DeepDesertPhoto
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Everything posted by DeepDesertPhoto
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Thanks for getting back with me. Actually, while I was waiting for your reply I also did some experiments to see if I could get around this crashing problem. I found it was crashing with the other layers too. The only layer that did not cause a crash was the bottom (6th) layer. As part of my experimentation I re-rasterized all 6 layers and that seemed to fix the problem. Just to let you know, this also could be related to Affinity Designer. This file was originally created using Affinity Designer, but I needed to do some work on it that could only be done with Affinity Photo. So I opened the original Designer file with Affinity Photo and resaved it as an .afphoto document. I then reopened it with AP to continue my work and that is when the crashes started occurring. It is only a theory, but maybe this is a compatibility issue between Designer and AP created files. Perhaps the original file had coding in it from Designer that did not get properly converted when I resaved it as an AP document. That could be something to investigate. I'll let you know if I have any further issues. -
I almost forgot. Here is a screenshot of the settings panel. Except for the RAM usage, and the Disk usage warning, I have left everything at the default settings.
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Thanks for your response. I am in Arizona so there is a big timezone difference between us. I just finished uploading the file in question to the DropBox link you posted. Here are two screenshots. The first screenshot shows the file open and the filter dropdown menu. The Shadows/Highlights filter is highlighted. When I click that to make an adjustment on the 5th layer, which you can see in the layers on the right, the program freezes and then quits after about a minute or so of the spinning rainbow wheel. The adjustment window never does pop up. The 2nd screenshot shows the error report that pops up after the program quit. I clicked "Send to Apple" so you should get the details of that when Apple forwards it to you. I've got to go out today, so I may not be able to reply further until later today or tomorrow morning, but hopefully you can solve this problem.
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I don't know if this has been brought up yet, but I am working on a photo manipulation that has 6 layers, with each layer being a separate image. When I was trying to initiate the Shadows/Highlights adjustment from the Filters dropdown menu to make adjustments on one layer the program would quit and I would get the error notification to send to Apple. This has now happened 10 times, which is why I am posting it in the forum to see if this particular error has been encountered before. I am running AP2.4 on a 2021 MacBook Pro Ventura. The problem seems to be affecting only this one file because I tried the same adjustments with a Nikon D810 raw photo and had no problems. The image I am working on is 7000 pixels square, 32bit HDR in ROMM RGB color. As I mentioned, it is composed of 6 layers that have been rasterized. The file is rather large at over 700 megabytes saved as an Affinity Photo Document. I have worked on files much larger than this without a problem, so I am wondering if this has something to do with the number of active layers. The problem started when I added a 6th layer. If this is a bug that is currently being addressed please let me know so that I can await the next update.
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Fortunately, Upscayl works on mine, but I had to upgrade to Ventura because many of the business sites I deal with would no longer let me log in using High Sierra. It got to the point where my bank kept warning me that my older version of Safari was no longer supported and would not let me login for security reasons. That's just the nature of our current computerized society. The manufacturers push the latest gadgets and gizmos. I only upgrade if I have to in order to do my work.
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You're welcome. I am currently doing some experiments to see if I can improve the detail even more. If I can come up with a procedure I will share it in a separate thread.
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As you suggested to me in the other thread about lists of vector related tools, I tried the Upscayl program and it does seem to work pretty good. It is not perfect, but for low resolution images it should provide the detail I need for my work. I am including two examples. The first image is the original low resolution version. As you can see it is extremely pixelated. It was originally only 72PPI and only 21 Kilobytes in size. So it had very little data. The 2nd image is the result using Upscayl. It is obviously clearer, the colors are good, and details are impressive given how pixelated the original was. It's not 100% perfect, but if it can do this with a virtually unusable image the program should work good for images that have more original detail available for the program to extrapolate from. Thanks again for the reference of this program.
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Good news. I tried the program and it does work. It wasn't perfect, but it should give me the details I need in low resolution images for my manipulation and illustration work. I will go to the thread your list is on to post the results for those that might be curious.
