o4tuna

Thanks for responding, MEB! I'll put the workaround you've suggested to use, although copying and pasting isn't the end of the world. I'm old enough to have logged some time in a darkroom, so I appreciate that pressing a few keys sure beats having to breathe in stop bath fumes. As I'm learning Affinity Photo, there is no doubt in my mind that it is quite excellent and I am so glad you are committed to making it even better. I'm looking forward to discovering its capabilities.

Old Bruce, I'm experiencing the same behavior. I've posted a bug report.

I've done so. Thanks again for your help.

environment: macOS 11.2.1, Affinity Photo 1.9.0 In "Separated Mode" . . . When attempting to drag a layer (within the layer panel) from one document to another, the receiving document will create a duplicate of its pre-existing "Background" layer, without displaying the dropped layer. The end result is that the receiving document has two layers, both named "Background", with identical content. There's no sign of the dropped layer in the receiving document. However, using command-C to copy a layer in the originating document, and then using command-V to paste it as a new layer into the receiving document seems to always work as expected. The above seems to always be the case, regardless of how the originating and receiving documents have been opened. Opening them in Finder or within Affinity Photo seems to make no difference.

loukash, Alien Skin Exposure is an alternative to Adobe Lightroom. I'm willing to go to great lengths to avoid giving Adobe any more money, and I'm happy to discover that Serif's offerings are so capable and its user community so active.

Thank you, haakoo. The method you suggest is intuitive and quite elegant. However, it doesn't seem to be working for me. What usually happens when I drag a layer from the layer panel of one document into another is this: the receiving document creates a duplicate of its original "Background" layer, and the image being dropped vanishes. The end result is that the receiving document winds up with two layers of the same image, both named "Background". If I then repeat the operation, but this time using command-C and command-V to copy and paste a layer, it works as expected. Evidently, there's something wrong with dragging and dropping layers in my environment (Mac OS 11.2.1, Affinity Photo 1.9.0). While the copy/paste operation always works, the drag&drop operation has only worked about twice out of at least a hundred attempts. I've been trying to isolate what the conditions of a successful drag&drop are, but without success. It doesn't seem to matter whether or not the files are opened through Finder or from within Affinity Photo. After posting this, I'll go see if Serif has a bug reporting system in place.

Thanks for your help, loukash! Using your suggestions, here's the outcome . . . After opening an image with Photo, I dropped an image from Finder onto it. Like you said, it worked great . . . the dropped image showed up as a new layer. However, when I try to drag&drop an image from Alien Skin Exposure, and new layer appears but there is nothing (except a gray and white checkerboard pattern) within the layer. This new layer is labeled in the layer-selection panel as "(selectedImages)". Of course, it would be fantastic if I could just select multiple images within Exposure, use some kind of "edit as layers in Affinity Photo" command and (abracadabra!) there they would be, ready in Photo as multiple layers inside of one document. But it's really not the end of the world if I have to assemble multiple discrete images into a multi-layer composition. So, that leaves me wondering if there's a more elegant way to combine multiple tabs into an image with multiple layers than copying and pasting. If there is a way to do this, I'd sure like to learn how. (Are macros able to create a new document by assembling images from the other open documents?) At the end of the day, I'm attempting to do exposure blending. As I learn more about Photo I see it can be done by creating stacks. Though it would be ideal if I could feed my source images into Photo with Alien Skin Exposure, I now see that I can do it with Photo alone. Thanks again, loukash. Here's wishing you bountiful good karma.

Is there a convenient method for converting multiple tabs into layers of a "new" composite image? Those who use an Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop workflow have the ability to select several images while browsing in Lightroom, and then control-click to launch a menu with the option of "edit as layers in Photoshop". Fie on Adobe! I'm hoping to be able to do the much the same thing with Alien Skin's Exposure and Affinity's Photo, and this aim seems to be within reach. I'm happy to report that it's easy to designate Photo as Exposure's favorite editor. Having done so I can select images with Exposure . . . control-click . . . and choose "edit copy in Affinity Photo" from the menu that appears. Doing so launches Photo and places copies of the selected images into their own individual tabs. This isn't a surprising behavior, but it isn't very convenient for combining them into a composite image with blendable layers. I need the images which have been segregated into multiple tabs to become layers of one image. What would be the most efficient technique for combining multiple tabs into one image, with each "tab" becoming its own layer?