mikep

Thanks Alfred, I was just hoping!

I know I will probably be castigated for my comments, but I am getting more and more frustrated by the lack of good quality videos  for beginners. Yes there are 100's of videos but these just show how to use one particular tool. I am a landscape photographer (low grade amateur ), and I really can't find any worth while videos. I have searched youtube, vimeo and can't find any real full length videos that take you through a complete workflow. Yes I have bought a video by 'Drippy cat" but to be honest I did not find it that good, sorry. I am a subscriber to photoshop/Lightroom, but want to get rid of my monthly subscription. I bought Affinity photo about 18 months ago and I think its great. Its just a pity that someone like Anthony Morganti, or one of the 100's of subscribers on youtube have not taken up the program. This worry me as we believe that Affinity photo is a real competitor to photoshop. I know Affinity photo has only been going for a short time compared to photoshop, but I really think its about time Affinity tried to get more of the very good trainers out there to start making videos. I am sure I will be very unpopular with this post, but I believe there are many other beginners who are struggling with Affinity photo. Sure I will get there in the end, but more comprehensive videos would really help to shorten the process.
Regards
Mikep
 

I know I will probably be castigated for my comments, but I am getting more and more frustrated by the lack of good quality videos  for beginners. Yes there are 100's of videos but these just show how to use one particular tool. I am a landscape photographer (low grade amateur ), and I really can't find any worth while videos. I have searched youtube, vimeo and can't find any real full length videos that take you through a complete workflow. Yes I have bought a video by 'Drippy cat" but to be honest I did not find it that good, sorry. I am a subscriber to photoshop/Lightroom, but want to get rid of my monthly subscription. I bought Affinity photo about 18 months ago and I think its great. Its just a pity that someone like Anthony Morganti, or one of the 100's of subscribers on youtube have not taken up the program. This worry me as we believe that Affinity photo is a real competitor to photoshop. I know Affinity photo has only been going for a short time compared to photoshop, but I really think its about time Affinity tried to get more of the very good trainers out there to start making videos. I am sure I will be very unpopular with this post, but I believe there are many other beginners who are struggling with Affinity photo. Sure I will get there in the end, but more comprehensive videos would really help to shorten the process.
Regards
Mikep
 

I really wish someone would do an in depth black and white conversion from a raw file. I think I have seen all the black and white videos and non of them give a complete workflow and show what Affinity photo has to offer in this area. I really think black and white is being neglected, please help.
Regards
Mikep

Sorry I was just joking about the NIX instead of NIK naming here. - I thought it might be clear from the above said, that it is no easy or trivial task for Affinity here, to make a primary for Photoshop developed programming API to behave the same graceful way for Affinity apps here. The Affinity apps don't share the exact same underneath function and code models of PS data exchange, so they have to do some internal mapping/adapting/bridging from the PS related functions and interfaces to their own internal implemented ones.
I'm not sure if they ever can adapt that PS API in such a correct working, graceful manner for their own software here, so that already existing third party plugins which don't have any clues about the Affinity apps will well behave in interoperation. - Thus I always suggested that Affinity may better define and offer their own PS independent plugin API, which third parties can then use to adapt their plugins for the Affinity apps.
So in short, it not only depends on Affinity itself but also here on the third parties, to adapt their plugin software in a well behaving/operating manner for the Affinity apps. Let's add here that there also isn't any official public Affinity documentation available how to make correct use of the PS API for the Affinity apps, which in turn makes things more vague and overall difficult to handle.
 

Hi Simon,
 
I bought this course, have been through it once and found it very helpful. I left a review on Udemy.
 
The workflow was very useful for me and I was particularly interested in the way you use various zones to correct or adjust an image in only the appropriate areas. The action on the NIK plugins was really good too. I've never used NIK before but downloaded them after watching that section. I can see there's enormous potential there and was particularly interested in the way you showed to control the changes in specific parts of an image.
 
So, IMO this course is another hit and well worth the price of admission. Well done (again).
 
Ed

Simon,
 
I watched the teaser videos you made and it looks like this course will be another winner. This seems like a course that would go well with your other Affinity Photo courses perhaps after the basics or concurrently with Tips and Tricks. Would I be right in assuming that the workflow you're teaching in this course would apply equally well to non-landscape subjects?
 
Ed

Hi everyone.
 
After being part of a conversation with one of the forum members where they expressed a wish to have a start to finish set of tutorials about developing landscapes I thought I'd do something about it. So here it is:
 
https://www.udemy.com/affinity-photo-developing-landscapes/
 
I've tried to make it different from the other courses I've done. Instead of presenting a range of tools and techniques, I've made the workflow a priority. You get to develop a series of (downloadable) landscape photos and follow a series of steps to get to the finished photo. There are variations with each photo, but the process is similar each time. I've done this for two reasons. The first is that, given this is a workflow based course, it seems only sensible to practice that workflow repeatedly to make sure people get comfortable with it. The other is that I've chosen different kinds of landscape photos to demonstrate the flexibility of the method.
 
