mur_phy

HI Keith -- yes I have visited that site for Windows but as mentioned, my files are .8bf files and nothing is mentioned there about using them in AP so not sure if they don't work or it was just that they are not mentioned. I don't recall from where the .8bf files came from as I have had then for years and accumulated them by going to sites and checking out what they did and then deciding whether I wanted to make use of a particular file and then accumulated under one folder (Filters) those that I liked and then put them into the DIP program and have been successful when using them. I just don't like to "try" something without having knowledge of the effect of doing so and thus thought it prudent to see if other users have had any experience with .8bf plug-in filters in the AP software and if so, how best to put the files and by what process to accomplish this task. If you have that info, please let me know as there are a number that over time I like to use. TIA

RCR -- Maybe I am not interpreting the History or Snapshot but would not undoing something from either not remove any work done at that point in time? Lets say that I am doing Erase on a layer which is pasted to my background/base layer which in the case of the image above would be either the fully opened knife or the fully closed knife as the one partially open is my base image from the camera. The other two are from camera but not the full image as when making the selection I made it of only the knife to have less removal to be done. Also that allows for less size adjustment to fit it to the base image area that I left open when I made the initial image in camera. Assume that in order to do the removal, I used eg a dozen strokes but at stroke eg 4 I went too much into the shadow area and then wanted to fix that up by what I would use ON 1's terminology "paint-in" with AP it seems one should use the Undo Brush as of course one would not want to use CTRL +Z and then have to do steps 5-12 all over again. In this case, I have not been able to get the UB to do anything at all. What I then tried was to not do the above to test things but created a new composite using completely different images of the same knife (and I could do many different knives as I have hundreds of images including over 200 knives of my own). After adding the second image to the base image via selection>copy>paste>move/resize/rotate I then used Eraser to just remove a small area no wheres near the knife itself which under normal circumstances would be totally removed so the underlying background would show. Then as a test, I tried to use UB and get back to a position where the pasted layer/image which of course is selected in the layer stack as that is what I was working on, and the result was no effect at all. Of course CTRL + Z would get me back to the beginning but that is simply because I had only done one step. If this same type of mistake would be made after more than one stroke was done that would not work except by removing all the work done after the error. Not the idea. I hope I am clear enough with this explanation. I know that if I continue to add more images via copy/paste. I have one knife where I have done 9 images on one canvas. If I did this in AP, I would be able to select any one of the images and then go to the layer with the image to be adjusted and then if I wanted to restore something, I would hope to use UB but as of now, I simply can't get UB to do anything at all. Once I figure out with the folks on the forum's assistance, I will be one step closer to solving some of the issues I am having in using AP. TIA

A number of years ago I downloaded many .8bf plugin filters that were available from the internet and were meant for PS or other programs that supported this file extension. At that time and even today I have available to use, MS DIP 2006 which was discontinued long ago. I not that you say some plugin work fine but others may crash the program. Being a chicken, I don't want to crash the program and I don't see in the list for Windows any mention of .8bf files so thought it best to ask if 1. do they work with AP 2. If they do, what is the procedure for adding them to the plugin menu? Do they have to be added individually or can a folder be added or can the folder of the plugins simply be pointed to and then they are available to access. With DIP all the options were available. Any info would be appreciated. TIA

Alfred -- ok, let me give my step by step in finding the undo brush shortcut list. 1. CTRL + , 2. Click on Keyboard Shortcuts icon 3. From the new Window that opens Two options are available -- Photo & List each with a drop down arrow for the contents of which under Photo there are a few and many more including Tools under List 4. Select Tools 5. Scroll to Undo Brush 6. in the area to put the shortcut key type K (my choice) 7. Close the window 8. check to see if the shortcut actually works -- yes it does -- but as RCR says, the dang icons are hard to notice but it does show up as being selected 9. Open a couple of images and go thru the process of placing one image on top of another 10. Use Eraser to remove some background. 11. Attempt to add back the area just removed from the top layer which is now showing the lower layer (background base layer with an image on it from the camera. FAILURE unfortunately. I understand about the idea of snapshots I think but while that might allow me to go back to a certain stage before the problem was noticed, I would think that it does not get back to a specific stroke which took out too much of the foreground image and thus allowing the base image to show when that is not desired. It just seems strange that AP does not have a means to correct the situation at anytime on the layer where the work was done. I know that I can move layers later if I prefer them to be in a different position and even above or below by dragging the image in the stack so not sure why there is no method of making a reversal of what a tool has done at anytime. I really appreciate the suggestions from everyone and hope that maybe either I have not been clear or that someone from AP will contribute to this discussion. Also if anyone has any ideas about changing cropping as I have written about to get the result I desire, that would be great too. TIA

