Affinity photo / Raw stills to ACES

Discussions - Using ACES Post (DI, Edit, Mastering)
1

Hi to all!

Does anyone have experience with Affinity photo? I’d like to import some stills from big name manufacturers into ACES.

I was wondering if anyone could walk me thru the motions of bringing a RAW still (canon, nikon, sony, leica etc…) into ACES.

So far here’s is what I have done:

  1. Import .cr2 while 32 working space is set to ACEScg.

  2. At this point my reasoning is that I’m in Linear ACEScg but I have a SRGB 2.1 display profile applied.

What happens if I export this image to EXR. Will it be in ACEScg?

Now at this point I’m not sure I’m in the right spot… What I’d like is to be unmanaged so I can use OCIO to convert back to ACES 0. But I cannot switch to unmanaged.

Considering I might be in ACEScg, I then export to EXR and re-import with a _acescg suffix. But… When reimporting Affinity automatically applies a display profile as Linear SRGB 2.1.

Ultimately, what I want is to have a "correct" ACES-AP0 linear EXR that I can import into Davinci Resolve and have the correct rendering of RRT and ODT.

It would also be great to have a correct rendering of the RRT/ODT combo in affinity so I can double check in Resolve. (VIA OCIO)

My aim with this is to enable clients (i work in film) to use their pre-production stills (set visits) to set a LOOK in ACES that we could re-use in Davinci (and that is coherent).

Hopefully this is clear… Can anyone help me out. I’m not used to having this 'automatically" managed for me.

Thanks!

Charles B.

2

" 1. Import .cr2 while 32 working space is set to ACEScg." How are you initially converting your raw image? Is it being converted into a linear image in ACEScg or similar color space? There is a command line tool called “rawtoaces” to convert raw image files supported by the libraw library into ACES (see this thread: Rawtoaces - Calling All “developer-types”). Using this tool, you will convert your CR2 or similar raw file directly into a linear EXR in ACES. Then you can import this file into Affinity Photo (AP) knowing it is “correct” or avoid AP altogether and go straight to Resolve.

Have fun!

Kirk

3

Thanks @kirkthibault.

The RAW image is opened directly into Affinity photo via their develop panel. I made sure that the working space was set to ACEScg. Not sure if this is “converting” it or not.

I was thinking about the RAW to ACES. But I’m not well versed in this area. So Affinity was a (seemingly) good option.

Thanks!