h_d

Looks like Iridient is using the same settings as the camera for its input profile, which I would guess (we're all guessing) means it's applying the same settings as it would if the image was shot .jpg. This is what happens when I switch to "Camera RGB" profile in the Colour Tab in Iridient: My Affinity Photo and RPP are similar to yours. I don't have DxO

Hi, You don't actually lose anything, because the original RAW file does not get changed. You make your initial changes in the Develop personal, then you Develop, then you make any further changes you want to in the Photo Persona, then you export to whatever format you want. Your original RAW file is unchanged. If you try to Save at this point, you will be forced to Save As in Affinity's native .afphoto format. Affinity Photos does not modify the original RAW file - it creates the digital equivalent of a print. Some applications (certainly Mac Photos, Finder and Preview, probably Aperture) apply automatic adjustments (Core Image RAW) to raw images when they display them (for example by applying a tone curve and pre-adjusting exposure). This may make the original RAW image look "better" or "brighter" when you open it with one of these apps. Similarly, if you shot RAW+jpeg, or just jpeg, with a digital camera, the camera software makes automatic adjustments to the jpeg. With Affinity Photo, it's possible to view the original RAW file without any of these automatic adjustments. And a true RAW image can look pretty grungy. (If you want to see a really grungy raw file with no adjustments pre-applied, try an app like Raw Photo Processor - Mac only, very steep learning curve.) But with Affinity Photo, you can (if you want) start at ground level, with a true untouched 'digital negative', and develop it creatively. And if you don't like the result, you can make another 'print' from the RAW 'negative'. There's a really useful (non-Affinity) website which has links to all the Affinity tutorials on Vimeo, grouped by subject. If you haven't already done so, it's well worth taking a look at those that cover RAW development. Hope this helps, and apologies if you already know all this. But to my mind, you don't lose anything - you gain control.

One of James Ritson's excellent tutorial videos explains the difference between clipping and masking. The drag method used to achieve masking (when you get the vertical blue line before you drop the layer) is slightly fiddly, but works well once you get a feel for it.

Hi ajw874 How about this: Original coloured image: Add two black and white adjustment layers, and nest them both inside the Background image layer (make sure you see the blue vertical bar as you drag): For now, close the sliders panels. Invert the upper black and white adjustment layer (Click once on it to select, then go to the Layer menu and choose Invert). You'll see a black area across the thumbnail: Select the area you want to modify using your favourite selection tools: (My selection is very rough and ready, yours will be much better). Fill this selection with white (you'll see the thumbnail change, the image won't at this stage): Deselect if you wish. Double-click on the thumbnail in the upper Black and White adjustment to display the sliders. Drag them to your heart's content: Hope this helps. (Adjustment layers are their own masks, you don't need to create additional mask layers.) H

Changing background colours and tonal ranges seems to have a huge effect on the effects of the dodge and burn brushes. For what it's worth: First image, on a single colour pixel layer, is the dodge brush, from top to bottom: Tonal range: Shadows, Protect Hue on, then Protect Hue off Tonal range: Midtones, Protect Hue on, then Protect Hue off Tonal range: Highlights: Protect Hue on, then Protect Hue off. Comes out like this There are clear differences between the protection settings. Now the same sequence with the burn brush: Again, pretty clear differences except perhaps in the highlights tonal range. Same sequence, dodge brush, different base colour: And with the burn brush: In the two images with the maroon backgrounds, the differences between the protection on/off pairs are practically non-existent - perceptually and by the numbers. But the differences in the next two are quite dramatic (dodge down the left, burn down the right), in the highlights and shadows if not in the midtones: So it depends on all sorts of things: the underlying colours that are being dodged or burned, the tonal range that the tool is working on, probably more. It's all in the algorithms... But maybe try different tonal ranges as well as protect on/off.

Thanks R C-R for explaining better than I did.

Like this... moving rectangle-desktop.m4v

How about: Movable blur.afphoto The original sharp image is at the bottom of the layer stack. A duplicate blurred version is at the top. The blurred image is masked by a rounded rectangle and then locked. Select the rounded rectangle with the Move tool, and drag it around.

Just discovered - View menu -> Reset rotation This straightens the image and brings back the marching ants

... I think the solution is NOT to accidentally rotate the image with the track pad.

