Hi. I’ve installed Nik 7 Collection, but, when I open either Color Efex or Silver Efex - the two filters I use most often - Affinity Photo V2 crashes. A message states that “Image format or size not supported by Nik Collection. Please try opening another image.”
More… I use DxO PureRaw 3 and the Develop Persona of Affinity Photo to process my Nikon RAW files, copying the results into a smaller file size. Then, I save the file as a PNG. Next, opening the Nik plugins…Affinity Photo crashes, and the Nik 7 Collection displays the aforementioned message. So, when I reopen the saved PNG file in Affinity Photo, only then am I able to use the Nik 7 Collection plugins, and Affinity Photo doesn’t crash?
Using Nik Collection 4-6, I’ve always been able to use PureRaw 3, process it via Affinity Photo, place a copy into a smaller file size; then, flatten the image, Crtl+J to make a copy, and apply a filter (Color Efex, etc.) to that new copy. The, save as a PNG file.
Only now, given the erratic behavior as mentioned in my initial posting, am I having to save the file before using Nik Collection…as the 1st attempt always crashes my Affinity Photo software, and the worked-on file is lost.
I used PureRaw 3 and then the Develop Persona in Affinity Photo. I copied the image, pasted it into a new (smaller) file and saved that file as TIFF. Unfortunately, copying the image (ctrl+j) and running Nik Collection still crashes Affinity Photo. In addition to the aforementioned error message, an earlier message is also (briefly) shown - which reads, ‘waiting for Adobe Photoshop’ ???
Surely you should use Affinity Photo’s File | Export option to produce a TIFF?
But why do that at all?
If you have:
Opened your RAW file in PureRAW3
Saved / Exported the output as a .dng
Opened the .dng in Affinity Photo, which means you end up in the ‘Develop Persona’
Made any further tweaks
Clicked the ‘Develop’ button to get to the ‘Photo Persona’
then you should be able to simply click Filters | Plugins | Nik Collection and pick the one you want.
If you’re already doing that, i.e I have misunderstood your problem, then what happens if, on exiting the Develop Persona and before you try to use a Nik filter, you save the file in Affinity Photo’s native (.afphoto) format?
Quickly tried this, but used PL7 to export as a .dng (don’t have PR).
As you mentioned, the file with the applied Nik filter (used the base layer only to simplify) needs to be saved in AP’s native (.afphoto) format and can then exported (converted) into something else (tiff, png …).
@affinity should be able to reduce filesize, bitdepth & output format at the very end.
addendum
just rechecked ( and to point out some differences )
Windows 10
used again PL 7 to generate the *.dng output file
(don’t have PR)
developed now the *.dng in the latest AP 2.4.2
(without & with Save as *.afphoto immediately)
added now a 2nd layer to then apply NIK CEP 6
(don’t have NIK 7)
exported from AP to tiff / png …
in AP Save as *.afphoto / overwrite
(if not done yet)
Trying your suggestion - saving the file as a .afphoto format - and then trying Color Efex…it crashed Affinity Photo, showing me a “Waiting for Photoshop” message (with an orange dot under message moving back and forth, left to right & right to left); after which, the “Image format or size not supported by Nik Collection. Please try opening another image" message is shown.
Now, the interesting part: when I double-click the same saved .afphoto file on my desktop - causing Affinity Photo to open (for a 2nd time) I’m then able to use Nik filters… ??
I may be missing something, but I find that I have to rasterise the DNG in the ‘Photo Persona’ before it will open in a Nik Collection plugin.
Also if you have access to PureRAW 3 or 4, you can export a TIFF file, which opens directly in the ‘Photo Persona’. The TIFF file also opens directly in the Nik Collection plugins.
How are you using Affinity Develop Persona? Are you embedding the raw file or linking to it? If the latter you need to generate a pixel layer before applying the filter. The best way to do this is to use Merge Visible and apply the filter to the resultant pixel layer. This is always best anyway since it’s the only way to get any adjustments already done in Affinity to show up in the Nik tools. When you exit Nik the Merged layer will be updated - this also means the filter is non destructuive to the baseline image.
