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Ok, thanks pkasmier I will try that! As an aside, I sort of like the fact that Affinity Photo requires more tinkering than other editing programs that provide more shortcuts. Personally, I don't make a living from my photographs and I can afford the luxury of taking my time to edit them. Plus, I enjoy the editing process itself. I find it quite creative and rewarding. Having said that, i certainly would not mind having a Structure slider in the photo persona that does what you suggested. At least you have the option of using it or not.

I found this article (link below) for Lightroom but it can be applied partially to AP, that explains how to use Clarity filter to add texture, which for practical purposes might be the same as structure. I suppose you can ge a similar effect by using the Unsharp filter with the radius all the way up and blend mode Lighten to increase sharpness and contrast between light and midtones, and/or the Unsharp filter with the radius all the way up and blend mode Darken to increase sharpness and contrast between dark and midtones. Then tone down the effect with the Radius or Opacity slider. It would be interesting to do a side by side comparison of the same picture, using various approaches (including Tone mapping a single image) to increase Structure and see what different results you get. I am probably too lazy to do it but if someone is willing to try it, please let me (and us) know what you learn! https://digital-photography-school.com/four-ways-improve-photos-clarity-slider-lightroom/

One more comment before leaving this thread. I have been experimenting using Tone Mapping with clouds (especially storm clouds). It does wonders with the texture of clouds!

That makes sense. I am always amazed at how much there is to learn! Thanks.

Thanks so much for your considerate responses. I really do appreciate the time you took to help out. I appreciate the comments regarding what to do in Raw before moving on to Photo or Tone mapping. The most important thing I am taking away from this thread so far, outside of the fact that much of it is a matter of personal taste and preferences, is that the only feature of tone mapping that cannot be easily (or not at all) replicated by other means, is increasing micro-contrast, which looks like expanding the dynamic range but it is not exactly that (especially if it is not an HDR image to start with made up of several bracketed exposures). I did notice however on the AP videos regarding HDR, that James suggested making the image pretty flat before moving on to tone mapping. That sort of matches my experience. When I have tried bringing an image to Tone mapping that I had previously sharpened and adjusted somewhat with a tone curve in the Develop persona, it made the Tone Mapping effect more pronounced and difficult to control. On the other hand, if I brought that same image from Raw to Photo persona, the adjustments I did while in Raw caused no problems at all. So, it would seem that the prep for tone mapping from Raw is slightly different from the prep for Photo from Raw. What do you think? Is it a fantasy to hope that AP could add a "micro-contrast adjustment" directly into the Raw Persona, that way you don't need to go through Tone mapping if that is the only adjustment you are interested for a particular image?

Thanks for your response. I did look at the link you provided. which was very informative. If you don't mind, I still have an additional question, related to my previous last question. What are the specific adjustments that one should do when developing a Raw image in the Develop Persona, if the next step is Tone mapping vs going directly into Photo Persona. For instance, if I am in the Develop Persona, should I make the Raw image as flat as possible and don't do any detail enhancement if I am going to tone map it afterwards, vs trying to improve detail, contrast, etc if my next step is the Photo Persona? Thanks! :-)

I have been using the Tone Map Persona to see what it does with a variety of pictures. I have also watched all the great AP videos on HDR and Raw Development more than once. For the most part, I like the results for both color and black and white, especially if I use the local contrast conservatively. I understand the benefits of using tone mapping for HDR images based on bracketed exposures. What I still don't understand is what is the difference between tone mapping a single image (starting from a Raw file) vs using various adjustment layers in both the Develop and Photo Persona. In other words, - Can I theoretically achieve the same results if I tinker with various adjustments than I would if I tone map a single image after doing some basic prep work in Develop first? - Can Tone mapping a single image be considered a kind of short-cut to get particular results faster than going the other route? - What are the trade-offs of using Tone Mapping (besides more noise) vs using the "traditional" workflow of Develop + Photo? - For which types of single images does Tone mapping work best and for which one it does not do as well? - Should I make different adjustments when I edit a single image in Raw, if my next step is tone mapping vs going directly into Photo persona? Any clarification on these questions would be most welcome. Thank you!

Thanks for the reply. Now I get it!

Thank you! That fixed it.

Hi, the tone mapping presets disappeared from the tone mapping persona. They used to pop up automatically when I selected tone mapping but now I can't find them and I don't know how to turn them back on! Maybe I did something to turn them off involuntarily but I can't figure out what it was. Please help! Thanks!

