kaffeeundsalz

Something went wrong here … I got mine today. 😮

I do either and was recently wondering about his absence. Where is he? Did I miss something?

Enable "Snap to edges" in the context toolbar.

I agree that layer masking and alpha channel handling need to get much simpler and more consistent in Affinity Photo. In case you're interested, there's an extensive discussion about this with already over a hundred replies going on here: The upcoming 1.9 updates will have at least some improvements in this area (e.g. we can expect more filters and tools to work on mask layers), but it's still a long way to go. From my own experience, I can say that you probably will get used to it indeed.

Hi @jay27flow, yes, this is a bit tricky because nesting in Affinity Photo does not work for more than one level, meaning that you can't nest a layer inside a layer that is already nested. In your case, you would do the following: 1. Nest the mask layer. 2. Nest the curves adjustment. 3. Drag the mask layer next to the parent layer (to the vertical blue bar, just as if you'd want to nest it again) to get it above the curves adjustment. If you can, nest the curves adjustment first and then the mask. This saves step 3 because the layers are already correctly ordered. With this layer setup, the curves adjustment will affect the mask properly, even though they are now both at the same level. The cool thing about this is that you can use the same curves adjustment to modify the parent layer as well with the other channel controls. The Affinity forums are usually quite responsive, so just hit reply if more questions arise. Cheers kaffeeundsalz

1. Good. 2. Instead of "Create Grayscale Layer", use "Create Mask Layer" directly below in the channels panel. Alternatively, right-click you grayscale pixel layer and choose "Rasterize To Mask". 3. For a nested layer, click its thumbnail once to deselect its parent layer. Then, drag it anywhere, but also from the thumbnail. Or hit the delete key. 4. This will work in Affinity Photo, but you need to make sure that a) the Curves adjustment is nested directly below your mask layer and b) you choose "Alpha" from the channels dropdown in the Curves dialog before editing the curve.

Thanks @awado, that was what I was thinking, too when I read the changelog for Photoshop 2021. Most of the new features don‘t seem to be targeted to Adobe‘s core audience. For example, who, among professionals, needs a dedicated sky replacement tool given that there are established techniques for this kind of work? And while the new algorithmic face manipulation effects sure are fun to play with, I agree that they need a lot of manual finishing work. Just look at what these tools do to people with glasses for example. And wouldn‘t professionals make sure that models get their face expressions right in the first place? And yes, at least some of the new features do seem like a confession that Serif got some things quite right that Adobe did not so far, like the new interactive shapes. BTW, this is not supposed to be a Photoshop rant. I use Affinity Photo as well as Adobe Photoshop and both applications have their strengths. It’s just that I really wondered where the widespread acclaim for Photoshop‘s new 2021 features comes from since I wouldn‘t rate most of them a real productivity boost for professional work.

For scenario 2, instead of using the perspective tool, apply a Perspective live filter to the image. This will appropriately distort the nested mask layer with it.

Can you please clarify where you found Serif using http? At least the forums here are https, as well as the product websites and Affinity Spotlight.

Part 2 Step 2 involves creating the Gradient Map adjustment. Is that what you mean? If so, it works exactly the same as in Photoshop. Affinity Photo doesn't have a Dither checkbox, but you can ignore this; the effect is identical.

Hi everyone, I first noticed this in Affinity Publisher when switching between different personas. Live filters seem to have a much better performance in the Photo persona. With The Unsharp Mask filter for example, images update immediately when moving the sliders, making for a very smooth experience. In the other personas, screen update lags when I try this. Now, performance is not at all that bad; all personas are perfectly useable. But the difference is very noticeable. On further examining the issue, I could also see the same behavior when comparing the standalone versions of Photo and Designer, although my (very subjective) observation is that the difference in performance might be slightly less obvious than in the Publisher personas. The rendering settings in Preferences > Performance are configured identically on my machine for all three applications. Is this expected? Can anyone reproduce? Is there a technical difference in how Photo, Designer and Publisher render Live Filters? Cheers kaffeeundsalz

Or you could simply download the trial version of Affinity Photo and see for yourself if you can open your files with it.

Affinity Photo ist great for compositing. You might want to check out the Affinity Photo Workbook where there's a project dealing with the required techniques. During the Affinity lockdown sessions, Joseph Christina made an interesting compositing tutorial. Also, there used to be a commented speedrun on Neil Ladkin's work "The Visit". The tutorial was included in the Affinity Review issue #2 which is unfortunately not available anymore. Maybe someone has it and can give it to you. The video should also be accessible here, but at least on my end, I get a "Because of its privacy settings, this video cannot be played here" error. Don't forget that there's also Affinity Photo's Welcome Screen. It holds different samples that you can download and open to get a feel for how certain images were created. Especially take a look at Jean-Charles Debroize's work "Rabbit Trick" to see what's possible. Edit: There's another tutorial from the lockdown sessions dealing with compositing: Creating a fantasy composite in Affinity Photo with Affinity Revolution

Good luck with that. Between downloading and printing, people have so many opportunities to mess up color that it's entirely impossible to control. And they WILL mess it up, unless of course they're experienced in color management. Which they aren't. If you know that your designs will get printed, it's a good idea to stick with CMYK, but that's basically it. And again, that does in no way guarantee you any color fidelity.

You have to select the Background layer from the Layers panel first.