Editing RAW images on iPad with Darkroom and Affinity Photo

[@tech_craft]

Let me know if you'd like to see a deeper tutorial of either Darkroom or Affinity Photo.

[@marcodimario9918]

Affinity Photo is my first option, no doubt! If you want, please make a tut about Tone Mapping in Affinity Photo :) Thanks!

[@Chojna69]

Tech Craft AP please. Greetings from Poland.

[@howar31]

personally prefer more AP tutorials

[@TheSuperandrew93]

Yes

[@fagiolo_mago]

Definitely interested in in-depth tutorials for Affinity Photo! as a hobbyist photographer thinking of switching to ipad (almost) full time, i'd love a comparison to photoshop with intermediate/advanced features

[@andregrizzle2287]

I’ve already been using Affinity Photo but was not happy editing RAW with it. Thanks for showing Darkroom. I will definitely get it now and use Affinity for finishing touches. Great video!

[@mortenthorpe]

Once again proving that we need PhaseOne to launch a full CaptureOne Pro for iPad Pro... that would bring a singular workflow, tethering and much more, all in one app! Please PhaseOne, give us an iPad app, already!

[@davidp7414]

Perfect timing, been struggling to get from SD card to Affinity

[@mcdirt7838]

Thanks Rob. iPad is almost there - I have Affinity but just hoping that CaptureOne Pro becomes available on iPad. I also use Touch Retouch which is cheap & awesome at removing unwanted items (even telephone lines etc). About the only reason I keep my MacBook Pro is to do Keywords, Titles etc - something I wish Apple would add to the iPadOS version of Photos. Enjoying your work - thanks :)

[@tech_craft]

I really want to see fuller cataloguing features on the iPad. That will make a huge difference to me.

[@jasonholt9171]

Hey Rob. As a few have said C1 on iPad with some cataloguing would be awesome. Do you know if colour calibration is possible on iPad? I thought the ColorTRUE app had an open sdk but doesn’t look like any app developers have picked it up and run with it. I’d love to know what you think. Alternatively do you know of any other ways to tune the iPad colours. My screen looks very blue compared to a calibrated MBP. Cheers and thanks for a great channel!

[@tech_craft]

Jason Holt I haven’t actually tried my x-rite with my iPad but now you’ve mentioned it I’m going to dig in and see what’s possible. As far as manual calibration goes, in Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Colour Filters, you can turn on Colour Tint and skew the hue (with defined intensity) to take out some of the blue. The actual level of control is pretty poor, but you may be able to add in a subtle yellow skew to tone down the blue.

[@M44D1]

I’d happily use affinity or darkroom but it lacks culling/organizing which only Lightroom offers on iPad

[@simonmorter9341]

Spike yeah this is the issues I’m running into as well, was really trying to avoid the monthly payments to adobe 😪

[@jacquesjohnson639]

I’m VERY new to editing - so forgive my lack of expertise in my question/request. Could you detail the advantages of Darkroom over Affinity Photo as a RAW Processor? Are overlays possible in Darkroom? Thanks!

[@murtadha96]

Absolutely love your videos, great stuff!

[@johnkader1176]

Just subscribed...Great job Rob! Thinking of making the iPad my primary device also. Your other two videos may just have convinced me.👍

[@JJ-tg2ld]

I just discovered your channel, and immediately subscribed! This is exactly the type of content I have been searching for!

[@TyghtWayzTv]

Beautiful 🤩 video tips 💯❤️

[@marcodimario9918]

Ps.s Also Pixelmator is an amazing App (there are two version. Not the version with the painting tools but the version dedicated to image editing only)

[@tech_craft]

I have Pixelmator sat on my iPad but it never really clicked for me. I need to try harder with it!

[@smiffywildlife]

Excellent upload and so informative. Can you tell me if these two apps. will edit raw files from Panasonic G9 and Olympus OMD E 1 mk3 many thanks.

[@tech_craft]

Apple maintains a list of supported RAW formats for iOS here: support.apple.com/en-gb/HT211241 - hope this helps.

[@bohdiczek]

Hey! Thanks for the video. When you are sharing the photo from Darkroom to Affinity via the standard Share function, it says at the top (under "filename") that it is JPEG image. So are you editing JPEG in Affinity? Not sure about the compression, isn't better to share using TIFF? Thanks!

[@DipeshMehrotra]

is it necessary to import photos. my ipad has space limitations.

[@rogeriogomesosorio4755]

How do you manage to get so good picture filming the ipad? It looks so great.

[@picnicphoto]

I was a bit mystified by using Darkroom first for RAW since you can process RAW in Affinity but see that you can do more in Darkroom in Raw. Like the quick tute on Affinity but I’m one that would like you to do a deeper tute on it. I’ve used PS and Lightroom for years but decided to switch to Affinity but still not comfortable with it and like your approach rather than their own tute videos.

