NJPhotog

Thanks for the responses!

Can a plug in be made non destructive in Affinity Photo? I tried ON1 2021 in Affinity and I was able to use it as a plug in but once I pressed "done" in ON1 the processing was baked into the photo in Affinity. I believe I saw a video using PS that they were able to make the plug in (I think they did use ON1) non destructive using smart objects before activating ON1. Is there any way to do this in Affinity? Thanks for any help!

I'm a little late here but I came here looking for an answer to using ON1 as a plug in and saw this. Affinity does see ON1 2021 as a plug in under plug ins. I think you need to first do whatever you want to do in Affinity, then make a new stamped layer and work on the stamped layer with ON1. I could be totally wrong on this but I used ON1 2021 as a plug in with Affinity just a little while ago but was only using 1 layer at the time. BTW if you have 2021 and buy 2022 you don't need to uninstall 2021 and can use it's plug in feature.

firstdefense, I tried the merge visible and It worked as you said it would! Thanks for the help!!

Thanks for that! I didn't even think of using a "stamped" layer which sounds like merge visible is. Makes a lot of sense. Thanks again!!

Hello, I'm still learning AP and trying to get used to all it can do ... it'll be a long time before I can say I'm somewhat comfortable. But one of the software programs I use just came out with plug in capability for AP along with a couple of other photo programs. I am trialing it for the moment and opened AP, did some adjustments in it and then opened the plug in program. I noticed that unless I merged the adjustments that the plug in sees the non edited photo. I tried attaching the adjustments under the background layer (I think this is called being a child adjustment) but it still only sees the non edited photo. I learning to use AP for layer work and having the plug in might be nice to use at times. Is this the way a plugin works in Photo? Am I missing something? Thanks!

I just updated to 1.9.1 and the problem came back! Hardware acceleration is off - just posting this here as information if anyone cares. I am going to revert back to the last update to have it work somewhat correctly. Edit: I tried to revert back to the previous version and it looks like uninstall, going into Windows and removing all traces of AP that I could find still keeps traces of AP around. After completely uninstalling to the point I needed to re-enter my product key AP still went to the file location I had the demo photos stored and wouldn't let me select more than 1 item. I attempted to use Revo uninstaller but it was picking up other programs to uninstall. I made sure hardware acceleration is off and made sure the graphics card software is not pointing to AP. Also restarted Windows and AP a few times. Edit 2: Apparently it was my stupidity why AP wouldn't work correctly ... when using "X" it was not working correctly but after using merge it did. Not sure if this is the way it's supposed to work but it is working using merge.

dmstraker, Thanks for responding and thank you for making the videos! I think your videos are very good and easy to understand assuming that a glitch isn't happening. 😉 I like to view a couple of sources to get an idea on the basics and/or techniques and the person's teaching style and I found you on YouTube!!! I stopped going to the Affinity website tutorials as they changed something in them and find they aren't as easy to follow as they were when I first bought the program. I've owned Affinity Photo since 2016 and was using it for just stacking and a few HDR photos, it was a bargain then for its capabilities and has remained a bargain. I'm coming from an all-in-one program that is easier to use but the program gets glitchy so I figured I'd learn AP. I started watching your videos and wasn't actually opening the program to follow along and then my issue reported here happened and knew I needed to follow along properly. As you can see I have only gotten into the 20's on your first beginner's course and will continue along. Thanks again for the videos!

Ron, THANKS! That bit about hardware acceleration did the trick! I was able to do multiple selections using the above technique I was trying with the selection brush and it worked great!

Ron, My apologies for not answering sooner ... was at work and what I thought was my password didn't work! First - yes hardware acceleration is on, I will turn it off. When I had this problem originally I was using the selection brush, selected my first area and then adjusted whatever with that selection just like the first video (#20). I deselected the section and selected another part of the photo and that's where my problem came. Although I got the marching ants around my selection it wouldn't change the selection which I thought was odd. I come from another software program so I just assumed I was doing something wrong and I needed instruction so I went to YouTube and found this and another but this broke everything down. Sorry to say that I find the new Affinity produced photos a little hard to follow, something seems different vs back in 2016 when I first purchased Affinity. I went through the tutorials until I came to #20 which is where I had my original problem and the problem came back ... so here I am! About the merging - If I understand the program correctly, if I "x" out of the adjustment box it is fully adjustable but if I "merge" then it becomes destructive. I think I've done that before and the "x" is able to be called back up. I was not using merge, I just selected, did an adjustment, deselected, made another selection, tried to adjust and it didn't work. I originally thought I had to use 1 layer per adjustment but if it is supposed to work the way it is being done in video #20 (without the merge) - I was not getting the same result. I am going to turn the hardware acceleration off and try it again and will report back on if it worked. Again, thanks for your help.

Affinity Photo 2021-02-22 18-57-56.mp4 This one seemed to take!

Just tried another video (number 27 in the same series) with a different photo using the select in the top menu for color range and it didn't select just the reds and then used it for mid tones, didn't get marching ants and it affected the whole photo. I tried to upload a video of the problem and unfortunately it wouldn't upload. Affinity Photo 2021-02-22 19-06-00.mp4 Affinity Photo 2021-02-22 19-06-00.mp4 Affinity Photo 2021-02-22 19-06-00.mp4 Affinity Photo 2021-02-22 19-06-00.mp4

Ron, Thanks for taking the time to my question!

