Mike from South Oz

While Linux is a nice thought, I'd be happier if those really smart Affinity folks just got on with heading towards version 2. Personal and totally biased view: this iPad version is a distraction. Come on chaps (and chapesses) -- let's see the next mega-revolution! You're already knocking at the gates. I want an innovative browser, a Lightroom RAW killer and other tweaks from double-click any slider to reset, to a macro system that knocks PS actions out of the park.
Go Team Affinity!!!

Leigh, About 5 hours later. Ran CC Cleaner and thought I would try once more, Bingo!! Installed and running seamlessly and probably faster than ever!
So all seems to be good, Many thanks for all your help and thoughts on this, Mike

Leigh, About 5 hours later. Ran CC Cleaner and thought I would try once more, Bingo!! Installed and running seamlessly and probably faster than ever!
So all seems to be good, Many thanks for all your help and thoughts on this, Mike

OK, one more and I'll most likely go away...
Windows PC, Windows 10 Pro, 32GB of fast memory, SSD for O/S, cache, catalogs and incoming images.  Multiple 7200 RPM hard drives in multiple RAID0 for image storage and backup.  5820 processor running at 4.5GHZ, Nvidia GTX 970, 4GB graphics.  So far, this box makes even Lightroom adequately fast...
In a previous topic, I said Affinity appeared faster than Zerene and Helicon Focus for stacking.  I must have been using small jpegs or something, 'cause I was DRASTICALLY wrong.  Using the same set of basic, normal RAW images from a Nikon D810, I'm getting times FAR longer in Affinity.  For example, I took a small set of 6 images and ran them TWICE in each Affinity and Helicon.  Loaded into Affinity to do a Focus Merge, times were approximately 12 seconds before the first image appeared, 42 seconds before the "Aligning Images" popup disappeared, 4:20 (that's 4 MINUTES and 20 seconds) before the "Focus Merge" popup disappeared.
In Helicon, the same 6 images, doing a type "C" merge were approximately 3 seconds before the first image appeared and 40 seconds (no minutes, 40 seconds) before the merge was completed and ready for saving.
I ran the same set of images through Zerene Stacker, though since it can't handle RAW images I had to create .tif files, and even Zerene, WELL KNOWN for being incredibly slow compared to just about any other stacking software, was drastically faster...  Total merge time in Zerene was about 45 seconds, so even with the addition of time to export six .tif files from Lightroom (just over a minute) the total time is still less than 2 minutes...
Retouching is PAINFUL...  Selecting an image from Sources, and pressing the eyeball results in a delay of between 8 and 11 seconds before the image changes to the source.  Selecting a different source is about the same speed.  Unclicking the eyeball to go back to the merged image appears reasonably fast, but checking source images is so slow I keep clicking the sources and eyeball 'cause it takes taking so long with no indication of any activity I figure I didn't press the right spot.
Since I'm hopeful (there's no way this can be this slow on this box) this isn't normal, I presume I need to do something in the preferences...  Currently, in preferences/performance I've left RAM usage at the default - which is 32768 - I presume the intent is to let Affinity have as much memory as the box has.  I have the Disk Usage Warning set to 25000 (25GB) though I don't see a way to specify the disk I'd like it to use for the 25GB (cache?  temp?).  If it's doing a lot of beating on disks, can I specify the disk - I'll point it at the Cache partition that's on the SSD.  Undo limit is left at the default of 1024.
View quality is left at the default of Bilinear, and the other values are left at the defaults "Dither gradients", the renderer knows it's using the GTX 970, and Retina rendering is left on "Automatic"...
Is there some setting or set of settings I've missed?  Something that will preserve quality but speed this thing up MASSIVELY?
BTW:  I see similar long delays even when doing "normal" editing that doesn't involve Focus Merging.  Some tools and operations more fairly quickly, others have long lag times, long enough that I think nothing is happening and attempt to do whatever it was again.  The system beeps, so I presume SOMETHING is happening.  Not infrequently, I get a blue overlay at the top of the screen, on top of the menu, that says "Affinity is not responding", which generally goes away after some amount of time.  I saw it frequently during my attempts to use inpainting (unsuccessfully).  I figure this CAN'T be normal, so what do I need to tweak?

