coranda

Yes, the two are the same.  Grey and Master.  The difference is that we allow you to create a full curve.  Photoshop only allows you to define a black and white min/max range, forming a fixed trapezoid curve to 0 and 255 extents.  We allow for full custom control over the blend with a fully user-defined curve.
 
This feature went in recently.  We have just added PSD import/export for this feature too, which will be in a coming Beta.

I was curious about what the difference might be between the Gray option in PS and the Master option in AP so I did a simple test.  I stress that this is a simple test and does not allow for the more complicated use case you are dealing with.  Nonetheless, I concluded that, within the parameters of my test, the two options are essentially the same.  I'd be interested to know how your needs differ to try to isolate what the differences are between PS and AP.
 
Here is a link to a document that explains the test that I did.
 
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7568628/Blend%20If%20%E2%80%93%20PS%20versus%20AP.pdf

I was curious about what the difference might be between the Gray option in PS and the Master option in AP so I did a simple test.  I stress that this is a simple test and does not allow for the more complicated use case you are dealing with.  Nonetheless, I concluded that, within the parameters of my test, the two options are essentially the same.  I'd be interested to know how your needs differ to try to isolate what the differences are between PS and AP.
 
Here is a link to a document that explains the test that I did.
 
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7568628/Blend%20If%20%E2%80%93%20PS%20versus%20AP.pdf

I was curious about what the difference might be between the Gray option in PS and the Master option in AP so I did a simple test.  I stress that this is a simple test and does not allow for the more complicated use case you are dealing with.  Nonetheless, I concluded that, within the parameters of my test, the two options are essentially the same.  I'd be interested to know how your needs differ to try to isolate what the differences are between PS and AP.
 
Here is a link to a document that explains the test that I did.
 
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7568628/Blend%20If%20%E2%80%93%20PS%20versus%20AP.pdf

Hi To Affinity & Beyond,
 
I'm sorry you're experiencing problems - I just wanted to affirm to you that we are reading the forums and I noticed your post but as yet haven't had anything to suggest other than what other users are suggesting... I have a 2008 MacBook Pro with SSD (I retrofitted it) running Mavericks and it's genuinely pretty nippy with Affinity - it's not instant, but it's not going to be instant - it is, however, quicker in Affinity than in any other software I can find to run on it... You're using images from a 7D on a 6 year old Mac so it's not going to be instant either, but it shouldn't be a bad experience so it does sound like something's amiss - but as to what, I'd need to see the physical machine and interact with it in order to determine where the problem may be - not something that's trivial to do remotely.
 
One thing I would say is just start up the program with Ctrl held down (hold down Ctrl as soon as you click to launch the program and keep it held) and it will bring up a dialog offering to reset settings - select all options and just reset them. The factory defaults are almost always the best starting point and unless you know what you're doing you can actually make things worse. Also, don't​ worry about what RAM Photo says it will use - it's not actually currently using that RAM - it's just what limit to hit before it starts paging to disk.
 
(@maritan - unless you're doing exactly the same test with exactly the same files, the numbers you see may be very different)
 
After you've reset everything, you can try to debug where your problems are... Start with a 1024x1024 pixel document - now paint on it with the default brush tool - is it still laggy? If so, your machine is just not performing at all as well as my older 2008 MacBook Pro! If all seems well, try again with larger image sizes until you start to see problems.
 
When you talk about the exposure slider - I assume you mean in the Develop Persona? If so, that's dealing with converting your RAW file and applying all your existing settings and your new exposure value each time you move the slider - so it's not going to be particularly swift... there are definitely optimisations we will do in the future that will change this, but for now, if that is how you are measuring performance then you will not be able to make that quick... As a matter of fact, are you always referring to operations done in the Develop Persona? Everything is done from the original RAW file each time you make any change so this Persona will be significantly slower than any other part of the program.
 
I think that ultimately if the experience is generally poor for whatever reason, unless we can stumble across the culprit it's going to be very hard for you to enjoy the program :(
 
Just wanted you to know that you're not being ignored - it's just that without actually seeing the machine there's not a lot we can suggest that hasn't already been suggested...
 
Thanks,
Matt

Have you tried disabling the Assistant?
 
In general, no two RAW convertors are likely to produce exactly the same image with their default settings because there are no definitively correct default conversion parameters.
 
Have you tried to alter the parameters in the develop persona to get the look you are after?  If you can find that set of values then create a preset and you may be able to get the default processing your after.

I just tried it the way I normally do it in PS and I got it to work.  You can't use a fill layer as I tried.  I created a new, empty layer and used the paint bucket to fill it with 50% grey.  I then switched the blend mode to overlay and it worked as expected.  Painting in black with low opacity will burn and painting in white will dodge.
 
I hope this is useful to you.

Yes, I miss this.  I also miss the PS behaviour where holding down the opt key uses the starting point as the centre of the selection rather than the corner. 

when selecting an area with the marquee tool, it would be really helpful to move the selection by holding the space bar while holding the mouse (similar to photoshop)

Alice,
 
I leave it for the devs to respond definitively but my perception is that transferring presets from one RAW convertor to another is not a trivial, nor necessarily meaningful, exercise.
 
There is no such thing as a "correct" or "definitive" RAW conversion because there are so many different ways to convert a RAW file.  For example, a RAW file does not have any colour information in it in the RGB sense that photo editing software uses.  RAW pixels each have a colour filter on them and they capture only the intensity of that particular filtered light.  Re-constructing RGB pixels can be done in several ways all of which are approximations of the actual colour at that point in the field of view.
 
RAW pixels are also linear in that they double their intensity if they are hit by twice as many photons - but that's not the way our eyes (or monitors/printers) respond, so RAW convertors apply a contrast (gamma) curve to the pixels before they are rendered.
 
For a Lightroom preset to look the same in AP would require AP to use exactly the same RAW conversion algorithm as Lightroom.  This is unlikely to be the case because I suspect Lightroom's algorithms are proprietary and unpublished and because they are also not necessarily the best possible converters.  For example, the latest Lightroom process applies significant highlight recovery by default, which is not the best way to extract maximum dynamic range from an image.  There is a strong argument to suggest that you are better off using Lightroom's process 2010 rather than the newer 2012 process.
 
AP is arguably better off trying to provide its own workflows rather than trying to mimic the workflows of competitors. 

You are welcome !

You just need to follow these two forums
 
Designer ; https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/15-affinity-designer-beta/
Photo: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/19-affinity-photo-beta/

Yes they do plan it. The next photo beta was already announced and is on its way ;)

Hi coranda,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
If you ⌥ (option/alt) +  click on a layer in the Layers panel (not over the visibility checkbox) it should show only that layer. Clicking on another layer or on the canvas should show them all again.