ianrb

noticing the picture is often the harder part of photography 1] original raw file

2] sort of as I saw it near the door

We often seem to wander widely looking for a subject when there can be so much in the extended backyards never noticed . how and why questions welcome

That proves if one doesn't ask they may never know even if everyone does ---- Thank you for the answer Walt. 
I'm off back to school to learn more about the whys and hows 
 

The newest Beta for Photo on Mac (v. 1.9.2.227) has included "Sort by Name" for the Brushes Panel.   It works!!!   This won't help with changing things within a category, or moving a single category somewhere within the entire list, but alphabetical order is a huge start!!   😄

Yup, Lots of fixes at the moment, one step forward half a step back. 
Make a category for the duplicate brushes you make and edit, rename the new category to "Ians Epic Brush Set" lol!. If you want to edit a brush think duplicate first, then edit the duplicate brush, this way you keep the original (base brush) and can mess around with the duplicate to your hearts content. Once you have the brush as you want it, you can right-click and move it to the category you made earlier.
Don't forget to periodically export that category for backup purposes.

??? Try read part "To save your workspace arrangement as a preset:"
https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/pages/Workspace/customizingWorkspace.html

You're welcome.
I can also recommend, for each major release:
Reading the Release Notes. E.g., for Photo 1.9 on Windows: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/132728-affinity-photo-for-windows-190/ Checking the Help, in the New Features in This Version (part of the Introduction section): https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/Introduction/keyFeatures.html?list=newFeatures

That proves if one doesn't ask they may never know even if everyone does ---- Thank you for the answer Walt. 
I'm off back to school to learn more about the whys and hows 
 

Hello whiz kids, an upgrade to organize brushes, and brush categories better --- perhaps with some colour coding also . 
Cheers 

Hello; the new facebook is annoying me no end so I popped over  here to annoy you
This was originally shared in facebook to help the newbies 
Not sure how this will work out for you ---- hopefully you will pick up a tip or trick ; or pass a tip onto me
First SS is how affinity photo stretched the three hand held 24mm vertical files . The camera was basically pointing overhead from the back yard to record this cloud that stretched from the western horizon to around 1/3 from the to eastern horizon.

1-4 screen shots shows how the affinity mesh warp tool was used to save most of the data rather than cropping it off. The more I use the tool the more I learn and find other ways to often fix bad photography


5] making the tree and clouds bigger


"finished" (never really finished)

one of the original files
 
Small warning: not suitable for every photo and you cannot go totally crazy as the image will look real weird. I had to redo this photo as the tree was starting to distort too much.
Tip: click on the icon >you can make square inside the photo and that part of the photo is protected. Doing it will explain it best .
your questions, honest comments/CC, and tips or tricks are welcome
JAMES!! I would love someone to make an advanced ''mesh warp tool'' video as I have not been able to find one so it's been all trial and error 
Yep; I agree -- the amount of work done and time spent to this point of typing was not really worth it but all good practise
Cheers

PS Long time since I used a forum and added photos 
 

 
 

Hello; the new facebook is annoying me no end so I popped over  here to annoy you
This was originally shared in facebook to help the newbies 
Not sure how this will work out for you ---- hopefully you will pick up a tip or trick ; or pass a tip onto me
First SS is how affinity photo stretched the three hand held 24mm vertical files . The camera was basically pointing overhead from the back yard to record this cloud that stretched from the western horizon to around 1/3 from the to eastern horizon.

1-4 screen shots shows how the affinity mesh warp tool was used to save most of the data rather than cropping it off. The more I use the tool the more I learn and find other ways to often fix bad photography


5] making the tree and clouds bigger


"finished" (never really finished)

one of the original files
 
Small warning: not suitable for every photo and you cannot go totally crazy as the image will look real weird. I had to redo this photo as the tree was starting to distort too much.
Tip: click on the icon >you can make square inside the photo and that part of the photo is protected. Doing it will explain it best .
your questions, honest comments/CC, and tips or tricks are welcome
JAMES!! I would love someone to make an advanced ''mesh warp tool'' video as I have not been able to find one so it's been all trial and error 
Yep; I agree -- the amount of work done and time spent to this point of typing was not really worth it but all good practise
Cheers

PS Long time since I used a forum and added photos 
 

 
 

Hello; the new facebook is annoying me no end so I popped over  here to annoy you
This was originally shared in facebook to help the newbies 
Not sure how this will work out for you ---- hopefully you will pick up a tip or trick ; or pass a tip onto me
First SS is how affinity photo stretched the three hand held 24mm vertical files . The camera was basically pointing overhead from the back yard to record this cloud that stretched from the western horizon to around 1/3 from the to eastern horizon.

1-4 screen shots shows how the affinity mesh warp tool was used to save most of the data rather than cropping it off. The more I use the tool the more I learn and find other ways to often fix bad photography


5] making the tree and clouds bigger


"finished" (never really finished)

one of the original files
 
Small warning: not suitable for every photo and you cannot go totally crazy as the image will look real weird. I had to redo this photo as the tree was starting to distort too much.
Tip: click on the icon >you can make square inside the photo and that part of the photo is protected. Doing it will explain it best .
your questions, honest comments/CC, and tips or tricks are welcome
JAMES!! I would love someone to make an advanced ''mesh warp tool'' video as I have not been able to find one so it's been all trial and error 
Yep; I agree -- the amount of work done and time spent to this point of typing was not really worth it but all good practise
Cheers

PS Long time since I used a forum and added photos 
 

 
 

Hello; the new facebook is annoying me no end so I popped over  here to annoy you
This was originally shared in facebook to help the newbies 
Not sure how this will work out for you ---- hopefully you will pick up a tip or trick ; or pass a tip onto me
First SS is how affinity photo stretched the three hand held 24mm vertical files . The camera was basically pointing overhead from the back yard to record this cloud that stretched from the western horizon to around 1/3 from the to eastern horizon.

