manu schwendener

> I am beginning to think that Affinity is too complex for my level.
Hang in there, it's worth it! See for example http://manuschwendener.ch/2015/12/23/affinity-photo-dodge-tool
 
> I am having the same issue
> Impainting brush, healing brush, blemish removal brush
 
If you're new to Affinity Photo and - as I am! - new to working with layers, maybe try the inpainting brush etc. as the first step after opening a picture in AP. 
 
Like this you'll get the hang of it and know what to look for when it's disabled.
 
---
 
A very usual workflow for me is:
- I open a picture
- I crop it
- In the right hand column I click Adj for Adjustments
- I click on Levels
- I drag the Gamma slider to left left to make the picture brighter
- I close the popup from the Levels adjustment
 
- Now I want to remove some of the branches using the Inpainting brush tool
-> Inpainting brush has no effect whatsoever :(
 
Solution (see screenshot): 
- In the right hand column I have to switch from the Adjustment tab to the Lyr. tab
- Here I see that the (Levels Adjustment) layer is active <- which AP created and made active without my knowing
- All I have to do now is click on Background (Pixel) so this is blue and the (Levels Adjustment) isn't blue any longer
-> Inpainting Brush Tool is working again

> I am beginning to think that Affinity is too complex for my level.
Hang in there, it's worth it! See for example http://manuschwendener.ch/2015/12/23/affinity-photo-dodge-tool
 
> I am having the same issue
> Impainting brush, healing brush, blemish removal brush
 
If you're new to Affinity Photo and - as I am! - new to working with layers, maybe try the inpainting brush etc. as the first step after opening a picture in AP. 
 
Like this you'll get the hang of it and know what to look for when it's disabled.
 
---
 
A very usual workflow for me is:
- I open a picture
- I crop it
- In the right hand column I click Adj for Adjustments
- I click on Levels
- I drag the Gamma slider to left left to make the picture brighter
- I close the popup from the Levels adjustment
 
- Now I want to remove some of the branches using the Inpainting brush tool
-> Inpainting brush has no effect whatsoever :(
 
Solution (see screenshot): 
- In the right hand column I have to switch from the Adjustment tab to the Lyr. tab
- Here I see that the (Levels Adjustment) layer is active <- which AP created and made active without my knowing
- All I have to do now is click on Background (Pixel) so this is blue and the (Levels Adjustment) isn't blue any longer
-> Inpainting Brush Tool is working again

This was the thing I was getting wrong all of the time with the inpaint, dodge and burn tools.
 
It was really frustrating trying to apply subtle changes and thinking I was trying to be too subtle only to realise I didn't have the background layer selected.
 
I'm getting it right most of the time now, but I'm still getting it wrong occasionally.

If the inpainting brush doesn't give the desired result have a look at the burn brush. I've used that to tone down distracting highlights. Dialling down the opacity of the brush makes the effect more subtle. 

Never mind - I figured it out.

Picking a tool, finding that it doesn't work and then realising I have an adjustment layer selected has been the thing that has taken me the most time to get my head around since starting out with AP about a week ago. I'm getting much better now at remembering to check the layer selected before I start applying tools like inpaint, dodge and burn.
 
BTW, I'm still blown away by what inpaint is able to do in extrapolating the scene behind the object being removed.

@barninga
Yes, currently the Raw info shown is for the first image only. I think those details will be improved/refined as we move forward, like with all other features.
 
@allyann,
I believe we are currently just displaying the raw EXIF information as it comes from the camera/RAW image. So for certain cameras you may see the values in the standard format you're are expecting, for others it may display in a different format. I think this will be improved later so all exif info is parsed and presented the same way. I will try to get more info about this.

I have opened the EXIF information and it states the Aperture as 56/10 rather than f5.6. Out of curiosity is there any reason for this as I have not seen it written like this before?

Hi Allyann,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
To access/open the metadata panel go to menu View ▸ Studio ▸ EXIF (it will be displayed near the Layers panel on the right if you are in Photo Persona, or near the Scope panel on top if you are in Develop Persona).

This thread's getting old, but I was stuck on this, and now I find (AP v. 1.4) it's really easy:
sample the white background with the eyedropper in the Colour tab, and set that to the foreground color choose Select>Select Sampled Colour click on one of the yellow patches. I left the tolerance to 25%, and that selected all the yellow except for a few anti-aliasing pixels on the edges use the flood fill (paint can icon) to recolor selection to white repeat steps 2 to 4 on the pale yellow anti-aliasing pixels that are left around the areas you've recolored white set the foreground color to a suitable grey for anti-aliasing the black type repeat steps 2 to 4 on the yellowish-grey pixels where the yellow met the black type I ended up with a clean (as far as my old eyes can see) version after about two minutes' work.

