MikeFromMesa

I am sorry, but I do not understand. What do you mean by "duplicate one picture with 3 pictures"? Do you mean load one image into the pano panel more than once? Do you mean copy one image to another file, rename it and use it? Or something else?

I don't shoot many panoramas so perhaps this is the same problem I saw almost a year ago, but APB is failing to resolve some of my pano sequences. The MAS version has the same problem (for the same photos) although my normal pano software (Panorama Studio 2) has no problem with the photos. In case any of the developed are interested the photos, both raw and tiff, can be found here.

Thanks for the suggestion, but it did not help much with APB. It did change the displayed image from being all black to being all white, but it was still unusable with no detail visible. I tried doing the HDR with the change setting but it also resulted in a completely white image. However the change did have a positive effect for AP where the image displayed normally. I guess there was some change between AP and APB since APB does not work properly with dng images even with the raw engine change.

I decided to create a pseudo hdr sequence from some raw images by creating virtual copies in my workflow tool, adjusting them accordingly, processing them and then opening the resulting files in APB using the HDR functionality. Normally when I do this I use tiff format but decided to use dng instead thinking the resulting HDR image might be a bit more adjustable but when APB loaded these images all I got was a black image. I then loaded one of the images into APB as a raw image, but only got a black image. I then tried the MAS version, but got the same results. I then opened it in Photoshop Elements to make sure the image was actually OK, but it opened properly in Elements. Apparently AP and APB have problems with this dng format. The file can be found here.

Thank you for the response. At least now I know. I will look forward to when Save functionality in the macros is fixed.

I don't understand. A couple of days ago I posted a question asking if the disabling of the Save command when a macro is being recorded was intentional or a bug. When I record a macro the Save command suddenly appears greyed out so it can not be accessed. Where I stop recording the macro the Save command again gets enabled. There was a problem with use of the Save command when recording a macro in the previous beta and I was asking if this disablement was intentional or a side effect of another change. I have not received an answer to what seems to me to be a simple question.

I saw a Youtube video explaining how to use the Blend Options (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NfimjzLdbA&feature=youtu.be) to create a luminosity mask in AP but, upon opening the Blend Options dialog box, I realized that I did not fully understand how to best select various luminosity ranges. I looked for a help section on Blend Options but did not find one. Is there somewhere I can look to explain what dragging the lines in the dialog box actually does? Thank you.

I had been having some issues with the Macro recording functionality in Beta 5. In particular I had problems trying to do a Save while recording a macro and I thought this was addressed in Beta 6 but what I found was that when I loaded an image (in this case a jpg), adjusted it so that Save was enabled and set the Macro recording functionality the Save command became disabled immediately so it was not available when I wanted to use it as part of the macro. I don't know if this is an intentional disablement or a bug. A bit of further testing shows the same functionality with raw images after the raw image has been developed.

Chris_K: I guess somewhere along the line there has been a misunderstanding. Your description of how the Optics Pro <-> Affinity Photo (Beta) interface works is correct. If processing a raw, OP normally sends a processed tiff to APB which then is adjusted and saved back to the original tif (although you can also send the raw unadjusted to APB). The misunderstanding appears to be the assumption that I was saying this problem happened all the time. It does not. I have used APB with Optics Pro (and CaptureOne which is my normal workflow software) as long as AP has been available and this was the first time I saw this problem. It is not something that occurs regularly, but then neither are crashes with APB. Since it happened I thought it was worth reporting, especially since the saved file did not appear anywhere on the file system. I have used this interface since and also not seen this problem again but, since this is such a rare occurrence, my main concern was that there was no way for me to know that a Cmd-S did not save a file because Save is disabled.

> As far as the file not being found I believe it should just pass it back to the application that sent it to AFP in the first place No. That is not the case. APB is not being used as a plugin, but as an external editor and thus there is no mechanism for returning it directly to the calling app. The normal process is to save the image in APB and then the app, which created a brand new image to send to APB, will automatically load it into its catalog or display. In this case the calling app was Dxo's Optics Pro and it does not use a catalog. The file should have shown up in the folder that was the sending folder but I could not find it anywhere on the system. I have software to locate any file and it could not find it on my system, on my external drive or on dropbox. It just was not there. I understand from your comment that APB automatically disables the save command if the file has not been modified after saving it, but that means that the user does not know that the save command has failed if they used a cmd-s. This if the file fails to actually write (which seems to be what happened to me) the user does not know and can not try again. Of if the user moves the file from the folder to some place else (like dropbox) he/she can not save it again without some change. That seems accident prone to me. Perhaps it would be better just to allow the user to Save and then Save again if he/she chooses?

I have what appears to be a rather interesting problem on my system (a MBP). I was processing images with one of my workflow tools and sent an image to APB. The workflow tool processed the raw image to a tif and sent it to APB which opened it. I then did some processing and saved the file (Cmd-S), but could not find the saved tif anywhere on my system. I then tried File -> Reveal in Finder but Finder never opened. This was curious enough for me to spend some time trying to figure out what had happened. When I checked the File command pulldown I found that the Save command was greyed out and thus the Cmd-S did not actually do anything. I flattened the file (there were no layers, I had only done selections and filters) and that enabled the Save command and the file save succeeded. OK, but that raises some interesting questions. 1) What condition can an image be in if Save is not enabled? What reason can there be for not saving a tif during processing, even if the layers (which did not exist in this case) will be lost)? 2) Is APB supposed to complain if a save is attempted when Save is not enabled? If not, why not? Thinking that this might be a condition worth saving I stepped back in the history to try to have APB again disable the Save command, but had no luck. Even going back to the same condition I was at before did not recreate the same state so undoing does indeed have side effects. And a related question. Why does saving the file with history disable the save command? That is, I saved the file with history and then found that the Save command in File was disabled. I had to make some change to force APB to enabled it again. Why?

