Your are free to disagree but you misunderstand the post by the OP of this thread. He asked for help about certain functions of the photo editing program he uses, Affinity Photo (AP), NOT for comparisons of different programs or their pros and cons. He certainly did not ask for comments about supposed deficiencies in the program he uses by individuals who use other programs. My reply was simply that he would likely get more useful answers about the functioning of AP from the forum dedicated to it's use only, and not from a forum such as this one that has users of many editing programs. So if you want to disagree with that opinion you may do so but how do you get from there to accusing someone with having a closed mind?

Since you quoted my post that was in response to the OP's query, I have to assume I'm the one accused of having a closed mind - if someone is referred to rather than the quoted posts author that should be made clear and it wasn't here. And the rest of that paragraph which references how to choose an editing program, while reasonable in other contexts, is nonsensical in the context of the questions asked by the OP, that is, how to fix a problem in his program.

I don't like to be argumentative but I am provoked by being said to have a closed mind. If any persons using this forum have closed minds about subjects raised about photo-editing it's the group of Adobe product users here who are totally convinced Adobe products are superior to all others and vehemently argue that belief, putting down other programs in the process. This description appears to represent only a small percentage of Adobe users but it does happen and that is certainly not representative of an open mind. I have used LR and PSE in the past, and still use PSE occasionally, and I'm certain there are some other editing programs who are equal or superior in features and tools to LR and PSE. I would not argue that Photoshop is the standard by which all other programs are judged. I'm not certain of that but haven't seen any evidence to the contrary. But PS is often described, rightly or wrongly, as having a very steep learning curve and that intimidates some of us and makes us look elsewhere. And for that we shouldn't be described as not being interested in excellence in photo editing or having closed minds.

Accuse me of not having a high level of knowledge and competence regarding photo editing and I will not argue. But accusing me of having a closed mind is another matter. That was uncalled for.

No, I was not referring specifically to you but trying to make a general comparison between a forum dedicated to Affinity Photo (AP) and this one that has users of many different editing programs participating. The OP was asking for help and advice on certain functions of AP and I feel there would be more information that would help answer those questions by posting a query on the AP Forum.

However, since you brought it up, you may not have used the word "inadequate" but by saying:

"For most people who are either new to raw or who do not have high expectations of a raw editor's functionality, Affinity's Develop persona may be all the raw functionality they will ever need. For those of us who believe that getting the most from our raw images is important, the Develop persona falls far short of the features available in Lightroom/ACR, Capture One Pro, and DXO PhotoLab Elite.",

you are not even rising to the level of the saying "damning with faint praise." What you implied in this paragraph is that AP users are of lesser ability and knowledge than those using other programs such as the three you named, and do not care about "getting the most from our raw images."

I can plead guilty to that scenario personally as, although I do use many of AP's numerous tools there are probably as many I haven't used, at least not yet, and I'm still trying to learn photo editing in general and the use of AP. And I do use AP for processing nothing than RAW files and simply have not found the issues your raise to be a problem thus far. There must be many AP users who do not fit your description of AP users as either "new to RAW" processing or having "low expectations" of a Raw editor's functionality, and are burying their "head in the sand," since AP Has become quite popular with a now fairly large user base. Saying all of us aren't interested in getting the most from our RAW images is a put down on those of us who do have that interest and think we find it in AP.

There have been a couple of other recent threads here on this exact issue and they all have focused on supposed inadequacies of the Develop Persona. It seems to me that APs overall design has some differences from other editing programs in that it has a designated workspace, the Develop Persona, whose main function is to prepare RAW files for editing in other areas (other Personas) of AP, and that the tools in those other Personas are extensive. You state AP "falls far short of the features available in Lightroom...." In my experience, and considering overall features and performance, that's absurd. The last I knew LR has neither focus merging or layers - composites available whereas AP has both. Focus merging is a tool I use almost every time I process landscape image files and I also have a need to do composites at times.

