ianrb

bit of spit and polishing ; and still ''without care in the world'' 1] original raw file -- just as well I have some idea about editing 2] as edited yesterday  3] orton effect and background colours added in Affinity (yep; used the graduation tool  Pana Fz300




I have used the Orton effect for years and there many way to do it; however this is based on James's video click
Little trick to add shadow under log ONLY >add FX shadow to dog/log section >deplicute >remove Fx from bottom layer >add mask to top layer >brush away top layer to leave only the bottom part of the log and the shadow --- something I taught or perhaps retaught myself today .
You could paint in the shadow but that didn't work for me 
suggestions  comments questions welcome 

Kudos for the experiments Ian, got to mash it up and see what happens, all part of the creative process. 

Those pics are interesting, but the second one is confusing:
In the first, that's sure the main subject is the dog
On the second one, the landscape fights the dog to get the main focus
In the third, that's sure it's the dog!
Keep on liking them like we do.

thanks for your honest thoughts @Wosven & @firstdefence-- not sure I like it much now myself  . There is certainly more of a story in the original edit. Was more about trying the Affinity Orton way as explained by James; and fiddling with those gradient tools
The area behind the dog is a salty and smelly  water hole / lagoon / billabong off the Murray River.  Extremely dry here for 18 month; however that log was under flood water a few years ago. I have recorded some amazing salt patterns there 
 
I meant to mention the shadow under the log: >add shadow >duplicate layer >remove shadow from bottom layer >add mask to top layer >brush out the top layer to leave the still adjustable shadow 
wish I had and knew these tricks 30-40  years ago --- I had a mini lab then
Cheers

I've said the same thing myself!   If you combine @firstdefence's excellent instructions with the old adage that "black conceals, white reveals" it might make things clearer.   I found using the gradient tools was one of the least intuitive things in AP, but once the penny drops it's an amazingly powerful tool - maybe this is a case of no pain, no gain?

bit of spit and polishing ; and still ''without care in the world'' 1] original raw file -- just as well I have some idea about editing 2] as edited yesterday  3] orton effect and background colours added in Affinity (yep; used the graduation tool  Pana Fz300




I have used the Orton effect for years and there many way to do it; however this is based on James's video click
Little trick to add shadow under log ONLY >add FX shadow to dog/log section >deplicute >remove Fx from bottom layer >add mask to top layer >brush away top layer to leave only the bottom part of the log and the shadow --- something I taught or perhaps retaught myself today .
You could paint in the shadow but that didn't work for me 
suggestions  comments questions welcome 

It sounds as though this may be an issue with Lr5, as the image is sent from one app to the other, it may be being compressed etc in order to be transferred.
The other possibility is that you're seeing the differences between RAW engines and noise reduction, this has been greatly improved in the Affinity Photo 1.7 beta. I'd recommend installing this and opening your images from Lr5 here to see if the issue is negated  

FWIW,
I use LR 6.14 and tried to replicate Ian's noise issue. I don't see it when I send an image to AP 1.6 from LR. Of course I developed it as far as I normally do in LR, including Noise Reduction. I tried it with an image of a sky that I had under exposed where there is more noise. Sending it to AP, and then viewing it at 100% I could not see anything different from the RAW in LR. The images are sent to AP using  16 bit TIFF ProPhoto RGB, no compression. I don't know if Ian is using a Zip compression, which is the only compression offered by LR. 
I've attached the settings used in LR and a reduced, JPG image of how the image looked in AP. I had to scale it down to upload, the TIFF was over 100MB, and would have taken forever to upload on my primitive snail speed internet connection.
Decided to run a Zip compressed TIFF from LR to AP, in AP I could not see any difference. However to upload the 2nd image I exported from AP and not LR, and just discovered a major difference in color. I didn't do anything to the image in AP, just exported it.
Ok checked the second one, and used the ProPhoto, so changed it to sRGB and the color looks better.


 

Got it now; all makes sense
many thanks 

If a computer can make you think you're crazy it will, I have loads of people say "it did it 5 minutes ago, honest" computer thinks "mission accomplished, muhaha!" 

Aside from the forum software probably not being able to support mandatory tags, please keep in mind that this is a support site for a range of commercial software products. That includes pre-purchase support questions about which product would be best for some use, general licensing questions, feature requests & feedback that may apply to any number of products (including ones Serif has no current interest in developing), a resources section for sharing things that often are usable in multiple apps, a subsection for customer account & purchase related issues, & so on.
So in many cases there is no one app or version tag that would be appropriate. In addition to that, from my experiences in other support forums (most notably Apple's) creating too many sub-forums is not a very good idea because people not very familiar with the site or the products either feel intimidated & just give up, not posting anything; or just pick a forum at random (usually one near the top of the list) & post to that.

I don't think the forum software is capable of doing this, but I agree mandatory tags would be a help in searching and filtering but so would a clear and concise title and explanation of the issue when the OP creates a new topic.
The forum software is capable of sub forums hint! hint!

will be great when "save  window layout" is available 

Hi Kheewz,
This is the fastest way I'm afraid. However I will move this thread to the Feature Requests section as this would make a good addition to the app.
Thanks
Callum

AFAIK, there is only 1 grid present at a time, and it can not be saved.
You could make various grids w. a main division of 64, 128, 256... and you can then set the number of subdivisions to integers of the base divided by 4. You might need to reduce the snapping tolerance, considering the base is 8.
I s'pose you could make an asset set of grid lines at the different proportions, and bring those into the document as needed for snapping points.
 

Thanks. I will try it.

Really nice work. Immediately reminded me of the Leonard Cohen song: Like a bird on a wire...

Yes, it's sorted out.   I had opened a picture (jpg/png or similar) then added text.  After exporting (as a jpg/png/whatever) Affinity was, basically saying 'do I want to save as an Affinity Photo file so I don't lose my edits (layers of text)'.  That's how I see it anyway.  So, I did save as an Affinity Photo type (just incase I'd like to change that text!).     

Just for a laugh. We can never say the inpaint brush does not at least try to read my mind -- however this [#2] was not quite as I had in mind . Trick: get one side clean > duplicate layer > rotate > use a layer mask to reveal the clean layer as in #3. That make sense? will show the final photo later -- hopefully it give you a laugh also

Depends on the version of McAfee you use.

What do you think, what antivirus is preferable to use for these tasks? I did not find the exception function in the McAfee
 

HaHaHa John. It's one editing trick that is not explored by many. Like cropping, the whole composition can be changed dramatically . If I didn't tell you, you would have never known  
thanks for the comment.

It's 44c hot here -- working up to 46c . the record is between 46 - 47c  ; but will drop to a 28c tomorrow!!
This is a true "grab-shot" that happened while doing other things. Made from the three bracketed files -- just time for one click with the camera held above my head.
Honest comments and questions welcome as always