GFS

Hi, I'm wondering how to copy/paste adjustments from one layer to another ... can't find a way. Specifically, I have two stacked (aligned) images, which I want to apply identical treatment to. This would be liquify, rotation and perhaps other adjustments. How can I do this?

Hi aitte and many thanks for the comprehensive explanation. I now understand why this happens with some apps. However, it seems that the more Mac focussed apps still cater to the difference, perhaps because they just never changed the legacy code? Photoshop is one of these, as are the Apple apps, e.g. Aperture. So clearly these other apps are doing something that enable tiffs to be read by MM machines *as well as* II machines? Or am I misunderstanding? PS actually offers the choice every time you Save As a tiff, but 'Mac' is always already selected in the dialog box *unless* the tiff was made by Affinity or some of the very much 'cross-platform' apps, written in weird java style languages or primarily for PC (they always have a look) e.g. Helicon Focus. Aperture exported tiffs open fine on either MM or II. I might also point out, that Apple's own *brand new* Photos app, exports tiffs that can be opened without any difficulty on legacy hardware, so clearly, there is something that Affinity is not doing when exporting tiffs (actually there's quite a lot when you look at the state of the alpha channels too). I realise there are few of us working with old apps/hardware (but I do so for a real reason) and it seems a shame to close the door on compatibility at this stage of development ... the devil is always in the details.

Yes it is for use on an old Mac. The thing is, Affinity Photo is Mac only software, so why not just ensure that it is in Mac format anyway and keep us weirdos happy. :)

I'm finding that exported files are being saved in PC byte order. It's quite an annoyance as I have to then open and 'Save As' in Photoshop to get them into Mac format.

It does seem like it would be simpler for Affinity to make the PDF themselves and have it available for download, rather than have people go delving into the package contents and trying to figure out what to do.

Wow! That was quick! :)

MEB, I'm coming to Affinity from a long history of digital imaging, dating all the way back to the early 90s. To give you an idea, on the shelf behind me, I have a box for Photoshop 1.0 However, around version 3.0, I moved away from Photoshop, because of its slow performance and poor quality. Just opening an 8 bit file reduced it to 7 bits and a couple of operations like sharpening and you were down to 5 bits, which is why people thought digital images were ugly back then. There was an alternative in those days, which in some ways I think may have been an inspiration for Affinity (perhaps unconsciously?) which was Live Picture. This was a truly non-destructive app, being entirely vectorial and having no concept of pixels at all, either for the images or the paint and it was 16 bit for all internal operations. So for 20 years, I've been freely combining photos and vector drawing with amazing speed and total freedom. The like of the stunningly beautiful and smooth vectorial brushes have never been seen since (I'd love you guys to produce the same) and there are a few simple things/procedures that it does very simply and very well. Obviously there have been advances in digital imaging and it has been left behind in some ways ... e.g. sharpening has moved on massively, so I mix it with more modern apps. Being ancient, it relies on ancient equipment, which is obviously going to fail at some time and so I'm constantly keeping an eye open for alternatives and Affinity is really what appears to me to be the first serious alternative for my use. So I'm hoping you'll be moving in the direction that I'm looking for! :) I doubt you'll match its speed though. :)

Thanks MEB. The Perspective Tool is a bit limited (as far as I can see with a brief try) no way to do a 'vanishing point' style perspective ... but really ... it rasterises the paint layer. What's the point in having a non-destructive app., that is destructive? Surely the rasterisation should happen at the end ... when I want to do something with my file, like send a client a tiff, or post a jpeg to the web etc. etc. What if I later want to change the dimensions etc.? Now I'm getting into interpolating the paint, right? Or do you 're-vectorise' on the fly?

I've been searching for how to do this with a shape in Affinity Photo ... so would request that you include the code in Photo once you've done it for Designer. :)

For anyone reading this, I have discovered how to get a 'sharp' clean mask. You have to use the Selection Brush tool and do NOT use the Refine Mask tool. If you use the Refine Mask dialog, your neat/sharp mask will be instantly transformed into a mushy mess. In order to improve your mask after having made it, you have to select the layer containing your mask, then choose : -Select Menu/Selection from Layer - you must zoom in and use the Selection Brush on the Selection to improve it. Then save as mask. The Refine Mask tool may be good for soft edged masks, but it doesn't work well for clean edged masks.

