Silvia

Not just an alternative but a better one, since 1) there is no need to change the document format to LAB & 2) this curve can be added to the AP Adjustments panel as a preset.

I'll uncheck All Layers as a temp solution then.  Many thanks for your help, Dan.

Many thanks for the screen recordings provided!
I can confirm I've been able to reproduce the issue you're seeing using these - it appears as though when 'All Layers' is selected on the Context Toolbar for the Selection Brush tool, the Transparent overlay in Refine fails to work correctly.
I've logged this with our developers now as a bug, but unticking this option on the context toolbar should resolve this issue for you temporarily.
I hope this helps 

I can also access Topaz studio 2 and use a few of the controls (some don't seem to work), but all the presets are empty. If I open it as a standalone, all the presets are there.

Yup, same experience here.  

Thanks, John, this much I had understood long ago; my claim is that Serif knows about it and doesn’t warn about the lack of some functionality when purchased in the app store.  

Hi everyone and happy new year.
I'm still facing the same issue with Topaz Denoise Ai and Sharpen Ai plug-ins: the plug-ins open but they don't effect the photo.
I've bought Affinity Photo from the App Store and I'm running the latest version 1.8.6 on macOS Big Sur 11.1.
The Topaz customer service says me that the problem could be related to the version of AP downloaded from App Store which is Sandboxed.
I don't know what is mean, but the only way to solve the problem seems to be to download AP directly from the Seriff site and reinstall it.
However this is not possible without a new purchase.
Please Seriff solve it! Thanks in advance.

This is totally unacceptable then for Affinity to release a version that will work on the same macOS from the store and not from MAS.  They are totally aware of Apple security and sandboxing.  Peace

Thank you elec164 for your support. It could be great if Affinity could recognise finally this disappointing mistake and would finally convert our Mac AppStore licenses into the normal ones.
I wish I could have them without paying twice.

After a back in forth on another forum I belong to about Topaz Labs working as plugins for AP I finally found this thread.
I appear to be in the same boat as pixartia in that I bought my version through the Apple App store thinking it's the same. While I can get my Topaz Labs to show up in the Filter/Plugin menu and when clicked on it's acknowledged in the History, the plugin doesn't start up.
Seems rather deceptive not identifying in the App store that's it's not the same as buying from Serif directly. Had I know I would have bought it directly rather than through the App Store.
Although unlike pixartia my Nik plugins work just fine.

Hope that everyone is ok with our current covid-19 situation.... 
But unfortunately there's still no solution and also no news from MEB (https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/profile/59-meb/) since the beginning of March. 
I don't see any further steps in the Affinity Photo's roadmap in what concerns the Topaz Labs plugins compatibility.
Meanwhile the Apple Mac AppStore version of Affinity Photo (note!: which is sold at the SAME price point) is far not really the same in comparison with affinity standard version.
And even Nik Collection is not functional within that AppStore version. Pity that there's no real promise from Affinity. I hoped that Affinity could convert my AppStore licenses to the normal ones, but they keep silence, even during their grace period of half-price offer. It is generous, but not for people who's forced to pay twice for the same. Nevertheless... I still hope MEB that it is not a "Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate" and hope you could answer soon.

FREE DAUB Blender Brush Set
December 21, 2015
12 awesome blender brushes from DAUB – completely free!

 
This FREE blender set has been created especially for Affinity Photo – but you can use them in Affinity Designer too!
This blender set allows you to mimic blending techniques and media in Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo with brushes such as watercolour, dry sponge, sponge on canvas, wet sponge, oil, plus much more!
Paolo from DAUB, has created this sample illustration too to show you what you can do with them…

How to install your free DAUB Blender set in Affinity Photo
• Drag the DAUB Blenders.afbrushes to Affinity Photo
OR
• Use the Import Brushes… function found in the Brushes Panel

You will see this dialog box when your brushes are successfully installed:

 
We hope you enjoy them and would love to see what you create in the usual places!
 
 
daub-blender-set.zip

Help section says it can read .cube LUTs. I can choose a .look or a .3dl but the .cube are grayed out.   Any solution to this?  Thanks

HI  everyone.
Here are a few images from my digital design  goddess theme .
These images were hand painted in Affinity Photo.
Let me know  what you think.
Gregory CJ
 

Here is my latest digital painting , hand painted in AP.
Comments welcomed.
 

.
 

I know, I didn't say you were not right.  My apologies once again.

FWIW I can confirm (OSX High Sierra, Affinity Photo 1.6.7):
 
Cmd-c with a nested mask selected copies just the mask
 
"Right click", a two-finger (secondary) click on trackpad, on a nested mask, and selecting "Copy" from the pop-up menu copies just the mask
 
Control-click on a nested mask and selecting "Copy" from the pop-up menu copies both the mask and its parent layer.
 
EDIT: Control-click, again on a trackpad, meaning hold down the ctrl key and single-click on the pad.

Hi everyone,
I put up a blog post about using blend ranges in the way people often use luminosity masks. You can check it out here: http://theeagerlearner.com/blog/
 
Hope it's of some use to you & cheers,
Simon

Some apps, typically ones that allow only a single window or document, quit automatically on closing. A few apps (for example Graphic Converter) have a preference setting that allows users to choose between automatically quitting when the last document window is closed or remaining open, typically with UI windows/panels still visible. The latter would be the normal expected behavior for the Affinity apps (the toolbars, Studio, etc. remain visible) but they don't do that -- there is a difference between clicking the red close button in the main document window & typing CMD+W or choosing Close from the file menu.
 
There are (or at least were in some previous versions) some other oddities in how the window 'traffic light' icons behave -- for some of the filter or adjustment windows clicking the yellow 'hide' button sends (or at least once sent) the window into oblivion because the Windows menu doesn't include those windows as it should, so the only way to get them back is/was to quit the app & launch it again.

I keep suggesting how the likes of Photogene works. This lets you browse all the images in the Photos app without the need of individual imports. You can nip in and out of images and make all the various edits you wish which are stored in Photogene unless you export back to Photos. This means you keep Photos as the 'DAM' app but leverage AP for all editing and exporting as required.
This is like a half way house between what we have today and a dedicated DAM application but works on iOS.

Thanks for the improvements to shadow/highlight recovery.  I tried it on a shot of Half Dome in Yosemite.  Not a great shot, but the most underexposed shot in a bracketed set.  In full disclosure after being successful with shadows/highlights, I gave it a touch of tone mapping.

Affinity Photo: I think at least a few users above are hinting at the idea of having a function to "auto fill" with either the primary or secondary colour. It is a pity to repeatedly have to: navigate a pane, and make choices, when shortcuts do the job twice as quickly. Thanks
IE One shortcut for fill primary colour
Second shortcut for fill secondary colour
3rd shortcut for open fill window
 

Oh, sorry, I came to the forum to delete my question and totally forgot I should've posted the answer.
 
Paul explained that the 'share' button will produce image sizes as defined in the export module.  So if you choose say to save a jpeg with 2048px on the long side and high quality, that's what you get and that's what will be shared.

I second this request. Select Sampled Color just isn't good enough. I need to be able to select a band of colors on the hue spectrum, not just a single color. Photoshop has this capability, and the HSL slider in Photoshop even allows the HSL shift to be applied to just a subset of the hue spectrum. It's a huge time saver!