iconoclast

Again, it's absolutely normal that files, created with software, can not be opened with older (Sorry, had to correct this fail) versions of the software. It is simply natural and logical. How should older software, that doesn't have certain newer functions, interpret these functions, if they are not implemented in the earlier versions? In that case, the older versions would need to be updated, not vice versa. And how should that make sense for the developers? Even Microsoft says that files that are created with newer versions of Word, are not fully compatible with older versions of Word, because some new features may not be supported. It would of course be different with exported files. There should not be any problems to open JPEGs, PNGs or stuff like that, created in Photo 2, if you open them in version 1. But it will not work wit Afphoto-files.

Yes, I think so. Maybe there will be some inventions in the future. E.G. my favorite painting app has a function that is called "Tool Box". It is an option to put all the brush presets, colors and other things you use in a document in one file that can be saved separately from the document, so that you can even load it if you are working on another document and you want to use the same brushes, colors... for it. That's a very nice feature. It is also convenient for use while you are painting, because you have most of the things you need in only one panel. So you have a very tidy working space. But that's a painting app only. There are no image editing functions in it, and it hasn't even a color management.

That might be annoying in some cases, but it's not unusual. Because new versions of programs often have new additional and/or modified functions that of course can't be supported by the older versions, that don't have them. It was e.G. the same with the 2.10-versions of GIMP, that allowed to load documents that were created with older versions, but you couldn't open documents created in GIMP 2.10 in older versions. It's simply logical.

Cool, I didn't notice this new feature yet. But unfortunately this Brushes-History can't be saved with the document, as far as I see. So if you work on a bigger project, that takes more time, you should better create a category for that brushes as you first mentioned. I use to paint with another program and usually only use AfPhoto for image editing. Photo's brushes are really cool, but unfortunately they can't blend colors while you paint. You have to do that afterwards using the Color Mixer Brush or the Smudge Brush Tool. And if you do that, the textures of the brushes you painted with will be smudged too. That's a little bit annoying for painting. At least for me.

If you create a LUT with the G'MIC-filter "CLUT from After - Before Layers", you have the choice also to create such an image that, as far as I understand, contains the color informations of the LUT. Unfortunately, as I said above, this filter doesn't work in AfPhoto. But I think in some Apps, you can also use this PNG-images as LUTs. Probably also in G'MIC. There are different types of LUTs anyway, as far as I know. The Cube-file-format (the "C" in "CLUT" stands for "Cube") is only one of them.

If v_kyr is right, it seems so. But I think there can be no warranty. As I already said above, at least one of the filters ("CLUT from After - Before Layers") doesn't work in Affinity Photo. Probably a problem with Photo's layer management, because you need two layers for this filter. G'MIC works pretty good with GIMP since many years. But the 8bf-version for Photoshop, Photo and others seems to be still a bit buggy.

As far as I know there is at least no official build for MAC. But I heard about one made by someone else. I'm not sure about that. I'm on Windows. Is this a thread concerning Affinity Photo on Mac?

@lphilpot Yes, that might be a good option too. Many ways lead to Rome, even in this case. But you basically don't need G'MIC to apply LUTs to images in AfPhoto. You can do this using the LUT-filter or the Adjustment Panel. The advantage of the G'MIC-filter "Color Presets" is that there is already stored a huge amount of very good LUTs in it. So you don't need to search for it on the Web. The only disadvantage is, that G'MIC-filters are not non-destructive.

I think it is not really important to have this option in Affinity Photo for most users. That may be the reason why it is missing. Even Photoshop doesn't offer this option, as far as I know. But there are workarounds on Youtube for it. Maybe that will help you too somehow.

One thing I forgot to say: In G'MIC, in the category "Color", there is also a filter called "Color Presets". This filter offers a huge amount of LUTs to apply them to images, and adjustments to refine them. The only disadvantage in opposite to Affinity Photos own LUT-function is that this one is not non-destructive, as every filter in plugins.