HI RCR -- actually, the shortcut area for tools is under File on my version and I have set a key ( K ) as some I might have selected are already in use or there would be a warning signal so I tried different options. Unfortunately, even after adding another image to the new test composite and simply removing a small section of background and then using K which brings up the Undo Brush, the brush still did nothing as far as bringing back any of the removed area. Now, what I have noticed is that when working from the background toward the object to be kept, as long as the color is not similar then the erase brush does not seem to take anything away although it will remove some of the shadow simply due to it being of similar tone. However, it is not possible to get back that area unless I notice it immediately and use CTRL + Z and that is not what is really needed. I have found that I can cover up a bit of that mistake by using the blur brush and sometimes, even by using the dodge tool the shadow can be fixed not too badly but this is not ideal but is workable. However, I do wish that there was a method of simply fixing any area at any time with a tool such as the undo brush. The concept makes sense but for me there is an issue with the execution. This is the same type of situation I am having with the re-crop of a finished project when I may wish to have a variety of crops available to me and while I use unconstrained to begin the project, often I will want 9 x 6, 6 x 4 and 8 x 10 with 6 x 4 most often and while DIP will do this without an issue, I have not been able to get AP to do this. So, I do have a lot of questions and am slowly getting some answers, the total picture is not coming into focus. It would also be nice if there was more info in HELP that explains when, where and why various tools are used and then having a link to a video about each tool and area on the UI. Lots can be learned from other videos but just a basic video and lets not worry about length -- long is just fine or o/w a series of shorter ones about each tool and when and why to use it. Maybe the moderators are reading and might pass this idea along to whomever is doing HELP and Video Tutorials. I suspect that there may be many areas of AP that I may never use but I certainly want to learn enough to be able to conveniently and easily use the program for my own uses which might be different from others usage so maybe I have questions that others don't have. Thanks again for your info. Maybe you and others will have additional input or try what I have been doing and see if it works for you and present your work flow and the images used to create your composite and the final result using the tools as mentioned and I will try to replicate that. TIA

Ok, I will save all this info related to the undo from history, but in the case to which I refer, I am dealing with a current operation on an open document that has never been saved. Because the document I attached had been saved, I thought that maybe there might be a difference with it from a non saved document but did not expect there to be but that may be my misunderstanding of how AP works. So, rather than beat that horse, I simply opened to out of camera images and then did my copy and paste and began the Erase process but deliberately erased an area that I did not wish to be removed and then tried the Undo paint Brush and that did not work. So, again I figured I would try the Paint Brush as mentioned so B -- unfortunately all I got there was a black area over the area that had mistakenly been removed and of course it would paint black anywhere on the image so that is not what is desired. I checked History and going to either Undo Brush or Eraser cameras produced nothing either which if undo brush did not work in the first place, it would not be expected to work later on. I have learned now about the undo history in this regard and will add that to my notes but unfortunately, I still am unable to actually fix the mistake made initially while the document is an open document that has not even been saved. Also, I wonder why Undo Brush does not have a shortcut key? I thought maybe I could add one but in Preferences>Undo Brush, the only options are to change the brush size which can already be done with the [ ] keys. All the assistance is greatly appreciated and any further ideas would be great or maybe and explanation of where I may not be doing something correctly. The concept seems like it should work but just is not doing so. TIA

Thanks for the response. I tried the undo brush but will try again. To test I deliberately did something to the object with the Eraser and then tried the undo brush and was not successful. I have done this more than once so maybe I am missing something. It would be nice if the erase was able to have the option to paint out or paint in and use a simple X shortcut to change the option. I have tried X plus using either of CTRL or ALT with X and that does not work. Yes I understand that if I make a selection that the erase tool will be limited but then come the problem of creating a very very good selection whereas I found that I had a much easier time removing the background with the Erase Tool and with it was able to stay away from the shadow of the object with relative ease. I did some of what you say over the past few days with doing the selection and then an invert to remove the background but just did not find the result I liked as much as with the Erase tool.

