MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

After reading all the comments here about the benefits of RAW I decided to make the transition. I purchased Affinity to do PP (I figure the cost was three months worth of PS/LR). So here's my question: What is the best workflow from camera to Affinity? Here's what I currently do - I connect the camera to my Mac and import into Photos. I then can take a look at all the photos full-screen and decide which ones I want to do PP on. Then I click Edit in Photos, Select use Raw as Original (since Photos imports from camera as JPEG and RAW but defaults to JPEG) click Extensions, then select Edit in Affinity. Once there in Affinity I Save As... to create an Affinity File.

Seems like a lot of steps, but I like previewing in Photos to see which ones are worth doing PP. Any suggestions on how to simplify this?

rjaywallace Loc: Wisconsin

Why not import directly into Affinity, make your keep/no keep decision there and begin work right away? /Ralph

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

I believe that's the most common workflow. But can you edit in Affinity non-destructively? (i.e.; the raw file retains your changes when you re-open it, but can be re-edited infinitely, as in Adobe Lightroom?)

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

Is there a reason you don't use the native file system either by 1] inserting the card in the card reader, copy and paste or by 2] using "ImageCapture" app? Then you can go directly from .ARW to the editor(s) of your choice.

If you are using Photos for cataloging then you can still import them to Photos without moving or altering the originals. You can examine the .ARW images with FastRawViewer in order to decide which ones to bother with and which to set aside. FRV is better for that because it looks at the actual raw image, not the JPG. If you do that before importing to Photos for catalog purposes then you keep the Photos database smaller which will eventually be a good thing.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

Yes, lot of steps for sure... FWIW - this is what I do:

I shoot 100% raw, I do not bother with JPG's because I can create as many JPGs as needed in a few seconds on the computer....

I remove the SD card from my camera and insert it into a reader on my iMac.

Using FastRawViewer, I quickly scroll thru the images while they are on the SD card and select which I will keep and work on, once selected I call Lightroom from FastRawViewer with the selected photos, Lightroom fires up and goes to the IMPORT module automatically with the selected images picked for import. I import the selected images from the SD card into Lightroom and convert them from NEF (Nikon raw) to DNG on import.

In Lightroom I edit as needed or make use of Photoshop or various plugins to complete the photograph.

After the images are imported into Lightroom the SD card is ejected and formatted in the camera for the next shoot.

My iMac backs up continually to cloud storage (Crashplan) and locally every hour to my Time Machine Backup external drive.

Several steps here as well for sure, but all moving forward with the Main system to manage photographs being Lightroom. I used to import everything into Lightroom, then select images to keep in Lightroom, converting to DNG before editing, but now I cull on the SD card using FastRawViewer and only import what I deem "keepers" to convert & edit.

It can save some steps and time.

cmcaroffino Loc: Sebring, FL

This is my process for now. I use a mac laptop pro. Download new pics onto external hard drive (or desktop and drag onto external hard drive), preview using mac preview, decide what are keepers and delete rejects, do processing I have Affinity, Luminar and PSE, I do not copy into Photos only link to external hard drive,( uncheck the copy to library in preferences) to save hard drive space on laptop. This is for pics I shoot in RAW and are going to keep. For a temporary event I shoot in JPEG do what I have to do with them then delete.

mikeroetex Loc: Lafayette, LA

Admittedly, my PP skills are average at best, but always trying to learn and get better. Why do you convert to DNG instead of just leaving them in NEF format?

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

Thanks for the idea, but I don't believe Affinity has any way of storing large numbers of photos, so it would be difficult to go back later and find a specific pic. Please let me know if I'm wrong there.

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

The first tutorial tells you that once you import into Affinity, you should do a Save As... to create the Affinity file. Thereby leaving the original unchanged. I guess if you forget to do so, you would "destruct" the original.

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

I wasn't aware of FRV - I'll check it out. thanks for the suggestion.

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

Thanks for the detailed explanation Dngallager. It seems logical and will try it out with Affinity.

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

Great suggestions cmaroffino. I wasn't aware you could link files to Photos. Will give it a try.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

I convert from NEF to DNG for a couple of reasons, I prefer to eliminate the XMP sidecar files required by proprietary raw files (NEF and CR2), DNG also compresses a little so it saves a bit of space over the proprietary raw format, and DNG often load and save a bit faster.

People always say that some data gets lost in the conversion, but I cannot find anything I need being missing between NEF and DNG other than not being able to use NIKON software on the DNG files of course.

jwn Loc: SOUTHEAST GEORGIA USA

if Canon why not just put card in computer download to a file (you name..event, place, subject) with "camera window" and open file in DDP-4. and nondestructive edit, convert, sharpen whatever it's powerful free software supplied by the mfg and updated and used by some of the best pros. . Seems eveyone on this site likes to play on the computer and are confused by the editing programs they purchase. Nothing against those who want to use editing software but a lot of the work flow discussion is about just getting the files imported and set up.

MikWar Loc: Chicago, Western Suburbs

I'll check out Canon's editing software. What is "camera window?"