Nik Collection and Affinity Photo - Brushes and Destructive Editor

Nik Collection Feature requests
1

Hi,
I see many entries about Nik and Affinity and I would like to suggest the following two ideas.
No1. When you use NIK plugins with Photoshop and then go back to Photoshop it creates a new layer but when you do the same in Affinity it overwrites the original layer you sent into Nik plugins. Therefore it becomes a destructive editor - the simple workaround is to duplicate the layer in Affinity Photo before sending it into a NIK Plugin - this is fine unless you forget to do so. So it would be a good idea in my opinion to make the NIK plugin behave the same in Affinity as it does in Photoshop.

No2. When you go into the NIK plugin from Photoshop you get a brushes button at the bottom. When you do the same with Affinity you do not get this brushes button. It might be a good idea if this button was available when going into Affinity Photo.

I have used a licenced copy of the NIK plugins for many years firstly with Photoshop and for the past year with Affinity Photo - I have experienced no problems with all the NIK plugins when used with Affinity and I would be willing to purchase a new DxO licence if I new that these two features had been addressed.

2

The behaviour of plugins in Affinity is unfortunately an issue for Affinity and not DxO. The fact that Photoshop does create a layer while Affinity does not shows this.

The same is true of other plugins used in Affinity. Just tried it with AutoFX to check. No new layer.

I use your method of layer duplication before using the plugin… and also forget to do so from time to time. Time to nag Affinity!

2 Likes
3

Interesting - Already posted the problem in Affinity and guess what? They say the problem is a DxO one and not theres

4

Well, as I noted above, other non-DxO plugins used with Affinity do not generate a new layer,so I think Affinity is passing the buck.

5

This may not be necessary the case - the software goes through a procedure what I used to know as handshaking. When you select the plugins from either photoshop or affinity the DxO plugins recognise that I request has been made for their software to be opened - interestingly when you open Silver Efex in photoshop it generates a button titled brushes but this button does not appear when you open Silver eFex in Affinity Photo. Both Affinity and Affinity Open the plugin with no problem with the exception of the missing brushes button.

Now when you have finished making alterations using the NIK plug in the NIKs plug in informs the software from where it originally came from to inform either Photoshop or Affinity Photo that it has finished and is returning the image back to it. So how does this transfer back to the original software work? Does the DxO software inform either Photoshop or Affinity Photo that it is re-importing the image back and to treat it as a new layer as it does for photoshop but Affinity Photo does not recognise this file transfer protocol so overwrites the original layer. So it could be a DxO problem. Or is it the original software that recognise that’s it should be put onto a new layer which only works in Photoshop and not Affinity Photo and therefore is an Affinity Problem

The problem I believes lies in this file transfer back protocol which is part of the DxO software.

6

The list of plugins supported in PS is very long. The list supported by Affinity (unofficially or otherwise) is very short. This would point to Affinity being the problem to my mind.