At the outset I need to say that the freezing occurs sometimes as I expand my knowledge! I have now been using adjustment layers successfully as per the tutorials. On occasions the window freezes. My work around is the dependable CTL ALT DEL which usually unfreezes the display. On other occasions it closes Affinity Pro down. I wonder if I am being to quick with keying my mouse? My PC  has an Intel Corei7 and the display use Nvidia Quadro. I recently had a windows update - was that the problem?
Your advice please as I wish to master this!  Many thanks, Mike

DEPRECATED THREAD
The Photo tutorials listed below have been refreshed and moved. Please see this new thread or use the Affinity site Photo Desktop tutorials webpage
 
In support of our fantastic photo editing app, please use this comprehensive and structured set of videos for accelerated learning!
The video tutorials are available on Vimeo and YouTube via these links:
 
Vimeo - http://affin.co/PhotoVids
YouTube - http://affin.co/photoyt

We now have a specific Beginners Series of videos tailored to absolute beginners, with a more manageable pacing and focus on concepts and straightforward procedures. They all include subtitles to aid understanding.

The tutorial set includes:

Beginners Series
Opening & Saving -  YouTube / Vimeo Layers - YouTube / Vimeo Adjustments - YouTube / Vimeo Filters - YouTube / Vimeo Exporting - YouTube / Vimeo  
Introduction
Discover Affinity Photo Getting Started Technical Benefits  
Basics
Document Setup Layer Concepts Layers Overview Live Filter Layers Scaling and Transforming Cutting Out Understanding DPI Accessing Help  
Transforming
Document/Image Resizing Canvas Resizing Cropping: Practical Cropping: Aesthetic Straightening Images Cropping: Golden Spiral Cropping: Options Aligning Images  
Selections and Masking
Making Selections Refining Selections Pixel Selections from Layers Quick Masks Mask Layers Exposure Merging Clipping vs Masking Vector Masking Using Adjustment Layers on Masks - YouTube / Vimeo  
Correction
Adjustment Layers Levels Curves Shadows/Highlights Split Toning and Selective Colour LAB Colour Mode Defringing and Chromatic Aberration Live Perspective Haze Removal FFT Denoise Removing Lens Flares Changing Eye Colour Graduated ND Filter Effect Salvaging Underexposed Images Dual Perspective Correction Perspective Skew Correction - YouTube / Vimeo (New: 20th April)  
Retouching
Cloning Inpainting Frequency Separation Liquify: Retouching Vector-Based Retouching Enhancing Landscapes/Architecture Vector Architecture: Worked Example Enhancing Camera Phone Photography Making Images Pop Revealing Sky Detail Bringing Out Water Detail Quick Inpainting Crooked Horizons - YouTube / Vimeo  
RAW Development
Raw: Discover Develop Raw: Developing Images Raw: Overlays Raw: Redeveloping Images Raw: Noise Reduction Maximising Raw Latitude Custom Tone Curve Raw Development Quality 32-bit Raw Development - YouTube / Vimeo Raw Colour Quality Automatic Lens Corrections Raw: Recovering Overexposed Highlights Raw: Exposure Bias  
Getting Creative
Lighting Creative Gradients Creative Black & White Sepia Images Brushes Blend Modes Blend Ranges Liquify Persona Sky Replacement Adding Borders Text: Branding/Watermarking Diffuse Glow Displacement Circular Bokeh Swirling Bokeh Simulating Ambient Occlusion Texturing with Blend Modes Creating Atmosphere Creating Light Beams Vector Lighting Simple Gradients Technicolor Emulation - YouTube / Vimeo Creative Painting Colour toning with shapes Infrared Emulation Radial Blur Regular Tone Mapping Compositing Landscapes Adding Extended Borders Creating Photo Collages Abstract Ideas #01 Abstract Ideas #02 Enhancing Low Light Trails Light Painting Compositing Tone Mapping Portraits HSL Tonal Separation - YouTube / Vimeo Orton Effect - YouTube / Vimeo  