Apparently we shall have to agree to disagree. I know you can't persuade me that AP falls "far short" of other editing programs, and least not regarding overall performance and results, and I'm sure I can't change your strongly held convictions on this issue. But I am curious - have you arrived at these perceptions through experience using AP or from reading others opinions and beliefs about AP? I don't mean this question to be disparaging, just curious on where your knowledge base on AP derives from. Btw, I have personally used LR in the past.

Wanderer, I agree with much of what you say. But I do believe you are adding to the bucket of misconceptions and misunderstandings with your comment, addressed to mwsilvers, that "....you can't persuade me that AP falls "far short" of other editing programs...."

My apologies if I am wrong, but I don't believe mwsilvers ever said that Affinity Photo falls "far short" of other editing programs. He, as well as others, have pointed out very specific issues with the Affinity DEVELOP module that they consider inadequate. They have said nothing negative about the Affinity PHOTO module. They've made it clear that the problem is not with the whole software but only one part of it, the RAW processor.

To folks new to Affinity, I would suggest you look at the identified "shortcomings" of the Affinity Develop module and decide if they really are shortcomings in the context of your work. I suspect that they aren't an issue for most users, at least not photo editing beginners, and that the critics may be guilty of overstating the negatives a bit.

But, the good news is (as others have pointed out), that if you are bothered by Affinity's RAW processing performance you can always do your RAW development with another processor, such as your camera manufacturer's free proprietary software. You can then post-process to your heart's content in the wonderful Affinity Photo module!

Wanderer, I agree with much of what you say. But I do believe you are adding to the bucket of misconceptions and misunderstandings with your comment, addressed to mwsilvers, that "....you can't persuade me that AP falls "far short" of other editing programs...."

My apologies if I am wrong, but I don't believe mwsilvers ever said that Affinity Photo falls "far short" of other editing programs. He, as well as others, have pointed out very specific issues with the Affinity DEVELOP module that they consider inadequate. They have said nothing negative about the Affinity PHOTO module. They've made it clear that the problem is not with the whole software but only one part of it, the RAW processor.

To folks new to Affinity, I would suggest you look at the identified "shortcomings" of the Affinity Develop module and decide if they really are shortcomings in the context of your work. I suspect that they aren't an issue for most users, at least not photo editing beginners, and that the critics may be guilty of overstating the negatives a bit.

But, the good news is (as others have pointed out), that if you are bothered by Affinity's RAW processing performance you can always do your RAW development with another processor, such as your camera manufacturer's free proprietary software. You can then post-process to your heart's content in the wonderful Affinity Photo module!

Thanks for your input and agreement with me on some issues in this debate. However, what mwsilvers stated was "...the Develop persona falls FAR SHORT (emphasis mine) of the features available in Lightroom/ACR, Capture One Pro, and DXO PhotoLab Elite." so yes, you are wrong that he did not state this and you must have missed that in his post, it's easy to do. Also, I don't see how my comment "....you can't persuade me that AP falls "far short" of other editing programs...." contributes to the "bucket of misconceptions and misunderstandings" you mention (and there are a lot of those!). No, he can't convince me of that, a simple statement of my opinion based on my own usage of the program. It's certainly not my goal by being in this debate to contribute to misconceptions, etc. but rather the opposite, to clarify. Also, if the Develop Persona is severely criticized, as in this thread, this is a criticism of the entire program since this Persona (Affinity calls them that instead of modules) is an integral part of it. However, as I mentioned before, it seems to me that critical non-users do not understand that the Develop Persona was not designed to do what they are criticizing as it's faults. Affinity makes very clear in the AP Workbook that the main function of the Develop Persona is to prepare RAW files for further editing in the other Personas and it does this automatically when a new RAW file is uploaded to it. When the entire process is considered I don't believe most of us who use it find the faults that are described in this thread and excellent end results occur. I process nothing but RAW files in AP and the finished results I get are better than I did with PSE and LR.

