Amadeus Loc: New York

I've attached 2 photos. Same pic, one Raw the other jpg out of my Canon 80D. If I open this photo (or view thumbnails) in Widows or the Canon DPP Raw editor (and thumbnails), both files look basically the same. When I open the Raw file in Affinity Photo 2 the Raw image is severely underexposed. For those familiar with Affinity, I have to move the exposure slider 1.5-2.5 to get the photo to look the same as the jpg. I'm curious to see what they look like after attaching them here, but I'm guessing they will look similar, meaning what you would expect. I don't know if the problem will show up here. If you use Affinity, perhaps you could download and view them yourself. I had the same problem occasionally with Affinity 1 but it seems more prevalent with 2. I contacted Affinity and they made some suggestions, turning off tone curve in develop assistant, which I tried. And they also gave me a lot of info I really didn't quite understand about Serif Lab Engines.
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
I'm not sure, but on my attachments I see it says "non-image attachment". Not sure if you can attach RAW files, but I just don't know.

Attached file:
(Download)


(Download)

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Yes, that is the raw image and can be downloaded. I use PS Elements and it opened fine (and properly exposed) in Adobe Camera Raw. No help re Affinity, but just wanted to assure you the raw is attached to your opening post.

Amadeus Loc: New York

Thank you. I wasn’t sure. Not surprised that it opened ok in your software.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

Affinity Photo isn't a parametric editor, is it?

There is a good discussion about the shortcomings of Affinity Photo for working with raw files here:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4429854?page=5

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

When you took the photo you had the unique-to-Canon feature; Highlight Tone Priority set ON -- active. Your camera of course processed the JPEG applying that setting and DPP of course also applies that setting. Affinity does not and Photoshop Elements does.

So Affinity is showing you what you really have there in the raw file while your camera, DPP, and Photoshop are adding the Highlight Tone Priority function. It's an easy accommodation in Affinity just increase the exposure slider which you've already figured out.

Amadeus Loc: New York

So you’re saying that if I turn that feature off in the camera that would eliminate the difference in the images?

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Yes. Highlight Tone Priority protects highlights by withholding ISO lightening from the analog sensor signal (shows in raw file) and instead applies that withheld lightening, with a moderated tone curve, in the image processor. DPP, and Elements read the tag in the EXIF data and apply a compensation similar to what the camera does. Affinity ignores the EXIF tag. Highlight Tone Priority is unusual in that it's a JPEG adjustment function that also has a permanent effect on the raw file.

terryMc Loc: Arizona's White Mountains

I know nothing of the Canon feature, but I opened the file in both Camera Raw and Affinity 2.3.1 Develop Module, and it is obviously underexposed, although darker in Affinity than Camera Raw. Affinity's raw handling has never been considered stellar.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

The photo is darker in Affinity because Affinity does not read and process the HTP tag in the EXIF data while Adobe does.

In this case I wouldn't call what Affinity is doing a fault so much as a choice. If I could read the tag in the EXIF data surely they can. They're just choosing not to process it for a number of possible reasons.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Here's your CR2 file processed using Affinity Photo. Affinity isn't great at noise filtering so I just left it off, exported a TIF from AP and ran that through NeatImage for some noise filtering.

(Download)

Amadeus Loc: New York

Well, thank you, thank you and thank you again. I found the setting turned it off and took some test shots around the house. The 2 files now look the same with regards to exposure anyway. Such a simple fix but I would never have figured out. Thanks again.

Amadeus Loc: New York

Yes I processed the picture also. The only thing that bothered me was the huge exposure correction I had to make. It just didn’t seem like the 2 files should be that different but I appreciate the effort. Did you have to make a large exposure adjustment?

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Yes, only it's not really exposure. It's unfortunate that AP and others name that adjustment exposure. I had to lighten the image which was otherwise too dark.

Amadeus Loc: New York

Which raises another question. By lightening a raw image a considerable amount. Does that affect other things in the photo? Do you lose detail or other qualities?
I processed the raw file with canons dpp and affinity. The only difference was I had to lighten the affinity file more. Applied DeNoise to both. The resulting jpg from dpp looked better to me than the one from affinity.

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

DPP has to lighten the raw data just as much as Affinity -- it's the same raw file. Both processors are working with the same data. DPP knows it's own. It's optimized to work with raw data from Canon cameras. Affinity is a great raster editor with a mediocre raw processor tacked on.