Asha

Max resolution on the T5i is 5184 x 3456, so it should be possible for you to fill a 6"x4" 300 dpi file (which is 1800 x 1200 pixels). I don't know what the pixel size of the Canon JPG output is, but perhaps trying RAW is a good next step. AP should be able to handle it.

Does Select>Alpha Range>Select Fully Transparent get you close enough?

PhotoNewbie--I'd be willing to guess that your original photo does not have as many pixels as the new document you are trying to create. The opposite can happen too--if you have an empty file that is smaller than what you copy and paste, the pasted file will be very large in the new document. You can up-size your original by resampling, but there is a limit as to how good the result will be. If you want to try resizing/resampling, you can go to Document>Resize Document and input your dimensions. Try some different resampling techniques, and make sure the "Resample" box has a check mark.

The shape seems fine to me, but I think you need to bring your track layer to the top. Right now it has the gray shading over it.

You can invoke the eyedropper while painting by holding down the alt key and clicking the color you want. Then release the alt key and return to painting.

If you have a new-ish Mac, it may have an SD slot which will mount the volume.

I see there are many tutorials on YouTube, so I'm sure the OP can get some good info from there, even though it is usually PS that is featured. I watched a couple of them, and they can get to be very involved with many layers and masks. The basic approach I would take is similar to what JFisher wrote, and includes Madame's technique. 1. Create a duplicate layer of the photo and turn off the background layer 2. Create 2 child adjustment layers on the duplicate photo--1st, Black and White, 2nd Curves. Adjust the Curves so it is an S-shape to bring up contrast. 3. With the photo layer selected, choose Blur>Diffuse Glow, adjust to taste 4. With the photo layer selected, choose Filter>Noise>Add Noise, adjust to taste 5. Create a blank layer above the photo layer and fill entire layer with red using paint bucket tool 6. Change layer blending mode of red layer to Soft Light 7. Add a layer mask to the red layer, and make sure the mask is selected. Again using the paint bucket tool, fill the mask with black paint. 8. Make sure the red layer mask is selected, and using the paint brush and white paint, paint the areas you want to be red. If the red is too intense, you can reduce the opacity of that layer in the layers palette. You can also switch between white and black paint to refine the mask edge. ETA: This can be automated when AP is updated with macro capability

arthurdent--if you encounter any problems, you can convert to DNG, which also will work in AP.

Wopke, I don't have Aperture--can you attach an example?

I opened the file channel method.psd. It has 4 channels--R, G, B and Spot. I see that the Spot channel is your linework detail, and RGB contains the color info. I'm not an AP expert, but in browsing around the help and looking at your file, it appears to me that channel editing is mostly controlled from the layers. You can turn off or lock any of the RGB channels in the Channels panel, and then paint in white/black/gray paint on the layer to change the color on an individual channel. I got stuck in trying to figure out how to get the linework to work in a channel. I think it would need to be transparent in the paper white areas, and then you can make a pixel selection and create a spare channel. Even then I am not sure it would work the same way. I was able to get a similar effect as your PS file by importing the linework into a layer, rasterizing it, and then turning the blending mode to Multiply. ETA, I also looked at color method.psd. This is closer to what I was able to do in AP for the channel method, except that the color layer was Normal blending mode and the linework was on the top layer in Multiply blending mode.

8 out of 12 percentage-wise is 67%

MEB, are custom brushes lost when we trash and reinstall?

Does the layer blending mode Multiply give you similar results if you do this in layers instead of channels?

Can you not select a layer that is lower in the stack before inserting? Adding a new layer inserts it directly above the selected layer, which wouldn't be the top layer unless that is the active layer.

With the pen tool, click the node and pull out the bezier handles. This will basically reset the point from whatever it was before. It may help if you view the tutorial called Pen Power here: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/tutorials/designer/

Just wanted to add to the already excellent replies--AP doesn't do focus stacking, which is one of the stacking features in PS. However, it is on the "frequently requested" list, so hopefully it will be added in a future release!

James, sorry to say it is just so unintuitive for me :( I was only able to get it to work by creating my crop in Absolute Dimensions using pixel units. I'm not sure I understand why the default "Unconstrained" does not allow me to enter manual settings--I guess I am expecting it to jump automatically to an absolute as soon as I go type something in those boxes. The save presets seem to work the same as PS. Even if my own example doesn't warrant it, I think one good reason for adding the px/in to the controls is so that a document can be resampled in the crop. If you still want the option for it to default to the document dpi, you can allow the user to leave the px/in blank.

For the selection, could you try changing the tolerance of the Magic Wand tool to get more of the selected color range, and then Refine Selection (or feather, grow, etc) from the Select menu? Or Select Tonal Range from the Select menu?

James, I hate to always be comparing to PS, but that is the tool AP would replace for me. At any rate, in PS, I can specify length and width dimensions in the supported PS units, including pixels. If I want something for a game texture, for example, it has to be in 2^x pixel dimensions such as 1024x1024. The 72 px per inch just constrains it to screen resolution which is helpful for things displayed on screen.

Also make sure your brush color is not the same as your background color...

The filter plugins I know of that have partial compatibility are Nik and Topaz. Both offer trial software. You can search the forum for other threads which give more details and instructions on how to link to the plugins.

I agree with other posts requesting actual size with pixels per inch as crop constraints. EG: 2400 px wide, 2400 px high, 72 px per inch.

It is possible to do this non-destructively. Create an empty pixel layer below your photo. Add a mask to your photo layer, then paint with a black brush on the mask to block out areas you don't want. You also can create a selection as DWright suggested, but instead of cutting, you would fill the selection with black paint on the mask. In either case, you can right click the mask and select Refine Mask to help shape it up to your needs, and iterate between white and black paint on the mask itself.

It looks to me like your overlay has a soft edge at the horizon line. If you go back to your overlay in the Develop Persona, you can iterate between brush and eraser (tools along the left side of the work space) to make your overlay sharper and closer to the horizon line. Adjust the hardness of the brush or eraser to be MORE hard, so you don't get as large of a gradation in your overlay. You can also try checking "Edge Aware" to see if that will help get you closer to the needed result more quickly. If you decide you want to make the adjustment in the Photo Persona, you would need to create an adjustment layer above your photo layer. Add a mask to the adjustment layer, then fill the mask on the adjustment layer with black paint, and paint the sky with white paint to reveal the adjustment. Again, you would have to iterate between white and black, adjusting size and hardness of each tool to get a nice edge at the horizon. With the mask selected in the layers panel, you can right click and select Refine Mask to help with this process. If you are not working with RAW photos, it would be better to do this in the Photo Persona because it is non-destructive.

Well, yes, it probably is not specifically layer overprint but obviously the whole layer will be overprinted if the object/color on that layer is specified to overprint--that is the leap of logic I took in reading the instructions. In other graphic programs, I've been able to set parts of the file as overprint, regardless of layer or color. In fact, that is what some pre-press services do so that there are no issues with registration. Others use a dedicated software that automatically adds overprint areas because this is much faster than trapping all the edges in a file.