In another post about re-cropping a completed project which I have given more detail to but still unable to find a solution, I mentioned there was another problem in working with the layers and removal of background material from around an added layer image to the composite being created. First, I have been unable to find information about how to undo a mistake that is not noticed to begin with if more of the background is removed, ie taking material from the object being left on the canvas so that a CTRL +Z is not an option as that would just remove the last operation but not the operation where the problem was created. It is easy to add to the removal with the eraser but not the opposite which is quite easy with ON 1 and was hoping there was a solution in AP. Second the thing that might help would be to have a means to set the operation so that the erase could not slide into the area not desired to be removed which again ON 1 does well. It may be that neither item is possible but hope that there is a solution. I am attaching the image in rather a rough form as I did not take the original photo but done by a friend using my equipment just so viewer can get the idea as to what I desire to accomplish. I have tried using selection tools but found I had problems getting the selection just right, especially to include the shadow. Finding how the erase worked compared to what I had been used to helped getting to this stage but a bit more info would be of great value. Unfortunately, the help file just did not give the answer. The first image is the attempt at 6 x 4 in AP while the other on is done in DIP and is what I would expect for a 6 x 4 photo. I did find some info in Help related to resizing and was able to get the 6 x 4 with empty space around and followed the instructions related to clipping the canvas but only one side was removed or if the anchor point was changed, again not all the empty space was removed. So I tried simply cropping off the excess but not sure if that is the correct thing to do because when checking the image compared to the image of 6 x 4 in DIgital Image Pro 2006 cropping to 6 x 4, the resulting image is quite different. Of course I have to have a solution that will work for all different sizes that I might desire. Anyone having some solutions to these issues, please do a reply. It is likely that there are better methods of doing what I am trying to accomplish but so far this is the best I have been able to glean from AP. TIA

Ok, I don't doubt that there is some problem but as I don't know how to rastorize nor bake in as I have never had to do either in any other program such as DIP or ON 1 a bit more info would be useful. I have tried to resize from both the edited AP file and from the .jpg in AP with no success either way but no problem to open the .jpg in DIP and re-crop. Not sure where the workflow problem might be but I will try to explain what has been done. I am attempting to do a composite image of a folding knife with 3 views of the knife in one composite which I have done many times with other programs for the past 16 years. Image one is of the knife on its background as done in camera. I have then done various adjustments as needed related to exposure, sharpness, vignette and usually add a signature but because this is a piece that was actually photographed by a friend at my location I skipped this step. Next I opened the first image to be added to the composite and did the adjustments to it and then did a square selection (I will do more testing and try other selections based upon the particular image being worked on.) From the background layer (copy) I then copied the selection and then pasted it to the copy to the base image so now had 2 images on one canvas. Next, with the erase brush, I removed everything of the background of the pasted image in order for this image to appear on the base image correctly. For image 3, simply did the same procedure as done for image 2 so now there is a final image with three images of the knife in different ways all in one composite. At each stage as I recall I did a save just in case I made an error so I would not have to re-do all the work. I was now ready to crop the composite to 6 x 4 so that it could be printed to put into a small album. Generally I view all images on the 32" monitor but like to have a book with the small images and sometimes I will do images 9 x 6 for other books. Well, as mentioned, no success with AP but by simply opening the file in DIP, there was no issue in doing the 6 x 4 crop. Hopefully this explains my plan of attack and someone will be able to offer the steps to go through or suggest something I should have done and at what stage to do what is required. TIA

