[AP Causing Crashes with File Types]

I've been using AP on my Windows 10 desktop for over a year now and have not had this issue until now, with Photo Beta 1.7.. . I'm getting numerous reports from Windows, of it causing various file types to crash, and they were re-assigned to Photos (Windows Photo Viewer). These are graphic, photo type files. I can't stop AP from latching on to these file types. Other programs I have, there's an option through the preferences for them to restrict and/or remove it from files you do not want to be associated with it.

Is there any way to do this? Or must I go into each file type via the Settings Menu of Windows and change each one? FYI, all my other programs I restrict them to their proprietary formats, and don't allow them to assign all my various graphic / photo file formats.

[Shadows / Highlights Filter does not work]

I get the same as dke. When first trying to apply the Live Filter Shadow/Highlights I get what the first screenshot shows. If I delete it and reapply then it seems normal. However the Highlights just allow lighting/brighten, not the ability to pull or darken highlights.

[clone brush tool]

Set the Accumulation to 100%

[Edit or Adjust Gradient]

Thank you for your detailed explanation. It really helps me better understand how AP works. I think I've watched all of the official video tutorials but there's some things like using Fill Layer vs filling a pixel layer that I must have missed or not there. As for Designer it does look like a great program, but I can't justify getting it. I've got CorelDraw GS, which is much more powerful and rightfully so since it costs way more. Oddly I don't use Photo Paint though, it just has never clicked with me.

Since I stopped using PS, and started using AP, I'm really liking it more and more. Still use LR for its D.A.M. and it does a decent job at developing. Attached an example of how I've been learning how to use AP. Having thousands of images collect digital dust on my harddrives, I decided to find a way to use some of them. This is a composite of 6 images.

[Edit or Adjust Gradient]

58 minutes ago, kaffeeundsalz said:

Create a new Fill Layer and apply a gradient to it. This way, the gradient settings will remain accessible at any point in time. Applying a gradient directly to a Pixel Layer will always be a destructive operation in Affinity Photo, but why would you want to do this?

That will do what I need it to do. Why would I want to do this? Because I want to Until now, I would use gradients in an image/project for things like creating fog, smoke, adjustments. Later on after adding other layers/adjustments I would need to go back and edit the gradient and couldn't . Now I see that using Fill Layers instead of just adding a pixel layer and filling it with a gradient works better. I'm still learning AP, been used to PSP, where I could return to a layer later on to further edit/tweak it.

Thanks kaffeeundsalz

[Edit or Adjust Gradient]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Perhaps I don't understand what you're trying to do, but I can:

1. draw a shape in Photo, then
2. fill it with a gradient using the Gradient Tool, then
3. do work elsewhere in the image, and then
4. click on the shape again with the Gradient Tool and edit the existing gradient.

Yes I understand that it works with shapes and when using the Gradient Overlay in FX. What I'm referring to is applying a gradient fill to a pixel layer. Attached are 2 screen recordings to better illustrate what I'm referring to.

[Edit or Adjust Gradient]

@GabielM, Thank you for your reply. I've watched that video numerous times, and understand how to apply and use gradients. What I was requesting is once we click off of or away from the gradient tool, to return and still have the gradient available for further editing. Most other apps such as Paintshop Pro, PhotoShop, have had this ability for as long as I can recall. It seems in AP once you lay down the gradient and click away from it, it is burned in. So to change that we must re-apply the gradient.

[Keyboard Command to Select All Layers from the Layers Studio]

You can specify the keyboard shortcuts/commands for this. Just open the preferences and go to the Keyboard Shortcuts, then choose the Select from the drop-down menu. I use CTL+Shift+L to select all layers. Then Control+Shift+D to deselect them.

[Edit or Adjust Gradient]

I would like the ability to go back and adjust or edit a gradient after applying it. Currently we must redraw a new gradient.

[Asking how to set color profile settings with Affinity Photo]

Do you shoot RAW, and use AP to develop your RAW files? If so you might want to set the 32 bit RGB Color Profile to ProPhoto RGB Linear. That way you have the widest color range to work with processing your RAW files.  The sRGB is best for images intended for viewing on screen/web. I develop most of my RAW images in Lightroom, and then will send them over to Affinity Photo for finishing them up, for things that Lightroom can not do. So I use the ProPhoto for that reason.

There should be a drop-down menu beside each one, where you are provided with several options.

[Affinity Photo]

What Font Manager did you install? Also some graphic/illustration programs will install some fonts. There are some fonts that are for use when typing in other languages. In Windows 10 you can go to the Fonts folder (Control Panel>Fonts), and Hide all those that are not for your language, ie; English. It might be one of those is causing the problem with AP loading. Sorry I can't think of an easy way to weed out a specific rogue font.

