Placing and linking image layers

[Emil Petersen]

Hi There,

i'm trying out Affinity photo right now because I finally want to get rid of Photof*** mainly because of its unacceptable performance in 16 and 32 bit. Mostly i'm using it for 3D render compositing.

So far i've got 2 questions:

Is it somehow possible to place images centered to the canvas by default? (Most of the time I start by adding a stack of images that are all exactly the size of the canvas, and it should be pretty obvious where to place them .... )

Is there a way to work with linked image layers instead of embedding them? It would seriously cripple my workflow if this was not possible. Its possible even in Photof*** (although implemented not ideally, as everything). A non-destructive workflow requires the ability to link and instantiate stuff.

Thanks in advance !

 

Edited January 20, 2020 by Emil Petersen

[walt.farrell]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums, Emil.

23 minutes ago, Emil Petersen said:

Is it somehow possible to place images centered to the canvas by default? (Most of the time I start by adding a stack of images that are all exactly the size of the canvas, and it should be pretty obvious where to place them .... )

I don't think so (but someone else may know of a way). But rather than starting with an empty canvas, and adding a stack of images, perhaps you should consider using File > New Stack... rather than Placing the images?

25 minutes ago, Emil Petersen said:

Is there a way to work with linked image layers instead of embedding them? It would seriously cripple my workflow if this was not possible. Its possible even in Photof*** (although implemented not ideally, as everything). A non-destructive workflow requires the ability to link and instantiate stuff.

Linking images is a function that is currently reserved for Affinity Publisher. If you owned both Publisher and Photo you could make a document that was configured to link images, and then use Publisher to Link the images, and its Photo Persona to edit them. (But you would not be able to use File > New Stack... as that is only available in the Photo application, and it creates a new document that would be setup to embed the images.)

[Emil Petersen]

4 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I don't think so (but someone else may know of a way). But rather than starting with an empty canvas, and adding a stack of images, perhaps you should consider using File > New Stack... rather than Placing the images? 

That is really useful and solves that problem Thanks.

 

Linking and instantiating I don't use at the beginning of a composition (when adding render layers) but later.

I always try to avoid any destructive step. For that reason, I frequently link a processed image (or smart object) into a new file, often instantiated there multiple times (featuring different filters and blending modes). In Photof*** this works reasonably well using smart objects. The downside is that its extremely slow Still better than working destructively, I just can't deal with that.

I guess that Affinity is not an option for me until they have added those features to Photo. Thanks for clearing things up for me!

[Cuando]

I have a document with several pages in Affinity Designer for presentation, in each of them there is an image with layers.

Is it possible to link an image (.psd, .afphoto) in Affinity Designer and then edit it in the source applications? I can't find the option, open the images in the editor in Affinity Designer, not in the application where it was created.

It would be good a contextual menu in the layers panel that when selecting the image gives you the option to edit them in the original software

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, Cuando said:

I have a document with several pages in Affinity Designer for presentation, in each of them there is an image with layers.

Is it possible to link an image (.psd, .afphoto) in Affinity Designer and then edit it in the source applications? I can't find the option, open the images in the editor in Affinity Designer, not in the application where it was created.

It would be good a contextual menu in the layers panel that when selecting the image gives you the option to edit them in the original software

Linking images (or documents) is a function reserved for Affinity Publisher. Designer uses embedded (not linked) files, except for a few cases of bugs that result in linked files, or the case where you use Publisher to change the default handling for a Designer document.

But really, if you want Linked files, you should be using Publisher not Designer.

Even then, you will only be able to edit one of the Linked files in Affinity, not in the original application that created it.

[walt.farrell]

On 1/19/2020 at 8:12 PM, Emil Petersen said:

I guess that Affinity is not an option for me until they have added those features to Photo. Thanks for clearing things up for me!

Only Serif knows for sure, but I don't think they are adding Linked files to Photo.

Why not buy Publisher; then you'll have the ability to use Linked files and operate as you want to.

[Cuando]

4 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Linking images (or documents) is a function reserved for Affinity Publisher. Designer uses embedded (not linked) files, except for a few cases of bugs that result in linked files, or the case where you use Publisher to change the default handling for a Designer document.

 But really, if you want Linked files, you should be using Publisher not Designer.

Even then, you will only be able to edit one of the Linked files in Affinity, not in the original application that created it.

Thank @walt.farrell for your quick reply.

It is a pity that when I try to work with Affinity for my projects, I am more aware that it is NOT software for my workflow.

I had high hopes. 

[LonzoB]

On 2/1/2020 at 6:00 AM, Cuando said:

Thank @walt.farrell for your quick reply.

It is a pity that when I try to work with Affinity for my projects, I am more aware that it is NOT software for my workflow.

I had high hopes. 

Agreed, the workflow suggested above is a dealbreaker

[WKansepa]

Hi Emil

On 1/20/2020 at 2:27 AM, Emil Petersen said:

Is it somehow possible to place images centered to the canvas by default? (Most of the time I start by adding a stack of images that are all exactly the size of the canvas, and it should be pretty obvious where to place them …. )

I hope it's not case of a little too late… But yes, it is possible. If you haven't found a solution as yet, you may want to look into this:

1. Create a document using a specified size from your images e.g. 6x4 inch and appropriate resolution
2. Enable snapping
3. Create horizontal and vertical guides to snap in the centre of the document
4. Export the document  as a template file and make sure you assign a name (in this case 6x4 inch)

Each time you are working with 6x4 inch images you just use this template. To place your images directly onto the centre of the canvas, just point and click at the intersection of the horizontal and vertical guides with the placement tool and voila! 

You have to use the later versions of Photo in order for you to have access to the template feature.

On 1/20/2020 at 2:27 AM, Emil Petersen said:

Is there a way to work with linked image layers instead of embedding them? It would seriously cripple my workflow if this was not possible. Its possible even in Photof*** (although implemented not ideally, as everything). A non-destructive workflow requires the ability to link and instantiate stuff.

Events have somewhat accelerated and one is now able to choose either to embed or link placed images in Affinity Photo. This is the new behaviour in the latest Beta versions. Am using  Affinity Photo Windows Customer Beta - 1.9.0.869.