Layer adjustments

[Ned Sloane]

in Affinity Photo for Mac desktop - Layer menu > new adjustment layer > brightness/contrast : When I move the sliders, the change in brightness seems to affect all the layers,

not just the one that is selected.

[Old Bruce]

Is the adjustment layer nested with the selected layer or is it on top of the selected layer?

 

 

[Old Bruce]

Forgot the Pictures

     

 

[Ned Sloane]

9 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Is the adjustment layer nested with the selected layer or is it on top of the selected layer?

 

 

It's a simple layer - no mask, if that's what you mean - (by nesting do you mean linked ? I found no explanation of nesting in the Affinity workbook.

I went back to a layered file, highlighted it then went to layer > new adjustment layer > brightness/contrast, slid the brightness slider and all the layers got brighter and darker.

[Old Bruce]

5 minutes ago, Ned Sloane said:

I went back to a layered file, highlighted it then went to layer > new adjustment layer > brightness/contrast, slid the brightness slider and all the layers got brighter and darker.

Sounds like the Adjustment layer is on top of the layers, nest it like the second image in my second post above.

[Ned Sloane]

17 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Sounds like the Adjustment layer is on top of the layers, nest it like the second image in my second post above.

I tried again & it doesn't matter whether the adjustment layer is above or below - the entire image changes, not just the layer selected. But your layers and mine look

quite different - here are my 2 layers : no downward arrow - & neither of yours is highlighted in slate blue - I need explicit instructions !

[Old Bruce]

Please note the thin blue bar as I move the Adjustment layer.

[Ron P.]

Try opening the Assistant Manager, then setting the Adjustment Layers (and Live Filters if you choose) to add them as Child Layers.

 

[R C-R]

@Ned Sloane, it may help you understand how this works a little better if you watch the Masking vs clipping layers video tutorial. The whole thing is worth watching, but for this specific purpose, you can begin at around the 3:30 mark & watch how the adjustment layer is offered to the woman layer.

[Ned Sloane]

25 minutes ago, R C-R said:

@Ned Sloane, it may help you understand how this works a little better if you watch the Masking vs clipping layers video tutorial. The whole thing is worth watching, but for this specific purpose, you can begin at around the 3:30 mark & watch how the adjustment layer is offered to the woman layer.

Thanks so much, Ron P - the prospect of using child layers gives me hope, but so far the need to "nest" adjustment layers seems unnecessarily complicated and very unwieldy - it makes me want to go back to PhotoShop, which makes adjustments so easy. But tutors & tutorials assume people like me (an 84 year old who began

learning  computer software at the age of 65) know things like, for example : Where is the ADJUSTMENT MANAGER ?? I've looked at all the menus & can't find it.

Again, thanks for your help & I hope you can stick with me as I struggle along with Affinity, which I was first attracted to because of its excellent REFINE EDGE function,

which I found to be much superior to PhotoShop.

[John Rostron]

You need the Assistant Manager in he View menu.

John

[Ned Sloane]

On 12/23/2021 at 1:07 PM, Old Bruce said:

Please note the thin blue bar as I move the Adjustment layer.

NED again ! with another question :

In the Assistant Manager I turned on the "add adjustment as child layer" which seems to eliminate the need to drag one layer into another (nest), but if I want to

return to my layer later to make further adjustments, must I not return to the Layer > new adjustment layer > etc - when yet another adj layer is created ?

why can I not simply continue to work with the original adjustment layer ??

 

13 hours ago, John Rostron said:

You need the Assistant Manager in he View menu.

John

 

On 12/23/2021 at 12:22 PM, Old Bruce said:

Sounds like the Adjustment layer is on top of the layers, nest it like the second image in my second post above.

I tried again & it doesn't matter whether the adjustment layer is above or below - the entire image changes, not just the layer selected. But your layers and mine look

quite different - here are my 2 layers : no downward arrow - & neither of yours is highlighted in slate blue - I need explicit instructions !

[Ned Sloane]

NED again ! with another question :

In the Assistant Manager I turned on the "add adjustment as child layer" which seems to eliminate the need to drag one layer into another (nest), but if I want to

return to my layer later to make further adjustments, must I not return to the Layer > new adjustment layer > etc - when yet another adj layer is created ?

why can I not simply continue to work with the original adjustment layer ??

 

[Old Bruce]

3 minutes ago, Ned Sloane said:

why can I not simply continue to work with the original adjustment layer ??

 

Double click on the thumbnail of the Adjustment Layer in the Layers panel. The editing window should reopen.

[R C-R]

3 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Double click on the thumbnail of the Adjustment Layer in the Layers panel. The editing window should reopen.

You can also right-click on the thumbnail of the adjustment layer & choose "Edit Adjustment" from the menu that pops up.