Have been having some success with creating my composites and have created my own .rtf for future reference. My original file if 1600 x 1200 as is the final composite. When trying to re-crop, the image size remains at 1600 x 1200 but in AP show with a large black border and when exported and viewed in another program (Faststone Image Viewer) it does not fully cover the screen and I would not think that the 1200 dimension should remain the same. To test this, I opened the same original composite in DIgital Image Pro 2006 by MS and cropped to 6 x 4 which I have used for over 200 other images and the size is 1600 x 1067 and does fill the screen in FIV. Of course I would prefer to not have to move the image from one program to another to accomplish this task so wonder what I am not doing correctly and would like to know what to do in order to get the result I am looking for. TIA

Actually, it is too bad that Serif did not do the Help file as a .pdf from the beginning so hopefully they will be thankful that such a task has been done by a faithful user of the product so that other users can have a file that they can use and read from other mediums. Now if you were selling this as it is in its current state, then likely there would be an issue. Personally, I am thankful for all the tutorials, the .pdf and the help from other users of Affinity Photo and as soon as I am more comfortable with the product I will be able to better use it for my limited needs.

well, as I determined my original is not what I wanted. Tried some other ideas and then found another tutorial that might be putting me toward the right track. I am attaching the image at this point in time but am not totally happy as the shadow area is not done like I want and I did not get even a clean selection when adjusted after the paste where the bolster and the background with shadow come together. So what did I try? Well the creator of the composite video was placing a scene in some clouds which because of quite a difference between light and dark areas, it is easier to see what to do as opposed to my background of choice and this particular knife. What he did do after making a selection was go to refine and Output > new layer with mask -- he said this made doing corrections easier but the only thing I found that would allow me to adjust to some extent was to use the erase tool and I did not do a very good job at adjusting the opacity to get a blend between the shadows of the knife and the background of the base image. What I had hoped to be able to do was to get a blend between that area and the background of the base image but did not find how to create that as of yet. Any ideas are appreciated. I wanted to post this before I proceeded because for some reason in the image on the Affinity Photo persona window the outline of the move tool was visible and while I did not expect it to remain, I was not sure so did not want to spend a lot of time proceeding if I had created another problem. Viewing the image in Faststone Image Viewer shows no outline so not sure why it shows in the persona image. Will work on the next part of the project later on. This one is not critical as I have, long ago, created the image I have for my own purposes but was just one of many knives that I have images for that could have been chosen to create and learn more of how to use Affinity Photo. TIA for any assistance and ideas. 3rdmovelinewalrusfolderN5383.afphoto

As mentioned I was able to remove the bit of the area I missed with the selection tool on the original base image and so I decided to give adding a second image to begin the process of creating the composite and proceeded as per the base image with background and made adjustments to brightness/contrast, clarity and then some brush of burn & sharpening prior to using copy/paste of the selection. Darn, I have forgotten how to get back the selection after using CTRL + D. Well when I pasted the image to the base I ended up with the light area down below the shadow area of the butt and along the shadow area below the whole closed knife plus there seems to be a bit of a rim around the front portion. Tried to go to the adjustments layer which was above the pasted background layer ( I meant to rename but forgot) but the only thing I found in trying a number of things was a white area drawn on the base image with no affect being done to the selected background image (the second image). Hope this is explained accurately. I thought I would then maybe try to adjust the selection of the second image and then hopefully re-copy and after deleting the image pasted previously, try to paste a new image with none or less of the shadow showing. When working on that, the program crashed. I did save the selection as a file but not sure what to do with it. Then I reopened the .png file and for some reason, it now has the lightened area at the butt of the knife but fortunately, I do now show the .jpg which I thought was missing available and can start again unless there is a method that I have not been able to find in order to adjust the closed image of the knife to not have the lightened areas as mentioned above. Mike -- I have not seen any video nor found anything about how to add a shadow to an image. I particularly want it to look like what comes at the time of exposure in the camera. If you have a link or explanation, I can try that too. I am attaching the file so you guys can take a look and see if there is something I can do with the way things are at the moment. I may be doing things all wrong from the get go but with ON1 when opening a file, I would simply select "add as a layer" and then I would remove the areas not needed and the background of the base image would show through but I was never happy with the shadows as they never looked proper and this was a reason I thought using the selection tools available in Affinity would be a better solution. Once I get this method solved, I will also ask about another method I have used in the past with DIP and see what info I can get because sometimes I like to make a selection and then add a colored border and add that as a layer to a base image or sometimes even use both methods on the composite. So far I have not seen how that might be done in Affinity but hopefully there is a method as I really am hopeful that all things required can be done in one program rather than moving between or among multiple programs. Anyway, TIA for any help you guys may provide as it is most appreciated. compositewithproblemwalrusfolderN5383.afphoto