[@tech_craft]

I much prefer Darkroom for the first pass. It’s super focused on that same set of tasks you’d do in Lightroom before switching over to Photoshop. Definitely going to do more Affinity content.

[@picnicphoto]

Tech Craft thanks. I own it, bought it because Halide recommended for Iphone but have really never used it. Going to try your workflow since I was longtime user of Lightroom. Makes sense to me

[@tech_craft]

The workflow with Darkroom and Halide combo on iPhone is great.

[@jeffbrown8117]

Hi! Just discovered your channel and it’s been really helpful considering I just bought a fully loaded iPad Pro 12.9 last year. I have a question - I’m a photographer and work with Raw - why do you use dark room first before affinity when you could just use affinity for everything? Everything you did in darkroom could be done in affinity, and I would argue it does it better, too. What’s the advantage of using dark room first and then Affinity?

[@tech_craft]

Three main reasons: 1. I use Darkroom on the iPhone too, so this means my workflow for RAW-type edits is as similar as possible on both devices. Darkroom on the iPhone is really well-tuned for that form factor 2. I like the - admittedly basic - library features in Darkroom as a way to drive the edit process, especially when editing a lot of photos. Affinity is a solid option for editing one or two photos, but the workflow isn’t particularly optimised for working on a lot of photos at once. 3. Darkroom has bulk edits.This is a killer feature if only to do basic corrections across of a lot of similar photos in a shoot.

[@hennykasa]

Great video, thank you!

[@r.maiajr]

Hello! Is it possible to apply all changes from one photo to all others? Or we have to edit all photos separately always? Thanks!

[@t1000se]

I found your channel yesterday and absolutely felt in love with it. Keep up the good work mate. Very down to earth yet so professional 👏🏻

[@DivisionStreetDrums]

How do you deal with the destructive compression in the apple ipad photos app????? Apple is the defacto artists choice for editing and yet everything that goes in to the photos app is compressed and unworthy to print.

[@PauloParreira]

Why does it not support compressed raw files? Do i have to shoot uncompressed raw (50mb files) with my family? I have jpeg files for that so what's the point of supporting only uncompressed?

[@Watchalone]

I hope Darkroom will have selective editing, Healing brush and noise reduction one day.

[@slimhim]

I hope it will have a rating system with keyboard shortcuts someday.

[@toxotis70]

is there any raw tool , like Adobe LR, without subscription model (with all the features like noise reduction, healing brush, selective editing) ?

[@picnicphoto]

I import my raws into a folder in Files (use a Uni USBc hub) and then save to Photos from Affinity or other photo app so I don’t have to go back and delete the raws from Photo. I copy raws to an external drive. Have backed up raws on external drives since 2001 maybe.

[@automattic6829]

Is there an easy way to see your original camera settings in Darkroom? I like to be able to compare/contrast two photos while referencing the differences in iso, shutter speed, etc. Thanks!

[@makiinen75]

Hi, great channel, could you tell me how to import files to affinity photo while preserving original file names. When importing via Apple photos- they’re changed to untitled.

[@ryoun3t]

Thanks for this video, it's exactly what I'm aiming, i'm using this with my old canon 600D, but I'm thinking switching to Fuji XT-3, any trouble with the raw from the fuji x-trans sensor with photos or darkroom?

[@player_e7]

I’ve just tested it today and Fuji Raw files works fine

[@ryoun3t]

Jan Krzyzanowski thanks

[@poocky100]

Installed ps for iPad Pro and quickly uninstalled it and bought affinity photo instead and I’m very happy

[@etienne4403]

Thanks for that instructional video. I see you export as JPG between Darkroom and Affinity. Unfortunately, everytime you re-save a JPG you loose quality. Any chance of finding out how to export a TIFF or some other uncompressed format from Darkroom?

[@tech_craft]

Absolutely. You can set the output format in the settings and switch from JPG to TIFF

[@wandering.camera.guy.411]

As a fellow dev and photographer I love your channel, thanks. Do you have a good culling solution? I shoot macro and birds and the number of images I need to compare for sharpest focus is exhausting. I've created my own custom software for android for this but would love to have an iPad solution as it is a much better system for editing and would rather not have to create custom software again.

[@tech_craft]

Nothing good sadly. Most manual grunt work and some horrible scripts I’ve built up over the years.

[@pricklypickles]

Hi, love your video tutorials. I was wondering is it possible to edit the "stroke" of a shape in Affinity Photo on the iPad. I have an iPad mini 5, so not sure if there is any difference between iPad and iPad mini 5? I have by the way checked and I know it is possible in Affinity Designer but struggling to edit the stroke of a shape in affinity Photo on the iPad mini 5 Can you help? Thanks.