Understood. Thanks for taking the time to explain. I will make sure that I save an image with history next time something like this pops up.

No. I did not save that, but I will try to reproduce it.

> we have architected a clever system whereby the undone things have genuinely no effect Perhaps. But I can not tell you how many times in the 25 years I worked as a software engineer and architect before I retired that I heard exactly the same thing, only to later find that there was "one tiny little problem" that ended up causing some freeze, crash or other bug.

I was thinking of some way to send you the processing information without having to also send the image. And, as far as I know, saving the undo history along with the image would not give you any information concerning what was done before someone "stepped back" and undid some steps along the way. That is, if I perform 20 adjustment steps and then decide to redo everything from step 7 on, you would not see steps 7-20 as they were originally done because they would have been lost when the user "stepped back" even if those steps triggered something along the way that caused the eventual problem. I assume the crash dump would provide you with most everything you would need for a crash, but I was thinking about non-crash issues.

What I mean is that there ought to be some way to export the set of steps taken in adjusting an image, perhaps in text or pdf format. The information would basically be the same as that shown in the history tab, but perhaps be a bit more complete in that it would show more detail about the actual changes and perhaps also show steps that were skipped when someone stepped back in the history to do something over again or something else. The idea is that this information might be very helpful to the developers in seeing exactly what happened when processing an image that resulted in something strange or in a crash. I tried to explain what steps I took when processing the image I reported but had no way to export the steps so that the information could be included in the bug report. Before I retired I worked for many years doing dump analysis in trying to determine why a customer's system crashed. Something like this would have been very helpful to me in working out the steps that caused the problem.

I was processing some photos from a recent trip and ran into a problem I had seen a long time ago, but not since. After doing some adjustments (cloning Tool. InPainting Tool, Levels, Brightness and Contrast, Shadows and Highlights) I ended up with this. There are blocks of adjustments that should not be there and, just in case it is difficult to see where the blocks are, I have marked around them in this. The original photo was taken with a point-and-shoot which produces only jpgs, just in case that is important. It occurred to me when I was writing up this report that it would be very helpful if functionality could be added to AP to allow for the export of the history of the adjustments. That would allow users to not only describe what they had done when reporting a problem but also include the set of steps shown in the history to help the developers understand precisely what steps had been followed and in what order. This comment is meant as an official request for that functionality with the intention of helping those trying to figure out what had happened to cause a problem.

Now that is what I call being ahead of things.

I have been processing 5 image HDR shots from a recent trip and ran into this crash. It only happened once and a reload of the same images did not produce a second crash but I thought it was better to report it than not. Perhaps there is something here that is important, perhaps not.

Andy, The Save seems to be the step that causes the problems, at least for me. I opened APB with the control key to clear all settings, reset the studio entries that I wanted, including the macro and library tabs, loaded an image and recorded a macro with only the Flatten and Matte steps. I was then able to export the macro and save it without a crash. I then exited APB and again restarted it. While the studio settings were not saved over the exit and restart (I had to reset all of the studio settings) I was then able to successfully load and execute the macro without a crash. I was even able to re-export it without an issue. The same steps with the Save recorded caused both of my machines to crash. Hope this helps.

Andy, While I have not tested this directly it does seem to me from what has happened that the problem might be associated with the Save step in the macro. I was able to load an earlier recorded and saved macro that only did Flatten and Matte, but not the one that included the Save step. I will do some additional testing but that is what I have seen up to this point.

Some continued testing of the macro functionality on my MBP produced exactly the same problems as on the Mini. Exporting the macro caused a crash. Restarting APB and trying to import the macro caused a crash. Of course the first crash might well have caused corruption in the exported macro, but that is still a problem. Whatever this is, it is not restricted to my Mini.

I posted several comments on how I was having trouble using the Macro functionality. The reply was that everything was working properly for the developers and that it was something on my system. That seemed reasonable so I changed from my Mac Mini to my old MacBook Pro to do some work. I downloaded the latest APB version, installed and opened it. I then loaded a raw image, changed to the develop persona and exported the image as a tif. I then loaded the tiff, cropped the image, recorded my standard macro - flatten the image, call the matte functionality and saved it (the macro) so that it showed up in the Macro Library. Since recording the macro executes it I closed the image and APB. I then reopened APB and then re-opened the previously saved image. This is what I got. Since this is exactly the same thing I saw on my Mini I think my problem is not due to my system. I will next try to reproduce the crashes I saw on my Mini but I should also mention that there is one other bit of functionality that is failing on my MBP and also failed on my Mini. When I reopened APB the macros that were in the Library were gone - both the provided ones and the one I saved. Is the Library not preserved over calls to APB?

What has happened to the macro functionality in the latest beta? I load APB and there are no macros showing showing in the Library tab of the Macros Studio. I record a macro and see the steps listed, but when I try to save it APB crashes. If I try to load a previous macro into APB using the Import functionality APB crashes. To use a macro I have to create it each time APB starts and, since I can't save it, I can only use it while APB is loaded. If I try to leave APB open (so I can reuse the macro) but close the image file I am processing the recorded steps in the macro disappear. If I exit APB (or if it crashes) the whole cycle starts over again. And I can not go back and use AP because there is no macro functionality in the MAS version.

Hmmm. Restarted APB after the crash and again tried to import the same macro from above. Again got a crash. This time I did not save the crash file although I can probably recreate it if anyone is interested.