ve -- I did not that in a few spots where I guess the Help file used some icons, those did not show up in the text so the reader can't be sure what item was referred to in the .pdf. I also noticed that there were a few times where there was some duplication of text and I am only on about page 91 of the 644 (this being how my pdf reader shows the page numbering). I am working on it plus spending some time doing some editing and being thankful to all those participating in advancing my knowledge of Affinity Photo.

Yes Jimmy, I did miss that spot but did not realize it until I deselected after doing the work. Ok next - you say "paint with a white brush". OK I used the Paint Brush tool B on the adjustment layer and then got a cross hair and clicked and move it about carefully with small brush at 0 hardness and that worked perfectly. I understand what you are saying about copy/paste and I see that working when I add the next items to the composite but the background I am using actually includes the subject as it is the background I use when photographing almost all of the couple hundred knives I own plus generally others I might do as favors for friends or other collectors. What I used to do in ON 1 was to use a gradient to cover most of the image and then carefully darken and blur the area beyond the knife but I did not see that method available in Affinity and I rather like the selection method available in Affinity but find I have to be ultra careful to get it basically right. My next issue will be to be able to make sure when I do the selection is to be able to save the shadow of the subject from the background from which I remove it (same as the original background just a different view of the knife) which means a bit of a different selection so that the copy/paste will include the shadow is part of the subject selection so that when it is pasted, it will look realistic. Now of course if anyone has other suggestions, I am open to learning. Thanks to both for your input. Yes Kodiak, if you look at the upper RH corner of the knife at the lower part of the butt you will see the area that both Jimmy & I are addressing. In addition to my other mentioned background work, I also have to remember to use the In painting tool (J) to remove any spots etc that might be an issue. In fact, I wonder if it would have done the job that the paint brush tool did or even if I had tried to clone but in any event, I will add this information to my notes so that I do have a method that was successful. I like the ywia also Jimmy as for years I have used TIA and try always to thank anyone that has offered assistance and hopefully information I may have or learn and pass on will be of value to others. When I finish this project or need more assistance I will also post the result. I wanted to just test because I have another piece in the mail which hopefully I will be able to photograph soon and prepare. BTW -- anyone that has general photography questions related to portraits, weddings etc I will try to help even though I have now been retired 17 years after a 33 year career as photographer and instructor. There is just a lot of digital stuff I don't know even though I have been doing a lot of it for about 16 years. Every new program offers additional challenges and learning experiences.

Been doing more reading (nice to have the .pdf) and viewing of videos and trying to get my thinking straight as using Affinity is a bit different from what I am used to with ON 1. Ok -- here is the issue. One it did take a few times to get my selection almost correct. I did think I had used the refine after using the selection brush to create what will be shown in the two files attached. However, after doing all the work I would normally do to the base image file prior to adding additional images, I still have a small area where the adjustments did not get applied due to a small mistake in the selection process. Please refer to the two files and see where I have gone from the original (well almost as it was a .jpg but strangely enough I must have lost those and just have the .png files but that is ok as they are able to be edited) to a base image that has had adjustments and the signature file added. For further information, let me say that what I like to do is, after the image has been created in camera, take the image to the editor and then if necessary make any overall exposure adjustment. Now with Affinity's capabilities, I like the idea of being able to select the subject (knife) and make any further adjustments to it alone such as modest sharpening and maybe a couple of others such as vibrance, saturation, contrast, etc, etc. Thus my idea was to make a selection of the knife and do those adjustments and then invert the selection and adjust the background. The two basic adjustments I normally will do is to darken the background with a simple exposure adjustment and then do a gausian blur as a live filter layer. Once that has been done then I can add a live filter vignette and then add the signature. Often then I would save this just in case I totally mess things up with the next additions which is how we get to the images we are showing. Just one little problem. My selection was somewhat off and if one looks at the upper side of the subject, at the lower edge of the butt of the handle there is a light patch which after trying a few different times of using the burn and the blur tool, I just have not been able to get something that is satisfactory so was hoping that someone with more experience might have a suggestion. Figured I would get this info prior to adding other views of the knife to the background image. not sure which is the better to upload -- the .afphoto or the new .jpg so uploading both Looks like I need to ask one more question -- why is the .jpg such a small file size? TIA 2ndwalrusfolderN5383.afphoto

