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How about a Beginners Forum?


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Am starting to go through the excellent Simon Fraser tutorials and recalled an Affinity short, (4 min?) Introduction/Basics tutorial where they used an example of removing a  dog running toward the camera in a photo. It was done simply and fast. And I cannot find that video to find the tool, so I went to all the Affinity official videos to try and find it, as I assumed it would be one of the first, but of the 81 I could not find it, or any Basic or Introduction videos. Maybe I missed them, but that has been my complaint, most are intermediate and experts and the beginners are left out. Many are PS users or Lightroom, but what if we are not?

Why not have a Beginners Forum, where we are not embarrassed to ask simple questions to get going? Also, if anyone knows the link I am referring to, pls send it.

Thx, Stuart

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Maybe this?

https://player.vimeo.com/video/130966523

Also, here is a link to the “old” video tutorials

 

Affinity Photo 2, Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2 (latest retail versions) - desktop & iPad
Culling - FastRawViewer; Raw Developer - Capture One Pro; Asset Management - Photo Supreme
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Interesting. The first link was what I was looking for, thank you, but not the video itself of my reference, no matter

The second link, apparently, is the old tutorials, but what stands out is the same guy is speaking to the beginners in the Save tutorial in a slow and clear manner, not the speeded up tutorials of I guess later videos. For beginners, this is imperative, a slow, step by step process. I suggest he color his arrow red to find and follow.

Question: if one is finished editing, or not, a photo, where to put it? i have a few afphoto images on my desktop. What and where should they be filed please? I have a Mac. Thanks

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Beginner! You're not kidding.

As user of Photo you have many tutorials available. Very few Affinity Publisher 

After a break of 30 years since my first publication using PagePlus, I've returned to the fold and purchased Affinity Publisher. Talk about a learning curve.

As a beginner I looked at the Affinity Tutorials and really struggled. Way above my standard. The tutors are indeed fabulous, but the speed of their tuition assumes knowledge. I looked at many of the YouTube tutorials and finally settled on https://courses.affinityrevolution.com/courses The course tutor assumes no knowledge at all and takes it from there. The mouse moves, and as a beginner that is what it is all about, at a pace slow enough to follow. Allowing the pause, go to your own programme, try and return.

Any questions submitted to the tutor were acknowledges and a reply came within 24 hours. Can't fault the course.  I felt confident enough to begin to tackle the myriad of Affinity tutorials. However I was able to recap on my 'revolution' course when it got too involved (often). 

To see what I mean, they have a new Free lesson about removing shadows on photographs. https://courses.affinityrevolution.com/courses

 

A beginners forum? Not sure if it is feasible. 

Would love it, but my problem has been the inability to put the information into 'tech speak'. Many of the 'experts' are able to decipher the request and with gentle nudging get the gist and give the answer. Sometimes in 'tech speak', but often as not dumbed down specifically for me. Very pleased with the forum and practitioners at all levels.

Regards

Ross

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Ross, Good point re the idea of a Beginners Forum. Unless the "experts' monitor it, the blind leading the blind might possibly be the result, though I am of the school "if you do not know, learn. If you do, teach" So, my hope was to have the experts guide the newbies. Maybe it is my reluctance to ask necessary questions at my stage, but I must say, when I have asked specific, seemingly dumb questions, they have been answered with information, not ridicule, for which I am appreciative. The new forum was just a thought, no biggie, appreciate your input.

Yes, I went to all the teaching tutorials, I did try your guy, but found Simon Fraser's more appropriate for my needs. To each their own. Once I do get up to speed with the basics, I will then certainly view the Affinity Tutorials, but my general thoughts I stand by-AF is weak at the start end for new users.

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17 minutes ago, SF Charter Boat said:

Unless the "experts' monitor it, the blind leading the blind might possibly be the result.

That is a legitimate concern. The internet has enough of exactly that.

Don't ever be embarrassed to ask. The Affinity suite attracts especially beginners because of the low price , so you are not asking scientists from NASA about your own Mars Lander Project.

You can only learn so much from videos and tutorials. Only by asking skilled users can you learn the neat tricks that will work in your use case.