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I sent Nathan at the Affinity Team an email explaining that this forum thread he originally referred me to did not provide all of the information I was looking for. He replied to my email and sent me a link to their official site Help Page that explains all of the tools and features in more detail. I bookmarked that page so that I can refer back to it in the future. Google does not always find what I am looking for. But I will try that Upscayl program that ashf referred me to. If it helps sharpen up the low resolution reference images I get off the internet for my work then at least I got something out of this discussion.
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I have used the warp mesh in AP. But it doesn't always work the way I want with certain images. There are some instances where I needed to create some pretty unusual curvature effects in a photo, but when I used AP's warp mesh it would cause some softening of the photo. When I watched the video tutorial about using the fisheye warp tool in Designer I thought that maybe that would enable me to create the effects I need without losing the details of the photo. But it didn't work. That is why I wanted to see if there was a way to convert a raster photo into a vector object. Anyway, I will try out the Upscayl tomorrow to see if it can sharpen up some low resolution photos I have.
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I managed to download it this time by clicking the DMG link beneath the App Store link. I thought they were both the same link so I didn't think to try them separately the first time. I will install it tomorrow and give it a try. If it works then one problem will be solved. But there is still an issue I have with Affinity Designer. There are some effects I wanted to do with some of my photos that cannot be done with AP. That is why I got Affinity Designer. But when I tried to use the vector related tools in AD on my photos, such as the warp group, it would not work. That is why I contacted the Affinity Team. They told me they were still working on vector conversion tools for raster images and didn't know when they would be ready. So I asked them about 3rd party conversion tools to convert my photos to vector so that I could then do the manipulations with Designer. That was when they referred me to this forum. But since the 3rd party vectorizers cannot preserve the color gradients in the original photos I will have to wait until Affinity has something ready for me to try. If the Upscayl program works I will let you know. Have a nice evening.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I was thinking of giving Upscayl a shot since you had it on your list as being free, but when I went to the site it redirected me to the Apple App Store and the program now costs $12.99 I'm reluctant to pay for it without trying it first. It has only 2 reviews and one of those reviews is bad. The developer offered to help fix the problem that customer was having but there was no followup comment on whether the customer got the problem fixed or not. When I first tried Affinity Photo it gave me a 14 day free trial period before requiring payment. I think I will wait and see if Affinity comes up with some more tools for their programs.
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Before I came here I sent the Affinity Team an email posing these questions. It was they who referring me to this thread since one of my questions had to to with converting a raster photo to vector format.
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I understand what you're saying. The problem I was having was with resolution conversion. Some of the images I got off the internet were only 72 PPI. When I changed that to 300 PPI and then attempted to upscale to the pixel size I needed I would get pixelation on the sharp edges and detail softening in other areas. I was able to solve some of this problem by resizing the image document using one of the Lanczos algorithms. That removed the pixelation, but the details were still lacking.
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The Affinity version of a smart object is apparently not the same as the CS5 version. When I tried scaling up some of the photos I got off the internet I would either get pixilation or detail softening. That's why I was hoping that a vector program would work. But no such luck. The CS5 version of smart objects allowed me to scale an image up to 5 times its original size and still preserved at least 75% of the details. Right now I am using a 2021 MacBook Pro running Ventura. So any Photoshop programs below Creative Cloud will not work. I will have to wait and see if Affinity improves their version of smart objects to give them more vector properties while preserving the colors of the original image. Thanks for the suggestions.
