Littletank

It would be very useful if when the Curves Adjustment Layer is applied to a selection, the histogram in the Curves palette should be that of the selection and not the histogram of the whole image.

Thank you MEB, I will do as you suggest.

I believe that I understand the ideas behind Quick Mask and how to use it to make a selection however, there is one thing that puzzles me and about which I would very much like an answer. For example, a selection is made and, after removing the coloured mask, is shown by the marching ants. Next, a Curves Adjustment Layer is added, in order to make a change to that selection. Why does the window which opens show the histogram of the original image and not that of the selection? I use the latest version of AP on an up to date iMac

At last, an interested B&W photographer, so thanks Wei Chong. As I mentioned at the beginning of my posting, the methodology was taken from a book by George deWolfe, however, I will try to answer your questions as best as I am able. The idea behind this process is to use pixels from the underlying image not from some grey layer which you may care to use in the usual dodge/burn. Therefore, I think it is best to leave D/B to as late as possible in post processing and, as the results of the process are so easy to see you might find trial and error more helpful than all the words. The snapshot gives the base image from which you are going to paint to lighten or darken parts of your image using the Un-Do-Brush. Dodging and burning is a subtle process and needs to done gradually hence the opacity needs to be quite low. The figure of 15% is just a suggestion and you are able to experiment to find the opacity which best suits your wok flow. Do not confuse opacity with flow, they are not the same thing. I am only interested in processing black&white images but I recognise that I am in the minority hence I felt it necessary to point out that this method of dodging and burning applies equally as well to colour images. I hope I have answered your questions but not in the order you asked them. To re-iterate, the process was copied from a process developed for Photoshop and adjusted for Affinity Photo and the best way to appreciate what can be done is to experiment using an image in Affinity Photo. Practice makes perfect and, remember, if you are not happy with the result you can always delete the top pixel layer and start again. I will be interested to learn how you get on. Littletank

Try loading an image.

Thank you MEB, problem solved.

I think I have the layer selected but I will look again.

I would like to use the NIK plugin with files that have been formed by merging but, when I have tried this the NIK actions are greyed out. Is there anything I should do to get round this, please? latest AP on latest iMAC

I have sorted out without your help so you can mark the question closed.

I have just noticed the video HDR Preprocessing where several RAW images are converted into an HDR image, is this what you mean, MEB? If so could you please describe what I have to do to be able to load the Raw images, without them being developed, into the Photo Persona, please?

Hi DWright, What I am trying to achieve is an image, for example a simple HDR image, which is in the format which can be processed in the develop persona. In Lightroom it is possible to use a number of images to form a simple HDR image which retains the extension DNG and which can be processed before being developed. I hope that this makes sense.

I have studied the training videos and I understand how to go about merging images using AP on an iMac. My understanding is that the images to merge need to be either tif or jpeg. What I would like to do is to merge the images and then be able to work with the merged image in the develop persona without losing any of the original data. If I were to develop the RAW images without making any changes to them, export them as tif images, merge these images and then open the merged image in the develop persona, would this give me what I am trying to achieve? It seems a long way round and I know that it is much simpler in Lightroom but I have no intention of going that way.

Thanks R C-R I do mean the Left Studio and Right Studio - I'll start again. On my screen there is an image and the left and right studios. In the Left Studio there are the titles of various macros and in the Right Studio there are various items such as histogram, colour, etc. Below are the layers of the image and towards the bottom there are more items such as navigator, history etc. A second image is loaded, Window -> Separated Mode released the two images which I could move around and, when I had finished the comparison I went Window -> Separated Mode was unticked and the two images were then closed. Neither the Left nor the Right Studio were there. If this is to be expected because of what I did how can it be avoided.

Please, could someone answer my question?

I tried this by loading two images then Window -> Separated Mode and had two images which I could move around as I wanted to do. To return to the status quo I went into Window and unticked Separated Mode and the left and right hand panels disappeared. Having closed the two images I went to View -> Studio and the items were no longer selected, all the ticks had gone. Is this what should happen or did I do something wrong?