I can confirm the same thing happens to me in Photo too. It appears that the 'marching ants' round the selection are hidden: if you use the selection brush on a rotated image, you don't see the selection border, but when you hit delete... (I've always wanted to be able to hide the selection border in Photo - like you can in another photo editing program - but this isn't what I had in mind...)

You could use an HSL Shift adjustment layer to desaturate the reds, then mask out the garment. This is with a soft toy knitted by my very clever daughter, but the principle is the same. These are the red settings in my HSL shift: Saturation down to -100%, luminosity up to 100% I masked it by selecting the background with the selection brush, tidied the selection with the Refine... button in the Context menu bar, then selected the adjustment layer and filled the selection area (the wooden table) with black. Hope it helps!

Thanks R C-R! I've managed to achieve what I want (effectively an editable vector mask) by drawing curves on separate layers (four in the example below), combining them into one Curves layer using the Geometry - Subtract operation, then converting them to a mask (via the Pen tool context toolbar). I can then use the Node tool to modify the shape of the mask. Here's a very rough and ready example: Adjust the points with the Node tool... So to answer my original question - no, it's not possible to draw multiple curves on a single layer. But Geometry gets me round it, and if I need to add more curves to my mask I can release it and go through the process again. grass_face.afphoto

Thanks firstdefence! Appreciate your help but that doesn't really achieve what I want - which is the situation in my third image, where I have two separate closed curves on the same layer. I'm just trying to find out if it's possible to carry on drawing on the same layer with the pen tool after closing the first curve. Cheers, H

Hi, I'm on Photo 1.6.6, Mac OS 10.13.3. Just wondering - is there a trick to using the pen tool to draw multiple curves on the same layer? I draw the first curve, and I get image one (stroked to make it a bit clearer). What I'd like to to do is continue drawing on the same layer, to create a second curve. But as soon as I start to draw, Photo creates a second curve layer (image 2). I know that I can now select both layers, pull down the Layers menu and Choose Geometry... Add... (giving me image 3). This gives me what I want to achieve, but I wondered if it was possible to continue to draw additional curves without having to combine the layers afterwards. Thanks H

Hi MEB and thanks for your response, I'm sorry - I have since cleared user data and this appears to have fixed the issue. I didn't save the exported file so there's nothing useful I can upload. If it happens again I'll repost. Best, h_d

Hi, This happens when I apply the Detect Edges filter to any image which has been developed from raw but not exported. Shot on a Panasonic GX-7, original file format .RW2. AP 1.6.6, OSX 10.13. I open an image, develop it (it doesn't seem to matter if I make adjustments or not), then run Detect Edges. Weirdness results. Cheers and happy Crimbo. H

Hi, There's a difference in Affinity Photo between saving and exporting. Suppose you launch Affinity Photo and use it to Open a picture using the file browser dialog, (which also displays the Apple media browser of images within Apple Photos - and iPhoto if you're still using it). When you edit the image (say a file called Pic1.jpg) using Affinity Photo, and then Save or Save As... it will save an Affinity-only version of the file called Pic1.afphoto, which retains all the extra information about non-destructive editing changes, adjustments, layers, saved selections, clipping masks etc etc etc. This file can only be opened and viewed using Affinity Photo, and the adjustments will still be accessible. But if you want to use the edited image for another purpose (email, graphics program, web, iPhoto, Apple Photos...) then you have to Export it from Affinity Photo in a more generic format such as .jpg, .tiff, .png. Exported files can be viewed, opened and edited on Macs and PCs using standard software and imported into Apple Photos and iPhoto. When you export the image, your original Pic1.jpg stays where it was when you opened it and remains unchanged. This is why opening and editing a picture using Affinity Photo via the Apple media browser doesn't update the original in Apple Photos. You can't do a "round trip", as it's sometimes called. It doesn't matter where you keep your iPhoto or Apple Photos library, or how big your external hard disk is - the same principles apply: If you want get an edited version of the picture into Apple Photos, or iPhoto, then you Open, edit and Export using Affinity Photo. This gives you a flattened copy (.jpg, .tiff, png...), in the folder of your choice, that you can then Import into Apple Photos or iPhoto, or send in an email, or upload to a web server. Photoshop can save and edit in different formats. But even in Photoshop, if you try to save a document with layers, clipping masks, vector objects etc as a .jpg or .eps, you will still be forced to save it as a flattened copy, which is the same principle as Affinity Photo's Export. Cheers, H_D