[How to adjust bright light coming into a room through a window? (Split)]

Hi Charla, Welcome to the forums.

First I'm afraid that there are no details left in the window, it seems to be blown out. So any amount of reducing the brightness or highlights will not bring back detail. The way to deal with this is in camera. Expose for the highlights, and maybe use a flash to light up the interior of the room. Or with the camera locked down on a tripod take 2 separate images, 1- exposing for the window light, and a second exposing for the interior. Then in post  you can blend them together.

A full list of Affinity Photo Tutorials can be found at this link: Affinity Photo Official Tutorials

[Constrain Brush to Straight Line]

On 10/27/2018 at 9:49 AM, tommy_g003 said:

As I just posted in a similar thread, this missing feature has put this potential customer off buying Affinity Photo, and it's a shame because I was super-excited to have found an otherwise great alternative to Photoshop.  To be clear, this needs to work like Photoshop whereby you can hold the shift key to constrain a painted line to be horizontal or vertical as you are painting it.  And no the pen tool is not a valid substitute. And no the 'shift-click-to-continue-the-previous-line' functionality is also not a substitute.

Serif AP is not alone in this. It appears for now just the "high-end" programs are able to do this. Paintshop Pro does not, but PhotoPaint does. Affinity Photo is more in line with Paintshop Pro, while Photopaint, part of Coreldraw Suite, is more like PhotoShop and Illustrator.

[How to edit smart object mockup in affinity photo?]

49 minutes ago, John Rostron said:

These postings confound two aspects of Smart Objects. Affinity offers a similar workflow/functionality to that of PS smart objects, but they do not have the same structure and are thus not interchangeable. Affinity cannot read PSD smart objects, but PS may or may not be able to read the Affinity equivalent. If will all depend on whether the user needs to transfer image files between AF and PS. If not, then AF will offer all the user needs.

John

 

What is Affinity's similar workflow/functionality to PS Smart Objects? I'd like to utilize that.

[Saving work in afphoto (project) file]

Sorry for the delay in getting back, been a little busy lately. I'll have to get use to this, and take notes or something.

 

Thank you.

[Saving work in afphoto (project) file]

I'm new to Serif Affinity Photo. I purchased it with hopes to replace PS of my photography bundle, I still use LR for the majority of my RAW conversion and processing. I tried searching for an answer to a problem I came across recently and couldn't find one.

When working on a project, I saved it, using the Save As, which of course saved it as an afphoto file. There were steps I used in this project that I wanted to later recreate. However sadly it seems they are not saved when I reopened the project. History starts all over, why? I would think that saving a project (afphoto) would retain this information. I do understand that the changes made in the Develop Persona are baked, as it is a RAW conversion. This however was not in the Develop Persona, but the Photo Persona. Here's what I done, and was hoping the project retained;

I first tried sending the photo from LR to AP, which was a TIFF or PSD file. Photo did open the file and I was able to work on it. I tried saving it to send it back to LR, without closing Photo. I then done a save as, to save the project. Photo did save a afphoto file, sadly the next day I discovered the file was empty, 0 bytes. So I had to try and recall the steps used to create the image file. Also Photo did not send the file back to LR. The PSD was created, just that for some reason, when installing Affinity Photo, it decided to associate my PSD files with itself, which prevented LR from using them in this round trip process.

Now, when I have been recreating this image, I'm seeing that none of my steps are saved in the History if I close the program. These are all in the Photo Persona;

1. Creating a duplicate Layer
2. Cropping
3. Applying the Mirror Filter

The crop and filter are baked in. However reflecting on this I guess this would be the same as PS's Smart Objects, and is something that Affinity Photo is not capable of, . However why does it save other filters? Perhaps I'm not going about it correctly? So is Photo able to save all the Filters applied in a project?

Thank you.

[Affinity DAM and Lightroom?]

I had to cancel my CC Photography bundle, but I am still using the current perpetual LR version. I've become very accustom to LR. I also have On1 Raw, and they just added a catalog feature, but I'm not using it. 

I ran the trial to Affinity Photo and subsequently purchased it, hoping it will help fill the PS void. I do almost all my photo processing in LR. So far I'm having a few problems with sending a photo from LR to Affinity and then getting it back in LR. I read where this is suppose to be possible. Hopefully it is and just a small glitch where the install of AP changed the PSD file association. I manually removed AP from that.

Until this thread I had no idea that Serif was even considering a DAM, which right now is not a deal breaker for me. I'll still use LR, just needing something to replace PS.