aaturner

Thanks for your response, Lee D. I'm attaching the errant file that (at least on my PC) does not open on APUB 1.8 - it was originally created on 1.7. Any guidance as to what might be wrong will be very welcome. Thanks Cameracraft.afpub

I'm trying to open a document prepared in Affinity Publisher 1.7 with Publisher 1.8. The app seems to start correctly but after a few seconds it just shuts down. Publisher 1.8 does start correctly if starting a document from scratch. Could someone please advise me what I might be doing wrong, or must I resign myself to a) reinstalling 1.7 or b) losing the document? Many thanks Andrew Turner

Yes, that works. Thank you, Aammppaa for your clarification. Truth be told I had not even thought of clicking on the thumbnail; I was busily clicking on the main image much as I would when using a selection tool! Not particularly intuitive; however, that's another splinter avoided as I slide down the banisters of life. Thanks again.

Good evening all; I am on a Windows 10 platform with the latest upgrades installed. I have installed the latest release version of Affinity Photo 1.7.0.367 (full release, not a Beta version). I am trying to create luminosity masks using CTRL+SHIFT+LEFT CLICK and/or CTRL+ALT+LEFT CLICK to select luminosity values in an image. No selection is made using the mentioned keystrokes. I have tried on a photo in both 8 bit and 16 bit format as well as on a blank rectangle with a random colour applied; none work.They used to work in earlier versions of AP. Others report that the keystrokes work for them, but if I recall correctly they are on a Mac system. Is this seemingly anomalous behaviour a bug or am I doing something wrong? Many thanks. Andrew Turner.

Thank You SrPx; excellent suggestion which I have acted upon. While "Merging Visible" takes a while, it only happens once, so I do it when on a coffee break! Incidentally, pressing shift/ctrl/alt - E simultaneously achieves the same result. The important thing is to remember to disable the filters below the new pixel layer. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction; purchase of quantum computer is now on hold. PD: at 76 I'm still learning!

Hi Callum, PhotographyRick is not the only one experiencing stuttering performance when working with live filter layers. My experience is very similar to the extent that I have to merge layers every so often to avoid AP freezing or taking minutes to render an image, making the whole editing process verge on the useless. If I were a pro using the app for commercial purposes I would have given up using it some time ago. I understand that the problem is caused by each live filter re-rendering the image every time a change is made, so that if you have various live filters stacked, the process extends geometrically. I wonder whether there will ever be a solution to this technical conundrum for the average user without access to a quantum computer? My system is Win 10 with I7 3.6 GHz, 16 Gb ram and 8Gb on graphics card. Thanks. Andrew Turner

Good afternoon gentlemen in Day 1, Year 1 of the new Trump Era! Kodiak, that is indeed a neat trick if yoyr camera has such a setting. The D800 is clearly lagging behind the D810 in flash features. I'm waiting for the next model so as to leapfrog the D810, although I prefer to spend my kids' inheritance on good glass if camera tech specs are not too dissimilar. Keith, I have just completed my absolutely unscientific test using ADL and comparing it with ADL disabled. I have found that with ADL set to high on my D800, and photographing a high contrast scene using matrix metering, aperture priority at f5.6 and ISO 100, the camera changes from 1/40s with no ADL to 1/60s with ADL. The camera was on a tripod and fired with a remote. I use back button focusing so the focus will not have changed between shots. So my camera does indeed adjust the exposure when using ADL in RAW; not by as much of a stop, but noticeable nevertheless. This does not account for the 1-2 stop difference recorded in AP Develop Persona, and it would be nice if the coders/developers at Serif could create camera profiles to take this into account. Keith, I promise that I won't mention your processing skills!

Thank you JAX and KEITH for your advice. I had seen the Shadows and Highlights tutorial, but its application had slipped my mind. Will implement the lessons. My camera did have active-D lighting enabled and, as I mentioned, it has not caused me any concerns when using LR and other software. I would have expected it not to have any effect on raw output, only on JPEGS or other lossy formats, although some comments on the net tend to confirm your assertion that it underexposes even raw to preserve highlights. While grumpy and impatient, I am not stubborn so I have disabled active-D in my cameras and will run some comparison tests to determine the differences to see what works best for me. Thanks again for your helpful comments.

Gentlemen, good morning. I really appreciate your efforts in developing my images in AP; I find your results compelling. I do, however, still have a niggle, a nagging doubt. When opening the images in AP Develop Persona, I find the histogram crowded against the left hand side (dark), which does not occur in other software. I know that, given the dynamic range in the .nef files, I can adjust this significantly in the Develop Persona using sliders, curves etc., but the fact remains that when first opened the image is dark (at least for me) and this makes correcting images clumsily underexposed in camera harder to correct using only Develop. The exposure slider maxes out at +2, whereas in Lightroom it goes up to +5 (I'm assuming that the scales are equivalent). Also, as a grumpy, impatient old man, I supposed I have been seduced by being able to achieve a minimum acceptable base level of development in LR automatically, without even having to make one click. The software recognises my cameras and applies my predetermined default adjustments. Truthfully, though, I have not worked with AP long enough to find out whether it also has such a facility, so I shall plod on up the learning curve to give AP the benefit of the doubt. That said, I would still make a plea for a wider range in the exposure slider and a broader gamut for the shadows slider, both in the Develop Persona. Once again, BPMH and Kodiak, thank you for your comments and advice. Best. Andrew

