RichardMH

It's fiddly but you can save the grid as an asset and resize it to get the crop. I also have a golden ratio rectangle as a crop preset. So with some awkwardness it can be done. Ideally we should be easily able to use any grid. Pretty sure the grids are in here http://www.the-art-of-composition.com/dynamic-symmetry-grids.html

I've bought from Scorptec and found them knowledgeable and good. I live fairly close to them. My son builds his own gaming machines and buys quite a bit of gear from them.

I get it right if I'm in Adobe RGB (1998) in Preferences.

Download a colour checker and see what you get using Info when you load it into A Photo? https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Color_Checker.pdf

Can you post the png?

If you upload one of the dead files someone should be able to look at it. Crash reports would probably also help them. Do you also run Capture One?

Do you have hardware acceleration on? If so might be worth trying with it off. Edit->Preferences->Performance

What system are you on and are you saving to a network drive?

Problem is you can't name spare channels in macros.

Ahh. Blend modes work differently in CMYK. Linear Burn may do the job.

Try vivid light instead of hard light. I have a few versions. I'm in Photo not publisher.

I have two ways to do something similar. First is HSL with multiply blend mode and blend ranges just applying it to the darker areas. Moves the left hand side of the histogram further left. Second is merge visible, duplicate and use vivid light blend mode so the shadows get nice and dark. Then fine tune that.

video1917625032.mp4 This is what I mean in FastRawViewer (towards the middle of the video). The difference between the jpeg and RAW suggests you have some sort of what Sony calls creative modes operating on the jpeg in camera, which is what gets sent to your camera viewer. So if you use the viewer to set exposure the RAW is under exposed.

Its a little dark for me, but about the same as FastRawViewer. FRV lets you change between the jpg and RAW (press j) and there is quite a difference. Might be camera setting affecting the jpeg?

Your camera and PM (unless you've changed settings) use the jpeg. Depending on camera settings it may differ from the RAW. Could try something like FastRawViewer (it has a free trial) to look at the RAW. (https://www.fastrawviewer.com/) Or post a RAW here and see if its also dark for us.

Instead of removing a strip, try the Rectangular Marquee Tool to select an area including one of them, duplicate the selection and use the Move Tool to move it over.

Are you using Refine to play with the mask edges?

I'm also unhappy with the Develop Persona. Fortunately as a Sony shooter I can use the free Capture One express for Sony which does a very good RAW conversion for Sony images. And it has a rather clever auto adjust that gives good base settings. Then send a tiff to Affinity Photo for finishing. The very fast Iridient S-Transformer is also good for Sony images but I think C1 Express is at least as good if not better. (There is an Iridient C-Transformer for Canon)

Do you have hardware acceleration on? Edit->Preferences->Performance.

Something weird is going on. When I Merge Visible on your file it scrambles, like your output.

This is much easier if you have two screens. I have my assets and library open on my second screen and macros are one click. Its almost worth getting a cheap 2nd screen just for this.

It does seem to be an issue. A workaround could be to merge visible to create another layer then apply the layer effect to that? Also happens with Topaz Sharpen AI.

Try turning off hardware acceleration if its on. Edit->Preferences->Performance.

Do you have hardware acceleration on? It can be a cause of the freezing. Edit->Preferences->Performance.

I have Mirage Small Studio Edition for a Canon Pro 300. Their pricing depends on printer size and is reasonable rather than cheap. It just works.