[smadell]

Merry Christmas Eve, @Ned Sloane. Affinity Photo is really no more complicated than Photoshop (at least in this instance) - it’s just different. Nesting an adjustment is no harder, or easier, than making a Photoshop adjustment layer a “clipping” layer. If you clip a Photoshop adjustment layer, you are telling that adjustment layer to affect only the layer directly below it. Nesting an adjustment layer in Affinity Photo accomplishes the same thing, and is no more difficult to accomplish.

I believe that Photoshop allows for adjustments to be made destructively (I am not, nor have I ever been, a Photoshop user.) However, a destructive edit comes with its own bevy of downsides. And, if you really must, you can put an Affinity Photo adjustment layer onto the top of your layer stack and, once you have set its parameters, click the “Merge” button at the top of the adjustment layer. This should merge the adjustment with the pixel layer beneath it, effectively making this a destructive edit which should only affect the selected pixel layer.

[Ned Sloane]

11 minutes ago, R C-R said:

You can also right-click on the thumbnail of the adjustment layer & choose "Edit Adjustment" from the menu that pops up.

Thank you - but what worked to open the editing window was clicking on the white square of the child (mask) layer.

wishing you all the best in the new year !

[R C-R]

4 minutes ago, smadell said:

And, if you really must, you can put an Affinity Photo adjustment layer onto the top of your layer stack and, once you have set its parameters, click the “Merge” button at the top of the adjustment layer.

 This should merge the adjustment with the pixel layer beneath it, effectively making this a destructive edit which should only affect the selected pixel layer.

Unless I have misunderstood what you mean, if there are other pixel layers beneath the one you want the adjustment to be applied to, this will apply the adjustment to all those layers. It will not affect just the pixel layer immediately below the adjustment layer.

To destructively apply the adjustment to just the layer it is a child of, a right-click to pop up the context menu & selecting either "Rasterize" or Rasterize & Trim" is what I would suggest.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, Ned Sloane said:

Thank you - but what worked to open the editing window was clicking on the white square of the child (mask) layer.

The white square is the thumbnail of the Adjustment layer. Technically, it is not a mask (although it has a built-in one you can paint on) -- note the icon at the bottom right of the thumbnail vs. the icon for a mask layer & how they match the icons at the bottom of the layers panel:

Anyway, if you are on a Mac (& it looks like you are from the screenshot of the Selective Color Adjustment), to open that layer for editing you should have to double-click on its thumbnail, not single click.

Are you saying a single-click on the thumbnail opens the Selective Color Adjustment editing window for you?

[Ned Sloane]

sorry - I meant double click

[smadell]

40 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Unless I have misunderstood what you mean, if there are other pixel layers beneath the one you want the adjustment to be applied to, this will apply the adjustment to all those layers. It will not affect just the pixel layer immediately below the adjustment layer.

Sorry, @R C-R but you're mistaken. See my video…

[Ned Sloane]

Hello, smadell -

Why would I want an adjustment to apply to all layers ??  And how can I prevent this from happening ?

sorry, but in my experience with PhotoShop for almost 20 yrs, I have always worked on one layer at a time.

I don't do batch processing.

all the best to you in 2022 !

[smadell]

7 minutes ago, Ned Sloane said:

Why would I want an adjustment to apply to all layers ??  And how can I prevent this from happening ?

Why apply an adjustment to all layers? For example, if you have composited multiple images and want to sharpen everything,  apply a LUT to everything, brighten everything, etc. Maybe you want to finish up your editing (with multiple layers) and, as a finishing touch, apply some sort of artistic effect to the whole thing – posterize it, make it a black and white version, and so forth…

How can you prevent this from happening? You can either (a) drag the adjustment layers, as they are created, into the layers they should adjust (i.e., nest them as child layers); or (b) you can use the Assistant to set the default behavior of Adjustment layers so as to make them child layers of a selected layer (as indicated in a post somewhere above this). Alternatively, you can leave the Assistant at its "default" behavior to create adjustment layers above a selected layer, but on an adjustment by adjustment basis, choose "Insertion Inside" which will place the item created next (presumably your adjustment layer) as a child of the selected layer.

And, by the way, none of this has anything to do with Batch Processing…

[R C-R]

23 minutes ago, smadell said:

Sorry, @R C-R but you're mistaken. See my video…

I don't know why but when I tested this about an hour ago, the adjustment was being applied to all the pixel layers, not just the one immediately below the adjustment layer.

But now it works just like in your video, so I stand corrected. 😲

[Pšenda]

36 minutes ago, smadell said:

Why apply an adjustment to all layers? For example, if you have composited multiple images

... for example Panorama, which is stitched of multiple images, HDR image stack, Astrophotography stack, etc.