As I was looking for a replacement for the rental Adobe suite, I tried a number of workflow applications, including DxO PL and Serif Affinity. I currently am using PL10 Elite Complete with the latest update that now exports to Canva Affinity (acquired from Serif) in .af format. I previous to the current PL10 release also had updated Serif Affinity to Canva Affinity, primarily for use with stacking output files from the camera bodies that I use. I read the disclaimers, including that exif information is NOT transferred nor Affinity export via .af to PL is implemented – to be added in future releases (of PL10?). One of the reasons I tried Serif Affinity is that many of the plugins I had for the Adobe suite “natively” would work with Serif Affinity but could not work with PL because of the difference in internal design and architecture of the two different post applications. I would like to know what is exported by PL to Affinity. Is the full raw resolution file exported with corrections or is it some intermediate form, better than JPEG or demosaic DNG (not “raw” DNG), but still not “raw” or is it something else? As with the use of the DxO Nik collection, an intermediate file (.af) must be exported to the storage drive of the machine, thus taking the time and space to write the intermediate file. I have read two other threads on this Forum concerning the .af export linkage to Canva Affinity, but these do not address the above.
I got the impression that the user guide is somewhat clear about the choices and consequences thereof.
I understand that - at the time being - things are as usual: both developers can’t display the others edits while in RAW, which means that one has to drop the RAW workflow and use exported files with burnt-in edits.
Using PL as a preprocessor (for NR and optical corrections burnt into a linear DNG) should still provide some RAW handling in AF.
If I were in your shoes, I’d simply try to find out what is currently possible in image and metadata realms.
- Open RAW in PL, export DNG, open in AF (limited to noise and optical treatment)
- Open RAW in PL, export TIFF, open in AF (noise, optical and other treatment)
- Same as above in the other direction (probably not much value in that)
And what about Keywords? They come in .xmp sidecars and might not transfer gracefully, specially with elaborated hierarchical or predefined lists.
@wildlifephoto Maybe some bit of response here ?
The issue is – of what utility would this export be? I compared workflow in the Adobe suite (that I abandoned once it became a rental to several) to possible competitors, including ON 1, Serif Affinity, and DxO PL (of that epoch). I settled upon DxO PL. Unless the advantages of DxO PL can be transported to Canva Affinity – that require the transformed “raw” file be exportable so that none of the corrections applied by PL (such a lens sharpness, smart lighting, haze, etc) are lost – one would be working on an AF file that is lower resolution in both pixel count and detailed colour/intensity information compared to the original raw. The only reason that I can forsee to use the Canva Affinity “linkage” is if the AF file retains enough information and that the Nik suite Adobe plugins would work as plugins in Canva Affinity (previous iterations of such plugins did work in Serif Affinity), motivating one to license the Nik suite. For those who use both the Nik suite and PL 10 Elite complete – does the Nik suite offer image corrections not available in PL 10 Elite complete?
What utility ?
Moving on a more complete RGB editor with blending layer capacity.
There are lot thing possible when blending layers. Even for those who want to keep their images as close as the original scene. Consider techniques such as split frequency, for example.
The benefits of returning to PL after this treatment are more debatable.
DxO’s NIK Collection apps are built for (creative) effect rather than correction while PL is built for (geeky levels of) correction. For best results, PL needs RAW while the Niks deal with non-raw formats. Depending on how you work, you’d want either one of them or both, in which case you’ll also have to deal with a broken workflow and different file formats.
…and to finally answer the quoted question: “Yes” - if we consider an effect to be a correction. And “No” - if we don’t.