Adobe Photoshop Features in Affinity Photos (or Workarounds)

[Drachen]

Hello,

I try to switch from Photoshop to Affinity Photos but there are a few (simple) procedures/features I can't find in Photos. Maybe they exist but I can't find them or it needs a workaround to come to the same result. I hope you can help me there. Here are the procedures/features I'm missing (with explanaition how to do them in Photoshop):

1) Image (Canvas) rotation
Rotate whole Image (e.g. because camera set it to wrong orientation: vertical <->  portrait)
    - "Image" -> "Image Rotation" -> "90° (Counter) Clockwise"

2) Apply Image
Creating a "Snapshot" on one layer
    - create new layer
    - go to "Image" -> "Apply Image" -> (optional settings) -> press OK

3) Lock transparent Pixels
Lock transparent Pixels (background) so e.g. the brush only paints on the given picture in the foreground.
    - obove the layer: "Lock:" -> "Lock transparent Pixels"

Thanks for your help!

[NotMyFault]

Welcome to the forum. 

1. https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/SizeTransform/canvasRotateFlip.html
2. unsure
3. Its a little checkbox called “protect alpha” for every brush based tool, to be found in the toolbar on top of the canvas

[R C-R]

1) Document menu > Rotate 90° Clockwise or Rotate 90° Counterclockwise. If you do this often you can set a keyboard shortcut forone or both.

2) Not sure of what you mean but there is "Place" command in the File menu that may do what you want. If not, please explain more fully what you want to achieve.

3) What @NotMyFault said.

[walt.farrell]

4 hours ago, Drachen said:

2) Apply Image
Creating a "Snapshot" on one layer
    - create new layer
    - go to "Image" -> "Apply Image" -> (optional settings) -> press OK

I'm not sure what that does in Photoshop.

I'm also not sure what Filter > Apply Image... does in Affinity Photo, but it has the same name so perhaps it's what you're looking for. Help: https://affinity.help/photo/en-US.lproj/pages/Filters/imageBlending.html

[Drachen]

The Filter > Apply Image... has the same name as in Photoshop, but doesn't do the same thing (or I actually don't know, what it does here).

In Photoshop Image > Apply Image simply merges all visible layers on the current selected layer. So it is kinda like a snapshot. You would have the same effect, if you save the project as a picture, open it and put it on a new layer in the project.

After a bit looking around I found the option in Affinity Photos. It is: Layer > Merge Visible (it automatically creates a new layer with the merged layers) or the short cut Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E.

Thanks for the help with the other features!

[Drachen]

Hello,

when I compared Affinitiy Photos to Adobe Photoshop I again found something missing, but which is kind of a lose in quality of the pictures. It is about the Image Resize function when making pictures smaller.

Photos: Document > Resize Document
Photoshop: Image > Image Resize

In Photos you can only select "Bicubic" for resample (which is equivalent to "Bicubic (smooth gradients)" in Photoshop). In Photoshop you have "Bicubic Sharper (reduction)" (which is in most cases the "Standard" when you make pictures smaller). I see on many pictures, especially with sharp details, that making pictures smaller in Photos makes the pictures also more blurry in comparison to Photoshop. See also the comparison of my cat photo in the attachement. There are other methods like "Lanczos 3", but they have the same blurry effect.

(left: Photos with "Bicubic" resize, right: Photoshop "Bicubic Sharper (reduction)" resize)

Is it possible to do a "sharp resize" in Photos? Or can it be added as feature?

[SBH]

Try "Lanczos" for resampling. It produces higher quality results. Maybe it will also show in downsizing.

[Drachen]

Already tried this. But choosing "Lanczos" creates exact the same image as "Bicubic" (blurry). You can also see here with all 3 variants:

left: Photos with "Bicubic" resize
middle: Photoshop "Bicubic Sharper (reduction)" resize
right: Photos with "Lanczos 3 (Separable)"

[walt.farrell]

From what I've read, Photoshop automaticallhy applies some sharpening when resizing, and you have no control over it. Affinity Photo does not.

Therefore, to get the same results you'll also need to apply some sharpening after you resize, and you have control over how much you want to sharpen your image.

[Pšenda]

6 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Photoshop automaticallhy applies some sharpening when resizing,

The method name "Bicubic Sharper" quite corresponds to that. The bicubic is a bicubic, there is no mathematical miracle that can be done with it, so just sharpening is added.

[SBH]

On 12/3/2021 at 3:17 PM, Drachen said:

Already tried this. But choosing "Lanczos" creates exact the same image as "Bicubic" (blurry). You can also see here with all 3 variants:

left: Photos with "Bicubic" resize
middle: Photoshop "Bicubic Sharper (reduction)" resize
right: Photos with "Lanczos 3 (Separable)"

Try using Lanczos non-separable. I get noticeable sharper results with that. 

Middle: Lanczos non-separable 
Left & right: Bicubic and Lanczos separable