seems to be a bit of confusion. An application (app) or Program usually will have a default location chosen by the application developer but that can be changed by the user. An image file edited in AP is still a file and you store files on your disk drive of choice and usually in a folder specific to the type/time/location etc so usually you will have created a folder for newly created files likely made by some camera/phone device. When you do your original Save As you will have the opportunity to navigate your computer folders and select the location where you wish the file to reside. Also at that time, you may rename or add more detail to the current name of the file (personally if it is a camera created file I like to keep the file number even though more info is added) and click on save. With AP this will save the file with their proprietary file name .afphoto. In order to view this image outside of an Affinity program, while the file is still open in AP again go to File and then look to the bottom of the list and click on Export. From there you will select the type of file extension you wish to save the file as and this usually will be .jpg but other choices are available. You can repeat the process if you want the file to be saved in other file extensions at any time from the location where you saved the .afphoto (usually in the same location but personal preference may dictate one filing the images in different locations. Personally, I keep all edits in a folder called "edited" and then if I want duplicate .jpgs, I simply copy them elsewhere). One additional comment -- please BU BU BU and I do mean that in triplicate. As an Admin in PC Tech in Paltalk, I so often have seen users come into the room with crocodile tears because they have lost their valuable image files. Something that is important to you should have a continuous B ack U p plus duplicate BU at least monthly with one secure locally and one secure externally off premises. Also, a BU on the same drive as the originals is not really a BU particularly if there is a full system failure. It is always a good idea to use a separate HDD for your documents including image files and the do the triple BU on External drives.

this is a question I have asked in a comments section of a tutorial but have not revisited the tutorial as I forget which one it was so I will ask here and maybe someone knows. When using MS DIP 2006 (discontinued but still usable) from some freeware sources, I was able to download a number of .8bf filters that did some things I enjoyed being able to use. I was able to put them all into a folder and use DIP to point to that folder and bring up the filters when desired for use. Can this be done with AP? Can the whole folder be imported of does one have to import each .8bf file on its own? If these filters can be used do they have to be imported into AP or simply be pointed to the location where they are on the computer at the moment? TIA

Thanks ve -- I agree about the help file. I was also used to another program that simply offered a color selection along with the font etc much like a Wordpad or Word or other text creating program offers and then also found and was given some advice on to use the "save" feature under Edits >defaults to make sure I don't always have to set both the font and the color each time I simply want to add my signature. I have not looked at your pdf on my computer so can't be sure if one can jump to a particular section of the contents pages but I did find that I could not using either of 2 pdf readers that I have on my Android phone. If you know of a reader that does it, provided the option is there that would be great. I find things a bit difficult too as when I make the text large enough for me to see, then I have to do a lot of scrolling to see all of the text whereas if the text fit the width of the screen and then just took more lines to be read, it would be easier. Really do appreciate all the work and I definitely will be getting to the .pdf shortly as I am almost through all my initial viewing of videos and am categorizing some that I have not seen or duplicating the links in different relevant folders on my system. Still have a bit of the help file to go through also. Wish the help file would provide more assistance as to how to do some things as opposed to simply stating what things do. Also it would be nice to be given reasons to and why a task should be performed under what specific conditions. Thanks again for the great work.

