Basic question re raw and editing

SsSsSsSsSnake

SsSsSsSsSnake

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Edit My Images
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If i input my raw files into canons dpp to do basic lens correction ca etc and then want to export into Affinity pro to do edits like layers etc can it still be exported as a raw or do you have to export as say jpeg or tiff because if its a jpeg or tiff and you do layers and other stuff doesnt it degrade the file when you save each edit.
I could put raw file directly from card to affinity and then use raw file that way but not sure if it does lens correction and stuff as well as Canons own.
Im a bit unclear on this editing the jpeg and loss of quality,could someone make it clear to me please?
Thanks
 
ok Ive discovered I can do lens correction and other basic editing in Dpp and still save as a CR2 raw file.
 
SsSsSsSsSnake said:
ok Ive discovered I can do lens correction and other basic editing in Dpp and still save as a CR2 raw file.
Click to expand...

You do know your not actually making any changes to the raw file ? You can't change a RAW file.. you can make changes and save it as someting else to make the changes to the file.. but saving as raw doesnt change the file.. there will be another file saved that holds the info about the changes you made..

for example.. load cr2 into your software make changes save and re load.. the changes will still be there.. but email the raw to soemone else and no changes will be seen :)
 
Hi Kipax
thankyou,so for me to edit in Affinity photo i either do the raw conversion in DPP then export to IP with say Jpeg or Tiff for further manipulation,or put raw in IP and do it in there?
thanks for that insight
 
SsSsSsSsSnake said:
Hi Kipax
thankyou,so for me to edit in Affinity photo i either do the raw conversion in DPP then export to IP with say Jpeg or Tiff for further manipulation,or put raw in IP and do it in there?
thanks for that insight
Click to expand...

Exporting in 16 bit TIFF is the best choice as JPEG is only 8 bits per channel.

However TIFF files will tend to be larger than RAW files but can be edited and re-edited without loss of quality.
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thanks Peter.
so now I've dumped the DPP and will do the raw input to Affinity photo,I'm guessing once I've done any minor alterations initially,to then say do some other editing i will still use the raw until I decide to save and convert to either a Tiff if I have more work to do and /or tiff jpeg to save the finished version,which i then plan to send to the Photos app to organise
and create any slideshow etc?
 
SsSsSsSsSnake said:
thanks Peter.
so now I've dumped the DPP and will do the raw input to Affinity photo,I'm guessing once I've done any minor alterations initially,to then say do some other editing i will still use the raw until I decide to save and convert to either a Tiff if I have more work to do and /or tiff jpeg to save the finished version,which i then plan to send to the Photos app to organise
and create any slideshow etc?
Click to expand...

As already said RAW files cannot be edited and saved without losing all the editing done.

What usually happens is that the editing is saved alongside the RAW file as a separate file.

TIFF files on the other hand can be edited and saved and all the changes stay with them.

And once the editing is finished the final output will usually be in the form of a JPEG for displaying on the web etc.
.
 
Thanks Pete, so just to be clear , when i import the raw into Affinity do i have to convert it to a tiff before i start editing or do i edit raw and save as tiff, i understand now that i cant edit the raw and save as raw with the edits attached but is it ok to edit the raw before saving as Tiff thus saving edits in the tiff or can i only edit on a tiff or jpeg?
 
You're basically there I think.
  • If you 'edit' a raw file in DPP, and save it, you basically end up with the exact same raw file and a little 'sidecar' file that lists the changes made in DPP.
  • If you open the same raw file again in DPP, and DPP can find the sidecar file, it will apply the same changes again, so in effect you keep your edits, but this is only because DPP understands what's written in the sidecar file.
  • If you now open the same file again, this time in another program such as Affinity, which perhaps does not understand the instructions in the sidecar file, you will be presented with what looks like the 'unedited' raw.
So, if you want to use DPP to process the file before you load it into Affinity, you have to save a copy of the file after you have applied the changes - you have a number of options on how to do that as you've noted. TIFF and JPEG being the most common, TIFF being higher quality and bigger, JPEG being lower and smaller, both being workable for most images. If maintaining the maximum amount of information is important to you, save as TIFF in this example.

When you then load the information into Affinity from the TIFF file, you can't undo any of the actions you made in DPP; they are baked in, but you can make other adjustments. If you make sure that you always keep a copy of the original image on one layer and make all your changes on other layers, and always save your files in a format that supports layers (TIFF does, JPEG doesn't), you can always 'undo' the changes you made in Affinity.

If you are going straight into Affinity, and don't care about any edits in DPP, just go ahead a load the raw file in directly, no need to convert. When you come to save it, make your decision between TIFF and JPEG as above.

There is a better way (imho) - use something like Lightroom. Rather like DPP above, it will read in your original raw files and will allow you to edit your images in a variety of ways. It keeps all of these edits as a separate list of actions to follow (either in it's own catalog, or using sidecar files), and so never actually changes your original files. You don't have to worry about layers, TIFFS etc, and you can always undo every edit you've made on any image in lightroom.
 
Thankyou so much , i will just use Affinity from now on, i dont want to get involved with Adobe for certain reasons so thanks again.
 
Just to add i keep all my raw files as backups on another drive before importing to Affinity
 
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