  • "The user interface is supposed to work for me - I am not supposed to work for the user interface."
  • Computer-, operating system- and software agnostic; I am a result oriented professional. Look for a fanboy somewhere else.
  • “When a wise man points at the moon the imbecile examines the finger.” ― Confucius
  • Not an Affinity user og forum user anymore. The software continued to disappoint and not deliver.
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Thanks for the input. Price is not the concern. Whatever the price, I would be glad to LEARN, to build up my BASIC knowledge of how to open, adjust with cropping, burn, dodge, contrast, color, Inpainting for removal, grad filter and properly filing them. If I reach that point, then I can go into more of the meat of what is obviously stratosphere.

Yes, I am so appreciative of asking and having answers given without wise ass remarks. I am trying to learn and the Forum has been very helpful, for which I give thanks.

Plodding along, 

Stuart

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I strongly believe the forum provides expert, free advice.  My hope is someone would provide a subscription or of interest base purchase ebook.  Tips, tutorials, assets, etc.  Start with basic information and progress to levels for the creative needs of professionals.  

Cecil 

iMac Retina 5K, 27”, 2019. 3.6 GHz Intel Core 9, 40 GB Memory DDR4, Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB, macOS,iPad Pro iPadOS

 

Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection 

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I bought the book, about $50 and the book does not even begin with the basics, page 86, eighty six, is Opening and Saving Images!

 It is mostly exercises for specific uses. Very disappointing and basically useless for me at my stage, further strengthening my point that the beginners are not really  as important as herding over the PS and Lightroom folk. We newbies are not as much concern, very little in fact, as converting the already knowledgeable .

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17 minutes ago, SF Charter Boat said:

I bought the book, about $50 and the book does not even begin with the basics, page 86, eighty six, is Opening and Saving Images!

 It is mostly exercises for specific uses. Very disappointing and basically useless for me at my stage, further strengthening my point that the beginners are not really  as important as herding over the PS and Lightroom folk. We newbies are not as much concern, very little in fact, as converting the already knowledgeable .

There are many extremely professional users who are very generous with their time and knowledge on these forums.   I knew quite a lot about publishing, using Pagemaker and InDesign for many years.  Then in 2016 I bought Affinity Photo, based on the wonderful tutorials that I vaguely grasped.  So just to make it exciting, I also purchased Designer a year ago.  It was trial and error, but I plugged along, using about 10% of Photo and Designer capabilities.  So when I started with the Betas in Publisher, I was still worse than the village idiot regarding the Affinity interface.  Publisher was the easiest to learn, once I had the User Interface figured out, because writing is my thing.   As for photographs and vector stuff - oh my!!  Yes, there is a learning curve but I have discovered — at least in my case — that browsing through the Forums is a wonderful way to learn intricate “How To’s.”   The trick is to see who is doing the explaining by looking for the avatars of people who are consistently helpful, extremely knowledgeable, and invariably patient and courteous.   The Forum section on Tutorials is also a good place to browse.  These are all free, and by using the pause button, it is perfectly possible to stop and start, jotting down steps along the way, until the tutorial is concluded.  Personally, I have made my own “HOW TO’s  . .” based on many of these tutorials and from answers to questions posted in the forums.   

The Affinity team are also really helpful, and always ready to help out.   We are all beginners at something or other at some time or other.   The trick is to have help as we jump into the deep end of the pool.  There are so many lifeguards to help in these forums.   Perhaps a daily scan of topics would give you more familiarity with the apps.   And when you post a topic, don’t be afraid to enter something like “Can’t find my tool bar,” or “Confused about Blend Ranges,” or “How do I Import Assets.”  There surely isn’t anybody on the Forums who — once upon a time — didn’t know how to do something either.

Most importantly, the members of the Affinity team treat everybody on these Forums like people, rather than like VISA receipts.  And only once in a blue moon is there a customer on the Forums who is holier than thou.   So Ask Away!   If I can learn them (and I am a Very Old Bat) you will find yourself up to speed in no time flat!!

Newbies become Old Hands.  Merry Christmas!


24" iMAC Apple M1 chip, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD storage, Ventura 13.6.  Photo, Publisher, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.3.
MacBook Pro 13" 2020, Apple M1 chip, 16GB unified memory, 256GB  SSD storage
,  Ventura 13.6.   Publisher, Photo, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.1.1.  
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