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I can see what you mean. This rendering is terrible. The original Affinity Photo document is in 32 bit HDR. The version I uploaded here was converted to 8 bit sRGB, and the vector tracer could not even preserve that. I can use Affinity Photo, or Designer, to do the digital painting, but in order to do the warping or liquifying of the reference images I got off the internet I need to upscale them to the same resolution of my illustration so that the details are preserved. It's clear that vector programs won't work. Before I got Affinity Photo I used to use Photoshop CS5. It had a feature in which I could place a raster image into the canvas as a "smart object" which had properties similar to a vector yet preserved the colors of the original image. I was able to scale the smart object up and preserve most of the details. Unfortunately CS5 was not compatible with newer versions of Mac OS. The Adobe technicians told me that they never tested CS5 above El Capitan. They suggested using Creative Cloud, but I told them I was not going to rent a program by the month. That's when I found Affinity, and except for this particular problem with my illustration work, it works fine for developing photos. Maybe Affinity will come up with something similar to what was used in Photoshop. Until Affinity comes up with a solution, are there any programs you know of that can upscale images and preserve the original colors, and at least most of the details?
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I tried to reply earlier, but for some reason it didn't get posted, so here goes again. The primary reason I want to convert raster images, such as photos, to vectors, is so that I can scale, warp, and liquify them while preserving the details. Some of the illustrations I create involve combining digital paintings with photographic components. Here is an example of what I mean. The following image is my current work in progress. The girl was digitally painted using the paint and smudge tools in Affinity Photo. That was the easy part. The hard part was when I tried to put clothing on her. It is too difficult to paint the fine details in clothing from scratch, so I searched for photos of women in costumes to use as reference. However, many of them were low resolution. When I tried to scale the reference photos to the same resolution of my digital painting a lot of fine details in the fabric was lost. When I tried to warp, shear, and liquify the parts of the photos I needed to fit the body of the girl in my painting it got worse. The details almost became blurred. It took a lot a work to manually correct this problem. Although the sample image I uploaded might look alright the clothing still does not have the original details I wanted. I have read that vector formats are much easier to scale up than raster images and will preserve most if not all of the original details. That is why I was investigating the possibility of converting the reference photos to vectors in order to scale them up to the resolution I needed before editing them with the other tools in AP or Designer. However, you mentioned that vector conversion programs have issues with complex colors and gradients. I need to preserve the various shades of colors, so do you know if any of the programs you listed can preserve the original colors to at least the equivalent of 16 bit color depth? I would like to find out as much as possible before downloading and playing around with programs I have never tried before.
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Hello. I need some advice before I pick one of the listed programs. I have been using Affinity Photo since 2016. It is an excellent program for developing photos, but it does have some limitations. Sometimes I need to manipulate my photos in ways that cannot be done by AP without creating a softening effect, or other distortions. I read that vector images don't have this problem so I recently purchased Affinity Designer in the hopes it will do certain work that cannot be done with AP. However, I discovered that some of the vector related tools in AD simply don't work on rasterized images. What I need is to convert an AP Document into a true vector so that the vector tools in Affinity Designer will work on it without creating the softening or distortions I encountered with AP. One tool I needed in AD is the Fisheye Warp, but it won't work unless the image is a true vector. So before I pick one of the programs in your list, which one of these is good for converting a raster image, such as an Affinity Photo Document, TIFF, or PNG, to a true vector so that I can then work on it with Designer? I am currently using a MacBook Pro running Ventura.
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I do have Brave, but I only use it with sites that Safari has a problem with. You would think that an expensive Apple product would not have these issues requiring the use of a 3rd party browser.
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Thanks. No point in keeping a program I don't use anymore, especially since AP1 is consuming 2.63 GB of space on the drive. By the way, sometimes I have to reply twice to get my reply to show up on the thread. Is that a problem with the forum or could it be related to my browser. I am using Safari.
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I don't know if this has been answered yet in other threads, but I was wondering if removing AP-1 from my MacBook would cause problems for AP-2. Since I have upgraded to AP-2 I have not used AP-1 for several months. AP-1 is showing as a separate program in my applications list but I want to make sure it is not interconnected with AP-2 in some way before I remove it.