A bit of background related to the topic. As a custom knife collector for 36+ years, upon the arrival of the digital photography age, I began photographing my own collection. Since about 2001 I have used DIP Pro and DIP 2006 by MS which has since been discontinued. A couple years ago, I began using ON 1 and then when RAW came out decided I would continue but then learned of Affinity and am now immersed in the Help & Videos. To shorten the story, I am trying to develop my own workflow and will have it put into a .rtf file of my creation because I may not be doing the numbers of images that I have done in the past and will likely forget. Now, I am going to attach a file to show part one which happens to have the signature attached as I asked about that in another topic. In this image, I made a very basic highlight/contrast adjustment to a duplicate background as an added layer. Next as I often do, I added a new layer which is a lens blur. Here is when I ran into some difficulty. In ON 1 I can add top and bottom and rotate so most of the image except the subject itself is blurred and then I can paint-in areas that are not already covered and if I make a bit of a mistake in coverage, by using X to change to paint-out it is relatively easy to adjust the final image. When I began to do something similar in Affinity, after adding the lens blur, I used the Erase Brush Tool but there does not seem to be any means by which I can correct an area where I erased and should not have. (Easy to make a mistake when working around sharp edges.) When doing this I did put snapping on but not sure if that is the correct thing to do. The area in question is just below the edge near the tip of the knife. So, is there any way to paint back in when using Erase Brush or did I use the wrong tool or method to accomplish the task? If I did use the incorrect method, what is a better method? Also, normally the next thing I would also want to do would be to deepen down the background although this could be done prior to the blur. Because two things are being applied to the same area, I am now thinking that I might be better to select the subject and then Invert and use an exposure adjustment to reduce the background exposure and then do the blur. The main thing here that I must consider is to select the subject including the shadow as while I don't mind if it were to have some blur, I don't necessarily wish to have it become darker like the background as that would not be natural. While I mentioned that this topic is a composite, I just wanted to begin with working on my base image first and then I will try to add some other views of the knife -- in this case one that is closed and maybe one or two showing the spine of the back spring. After that I will get into another image that has more diverse things done which I had to use two programs to accomplish the task which I hope can be done in Affinity on its own. Maybe I will do it as an new topic but that is for later once I have this portion tackled effectively. TIA So far I have not seen any response but the topic has garnered some views. I did come across this tutorial which is doing something similar to what I want to accomplish so I will review it and make notes but I still did not see any way to reverse what the eraser tool may have removed too much of. Perhaps the best bet is to work with the Selection Brush. Any thoughts by others will be appreciated.

TY IRB -- after poking around a bit I had located that. I have added the info to my own .rtf. I hope that info was not well hidden in the help files as I did look around but just could not find out how to do what you guys so thoughtfully offered in my quest to learn this program. One of the reasons I am now using Affinity is because when using ON 1 I was and am still not able to add text to an image so had to save as a .png in order to keep the file size large and then open in MS DIP 2006 which to me was and is an unnecessary step. I am going to open another topic related to a lot of what I do so I can get some advice for things I have not been able to glean from neither the Help nor the videos I have viewed. Thanks again for the assistance but be forewarned I am sure I will ask a lot more questions.

Interesting. Originally when doing text I did not have to use the move tool and could readily move the text. Now I am using the move tool but this is the sequence I have found that seems to be necessary. Thanks for the response. 1. Click on Artistic Text 2. Select Font (which unfortunately so far I have not been able to locate where to set as default for it nor for my color choice) 3. Click on Fill box and because I want White as default, move all sliders to 255. 4. Type text signature 5. click move or use V as you have mentioned and move to desired location and also resize if necessary I see that as a warning there is a RED squiggly line beneath the text which goes away when selecting the hand tool Now if you or anyone knows of any way to set my Font and Color to default, that would be great. TIA

Generally with my photos, I apply a signature and while from another program, MS Digital Image Pro 2006, I could choose the font, adjust size and also select the color I wished to use -- white -- unfortunately, neither from help nor have I found a video on how to do this task in Affinity Photo. Please advise if there is a simple way to change colors of text with AP? TIA

Glad after having spent many hours of reading help (not finished yet) and many hours of viewing all the videos I can find I found this link in the Forums which I had not come to having been so busy trying to learn Affinity I did get the pdf onto my phone as I hope to spend time reading in in a few hours while my wife is being checked out by the folks who will do her cataracts. I did a quick check of topics as I have one thing I have not been able to find and that is text information primarily how to change the color of a text. I normally only need to add my signature to a photo but don't want to use a default black but can't find how to do it and did not see any title for text in your pdf but I will start reading it in a couple hours. If there is something it would be great to know its location.