What did I do and how do I undo it? Adjustment layer has its own shape

[zkarj]

I've been using Affinity Photo to process some TIFF scans of negatives. Once I figured out the basic set of filters I wanted I've been copying them from one file to the next. When I began work on this photo I selected the group of adjustments from another and pasted it in. It was then that I noticed a surprising bounding box with the Move tool selected.

I tracked down the culprits to these two layers. I have no idea how they got to be those shapes. The fill layer affects the entire underlying pixel layer, but I am not sure if the noise reduction one goes outside of the box shown.

How on earth did these get this way, does it matter, and how to I get them back to "normal" aside from just removing and recreating those layers?

[firstdefence]

The fill layer must have been created at some point, it could not have be an adjustment layer in a previous incarnation. If you don't know what it's for either turn it off or delete it.

The noise adjustment layer would be better off being deleted and a new adjustment layer added and tweaked to taste. 

[zkarj]

Perhaps I misspoke in calling the fill layer an adjustment layer, but it was created on a rectangular image and copied between image files, none of which has ever been square, let alone that size. I figured a Fill Layer was something different than a pixel layer in that it intrinsically covered the whole canvas area at all times.

And I'd rather not go deleting the layer and recreating as the whole point of copying across between images is to have a good starting point for the next image.

I would like to understand why a Noise Reduction layer can have a shape where none of the other filters or adjustments do.

[carl123]

Can you upload the Affinity Photo document shown above?

[zkarj]

Here it is. I was surprised the forum accepted such a large file. Occupational hazard with this type of software I guess.

I noticed last night that the noise reduction layer has somehow gained a mask, which I guess may have occurred due to cropping on one of the photos. The noise reduction is curiously applied across the entire canvas, not just the bounding rectangle, except in a strip at the bottom of the rectangle. That now makes me wonder if the rectangle is the bounding box of any mask pixels and that clearing the mask (how do I do that?) would resolve that layer's oddity.  EDIT: I figured out that Edit > Fill with white achieves this — the layer now has no mask nor bounding box.

That still leaves the fill layer which absolutely affects the entire canvas and I have no idea why it is represented as a small square.

ARJ_1999_UKF1_18.afphoto

Edited March 9, 2021 by zkarj
Followup

[firstdefence]

I would simply delete the fill layer and denoise layer and reproduce them, the denoise filter settings are simple enough, Luminance 50% Luminance detail 25%

Whatever it is on the denoise adjustment layer it appears to be on the Alpha channel.

[zkarj]

As would I if I just wanted to fix the problems, but I want to understand what happens because it will keep happening and (deleting and) recreating layers is precisely what I was trying to avoid.

[MEB]

Hi zkarj,
The Noise Reduction Adjustment has a built-in mask applied - that's what the bounding box is marking/delimiting. Press and hold alt and click the adjustment thumbnail in the Layers panel to render it as a greyscale image so you can see it (the mask) - click somewhere else to return to the regular view. To remove/clear the mask go to the Channels panel (make sure adjustment layer is selected in the Layers panel), right-click the Noise Reduction Alpha channel and select Fill - to fill the mask with white. The bounding box will then disappear.

The Fill layer has two small circles: one on the top left and another on the bottom right that define the bounding box. You can fill the Fill layer the same way described above (or any other method) to clean it up/fill it with white (Fill layers also have built-in masks). Hide the bottom background layer temporarily (the plane image), zoom in on the bottom right corner of the bounding box of the fill layer and you should see one of them.

[zkarj]

Thanks @MEB. All bounding boxes are now gone.

I have previously come across the concept of masks creating bounding boxes, but usually where I deliberately mask a pixel layer. It had not occurred to me that I must have painted (probably when using in-painting to remove dust and scratches). And it would not have occurred to me that a fill layer has a mask at all.

Lessons learned! Now I need to go back to my earlier images and probably clean them up.

[MEB]

You're welcome 😊