G'MIC has several very good Artistic Filters. Even it was initially made as a standalone app and plugin for GIMP, since some time there is also a *.8bf-version of it that works with Photoshop, Affinity Photo and others. By the way, there is also a free web service with limited functionality. But I'm not sure if each of the filters will work with Photo. There may still be some bugs. I tested e.g. the "CLUT from After - Before Layers" filter yesterday evening, and it didn't seem to work - at least in Affinity Photo. In such cases I use GIMP with G'MIC. It is free too and G'MIC works very good there. But the most filters should also work in Photo. The "Simulate Film" Filter e.g. is one I like very much and used it very often during the last years. And, as I already said, G'MIC is free and open source. You'll find it here: https://gmic.eu/download.html But scroll down to the second download. The one for Photoshop, Photo, Paint Shop Pro... One additional annotation: To download open source stuff, you should always choose the original websites of the certain projects, because there are some criminals out there that occupied even top level domains and try to spread malware this way. One example for such a bad site is e.g. audacity.de. If you want to know the right URL, you will normally find it in the Wikipedia. Most of them are *.org-URLs. E.G. gimp.org, inkscape.org, audacityteam.org... And another additional hint: For "arty" things, if that means to turn photos into images that look like paintings or drawings, I can recommend PhotoSketcher. This is a freeware standalone app for Windows that applies very good Watercolor-, Oil-, even Ink- and other painting effects to photos. A small and very cool app. It also exists as a portable version that can be installed on an USB-stick.

OK, so I understood right. LUTs should be able to do that, but you need the right ones. LUTs (Lookup Tables) are files with predefined color informations. You can apply them with just one click to an image. A big advantage of LUTS is that you can easily apply the same color look to several images. If you can't find LUTs that fit your needs, you can create your own ones using the color filters in Affinity first and then save the result as LUT (Menu "File", "Export LUT"). Affinity Photo 1 unfortunately had a bug in the LUT function as I last tried it. I'm not sure if it is fixed yet. Even in version 2. As an alternative you can use the G'MIC Plugin. In that case load the source image and the color manipulated result as two layers in one document and use the filter "CLUT from After - Before Layers" to create a LUT. To apply LUTs to images, use the Live Filter "LUTs" or the Studio Panel "Adjustment". In the second case, you need to import the LUTs you want to use into the repertoire of this Filter. After that, they will stay there to be used whenever you need them. Or try the "Simulate Film" filter in G'MIC. The NIC Collection might be a good choice to. I'm not experienced in it. But I heard a lot about it.

Hi Starbase 1! I'm not really sure if I understand what you are looking for, but if I do possibly LUTs could do the job. Affinity Photo has LUT functionality by design. There are already some LUTs in the repertoire. You can add more. You will find many on the Web (also take a look at the Ressources category here on the forums), even free ones. Or you can create your own ones. As an alternative I could recommend the free G'MIC Plugin that has LUTs functions too, and it also has a filter called "Simulate Film", that has a huge variety of simulated photo films (additional ones can be downloaded and added for free), with a lot of adjustments to refine them. You will find the whole stuff in the category "Color" (or by using the "Search" field). By the way, G'MIC contains more than 500 additional filters in differebnt categories. Many of them are really cool.

Absolutely yes! Thanx for your advice, Master Yoda!!!

Hi chillywilly! You have to convert the shape into curves before you can select nodes, because shape objects don't have nodes. So rightclick on the shape and click "Convert to Curves".

Yes, you are right. Sorry, didn't think of it. The reflectivity and also the lighting angle are important too. But if you have a range of textures that fit to the lighting situation, you can place them all as described above and simply toggle between them as you need it. To make a usable texture outoff the round sample above, you could create a seamless tile and then use the function "New Pattern Layer from Selection". Should be good enough, I think. Don't really think that you need a 3D App for it. To create a seamless tile, first cut the sample to a rectangle sample. Then place guidelines to the vertical and horizontal center of it. Then cut the sample to four pieces of the same size, using the guidelines, and interchange the tiles from left to right and top to bottom, so that the cutting edges are on the outside of the document. Then use the Clone Tool (Stamp) to retouche the Seams in the middle of the document. And finally make one layer outoff those four layers and make a endless pattern from this layer.