Kodiak, thanks for your comments. I'm aware of my wonky horizons; I usually end up with these when grabbing a shot. With more time I use Nikon's built-in horizon either in the viewfinder or with live view. The keystoning is due to the use of a very wide angle lens aimed at the subject at a tilt. As you quite rightly say, both easily corrected in post. To get my exposures right in LR I have a preset for each of my cameras constructed using Color Checker Passport for colour and development settings I have selected to satisfy my artistic/technical preferences (exposure, highlights, shadows etc.)., which I use as a starting point in the development process. The difference/problem with Affinity Photo is that I find the images render more darkly than in other software, and to achieve my preference means that I have to max out the exposure slider, and the shadows slider just produces sludge, as opposed to LR that opens up the shadows far more evenly. I have not yet created preferences in AP as I am still playing around and learning its ins and outs. You are very welcome to fiddle with my images with a bespoke raw converter. I used Bibble 5 once upon a time until it was swallowed by Corel.

Thank you all for your prompt responses. Hi Kodiak, following link is to my Dropbox; SOOC files are too big to upload here. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/l05zkdt08ezy0rf/AAB6agQV06S-XUlIzVY8hSwsa?dl=0 awhite, regarding active D lighting, Lightroom, Photoshop, Lightzone and other software handles my NEF files perfectly well, producing correctly exposed images (at least those that I have exposed correctly in the camera in the first place!).

I'm using AP Windows release version 1.5.1 54. I'm not sure whether this is a bug or not, and I have mentioned it previously when using AP beta, but all my raw .nef files are underexposed by around 1.5 to 2 stops when using the default profile. It makes no difference whether I use RGB 16 bit or 32 bit, or whether I choose no action instead of the default profile. As the exposure slider in the Develop persona has a max correction factor of +2, it leaves no room for further adjustment if the programme records the files as underexposed. This problem applies to raw images taken with Nikon D2X, D700 and D800. Am I missing something, and is there a way to ensure correct exposure in the software? Many thanks.

Thank you pauls for your reply and suggested workflow. I have tried it and found that it solves part of the problem, but not entirely. Please forgive me for being blunt, but from a purely personal perspective, I find that adding the extra step (tone mapping) slows down my workflow, does not improve the outcome a huge amount (at least not to my eyes), and begs the question "what is the use of a correction slider that is as much use as a chocolate teapot?" By the way, the shadows slider has the same poor/limited response curve in the tone mapping persona as in all others. I suppose that my problem is that I am set in my ways, and if I am to change from my existing software, I would like to do so to one that performs at least as well as my existing one. AP does much of that and does it very well, but fails on a few crucial points. I purchased AP and AD on the basis of "benefit of the doubt" and because I firmly believe that a new kid on the block is definitely needed and deserves support. I'm sure that you will not let your legion of supporters down by correcting what appear, on the surface and to a non-coder, to be minor glitches.

Wow, very impressed, lightning quick response! Yup, I'm attaching an image taken some years ago that has some very deep shadows and good highlights. In Lightroom Develop module I can max out (brighten) the shadows and still preserve/reveal significant detail therein. If I do the same in AP Develop Persona all I get is a muddy, featureless blob. A technique I use for landscapes is to reduce/minimise the highlights, open up the shadows to the max and then adjust the white and black points to obtain an end to end histogram. Using that as a baseline I then adjust the image further to achieve whatever look I wish. I can do this in Lightroom, but not in AP. The shadows slider in particular totally defeats this approach, although I can approximate my chosen outcome with much fiddling and tweaking; slow and cumbersome. https://www.dropbox.com/s/5c5gaf6epwi9cav/AAT_2006-01-17_NIKON%20D2X_1507.NEF?dl=0 Have attached a Dropbox link because your post system does not allow me to upload a .NEF file.

Things I have noticed (so far) that are not quite right. In DEVELOP Persona: a) NEF files (maybe others) underexposed by 1.5 - 2 stops. b) Shadows slider affects tones in a very narrow range cf. (Lightroom), so not particularly useful. c) Using spacebar to pan does not change tool cursor to (say) hand, so is confusing. Does change in PHOTO Persona. d) Can't use specific camera calibration profiles. Would be nice if the use of ColorChecker Passport (or equivalent) could be integrated into the software as in Lightroom. Makes a significant difference to colour rendition. In PHOTO Persona: d) Selection keyboard shortcuts do not operate as indicated in the bottom left on-screen prompts; i.e. DRAG + RightMouse does not add to a selection when in the Subtract mode. Alt + Drag does subtract when in the Add mode. e) Shadows slider in the Shadows and Highlights adjustments layer operates over a wider tonal range than in the DEVELOP Persona (see above). f) Quirky mouse button presses required to (for example) increase/decrease brush size and hardness/softness. Not a deal breaker, but also not consistent with other software. Some of these issues are being addressed in other threads. Collectively and until they are all resolved, they detract from the usability and enjoyment of the software. However, on the plus side, the package is generally easy to use and I will do so more consistently when glitches are ironed out! Happy Xmas and New Year