drippy cat

Hi everyone Just a quick note to say that I've finally managed to edit the auto generated captions and now they actually make sense. So now the course has subtitles that work.

Hi Anne. I do think nowadays that many people nowadays prefer video as a tutorial format because it's very visual and most closely emulates the feeling of sitting next to someone who is using the software. But that's not to ignore books as a valid format. I think things like Photoshop have more books out because it's a much older & more established product. I remember when the only tuition you could get for Photoshop was in book format. Then broadband came along and... The .pdf I wrote was as originally intended a prelude to writing an expanded version and made as a commercial offering. But Serif bought out their book & so I though it best to hold off working on that idea for now since I thought it would make sense that people prefer an offering from the developers rather than and independent like me. But it's not something I've shelved permanently.

Hi AnnH. Just in case you don't have it, I do have a downloadable .pdf on my website here https://theeagerlearner.com/ which is around 95 pages covering the basics of Affinity Photo.

Hi LenC. Maybe if we keep any discussion on the public forum others may benefit from it or give valuable input. It was by discussing on this forum that the 'Affinity Photo: Developing Landscapes' course came about. So what's on your mind?

Thanks for clearing up the coupon thing Ann. Oh! & thanks for the kind words.

Hi everyone, Just to let you know I released my latest course. It's called Affinity Photo: Beginner to Pro via Reference and Workflow and is designed to answer one question: 'I've learned some of the tools with Affinity Photo, but how do I actually enhance an image, start to finish?' I take you through the development of a series of photos using a variety of workflows. We start with a simple workflow that's just right for beginners then move on to more advanced workflows as the course progresses. But there's a problem. Learning the when and why of an effective workflow is all well and good. But it's hard to learn the tools when you're learning about the workflow and it's near impossible to learn about the workflow when you're learning about the tools. So I've done both. This course is divided into two sections. You get hours of tutorials which cover various workflows and approaches to developing photos. But you also get a huge reference section which covers the various tools that Affinity Photo has to offer. If there's a tool I'm using in the workflow videos, there's a video explaining just that tool in the reference videos. Two ways to learn Affinity Photo. Reference and workflow. The course comes with a special introductory price. If you enter the coupon AP_BEGINNER_PRO right under the video on the landing page where it says 'Have a coupon?' you can get the course for $11.99, which is even cheaper than the sale price Udemy is offering it for. By the end of the course you will have seen and followed along with various effective workflows, start to finish. You will gain the confidence to tackle your own images, be able to select which workflow suits the photo best, and one day soon you may well be looking at one of your own photos which you've enhanced, and thinking 'That looks fantastic! I did that...' I think it's only fair to say why this course is different to some of my other courses. For starters it's the longest Affinity Photo course I offer, but there's more to it than that. Affinity Photo: Solid Foundations is the original comprehensive introduction course that I created. It was designed to be the general purpose course that I'm sure people are familiar with - explain how to use the tools, give people exercises to consolidate their knowledge, talk a little around technical matters like how an image gets into your camera and so on. Then there were courses like the RAW course and the Little Box of Tricks course which focussed on particular areas of image editing such as creating special effects. But it was after a conversation I had with someone on the Affinity Photo forums who really wanted tutorials that concentrated on how to enhance a photo from start to finish. His field of interest was landscape photography so I released Affinity Photo: Developing Landscapes. It was different to the other courses in that it concentrated on the workflow. I was unsure about how it would be received because it was different to anything I'd done before. I was pleased that it got good ratings and comments at Udemy, so then I decided to do a longer and more general course which had workflow at it's center and so we now have Affinity Photo: Beginner to Pro via Reference and Workflow. I realised from the Developing Landscape course that it needed a reference video section in a one tool/one video format as well as the workflow videos. If I didn't then I'd spend far too much time going into detail about what a tool does while I was also trying to explain a workflow. It would just get too confusing. So the new course is split into two sections. The workflow at the beginning, which is the primary intent of the course, and the reference section which is intended to supplement the workflow. Now, if you already have the Solid Foundations course, you will already have seen most of the tools covered in the reference section and I wouldn't advise you to get the new course if a tool reference was all you wanted. But what I would say is that around 6.5 hours of the new course is devoted to various different workflows and I take a series of pictures from start to finish so you can see how the various different tools in Affinity Photo fit together to improve a picture. There are other courses about Affinity Photo at Udemy for the same asking price that are shorter than just the workflow section of my new course. So I believe I'm offering good value for money. I hope that clears up any questions, but click on the link at the top of this post and go to the landing page for the course. There is an introductory video that explains what the course is about. That may help you further to decide whether to use your coupon to take advantage of the introductory price. Now, one last thing - Udemy are offering their own introductory price for the course. With the coupon you can get it for cheaper. Just enter BEGINNER_PRO_INTRO into the coupon field for the better price. Thanks for your time, Simon Foster

Ok, so I decided to put up a newer clone stamp video to replace the old one. It's here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nifk0bGLnY and is one of the reference videos for a new series coming up which includes reference videos plus workflow videos so you can tackle learning Affinity Photo from both sides. Hope it proves to be useful.

Ok, just got back from the hosting company. They've sorted it out & I'm back to being secure again. I didn't like being insecure. You should be just fine to go to the site now - http://www.theeagerlearner.com

Yep; this is a weird one. I'll have to speak to the webspace providers because I forked out for the security features. I'll get back to you...

Eh!? What on earth happened there? I'm pretty sure I didn't delete it and I had the copyright for all the materials in it so I don't know what they've done. I'll look into it, my apologies & thanks for pointing it out to me. Cheers, Simon

Hi & try this. Start out with nothing selected. Press Q to enter quick mask mode. Make a few white brush strokes and press Q again. You should have selected areas where you made the white brush strokes.

@Yolanda - It is difficult at first. The trick is to do a little bit and often. Get comfortable with one or two basic tools then move on to some more and get comfortable with them & so on. I think people have problems when they try to get through a complete course without practicing anything they learn. So by the time they've got to the later stages they've forgotten the basics. It can be done! Little steps, and good luck. Simon

@loulou and @SF Charter Boat, your are both very welcome and happy to help!

To both Suzi-K and John a big thanks! It's always nice to know that someone is getting something out of the courses.

Hi. If you go here - https://theeagerlearner.com/ I offer a free 90+ page guide to Affinity Photo which assumes no prior knowledge on your part. It covers the absolute basics and may help you. If it does, I'll be happy for you.