(with screenshot: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/16678-inpainting-brush-tool/?p=75620 )

i experimented a little and found that it looks like there are two kinds of constraints in the list and they work differently.
 
the first kind specifies a ratio. in my setup, i have three default values: 1:1, 5:7 and 8:10.
since these are pure ratios, selecting one of them makes AP create the largest crop rectangle whose sides are in that ratio. dragging the handles forces the rectangle to grow or shrink, and the sides size will respect that ratio.
 
the second kind of constraints specifies absolute sizes. in my default setup, i have 6" x 4" and 8.5" x 11".
since these are absolute sizes, selecting one of them makes AP create a crop rectangle that matches those sizes (taking in account the dpi setting of the image, i guess). keeping the ratio between sides if the handles are dragged does not make sense, since this action changes the absolute sizes of the crop and this makes the initial definition unuseful. when selecting an absolute dimension crop, the only action that makes sense is dragging the rectangle around.
maybe, the developers could have disabled the dragging action in these cases, but i guess they didn't for sake of flexibility and usability.
 
if you need to use those dimensions as ratios (6:4, 8.5:11), just set the crop mode to "custom ratio", enter the values into the fields on the right of the dropdown menu and save them as a preset (from the dropdown menu again).

If you didn't add any layers on purpose it can have happened automatically with one of the corrections/adjustments you made.
 
See screenshot for a typical situation for me: I use the levels adjustment to make the picture brighter - if I afterwards want to use the inpainting brush or such I first have to click on the Layers tab in the right hand column (because the Adjustments tab is selected) and then select Background instead of Levels Adjustment.

BTW: Your excellent videos really sell these products more than anything else. I'll watch them and go, "wow, I didn't know it could do that... and so easily." Then, I'll tell a friend about your apps, suggest they just check out a couple videos, and then every single person I've pointed to the videos have ended up buying the software too. 
 
Great stuff. Thanks!

> most of the people who see the photograph will not notice the difference
 
Not on a conscious level (as I'm only showing the corrected version), but the pictures get stronger when they're less cluttered. 

photo retouching is a hard work. no way to achieve the best possible results without patience, trial and error and lots of time.
most of the people who see the photograph will not notice the difference, but it doesn't matter. i can't stand showing a shot of mine that i have not refined doing the best i can.

'Fence' is finished and replaced: http://manuschwendener.ch/2015/07/26/zolli-2
 
> replace the dark fence with one of the greens next to it
selection and refine selection, invert selection (to preserve the Meerkat's fur next to the fence)
loads of inpainting brush a bit of clone, dodge, burn and sponge, all at less than 100% opacity
 
Still would have preferred to just change the colour of the fence to green, keeping the texture - and be done with it ;)
 
---
 
Rui, thanks again for posting the .afphoto file for the columns; I'll try to follow your steps - might take some time..

for what it's worth, I ended up logging into my brother's account, changing the country, adding my card, buying it with his account, then erasing my card info. 
 
It was only after that, that I realized it would've worked just as well to give him a gift card from my country and instructions on how to change the country to redeem it. 
 
Geez, you'd think on the internet these border stuff would be easy. 
 
Cheers!, 
 
- Adrian

Hi mcbrains,
Welcome to Affinity Forums :)
The discounted price for Affinity Photo is 39.99€ (which is 20% off). The regular price is 49.99€.

Thank you, would have never figured that one out. I just think error when I see a red x!

This keeps popping up in Questions - which also means a lot of people give up without asking:
 
When somebody wants to download the example pictures on the welcome screen, the red x can be confusing and the blue line around the picture (status bar) is easy to overlook, not least because it takes some time to start filling.

nice job indeed :-)

As I said previously it all depends on what has been posted :)

-

[Edit] One more video added [/Edit]
 
Hello all,
 
As a present for 2016 here are four more videos for you all:
 
Global Cloning - http://vimeo.com/149628411
Subtle Toning - http://vimeo.com/149269746
Multiple Colour Formats - http://vimeo.com/149265352
Maximum Stacking - http://vimeo.com/150416756
 
Multiple Colour Formats highlights how, as an example, you can work in LAB with adjustments whilst your document remains in RGB. A useful little feature!
 
More videos on the way soon - hope you all have a good New Year!
 
James