I hope it's of some use to you and thanks for your time,
Simon

I hear what you say Patrick, but the book has a heading "Opening and Saving images", and there is nothing about saving. As this is a very important step I think it is a very bad omission from the book. As a complete beginner this step should be in the workbook. The book its self is excellent, but missing this important area is a mistake. Mikep

I really should have read the thread more carefully, my sincere apologies to the contributors. I have informed the documentation team, who say they had been told.

Two treats docked from pay 
 

 

Thanks Toltec, Think I have it now appreciate your help. Mikep

Hi mikep,
I'm sorry for the delay getting back to you. I'm still waiting my own copy of the Workbook so i don't know what says there (or what's missing). What do you want to know specifically? What videos are you referring to in particular that you found confusing? Can you post the links?

For your benefit MEB I will quote exactly what my book, delivered ages ago () says about saving under Opening and Saving Images   "    " 
 
A bit 'minimalist' 
 

Hi Dave,
It worked! thank you very much for your help, much appreciated.
Best Regards
Mikep

The problem, as already stated, is that it is impossible to create a tutorial suitable for both beginners, intermediate and advanced / professional users. They have to be 'stepped' starting with a set for basic use for beginners and then building up with are complex tasks for intermediate and advanced users.
 
Well, I agree that you won't know how layers work unless you watch a good tutorial or two about layers. But if you haven't, you should still be able to follow a different tutorial that incorporates layers if the tutorial details each action in that tutorial. Then it's just 'monkey see, monkey do'. 
 
Another problem is that Affinity users have varying learning abilities and differing goals.
 
Learning ability won't usually be a problem if the tutorial is clear. As for differing goals, when I watch a tutorial on sky replacement my goal is to do a sky replacement. Take a look at that one. It begins with three or four layers already open, menu's open and close mysteriously, the screen image changes with no corresponding instruction, and the cursor is mostly invisible. 
 
I have AF as my Lightroom external editor, and will continue to study the excellent library of tutorials. I haven't had 30 years of Photoshop experience (is Photoshop really that old?) so I'm going to have to work a lot harder at it than you. But that's pretty much my point. Many of us are coming to this level of editing complexity for the first time, so why not approach tutorial production with that in mind. It's not that hard. 
 
RC
 
PS. Love your sauce  ;).

Yes I have found it too quick at times, good point

I'd like to see the existing tutorials supplemented by a series called something like Basics for Beginners. When I started using AP and AD in December, I had no idea what was going on in some of the tutorials because what I wanted to do was a task that assumed I already had some basic knowledge in place. When I returned to the same tutorial a month later, a lot more made sense.

To take an example, it took me a lot of messing around to get the hang of how to select a color with the color picker and then apply it.
 
Likewise, the erase function.
 
I'd like to see a well-labelled, easy-to-search catalogue of tutorials or maybe 10-30 secs that show how to do the simplest of things.

Have you looked at the videos that Simon ('drippy cat') mentioned in the post before yours? There are also lots of YouTube videos from Isabel Aracama and Carl Surry (to name but two) offering useful tips and beginners' guides.

Does anyone else have trouble following the tutorials? Admittedly, I'm a beginner with AF, and assume they're not made for me. But I would like to see a more detailed approach instead of the cursor flying around the screen while accompanied by a myriad of clicks. A couple of cases in point -- the sky replacement tutorial and the add borders tutorial. After several attempts at both, I've given up. There's no way a beginner can accomplish those tasks based on simply following the lessons. Way too many details skipper over. If nothing else, why not have the cursor highlighted so we can see where it is on the screen. But slowing down, and detailing each step would make a big difference.
 
RC

...later after applying/altering your image with Viveza2, just (re)use in AP then.

It's a known issue, see here for either Win or Mac plugins. I'm not sure if you can fix this via using Viveza2 as an AP plugin at all, since AP and thus the AP PS-plugin-API aren't that much PS compatible. - Instead you can try to use Viveza2 standalone or via some other tool which supports the NIK collection.

As far as i know, it should be out before the end of this month.

Hi mikep,
As far as i know there's no eta yet. It was already delayed a couple times, but it shouldn't take much longer now. We will announce it here and in the social media as soon as it becomes available.

I've watched the majority of the official Affinity Photo videos and all of Simon Foster's UDEMY videos.  Some tutorials I could immediately apply.  What I found helpful for my particular workflow was to start on a project until I got stuck and then go back and look for the specific Affinity videos that covered my problem area.  Another approach that has worked for me is to locate a Photoshop of Lightroom process video on YouTube or even UDEMY that interested me and set out to duplicate the work with Affinity Photo by going back to Affinity Photo videos or Drippy Cat tutorials.  Most of the time this has been very successful.  There is a lot to learn and the process of doing so is rewarding.