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Banding occurring with blue sky AP2
DeepDesertPhoto replied to DeepDesertPhoto's topic in V2 Bugs found on macOS
On another note, I viewed the photo I first uploaded at the beginning of this thread in the two different Apple display settings and I can see a difference between the factory default and the P3-D65 photography setting. The banding does appear to be reduced in intensity when viewed with the P3-D65 setting. -
Banding occurring with blue sky AP2
DeepDesertPhoto replied to DeepDesertPhoto's topic in V2 Bugs found on macOS
Unfortunately all of the development settings I used in AP1 got erased when I used Time Machine to migrate it to my new Mac, and I cannot remember all of the settings I used for the Development Persona. However, I can tell you that when I exported to JPEG I used Lanczos (Separable) compression to preserve the original details with sRGB embedded in the JPEG profile so that it would be compatible with the websites I display them on. I used this JPEG export setting for both AP1 and AP2. I have been thinking of removing AP1 since I am now using AP2 with new custom settings. The only reason I haven't done it yet is because I was not sure it AP2 would be impacted. However, while I was waiting for a response to my last reply to your first suggestion, I watched a couple of video tutorials on the new Apple Liquid Retina XDR display, and it appears that this new display does have an effect on how color dependent images are displayed. According to the tutorial the default setting can cause problems with white balance and contrasts. The tutorial said that if you are working on color intensive workflows, such as camera raw photos or illustrations, it is best to turn off the "True Tone" feature of the display. That feature actually adjusts the white balance based on the ambient light in the room. That can be a problem when trying to determine the true white balance of photos. The tutorial also showed what display presets might be useful for certain workflows. For example, while I am working on photo editing with AP2 I set the display for a preset labeled "Photography (P3-D65)". I also customized this preset by going into its settings and activated the HDR processing. It did seem to have an effect on the way the images displayed. The banding is still present, but with the P3-D65 display setting it is reduced to more acceptable levels, and is only visible in certain darker shades of blue instead of all blue color like before. There is one drawback to this setting, however. It locks the display so that you cannot change the brightness of the screen. So when I am done editing my photos I have to go back into the presets menu and reset it back to the default so that I can turn down the brightness when just surfing the web or checking email. -
Banding occurring with blue sky AP2
DeepDesertPhoto replied to DeepDesertPhoto's topic in V2 Bugs found on macOS
I tried your suggestion but it had no effect. I have been using AP since 2017. However, in the past I was using it on a 2012 MacBook Pro running High Sierra. AP2 was not compatible with High Sierra, but when my older Mac developed a drive problem I went ahead and upgraded to a 2021 MacBook Pro 16 inch running Ventura. This was when I decided to try out AP2. When your suggestion had no effect I decided to take a look at some of my older photos that had been processed with AP1 on the older Mac. I immediately saw the same banding in blue skies that was not visible on my older Mac. I checked the specs of my newer Mac and it uses something called a Liquid Retina XDR (Extreme Dynamic Range) display. This is a higher resolution screen when compared to my older Mac and I am wondering if it could be causing the problem by revealing banding that was simply not visible on the older screens. Could this be a possibility, and if so is there a way to fix it? -
I am using a MacBook Pro 16inch 2021 running Ventura. I used to have the output color profile for AP1 set to Wide Gamut RGB Linear and Wide Gamut RGB Calibrated for 32 Bit HDR. When I applied those same settings to AP2 I noticed that some colors did not seem quite right and I was getting highlight blowouts when exporting to JPG with sRGB embedded profile. I switched to ProPhoto RGB Linear for 32 bit HDR and that eliminated the highlight blowouts, but now I am getting a faint banding effect in blue skies when I export to JPG sRGB. I do not see this banding while developing the camera raw file or when I export to a 16 bit LAB Tiff file. It only occurs when exporting to JPG sRGB. I have tried various methods of smoothing this banding out but nothing has worked, and since I did not encounter this problem in AP1 I am suspecting another bug in the software related to how it compresses JPGs. I have noticed that the file sizes for my JPG exports in AP2 are smaller than AP1 by as much as 10 megabytes even though I have the JPG compression set to 100%. Could this be a problem with the way AP2 is creating JPGs from the camera raw images? I have attached an image to illustrate the banding in the blue sky.