Hi JFisher, thanks for looking at the file. I'm getting a better understanding of how the tools work. There appear to be some bugs, which is fair enough in a 1.0 release. I have found that after some sequence of events (I have no idea what) the brush in Refine Mask just stops working. Well it works, i.e. it draws, then the Refine Selection progress bar appears, but nothing happens other than that. No edit. This makes it a little hard to understand what's going on (I'm using a Wacom with the latest driver on 10.11). Regarding your treatment/mask of my file - you did indeed clean up the black on the edge, but at the cost of some detail. Also, the sliders in the Refine Mask dialog are global, so whilst it cleaned up that edge, I found (when subsequently trying the same technique) that it messed up other areas which were fine previously. So, really, the Refine Mask aspect of masking needs to be improved. As far as I'm concerned it is a bug, because if I can't brush the black areas out using any tools other than an eraser, then something isn't working correctly. Suggestion for Refine Masks tools: 1/ Have a user selectable outside and inside dropper tool (instead of the vague current system). It should be colour + tone based, so that I can tell Affinity Photo, what I want masked, rather than it having to try and work it out on its own. Show me what colours I've selected, via the Refine Mask window. Then I can just brush an area, having selected the inside and outside colours/tones and Affinity knows what to remove. As I work around my image, refining, I would be constantly using the dropper to tell Affinity what to do ... or not if I unchecked the option in the window. (In my 20 year old app, I have this tool and it is pressure sensitive, which means that if I press harder with the pen it will be more aggressive with the masking and if I go very lightly, it will be more subtle). Ideally, the dropper is just for the outside of the mask, and anywhere I touch with my brush, becomes the new inside colour. This makes for very fast and accurate masking. (If you want I can make a short screen-movie to show how I work with this). 2/ Also add to this toolset a paint/eraser tool, so that when Affinity Photo simply can't get it right (there are areas of my image - top-right - where no matter what I did with Affinity Photo, it just couldn't get what I wanted. If I had a straight forward paint/eraser option, I could just have taken over to carefully brush the required area in or out. Much faster and much more accurate and infinitely less frustrating!) 3/ The current inside/outside selections appear to be tone based. I'm assuming this, because Affinity Photo struggled a lot working around the nuts to the top-right. It just couldn't pick them out cleanly, which is surprising, because they should be easy. So please make them tone + colour based ... or ... fix the bug that is preventing them from working properly. :) I'm guessing that this is a bug too ... very odd. I closed the Refine Mask window then re-opened it and this is what appeared. NB, the colour of the alpha mask was orange'ish instead of red. I had previously brushed carefully around the area I want as 'foreground' (zoomed in). It looks like this area was then made into another kind of mask, but not properly combined with the overall mask: http://www.grantsymon.com/Grabs/AFfinityPhoto-alphaBug.png

Sure ... I don't use Dropbox, but I have put a zip file on my server and the url in a private message.

I'm finding this very confusing. Seems like a bug: http://www.grantsymon.com/Grabs/AF-P-RefineMask/AF-P-RefineMask.mov

Hi JFisher, sure ... I'm using it as a learning file for Affinity Photo, because it's one that was shot with masking in mind from a recent job (as is obvious once you see the image!!) and it's quite hard to mask some areas of it cleanly. However the area that I'm showing you here, should be very easy : Lots of contrast and a clearly defined edge. So far, I'm finding Affinity Photo to be slower and less accurate for masking than my 20 year old, favourite imaging app! I have some suggestions for tools that work very well ... although the algorithms are down to you guys. :) I'm spending time on this today and have found that Affinity Photo appears to be adding a black mask when exporting a PSD with an alpha channel/transparency. Unfortunately, this black is showing through in my other app. Any ideas? I'm guessing this is what's happening, because the black background is visible in the file's preview/thumbnails. Where do I post the file? (Don't want it available publicly)

Sure is confusing when working with a pen and using the tablet keys as modifiers. Having a right-click set on the pen's button is far less fluid. :)

Thanks MEB. I'll see how I go with the Wacom ... still finding my way with Affinity. Should I post the right-clicking anomaly somewhere as a bug? Seems like it has been standard Mac behaviour for at least 25 years, that the Control key invokes the contextual menu.

I've understood part of the problem ... support for right-click via the Control key modifier is flakey at best, whether using a mouse or a pen. For example, control-clicking a mask on a layer (sub-layer) activates both the master layer (image) AND the mask and I get a pop-up menu that is applicable to the layer itself. Right clicking the mask, brings up a different menu and does NOT activate the image layer. I would call this a bug. No wonder I'm having a hard time understanding what's going on. :huh:

Hi MEB, I'm not seeing anything like that. Maybe I'm misunderstanding?

Wondering what the support is for Wacom tablets in Affinity Photo? I don't seem to be getting normal behaviour.

I'm trying to find my way with Affinity Photo and struggling a bit. The thing I need to understand first is the masking. I've watched the videos, but don't seem to having a lot of luck with refining my mask. I made this with the Selection Brush and that's okay, but when I look closely at what it has produced, I find it needs cleaning up ... the dark edge which was covered by the marching ants when masking. I've selected the mask in the layers palette, then 'Refine Mask' from the Control-Click drop-down menu. Then according to the help at the bottom of the screen, tried to remove the dark areas, but when I brush, nothing happens ... or ... it isn't selecting a colour/tone to remove, instead, it's just removing everything. What is the best way to proceed from here?

Thanks Callum. So how do I export a file with an alpha channel?

Hi, I'm trying to understand Affinity photo and having something of a hard time. I have a tiff file that I've worked on and have made a brush mask using the Selection Brush. How can I export this as a tiff and include the brush mask as an alpha channel?

Thanks MEB. When I try to do this, I'm not getting my brush mask copied, only the 'rectangular' mask that is part of the inserted image layer. How do I copy a brushed mask from one layer to another?

Thanks MEB! Isn't there a way to simply drag a mask from one layer to another?

Alternatively ... you can just open the index file in a web-browser and save the first page as a bookmark, there by making it an instantly accessible offline web site. Closing tab bar and favourites bar etc. makes it pretty much an identical view to the Help viewer ... except it doesn't annoyingly float above all other windows.