[@AbelCarrillo]

Please show file management and multiple edits on affinity photo.

[@andydpeck]

Great video Question... So you import everything onto the ipad and backup to an external drive. All good but I assume at some point you must need to clear off all the photos accumulating on the Ipad otherwise you would run out of space. So what happens then? I assume you back all the RAW files to another drive? What then happens to your edits in Darkroom - do they vanish? What happens if you want to reopen them at a later date and tweak the edits again? How do you back these up. In the Adobe system you can save catalogues (a small file) which you open and it has all the edits/effects etc stored. What happens for your jobs?

[@tech_craft]

Andy Peck Honestly this area is a bit underwhelming. There’s no workflow quite like the one with Lightroom. You can absolutely bulk export all your edited images and save these to a drive or a NAS. That works well enough. What I haven’t found is a way to export the edit metadata like you would in Lightroom. There’s no XMP file support as best as I can tell. I have seen where the files are on the iPad that contain this metadata, but I haven’t yet tried backing those files up and restoring them. Because I’m not doing anything that I would say is ‘professional’ photography - the most I use my photos for is KZbin thumbnails - this isn’t a big issue for me.

[@nicedrone2914]

Hi, why don't using Affinity photo in "develop persona" for your RAW files ? i do it and it works perfectly

[@tech_craft]

Three main reasons: 1. I use Darkroom on the iPhone too, so this means my workflow for RAW-type edits is as similar as possible on both devices. Darkroom on the iPhone is really well-tuned for that form factor 2. I like the - admittedly basic - library features in Darkroom as a way to drive the edit process, especially when editing a lot of photos. Affinity is a solid option for editing one or two photos, but the workflow isn’t particularly optimised for working on a lot of photos at once. 3. Darkroom has bulk edits.This is a killer feature if only to do basic corrections across of a lot of similar photos in a shoot.

[@nicedrone2914]

@@tech_craft Ok, i understand. Thank you for your reply !

[@VideoByEkedahl]

@@nicedrone2914 what we all would love is for Affinity to get a catalog and brows feature for fast curing ;) That goes for both the Mac and iPad versions ;)

[@normantng721]

Affinity Look different version to my iPad pro 10.5?

[@akbc3247]

Rob I know this question has nothing to do with this video but do you if there's a way to access the notes of the keychain through an ipad?

[@tech_craft]

I don’t believe so. I can find any means of accessing that data outside MacOS.

[@akbc3247]

@@tech_craft hope apple enables it someday. thanks for the answer :)

[@SakherWalker]

Hello Rob, thank you for the video. My question is, why don't you edit raws directly on Affinity? Since it has a raw development persona.

[@tech_craft]

A few reasons. Darkroom has gallery features that I like to use to organise my photos. On iPhone I also use Darkroom for camera edits so it’s nice to have the same UX everywhere. I didn’t show it in the video, but Darkroom also has bulk edit features so you can capture a bunch of similar shots, edit one and then propagate those edits to the other photos. Also, I just find Darkroom is a faster, simpler editing experience for the basics.

[@a9nh]

I’m glad i found out about this channel. Very good video. Thank you.

[@mrittenb]

Are you familiar with drawing programs? I do both photo retouches and draw with photoshop CS5 in mac now. I like the idea of not subscribing just buying the program outright. It seems like all the Photoshop functions are divided into small programs?

[@tech_craft]

I have Procreate for drawing which is really nice. Sadly, my drawing skills are absolutely awful so I cannot do such a great program justice. Thankfully there’s a load of great Procreate content on KZbin by people who’s drawings are actually legible 😂

[@marcodimario9918]

Thanks a lot Rob! Affinity, especially on the iPad Pro, is real a PIECE OF CAKE :) Still have some bug and stability issue but it's a phenomenal application for a true professional use case!

[@MattManuel]

Really great tutorial. Thanks!

[@t1000se]

Hey Rob, btw could you make a video on apple watch productivity apps (if you use it)?

[@tech_craft]

I just sold my Apple Watch. I could never quite get onboard with it. I’ve gone back to my old Garmin Fenix 5 but might upgrade to the new 6 with solar glass when that comes out.

[@migueletras]

I have one question: If you take raw pictures with the iPhone, how can you have them in your iPad ou PC to edit later? Automatic backup services like Onedrive don't upload the raw file, only the jpeg

[@tech_craft]

That’s an interesting one. I’ve just been relying on a mix of Dropbox and AirDrop. The Dropbox auto camera upload definitely uploads the RAW images I take in Halide, but it strips out the JPG during upload.

[@migueletras]

@@tech_craft Do you know if Onedrive can do the same? I just checked Dropbox and it does upload the original .dng from Halide!

