Raw workflow in AP

[MarshallHarrison]

Can someone point me to a good tutorial on developing a raw workflow? Or something showing all the things that AP can  do with raw camera (Canon 7D) images?

I  would also like to hear how you guys process your raw images.

 

Thanks.

 

[MarshallHarrison]

Did I post this in the wrong forum or is it no one has a Raw workflow to brag about?

[Alfred]

I don’t shoot raw, but many of those who do would have been asleep, or getting ready to go to sleep, when you posted 13 hours ago! (It’s now half past three on Sunday afternoon here in the UK, and half past ten in the morning on the east coast of the US.)

[MarshallHarrison]

30 minutes ago, Alfred said:

I don’t shoot raw, but many of those who do would have been asleep, or getting ready to go to sleep, when you posted 13 hours ago! (It’s now half past three on Sunday afternoon here in the UK, and half past ten in the morning on the east coast of the US.)

Thanks.

I'm on the east coast of the USA. I was thinking that this forum had users all around the world (55 views so far) but I guess it just takes longer to get an answer than I anticipated. 

[j3rry]

You find here tons of tutorials.

 

[MarshallHarrison]

34 minutes ago, j3rry said:

You find here tons of tutorials.

 

Thanks J3rry.

The main thing I'm looking for and haven't determined if it is possible is the ability to have a workflow that allows me to see and rate multiple images at once (kind of like with a light table). Then to do a series of non destructive edits on one and apply the edits to a whole series of raw images and export them.

I can do this with something like adobe Lightroom or with Darktable. But that brings up a question about should I  edit raw in AP or should I convert to say jpeg and edit that image.

Im' just setting up my workflow and I want to get it right as changing things later can be difficult.

 

[j3rry]

I use DxO PL and Capture 1 for the developing of Raw files, only occasional use of the develop persona. 

[Old Bruce]

16 minutes ago, MarshallHarrison said:

Then to do a series of non destructive edits on one and apply the edits to a whole series of raw images and export them.

Short answer, no.

You can save presets while you work on the first image and then apply those to the subsequent RAW files BUT there is no way to automate any of this. In my opinion this is a major deficiency and I honestly don't know why it can not be implemented. Also once you 'develop' the RAW file you can't export as a batch until you save the file. Then you can batch process them to your hearts content.

[MarshallHarrison]

48 minutes ago, j3rry said:

I use DxO PL and Capture 1 for the developing of Raw files, only occasional use of the develop persona. 

that may be the process I have to adopt. But the two you mentioned are a little too expensive for me right now. Darktable is free and there are a bunch of videos on Youtube so I'll probably experiment with that. I don't think it can be fully automated but it is non destructive and the editing history of a raw file can be applied to other raw files then exported to jpeg or something else. All this sounds like preprocessing before the image gets brought into AP.

 

[Minus44]

Although Affinity Photo has the capability to read and develop raw files as one-offs or for smaller projects, at this time it’s really not the best tool for developing volume projects full of raw images. This may change in the future.

As explained by some of their support team, here is why.

You will be well served for the time being if you investigate raw workflow tools such as RawTherapee or darktable. (darktable is written in all lower caps and as one word even if used as the first word in a sentence.)

To learn more about how to use the Develop persona to develop your raw files, watch this video:

 

[MarshallHarrison]

Thanks Ulysses!

So it looks like darktable will be where I end up. I played with RarTherapee a little but I didn't feel comfortable with its interface.

If I understand everyone correctly then this looks like a 3 step process:

1. Move the raw files to my hard drive (I'm on a Macbook Pro with a terabyte of SSD). Still need a good way of automating the copy/naming process. I feel this is necessary because darktable needs somewhere to create the sidecar files and I don't want them on the Camera's memory card.

2. Batch process and maybe rename the files with darktable

3.  Import the resulting file from step 2 into AP and do the final processing then save the results.

 

Am I missing something? Am I on the right track?

Any suggestions for software for step 1? I used to have a Windows based program for that but I don't remember the name of it?

[Minus44]

@MarshallHarrison: Yes, you have the basics in mind. 

Definitely COPY the raw files from your memory card to a folder on your SSD drive, or preferably to an external hard drive as your working drive. For now you can use Windows File Explorer for the copy process. You can find a free renaming application such as Advanced Renamer to batch rename your files.

EDIT: Ignore what I said previously about using "Advanced Renamer," and download Adobe Bridge for FREE. Yes, it will tie you to Adobe, but it costs nothing for now, and Bridge is an excellent file manager, image previewer, metadata manager, and much more. It also has lots of easy yet advanced renaming tools. In fact, Bridge also can be set up to download your images from your cards to the folder of your choice.

Then use darktable to process your raw photos, making basic adjustments for exposure, white balance, contrast, saturation, lens corrections, etc. Choose the few images on which you want to perform more detailed work, and export them as TIFF files.

Open your TIFF files in Affinity Photo for further detailed tweaking before exporting them as your finished JPEG files.

The above is a good basic workflow that keeps things simple and inexpensive. But it's not the only workflow possible; the beauty of all of this is that you can adjust your workflow and your tools as the needs change. When ready, you can purchase other tools to make your copy and rename phase more efficient. But start here for now. Keep things as simple as possible. Enjoy!

[MarshallHarrison]

Thanks Ulysses.

That sent me down a rabbit hole for a few hours so far. Bridge wouldn't install and it took several reboots and cleanup of crashing install files.  Finally got it installed and now to figure out how to rename the files when it copies them from the card.

.

I also had a problem with opening the raw files as the file association was set to open CR2 files with Affinity Publisher. Not sure why other than that was the last affinity program installed but, I had to reset that back to affinity Photo.

 

I'm retired and  photography is mostly a hobby for me. So, I trying to figure out how much batch processing I need other than bulk copy and renaming of files. I don't know darktable or RawTherapee so I'm trying to decide which is easiest to use or if they are even necessary or should  I should skip them entirely and use AP for the raw preprocessing. 

Anyway, thanks again for the help.

[MarshallHarrison]

Update: I've figured out how to bulk copy and rename files in Adobe Bridge. I'm happy now. But on to the next issue: raw processing.

[Minus44]

Great, @MarshallHarrison! I had a feeling Bridge might work well for you in that area.

As for raw processing, I would say stick with Affinity Photo if... IF... the number of images you actually need to keep and process is relatively low. If you need to deal with large batches of images, then you need a more efficient tool.