Thanks Ron! In the video he uses the quick mask to show where the mask is which is what I was doing on the video I posted to show the masked areas. I was using the brightness and contrast adjustment (didn't show on the video I posted for some reason). I did use invert mask, which should change the area that is affected by the adjustment, even if I messed up on where I thought the adjustment was going initially inverting should change the location to work in the proper location which it did not. The photo he is using is not included with the photos he had available so I was using something similar. Here's the video I was following: Thanks again!

Hello, I am following an older tutorial on Affinity Photo and the person is masking and reusing the mask in various ways on the same photo and able to change parts of the photo individually. I am attempting to complete the same task and I was able to do 2 mask reuses/changes but on the 3rd it seems although the selection changes the effect doesn't go to the proper place; I tried inverting the selection thinking I was making a mistake but the area selected whether the mask is red or clear in that area doesn't change - to be clear the mask is showing red in different areas when inverting but the effect does not change area. I ran into this problem before and I was thinking I was doing something wrong which is why I am watching the tutorial. I am coming from another software program and wanted to learn Affinity for it's depth of ability in manipulating a photo. I am on a Windows 10, build 20H2. Other than the other photo which I was just playing around with this is the first time I'm using this technique. I am attaching a quick clip of what I am seeing which is after using the mask 2 other times which worked. Just a FYI - this is not my photo but part of what the instructor is using for Affinity Photo instructions. Thanks in advance for your help! Affinity_Photo_2021-02-21_16-10-57.mp4

Not a MAC user but here is a link to the "buy" page. Looks like you need to use MAC App Store (?). https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/Affinity_Photo/id824183456?mt=12&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

MBd, Thanks for all your help! I have 3 techniques now for sharpening and I think that is enough for me. I like High Pass filter sharpening, I saw adding a curve to it does a little more and I also like using an inverted Gaussian blur that I saw on another video from a different person. Unsharp masking seems not to be my favorite but I have it as a technique.as well. I haven't tried the blend if as you suggested and still need to view the links you provided ... I've been busy with my "Honey do" list!! I've been playing around with a few programs for a about 7 years now but sharper photos have always been something I didn't know how to obtain ... I have a few ways now! Thanks again!

Leigh and MBd, Thanks for the example and all that info! I appreciate the time you both took to help me out. I did try the first example (high pass with curve adjustment) and it worked where it didn't seem to work originally ... I obviously need to learn AP better! Thanks again!!

Wow! I posted this and since I didn't get any responses I totally forgot I asked the question. THANK YOU for responding!! I am downloading Leigh's example as I type this and here is the video: http://f64academy.com/6-ways-to-sharpen-without-using-plugins/ I was reluctant in sharing the video as it has to do with Photoshop and was trying to be respectful of the Affinity program/people. Thanks again!

Hello, I am trying alternate ways to sharpen my photos and it seems that being able to add a filter or an adjustment to another filter or adjustment can be done in Photoshop and I can't seem to do it in Affinity Photo. I tried to sharpen a photo with the high pass filter with linear light and then add the curves adjustment to it but the curves doesn't add to the previous adjustment it adjusts the parameters that I chose up or down. In Photoshop you can make it act as a clipping adjustment and it can further sharpen the photo. There are a few other techniques that I haven't tried but they do require the ability to add to the previous filter or adjustment. I'm calling it add as the two adjustment and/or filters work together for the final result. Is this type of feature something that can be added to Affinity? Thanks!

I went to my old PS CS5 and tried a technique there and it seems that PS allows you to link one action with another. The sharpening technique in PS starts with a high pass filter with linear light as I mentioned, then take the curves adjustment and make a clipping mask to the high pass filter; seems to work nicely in sharpening photos. I'm using this opportunity to bump my post but still asking the question of can Affinity Photo do this type of work or is this something that I need to keep CS5 around for.

Hi! I've been trying to follow a few sharpening techniques done by Blake Rudis using Photoshop, thinking it can be mimicked in Affinity Photo and I seem to have hit a road block. One of the techniques is to use a high pass layer with linear light - I can do that in Affinity without any issues but then he adds a curves layer as well and I believe he puts it on top of the high pass layer. If I select the curves layer and either leave it or have it merge down it seems not to affect sharpening but whatever parameter I adjusted; in his example he shows it first on a grey scale of the image then the image itself. He has 6 techniques and it seems that he builds upon the adjustment or filter layers - What am I missing or is Affinity not capable of these actions. I can post the videos here if need be but don't want to violate any rules. Also, I seem to lose the adjustment box in both high pass and curves and can't figure a way to recall them back (separate issue). I would assume this is going to be true for all items in layers Thanks for any info!

It seems like the Designer is the equivalent of Adobe Photoshop (I own CS 5) where it does both graphics and photos. I'm hearing a lot of good things about the Affinity software for MAC and thought I would try the Windows version out. I do have a few photo programs and am leaning toward one in particular at this point but figured I'd try one more out! Thanks again!

Thanks for that R C-R! Since I just downloaded it 2 days ago, I have the current version of Designer ... I'll wait until I see the Photo version hits beta release.

Hello, I just downloaded what I thought was going to be the beta photo application and it is the designer application. Did I get or download the wrong file? I see there is a "photo" window from the start screen but it seems that once it opens it looks like it is more geared to graphics than photos or at least from what I'm getting from the couple of videos that I watched which I know is for the Mac version of Affinity. I see under the layer drop down I can select an adjustment layer; I tried looking to see if I can pin the photo applications (adjustments) anywhere and I don't see anything. Any thoughts or insight? Thanks!