1-4 screen shots shows how the affinity mesh warp tool was used to save most of the data rather than cropping it off. The more I use the tool the more I learn and find other ways to often fix bad photography


5] making the tree and clouds bigger


"finished" (never really finished)

one of the original files
 
Small warning: not suitable for every photo and you cannot go totally crazy as the image will look real weird. I had to redo this photo as the tree was starting to distort too much.
Tip: click on the icon >you can make square inside the photo and that part of the photo is protected. Doing it will explain it best .
your questions, honest comments/CC, and tips or tricks are welcome
JAMES!! I would love someone to make an advanced ''mesh warp tool'' video as I have not been able to find one so it's been all trial and error 
Yep; I agree -- the amount of work done and time spent to this point of typing was not really worth it but all good practise
Cheers

PS Long time since I used a forum and added photos 
 

 
 

Hi ianrb,
Do you happen to use keyboard shortcuts as part of your workflow, if so then i think you might be running into an issue that has been resolved in the latest beta, which you can download from here.  Try the beta and if it still happens, can you give me a full rundown of the steps you are taking?  

Thank you John, I haven't taken all that in yet (to early lol) 
But at a glance , resizing is not my problem in a macro. Setting "export'' into a macro seems the impossible task . Yep; I'm lazy and an extra click is just too work rof lol
Will look more closely latter  
 

Have you seen my macros to set an image size to a fixed maximum?
John

I've never understood why the 'Save Affinity layers' setting isn't included in the 'More' section.  This would make it possible to save a custom preset with this setting enabled.
 

Serif have hinted they've implemented something in 1.9, but we don't know for sure when the beta for that release will be available.

Consider as an alternative setting up an automatic live export in the Export persona and keeping a separate PNG or JPG (or TIFF if really necessary - PNG is much smaller and still recognized by most everything; JPG is lossy but if that is your final output format anyway then you already have it when you are done?) next to your .afphoto file?
That way you have a separate preview file which gets updated automatically as you work, you retain all of the settings by using the native format, and I have generally found that the native format loads and saves much faster than using PSD (or likely TIFF) as trying to work with those formats directly will generally be treated as an import/export behind the scenes every time you try to load or save, meaning that the software is converting the file back and forth every time you try to use it anyway.

"Save Affinity layers" would be a bad default, I believe, for most users. Most of us would use .afphoto files when saving proprietary Affinity data, not TIFF format.
Having a way for a user to make it their personal default seems like it could provide a good function, though.

Yes, I have the same or similar macro's. I was just asking and noting there are many effects that have gotten their 'own' tool, while it is possible to achieve the same in many alternative ways. The above alternative is the one i prefer, by the way, because it's so easy while being non-destructive.

Yes, therefore, the rules of the forum state that each requirement should be formulated separately.
 

Great suggestions here and there - thank you for taking your time taking notes and sharing your wishes.
Advice from a cranky old man - I prefer regular bullets from the editor for readability 😃

Many are familiar with the layers based dodge and burn tool using 50% grey softlight blending layer to paint with a black or white brush, or colour (or google it  .

Recently learnt, and have been using a new one that doesn't have the 50% grey 
>new blank layer >add softlight blend >paint with black, or white, or even a colour
Apparently we don't actually need the 50% grey!!

BTW the built in dodge and burn tools are great for targeting shadows, midtones, or highlights. However; always use a duplicate layer or layers

used a 30% opacity hard  brush to D+B this image



can be used to colour photos --- great for black and white photos

Hello, as there was not much for me in the last update, I thought I should start making notes when I found something missing, could be better, or just plain annoying .
Some of these requests may already be operational but I don't know them.
Many may have already been requested.

Not sure if this thread should be left open as it will likely get messy real quick – your choice moderators ;). 

In no particular order.
>> turn off LX without the need to go back to the panel (tick box in the layer panel.
>> Arrange >flip/rotate --- I'm sure in the past I did not need to click “move” before being able to flip/rotate the active layer (??).
>> Being able to select multiple panels from studio would be good start for the above
>> Save preferred measure units . Now I have an “inches” macro it's not that important so perhaps a default macro maybe an idea >> >> Smoother/softer/wider brush feathering --- especially when brush is small
>> Smart brush like Lr – I can do so much with that one round Lr5 brush .
>> Have the brush being used highlighted is the brush list.
>> Larger tick/activate boxes in layers.
>> More contrast/colour in photo name panel --- the one below the context bar .
>> Add the word “merge” when merge visibility is used in layers.
>> Select multiple brushed to drag drop when organising into groups
>> moving and personalise brush groups – colours would be handy too
>> quicker/easier way to activate a saved selection – only way I know is via channels. Keyboard shortcut option would be handy
>> add the original file name when copy flattened >save from clip board is used.
>> Library name panels could be thinner with colour options .
>> show the highlight/shadow clippings on the screen (like Lr5)
Thanks for reading. Just a few of those would make a very good program just little better IMO

In case you are in Windows this might help:
 https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/93612-windows-spaceman-workspace-manager-for-affinty/