assistant was already enabled).  However, I found that setting the RAW Engine to Apple (Core Image RAW) from Serif Labs did cause the RAW image to look as it should.  Should I be using Serif?  Setting it back to Serif causes it to be dark again.  Could you please suggest what other settings in this dialog should be used, e.g., Exposure bias is currently set to “Take no action”; is that correct?

 

On 2/24/2017 at 12:40 PM, Keith Reeder said:

 

 

Maybe you could answer my question, Mizuhito?

 

On 2/24/2017 at 12:45 PM, mizuhito said:

Hi Keith.  No, I don’t think so.  I don’t have a Canon and I haven’t changed any of the camera settings wrt dynamic range.  I’m opening some RAW images that had previously looked fine when I opened them in AF, so something has changed within the app.  Maybe I need to reinstall.  Thanks for your help.

 

On 2/24/2017 at 2:44 PM, EdD said:

Mizuhito, have you watched the RAW Development tutorials James Ritson (from Serif) does? I think they might explain what you're seeing. They're listed part way down  on this page: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/10119-in-house-affinity-photo-video-tutorials/Hope this helps.

 

Ed

 

On 2/24/2017 at 8:43 PM, EdD said:

Hi Mizuhito

 

What I was thinking about with this group of tutorials was that James demonstrates quite a variety of RAW settings and the effects of the changes that I hoped might help to resolve your problem.

 

Ed

 

On 2/25/2017 at 6:33 AM, Keith Reeder said:

 

I recommend that you check - most modern cameras have an equivalent to the Canon HTP setting, and the symptoms you describe exactly match what would happen if your camera is in a highlight protection mode.

 

On 2/25/2017 at 12:43 PM, qwz said:

Adobe (Lightroom and Photoshop's Camera Raw plug-in) uses a hidden exposure correction for RAW files. Sometimes it matches a in-camera JPEG looks.

App will show you a zero exposure bit actually 1, 1 1/2 or some other correction will be applied.

 

Use a RAW Digger software to see how your RAW files are actually exposed. Maybe you and you camera underexposes it significantly (like many of them do - to preserve highlights). 

 

On 2/25/2017 at 8:22 PM, v_kyr said:

Maybe you set/added a preset in the basic or tones panel etc. and that is always used now? - If that's the case, you can switch back to the default preset or delete a previously added preset.

 

On 10/3/2017 at 2:38 PM, Septimus said:

Did you ever resolve this because I have exactly the same problem. I have raised it previously and I know I'm not alone but nothing seems to have been done to fix it

 

On 3/19/2018 at 12:47 PM, BrentB said:

This has nothing to do with in-camera settings - it's something with the Serif engine.

 

I can view RAW files from three different cameras (Canon, Nikon, Sony) and compare them with their corresponding .jpg files in Preview, Lightroom and Adobe RAW and they all look nearly identical in terms of exposure.  Opening them in Affinity Photo, however, they appear very, very, very underexposed.  This is the first thing I noticed when using the application.  And this is with "Apply Tone Curve" on - if I turn that off they look like hell.

 

To get things close, I have to use Apple Core Image RAW with the Tone Curve applied as well.

 

On 3/23/2018 at 12:27 PM, andre.lang said:

Same problem!!!!! I thought it was my camera, but its not. Its definitely an affinity photo error. 

I open the RAW up in develop and its ok! I open it in Photo and its super dark!!!

 

I was fretting for ages that I thought I had a camera issue. 

 

Any one solve this? 

 

On 3/29/2018 at 8:32 AM, John Rostron said:

Yes,, I would agree that is a bug. I have never had such problems with my sony .awr files, so it may be specific to certain camera raw files.

 

The bug seems to be that AP ignores any default presets for raw files in anything but the Develop Persona. It ignores them when creating stacks, merges and in batch processing.

@andre.lang, @owenr, I would suggest that you report this problem in either the Bug reports or Feature Requests, whatever you deem appropriate. I would also specify the camera models that are giving you problems.

John

 

On 3/21/2019 at 10:27 AM, kvee said:

I have the same problem.

My camera Canon 80D my file is CR2. Open in Nomacs, Rawtherapee the histogram are the same or almost the same but open in Affinity Photo it is too dark.

 

these are all the replies from the other thread in the forum.

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, muhammadk said:

I have come across another thread with same reason, started in February 2017  under title, "RAW IMAGES OPEN TOO DARK". which shows its an ongoing issues which needs to be fixed due to some bug in develop persona. It has nothing to do with any in-camera adjustments applied by view NX-I or capture NX-D.

You need to be careful to keep the context in mind.

For example, trying to use raw files via File > New Batch Job will give you files that are too dark, but it may not be viewed as a bug (I think). It's a feature to be enhanced, because it was not really intended that batch processing work with raw files at all. When you try, it doesn't completely fail (refuse to work), but gives suboptimal results because it uses a different Develo workflow. The fix (if it's a bug) could simply be to have Batch processing refuse to open them at all, but I'm not sure we'd want that.

Or, some reports are about using File > Open, and getting images that are different than other programs show. Again, not a bug. The other programs are simply doing added processing to your images (especially if the other programs are from the camera manufacturer), but Affinity is presenting the actual raw data for you to adjust, as you'd like it to appear. These are not bugs, but users not understanding how Develop works in Affinity.

And, some are probably about bugs, but some may be about issues when people try to use unsupported cameras.

It can be difficult to distinguish them, but you need to. You can't just treat them all the same way.

[v_kyr]

Well, if you know that batch processed RAWs will be always underexposed by 1-2 stops, you can apply a macro on batch execution to compensate for that. - For a series of single RAW developed files (under equal lighting conditions) instead a reusable custom setup preset might be useful to use then.

Or if that is overall not satisfactory, don't use APh and develop RAWs instead with another RAW converter tool here, which keeps to handle NEFs as default in a better way.

[muhammadk]

That's exactly what I have been doing. Use a  separate raw converter for raw files and affinity for later use but what has surprised me is that even after 2 years being mentioned on the forum, the problem still exists.