You could trace the couch with the Pen Tool instead of a selection, then place the texture on a separate layer above the Curve Layer and then drag the Texture Layer on the right area of the Curve Layer (Layer Panel). But be aware that you also have to do a perspective transformation to the texture. You can use the Grid Transform Tool (hope it is the right name for it in English) for it.

Ah, problem solved. I was blind again. It's very easy: you only need to open Photo and it will appear in the list of the apps that can be connected (Opened Programs).

Hi! I bought a Wacom Cintiq and want to connect all my graphic apps to it, to be able to set individual pen adjustments to each of them (pressure, decline sensitivity and so on). But I can't find the concerning file of Photo on my computer. Normally those are exe-files. As far as I know, Affininty 2 doesn't have those exe-files. But there must be a substitute, I think. I'm on Windows 10 with the universal license of the Affinity apps.

I'm not familiar to those blend modes, but Krita has such ones. They are in the category "Binary". Maybe it will give some clearness if you take a look at Kritas Manual: https://docs.krita.org/en/reference_manual/blending_modes.html

Simply drag the Adjustment Layer (the yellow) on the Layer with the glasses to nest it to it. So it will only affect the glasses and nothing else.

I don't really know, but I don't think so. Could be a topic for the Suggestions section.

What about this one: 1. First create the equilateral triangle. 2. Create a straight exact vertical line from its top corner to the middle of its base line. Change the tool to end this step. 3. Click on both layers in the Layers Panel, holding the Shift- key, to select both. 4. Rotate the triangle and the straight line, holding the Shift-key, so that another edge becomes the baseline. 5 Draw a second straight vertical line from the top corner to the base. 6. Repeat it with the last edge. The intersection of the three straight lines should be the rotation center. Place the rotation point there.

Sorry, I'm late. I think, I would do this using the Pen Tool. Simply trace the silhouette of the car with the Pen Tool, fill the resulting shape and drag the layer containing the shape on the small preview thumbnail of the image layer that contains the car. That should do the job. If there are some fragments of the background that must be removed afterwards, you can do that by modelling the curve (click on the tiny arrow on the left side of the layer that contains the car to fold out the layer that contains the curve and click on the curve layer). You can also use a Mask to refine the edges. In that case, click on the Mask Button at the bottom of the Layers Panel to add a mask to the Image Layer. Then paint away the parts you want to delete, with the Brush Tool, using black colour. If you want to restore parts, e.G. parts you deleted by accident, paint them back using white colour. If you set black and white as foreground and background colour in the Colour Panel, you can simply switch between them using the "X"-key. Take care that you are always on the Mask Layer if you want to work on the mask. Edit: There is an alternative way, that may be a bit better. At first trace the silhouette of the car as described above and fill the resulting shape. Then create a selection out off this layer (menu "Selection" > "Selection from Layer"). Invert the Selection (menu "Selection" > "Invert Selection"). Add a Mask to the image layer. Fill the selection on the mask with black colour. Now all areas outside the selection should be transparent. You can remove the selection now (menu "Selection" > "Deselect"). If there are still areas you want to remove, you can do this by painting with black colour on the mask as described above.

In general, it depends on what you want to select. E.G. if you want to select geometric figures, I would use a shape or the pen tool to trace the shape of the figure. This will create the most clean and smooth edges. For more complex silhouettes, I would use the Selection Brush - if the contrast to the background is good enough. In some cases, if even the refinery doesn't work good enough, I use a Layer Mask. With a Mask, you can paint pixels away and back by hand as you need it. And you should be aware of that you can combine all this opportunities.