Design Aids
Snapshots Modifiers Designer/Photo Interworking Pixel Accurate Design Placing Documents Useful Keyboard Shortcuts Non Destructive Inpainting and Cloning Layer Creation Behaviour Layer Nesting Exporting 3D LUTs LUTs for Tonal Adjustments View Points Global Cloning Subtle Toning Multiple Colour Formats Scopes Curves Picker Non-Destructive Dodge & Burn Flexible Defringing Edge Detection for Masking Split & Mirror View Batch Processing Clone Sources Pixel Art Resize Direct PSD write-back (round tripping) Freehand Selection Tool Undo History Importing .abr Brushes Undo Brush with Snapshots Quick Toggling Panels - YouTube / Vimeo Light UI - YouTube / Vimeo Brush Stabilisation - YouTube / Vimeo  
Channels
Channels Channels for Alpha Masking Channels: Creating/Storing Selections Editing Single Channels Channels: Greyscale Blending Channel Packing  
Filters
Live Filter Layers (Also in Basics) Apply Image Apply Image: Equations Equations Filter Dust & Scratches Filter Halftone Scanlines Effect Mirror filter Diffuse Glow Filter Defeating Filter Limits  
Panoramas
Panoramas Tricky Panoramas Panorama Distortion Correction  
HDR (High Dynamic Range)
HDR: Merging & Tone Mapping HDR from one exposure - YouTube / Vimeo HDR: Tone Map Presets HDR: Panoramas HDR: Preprocessing HDR: Advanced Editing HDR: Ghosts Removal HDR: 32-bit Editing  
Focus Merging (Focus Stacking)
Focus Merging Focus Merge Retouching Focus Merging Bracketed Exposures  
Live Stacking
Maximum Stacking Big Stopper Effect Light Painting Blending Stacking: Long Exposure Simulation Stacking: Noise Reduction Stacking: Object Removal Stacking: Exposure Merging Stacking: Star Trail Effect  
Live Projections (360 editing, perspective projection)
360 Live Editing - YouTube / Vimeo 360 Advanced Editing 360 Retouching 360 Multiple Views 360 Roll Correction - YouTube / Vimeo Live Perspective Projection  
 OpenEXR/32-bit
OpenEXR Multichannel Import/Export OpenEXR Import Options Editing 32-bit 3D Renders OpenEXR: Using Alpha Channels & Association  
3D Render/Texture Work
Seamless Textures Clone Sources: Texture Creation Enhancing 3D Renders #01 Enhancing 3D Renders #02 Tone Mapping 3D Renders 3D Relighting with Normal Map Passes - YouTube / Vimeo  
Colour Management
OpenColorIO Setup OpenColorIO Adjustment Soft Proofing Printing on Mac Printing on Windows Wide Colour Profiles vs sRGB - YouTube / Vimeo  
Macros
Macros Macros: Equations Macros: Layer Behaviour Batch Processing with Macros  
Finishing Off
Sharpening Selective Sharpening Exporting Export Compression Efficiency  
Plugins
Installing Nik Plugins (macOS) Installing Nik Plugins (Windows) Installing & Using Nik Dfine  
Projects
Nature Portrait Supermoon Product Shot Retouching #01 Nighttime Architecture Workflow - YouTube / Vimeo Portrait Retouching Workflow - YouTube / Vimeo  
Bonus Content
Uplift Epic Skies (1.6 Bonus Content) - YouTube / Vimeo  
Windows Workflow videos
 
In addition to the regular tutorials, we've also got some workflow videos shot on the Windows version of Photo that cover using a variety of features to edit an image to completion. These tend to be released on a more informal basis.
Hadrian's Wall Tiled Building Portrait Retouching Monochromatic Architecture Canary Wharf Banded Demoiselle  
 
Please let us know about areas you think need covering, have problems with, don’t understand, or just tell us if we’re on the right or wrong track. Simply reply to this pinned topic.

Have fun with Affinity Photo!

Best wishes from the Affinity Documentation Team!