[@picnicphoto]

I’m longtime DSLR shooter but have just added Moment lenses for my Iphone Xs Max. I’m using Moment app and choosing to save as RAW. I have had no luck exporting RAW from Darkroom to Affinity. But-I can open same file as RAW directly to Affinity. Ah just looked at your export to Affinity and see, like mine, it is a jpeg when it opens in Affinity. Using Moment app you can save as RAW, RAW + jpeg, tiff or jpeg, either using the Moment lenses or the native phone.

[@ScottyMedina]

How do you feel about using the Photos app for basic editing?

[@tech_craft]

It’s a decent app for very simple edits but really doesn’t compare to Darkroom

[@akbc3247]

I have Affinity on my Mac but I do prefer Darkroom on the ipad. I think if I go full ipad user I will probably do the purchase tho

[@matiashojas41]

I hope Darkroom includes selective editing and a way to save presets/edits

[@johansmolinski]

I’m new to RAW editing on iPad. Why do you need Darkroom? Can’t you do the basics in Affinity?

[@tech_craft]

You absolutely can and the Affinity features are great. I prefer using Darkroom for a few reasons: 1. Darkroom works well on my iPhone so I can use the same app there when shooing with my phone on the go 2. I much prefer how Darkroom presents my gallery of available images - it’s far faster to just dive into some shots and get the edits on them 3. Following on from that, it has batch support so I can edit a lot of similar in bulk with minimal hassle

[@johansmolinski]

Thanks for this explanation! I tried Affinity Photo on my iPad 2018 and it is terrible in terms of loading time for RAW files. Darkroom is instant. Possibly not an issue on the Pro.

[@sirlordcomic]

When I go into my share list Affinity photo isn't there at all. Can anyone tell me how to fix this? Thanks.

[@tech_craft]

In the list of app icons, if you swipe all the way to the right you’ll see a ‘More’ button. This allows you to control which apps are displayed.

[@sirlordcomic]

@@tech_craft Thanks for the reply. I did that but Affinity photo doesn't appear in the suggestions list.

[@tech_craft]

Which app are you sharing from? I’ll give it a test here.

[@sirlordcomic]

@@tech_craft The photo app.

[@sirlordcomic]

@@tech_craft I see someone on the Affinity forum has asked the same question. The forums down at the moment but I'll check it later. Thanks for your help. Your channel is excellent by the way and a great resource.

[@glenallan6279]

I’m still finding Affinity Designer much better for design work than Photo is. Like with Adobe stuff, if I want to do hard core pixel pushing then it’s Photoshop, but for any technical layout I think Illustrator is much better.

[@tech_craft]

I need to learn Illustrator/Designer. I see some great videos on it and then never find the time!

[@glenallan6279]

Tech Craft it’s worth knowing! I used to do all my layout and art in PS, but realized I was working way too hard on some aspects. Now I bounce between them depending and both save time and get a better result depending on what it is. I hear you on finding time though, but in the long run you’ll save time knowing both 😁

[@M.M.K1]

It was great if you make how to use darkroomm deeply Thank you :)

[@theraphman]

👋 thanks for the video. I guess for now Dark Room seems to be a fair alternativ for Luminar. It is very said that Lumiar does not exist in an iPadOS version. But Dark Room is now on my shopping list for early 2020.

[@freshboimusik313]

Perfect

[@lukegnanapragasam9070]

It’s $49 now

[@BlackPrismGuard]

I just watched this. Went to go get it. But thought twice when the price was way jacked up. Went back here just to find your comment.

[@Alex-hongry]

I hear a British accent. I subscribe 😝

[@howar31]

Why don't you do all the Darkroom jobs in Affinity Photo? Can't Affinity Photo do those jobs?

[@tech_craft]

A few reasons. Darkroom has gallery features that I like to use to organise my photos. On iPhone I also use Darkroom for camera edits so it’s nice to have the same UX everywhere. I didn’t show it in the video, but Darkroom also has bulk edit features so you can capture a bunch of similar shots, edit one and then propagate those edits to the other photos. Also, I just find Darkroom is a faster, simpler editing experience for the basics.

[@howar31]

wow I might have to give it a try. used to do all the editing and tuning in Affinity Photo.

[@aussie8114]

Well that was a waste of time. I just tried Darkroom and it crashed many times in just 10 minutes. I played with the shadow and highlight tools and they are not a patch on Lightroom mobile. Raising the shadows even a little introduces a haze to the image. Lowering the highlights looks like a disaster. Sorry but it’s been sent off to iCloud heaven never to be retrieved. I will stick with my $7 a month Lightroom mobile premium.

[@gregderozier3846]

This is just so dumb...