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

Why is Affinity Photo so useless...


Recommended Posts

...at opening RAW files?

Other 3rd party converters I've used/trialled (including free ones) have absolutely no problem opening various types of RAW files yielding an image which is an accurate representation of the image as seen and recorded by the camera.  Why is Affinity not capable of doing the same?  Yesterday evening I wasted 3 hours trying to get Affinity to properly open a D7000 NEF file so that it looked like a usable image rather than a lousy, almost entirely black, mess.  Finally I had to give up and retire to bed defeated, frustrated  and FURIOUS (which I still am).

It does not appear to matter what flavour of RAW file is involved (Panasonic, Nikon or Canon), the file once open is always far too dark with the histogram bunched up well to the left and tight up against the left end of the histogram window and bearing no resemblance that shown on the camera screen or in other software (where available).  Attempts to correct the image are usually unsuccessful or at best result in a poor quality image that falls far short of even an in-camera JPEG which rather defeats the purpose of using RAW...:S

I always seem to get a message advising that Affinity has converted the image to the working profile (sRGB) which is odd as my cameras are all set to sRGB and I don't get any issues with other software.  The "Develop Assistant" when it does anything just makes the images even darker...

I purchased Affinity Photo with the expectation of it being my one-stop resource for all RAW conversions but frankly it now appears that I might as well have chucked my money down the drain.:40_rage:

Is it possible to get this software to properly read and render RAW files accurately or should I cut my losses and look elsewhere?...:(

 

Edited by El Sid
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

Hi El Sid,

Welcome to the forums and I'm very sorry to hear you feel this way.

Could you please open any RAW file, then locate the 32bit Preview Studio (View>Studio>32bit Preview) and check that Display Transform is set to ICC Display Transform and not unmanaged?

Please let me know if this helps, as un 'unmanaged' 32bit Preview of a RAW file will certainly appear darker than expected.

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Dan

I checked the 32bit Preview as you suggested and the Display Transform is set to ICC Display Transform.   I see what you mean about the unmanaged option - in that mode the image goes almost completely black!  Unfortunately none of this gets anywhere near solving the underlying issue which is that the images are far too dark with the histogram huddled hard against the left end.  I wasted another 3 hours last night and still can't get AP to open raw files in a usable form.

Below is a screenshot of the Nikon D7000 file I'm trying to access as it appears in Affinity Develop Persona...

1595773482_D7000NEFfileinAffinityPhoto1.7.thumb.jpg.6c76004e5c0c172d064c0e44fabaf178.jpg

...and below are the same file opened in Nikon's own View NX2, in DxO's OpticsPro 11 and lastly in RawTherapee 5.3.  As you can see all of them look reasonably similar with a sensible and realistic histogram.   I find it difficult to believe that Affinity is unable to reproduce  the image the same way - particularly as I have watched the video tutorial on raw development in which it histogram of the newly opened, unadjusted, file was not bunched up at one end of the scale...:S

Finally at the bottom I have attached screenshots of the Colour & Performance  dialogs from the Edit preferences section.   Hopefully something in this message will hold a clue as to why I can't get anything usable out of Affinity...:(

 

384560615_D7000NEFfileinNikonViewNX2jpg.thumb.jpg.d87bcc155a27f8ba8ad3c15b585f94c4.jpg

1198323796_D7000NEFfileinDxOOpticsPro.thumb.jpg.2c45f2bce2ec5f3756da26b476125af5.jpg

88034698_D7000NEFfileinRawTherapee5.thumb.jpg.844b456b633db39686c8d4c2bdb8ea75.jpg

50710248_AffinityColourPreferences.jpg.1c83aac6f63b22a7eb799829eed3c8ce.jpg

673146752_AffinityPerformancePreferences.jpg.e0de660ba4415b08465114f22353ec1b.jpg

Affinity Colour Preferences.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff
1 minute ago, El Sid said:

Affinity Colour Preferences.jpg

Thanks for your screenshots, the issue I believe is in the above section of Preferences - Enable HDR by default in 32-bit RGB views - If you don't have a HDR compatible monitor this will cause the image to appear much darker. Please try disabling this option, restarting Affinity and open a RAW image.

If this still doesn't seem to fix the issue, resetting the app to it default settings should help. You can reset your app back to its default settings by holding down the CTRL key while launching the app. When the Clear User Data window appears, click Select All and then Clear. The app will now open.
Be aware that resetting your app back to its default settings will lose any custom settings such as keyboard shortcuts and brushes etc. To backup such settings before resetting the app, please watch our Affinity - Exporting User Settings and Keyboard Shortcuts video. https://player.vimeo.com/video/189596577/

Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave.

If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap.

Many thanks :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Dan

Had a chance to look at this again over the weekend

As I suspected disabling t he HDR option has no effect so I tried resetting the application as you advised.

As you can see from the screenshot below this has corrected the gross darkening of the image and the histogram is pretty much identical to that seen in the other programs.   It's perhaps still a bit darker than View NX2, DxO or RawTherapee but at least the image was fully editable and I could extract a usable image as shown in the second attachment.

I still haven't a clue what I did to upset it but I think I'll refrain from messing about with the preferences from now on...

I think it's fair to say I am a much happier bunny that I was last week...:)  Thank you for your assistance.

PS On the subject of Histograms I think they would be far easier to read if the the master RGB histogram were white or grey rather than lighter shade of blue which is rather easy to confuse with the blue channel....

 

1555607695_D7000NEFfileinAffinityPhoto1.7-AFTERRESET.thumb.jpg.4eacddeee0df973cb1b2a5306799ef5b.jpg

 

1549913333_2019-04-06_D7K_6561_Chichester_TheRotaryGarden-A.thumb.jpg.59dd6d9e63ff6b5b94433c60f10d7d36.jpg

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.