Affinity vs PhotoShop advanced object

[Lupo76]

Hello to all,

I just installed Affinity Photo as I am looking for a valid PhotoShop replacement (of which I am not an expert).
The first impression is excellent, however I have a question: in PhotoShop you can right click on a layer and convert it to "Advanced Object", in this way the layer retains its maximum resolution and not that of the current file; also with a double-click it can be managed as a separate file

Is there a similar feature in Affinity Photo?
If it exists I really think I'll switch to Affinity Photo ;-)

Thank you.

[mac_heibu]

You are talking about Photoshop‘s „SmartObjects“ ( not „advanced objects“).
Generally there is a similar Affinity feature:

Every placed image is marked as „image“ in the „Layers“ panel and contains the full resolution source data, as long as you don‘t rasterize it (pixel layer). That means: Resizing, scaling, shifting shearing, rotating, … an image layer won‘t touch the original data at all. Only pixel layers will degrade their source quality by performing transform actions.

Double clicking onto an image layer will open the original image in a separate window, where you are able to edit it.

 

[Lupo76]

Hi,

Thank you for your answer.
I have Photoshop in Italian and maybe SmartObjects has been translated into "advanced objects".
In any case, I think you have perfectly understood my question.

Here is my procedure in Affinity Photo

1. I open a 1000x500 pixel file and copy the entire contents to the clipboard
2. I open a 300x300 pixel file and start Paste
3. As a result I get a new layer (pixel)

Question: how can I convert this layer to "image"?

[woefi]

@Lupo76 I think the usual way would be to not copy it thru the clipboard but instead save it on disk as a file. Then you drag it into your destination image, where you can scale it undestructively.

I've done it many times and it works. But remember: save every Part of your "collage" as a single file, be it a Affinity Designer Vector graphic or another Affinity Photo pixel image.

The only thing I'm missing from photoshop's way is the ability to perspectively scale these objects. At least I didn't find it yet... Maybe someone can help?

[mac_heibu]

@woefi is correct.

 I, for my part, never(!) copy and paste images into press and print related applications. This may be the usual approach when using office applications like Word, but it isn’t the the way, which you should choose with professional image editing and layout applications. You have much more control by saving the image and importing it. Thus, you don’t risk problems by introducing the operating system’s clipboard as one more „player“ into your workflow.Depending on your operating system this may cause color space and resolution issues.

[Lupo76]

OK,

with the drag & drop of the file I can do what I want ... thanks for your suggestion !! :-)

I was unable to open the embedded layer as a separate file ... what is the procedure?

>>The only thing I'm missing from photoshop's way is the ability to perspectively scale these objects. At least I didn't find it yet... Maybe someone can help?

Indeed this is also important, has anyone succeeded in this operation?

[mac_heibu]

I was wrong. You can’t edit a placed image by double click. But its source resolution remains untouched. You can check this by using the resolution controls top left in the application window.

Don‘t expect every feature, you are using in Photoshop, to be present in a new application. Development needs time …

[Lupo76]

11 minutes ago, mac_heibu said:

Mi sbagliavo. Non è possibile modificare un'immagine posizionata con un doppio clic. Ma la sua risoluzione alla fonte rimane intatta.

Non aspettarti che tutte le funzionalità che stai utilizzando in Photoshop siano presenti in una nuova applicazione. Lo sviluppo ha bisogno di tempo ...

Actually you can edit it, at the top there is a bar with 2 buttons "Edit Document" and "Replace Document".
I am aware that Affinity Photo does not have all the features of PhotoShop, however it seems you have everything I need, in fact I have just purchased 2 licenses.

Thanks for your help!

 

[mac_heibu]

Yes, of course you can do this with placed documents (psd, pdf, afphoto, …). But in this case the double click is working too to open the document in a new window and edit it.

You can’t do this with placed images (tif, jpg, png, …), and that’s what I was talking about in my last post. I assumed, you are talking about images, because you couldn’t edit it by double clicking.

[walt.farrell]

13 minutes ago, mac_heibu said:

You can’t do this with placed images (tif, jpg, png, …), and that’s what I was talking about in my last post.

Actually, you can, but only if they are linked rather than embedded. In that case you have the Edit Image button, but if you Save your changes, you change the original file

[woefi]

@Lupo76 OK, finally got to play a bit around with photo, as I mostly use Designer and Publisher:

Yes, you can combine this feature of nesting documents into documents with the undestructible "Perspective Live Filter", which would work for my purposes of making mockups of billboards or faking screenshots on monitor photos.

...wouldn't mind having this in Designer, too...  PSA: Well in fact, you can open this document in designer and adjust the perspective or copy it to another vector object. .

 

Sorry, if this a bit off-topic, but I was glad too early: The perspective filter rasterizes vector objects when it is exported as pdf for example... 

 

[mac_heibu]

11 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Actually, you can, but only if they are linked rather than embedded. In that case you have the Edit Image button, but if you Save your changes, you change the original file

Yes Walt. But the initial poster started with pasting images from a different application.

Quote

1. I open a 1000x500 pixel file and copy the entire contents to the clipboard
2. I open a 300x300 pixel file and start Paste
3. As a result I get a new layer (pixel)

So there is no linking.