I've wondered why the AP developers used the the Persona terminology, which AFAIK no other editing program does. Perhaps they felt it would make AP easier to learn, and that is one attribute of AP. When one is using the program they move seamlessly from one Persona to another, a change not being prominently indicated. Much of the time I don't even know which Persona I'm in as when a filter, adjustment, etc. is selected the Persona that function resides in is then automatically selected. I sometimes think the AP developers would have been better off not using the Persona terminology but rather had constructed the program more along the lines of other editing programs, and perhaps that would have reduced the criticism since there wouldn't be a Develop Persona to attack. Or perhaps not.

I hope some of Affinity photo software users can give me some guidance. I did their free trial, then after a few days purchased it.

I liked the way it dealt with RAW files, which is very similar to Photoshop CC but did not realize that the saved files were their special files and not jpeg which I am use to saving from RAW with Photoshop. I have to admit the I am not a technically oriented person and surely believed that Adobe would upgrade from 32 bit to 64 when I read all those warnings

There must be a way to convert my RAW files but I couldn't find an answer on their support site.

The other thing I discovered that there seems to be no adjustment features when opening a jpeg file.

Thanks for your input and agreement with me on some issues in this debate. However, what mwsilvers stated was "...the Develop persona falls FAR SHORT (emphasis mine) of the features available in Lightroom/ACR, Capture One Pro, and DXO PhotoLab Elite." so yes, you are wrong that he did not state this and you must have missed that in his post, it's easy to do. Also, I don't see how my comment "....you can't persuade me that AP falls "far short" of other editing programs...." contributes to the "bucket of misconceptions and misunderstandings" you mention (and there are a lot of those!). No, he can't convince me of that, a simple statement of my opinion based on my own usage of the program. It's certainly not my goal by being in this debate to contribute to misconceptions, etc. but rather the opposite, to clarify. Also, if the Develop Persona is severely criticized, as in this thread, this is a criticism of the entire program since this Persona (Affinity calls them that instead of modules) is an integral part of it. However, as I mentioned before, it seems to me that critical non-users do not understand that the Develop Persona was not designed to do what they are criticizing as it's faults. Affinity makes very clear in the AP Workbook that the main function of the Develop Persona is to prepare RAW files for further editing in the other Personas and it does this automatically when a new RAW file is uploaded to it. When the entire process is considered I don't believe most of us who use it find the faults that are described in this thread and excellent end results occur. I process nothing but RAW files in AP and the finished results I get are better than I did with PSE and LR.

I've wondered why the AP developers used the the Persona terminology, which AFAIK no other editing program does. Perhaps they felt it would make AP easier to learn, and that is one attribute of AP. When one is using the program they move seamlessly from one Persona to another, a change not being prominently indicated. Much of the time I don't even know which Persona I'm in as when a filter, adjustment, etc. is selected the Persona that function resides in is then automatically selected. I sometimes think the AP developers would have been better off not using the Persona terminology but rather had constructed the program more along the lines of other editing programs, and perhaps that would have reduced the criticism since there wouldn't be a Develop Persona to attack. Or perhaps not.

Unfortunately all post processing software has a learning curve, some steeper than others. Since Affinity is intended as a Lightroom/PhotoShop replacement, or an ACR/PhotoShop replacement, no matter how user friendly they try to make it there is still an awful lot to learn. I often read about people who purchase PP software assuming it will be intuitive and easy to use. They usually have a rude awakening when they realize all the time and effort it will take to master their software. Enjoy the journey.

Thanks to help from UHH members and AF's training videos I am slowly learning to use AF while I am dealing with my Photoshop CC problems I created to myself when I upgraded to Catalina on my iMac.
I see AF just came out with some new software for Mac which I'll look into.

In the meantime, here is an image I shot on a very dark and rainy day with one of my Nikons a year or so ago.

I opened the NEF (RAW) file, processed, exported it to a jpg file onto my desktop where it is saved.

ISO was 3200 , as I said it was a dark day.