Hi, the tone mapping presets disappeared from the tone mapping persona. They used to pop up automatically when I selected tone mapping but now I can't find them and I don't know how to turn them back on! I must have done something to turn them off involuntarily but I can't figure out what it was. Please help! Thanks!

I did not know that a mask was in fact a colorless alpha channel. Thank you for that. :) The thing is I don't remember having to uncheck the "protect alpha" checkbox in the previous version of AP in order to use the paintbrush tool on an adjustment layer. Is that a new feature of 1.5 and it works the way it is supposed to then?

On my systems is says "Protect alpha" and I am using Affinity Photo 1.5.1 on a Mac with OS Sierra. The check box is right next to "Wet Edges". And "protect alpha" definitely blocks everything (opaque and alpha).

I don't think I explained the issue clearly the first time. When I create an adjustment layer or a live filter layer on top of a pixel layer, and then I try to use the paint brush tool to erase parts of the effect of that adjustment or filter layer, the paint brush has no effect at all unless I have protect alpha turned off. This is a different behavior from the previous version of AP and it seems odd to me because it means that the "protecting alpha" option is protecting everything not just the alpha channel. I should point out that I am using OS Sierra and you seem to be using El Capitan. I don't know if that matters but you should check it out. Hope this clarifies the issue and question I am having. Thank you for your help.

Hi R C-R thanks. I just figured out that if I have "protect alpha" turned on it disables the the effects of the paintbrush tool. I don't remember this being the case with the previous version of AP but it could be that I did not notice it before. Most importantly, I want to bring this to your attention in case this is not a deliberate feature but rather a bug in the software that needs to be corrected. I would appreciate it if you let me know either way. Thanks again, and congrats on some great enhancements to AP!.

Hi, since downloading AP 1.5 on my mac with OS Sierra, I have not been able to retouch live filter layers, such as gaussian blur, etc. When I create a Gaussian blur live filter layer on top of a pixel layer and I try to use the paintbrush tool to remove parts of that layer, nothing happens. I tried with other live filters (not all of them) and I get the same results. I used to be able to do that with no problems before so I know it is not a problem with my technique. Has there been a change in the properties of live filters?

What is the function of the "monochromatic" option that you find in several Affinity Photo filters? I have heard that "it is important" in several videos but I haven't heard what it does exactly. Therefore, I don't know when I should I use or not use it. I gather from the examples I have seen that it can be used with color images images and that it is not necessarily for B&W images as the name of the option may lead one to assume. Thanks!

Hi, after watching the Viewpoints tutorial, I tried to use that feature but for some reason when I create more than one viewpoint, I can only change viewpoints through the View menu. The viewpoints on the Navigator tab show up with their names but they are greyed out and I cannot change them from there. Do I have to do something special to activate them or is it a bug? Thanks!

Thanks MJSfoto1956! I had been reading about Luminosity Masks and was a bit unmotivated to try it on AF due to the apparent complexity of the process. What you suggest is so much simpler and if it works just as well as the more complex process, it is definitely a big incentive to experiment with it.

Thanks for the input. Silver Efex is pretty cool but I think Google is no longer updating it so at some point it may become obsolete.

Thanks Fixx! Your explanation is much more useful than the tree example. It does sound from what you are saying that Clarity also boosts texture. As far as Structure is concerned, I have tried experimenting with Structure in Silver Efex Pro for example and I can see what it does but I can't quite figure out technically what it is.

Hi! I was wondering what would be the equivalent of improving the "structure" of an image in AF? (Some NIK plugins for instance have a specific adjustment called "structure"). I am not really clear technically what it is that improving structure does to an image but it seems to be somewhat different from "sharpening". But maybe that is just my perception. Here is an explanation about the differences between Clarity, Structure and Sharpening that I picked up on a photography website. I don't know if this explanation is correct but if it is, then improving Structure would require a somewhat different approach and possibly a different tool than improving Sharpening. What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks Alfred and Callum! Callum, yours is a good idea until the Macros feature is added to AF.

Hi, Is there a way to create a custom "filter" in AF made up of several adjustment layers? I know you can save presets for adjustment layers individually. I am talking about saving a preset that involves several adjustment layers and possibly filters. For example, I came up with a workflow that creates an effect that i want to be able to reuse but I see no way to save it, except for saving each adjustment layer individually. Thanks!

Thank you Callum or posting that information! I am going to try it.