Exporting Photos with Layers intact

[pagey]

Hi there. I have just purchased the program and I am really enjoying watching the tutorials and and using the functions of it. I am a novice at editing and didn't own photoshop or any other similar programs. To that end could someone be kind enough to answer the following:

 

1) I have a photo and I have created a new adjustment layer (brightness and contrast). I used the brush selection tool to easily snap to edge a complex area (great feature) so I could slightly brighten it. The little adjustment box opens and I do what's necessary and shut the little box down and I am happy with the photo. I now want to export the photo as is with all layers so I can show the other half later so she can give me her opinion on the family photo as to whether it's too bright/dark. How would I do this? I know how to export a jpg but do I change this to something like psd so all layers export with the photo? Not sure if this is the best option.

 

2) When I export to psd as an example and after messing around with the program I have my photo above with the layers intact. If I want to adjust my brightness/contrast layer further how do I get the little adjustment box to open back up again? If I go to the right hand side of the program just below the histogram I see "Adj" here and the option for brightness/contrast adjustment. However if I select increase or decrease etc it alters all my layers simultaneously and then I have lost the work that I have done. I only want to adjust my brightness/contrast layer further.

 

Any help appreciated.

[MEB]

Hi pagey,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

If you want to keep all you adjustements, filters, layer effects etc editable, the best format to use is Affinity Photo's native format .afphoto.

To save your work in this format go to menu File ▸ Save As... and enter the name for your file.

Next time you open the file, all layers/adjustements/filters etc will be exactly as you left them. Just double-click the adjustment layers to open the dialog and edit them again.

[Affinity Jack]

Hi pagey,

there a several possibilities to save a photo.

If you want to have the SAME FILE you have worked on, choose "file" "save " or "save under".

Only this saves all layers including the adjustment layers.

Because it will be saved in the Affinity Format.

You save the whole project and not a photo.

To work further, for example with the adjustment layer, double click on it and it will open again and again.

 

When you choose "export " , you only create a photo not a project file.

When you click "file" "export" "PSD", you create a project file for photoshop.

With layers, but not with all your adjustment layers. And no Tracking protcoll for deleting steps.

 

I hope, this is helpful.

I provide Video Tutorials on YouTube.

Greetings from Berlin/Germany

Jack

[crabtrem]

Hello. I am a novice too, so I hesitate to interject. But your problem seemed very interesting to me. Now all of my thoughts went to what resolution you need to present your comparisons, and what software you will display them on.

If you are showing your products on Affinity Photo, my first thought, which I didn't see recommended was using the Snapshot function. This would allow you to save progress points of your project, display them and go back and forth between different milestones.

If you are not using any particular software program to display your progress, but resolution may need to remain high, I was thinking about exporting your different looks, and making a Keynote/Powerpoint presentation to show your progress.

If resolution is not critical, but you just want to demonstrate the changes between varying outputs at a glance, I thought making an animated gif might be a useful output. There are many ways to make animated Gifs, but I don't think Affinity Photo is one of them. There is a Photoshop option, but better yet, GIMP also allows you to create animated GIFs. I found several good tutorials on YouTube to this. You could export your layers showing your significant points as individual files, reduce the resolution to allow making into a GIF, import them into GIMP as layers, and export them as an animated GIF. I guess as a last resort you could always use Quicktime to record your screen, demonstrate the differences, and save that as a movie file for presentation.

Sorry for jumping in, but your problem caught my eye. Forgive my novice suggestions.

[pagey]

Thank you to all for your responses. I appreciate it and I now have several options to choose from with a better understanding as well.