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Re: Newbie frustration on use of Inpainting brush etc.,


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Hi, I am beginning to think that Affinity is too complex for my level. I do not know what has gone wrong, but I cannot make the Inpainting, Healing brushes etc.,work. I have watch the tutorials, which are brilliant and read the help guidelines, but no matter what I do the brush is not painting visibly over the area to be removed. There are so many features that I wonder whether I have clicked on something that is causing my problem. I have used the pinpointing brush before, but with limited success, however it was significantly more than I have achieved today, which is zilch! I have looked at the tutorial carefully and I notice that some icons towards the top right hand of the screen, seem to be 'greyed' out, whereas they are not in the tutorial. Also, on the right hand side, above the list of layers, the tutorial as a white dot for Opacity but mine is gray.

 

Can someone point me in the right direction, as there is something fundamentally wrong, with what I am doing today.

 

As requested I have tried to upload some of what was on my screen. Also the pinpointing brush was only used on the base layer (I think).

post-20606-0-33295100-1449429882_thumb.jpg

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… no matter what I do the brush is not painting visibly over the area to be removed …

 

Are you sure that you have the correct layer selected in the layers list? Before using the inpainting brush, you will have to select the layer you want to apply inpainting to, otherwise you won’t see any effect. Apart from that, I would also say, that it would be helpful, if you attached a screen shot of your work and layers panel … it’s really difficult to assess what’s going wrong on the basis of a verbal description alone …  :)

 

Thanks, Alex  :)

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  • Staff

Hi billbir,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

You don't have any layer selected in your screen shot. Click on the Background layer to select it (it should become blue if you haven't changed OS X preferences) then paint with the Inpainting Brush over the image.

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Hi MEB,

 

I am puzzled as the picture shows background ticked and layers unticked, so I assumed that was correct. Managed to find the original version with no layers and the inpainting brush worked, but then I proceeded to adjust the photo again. Then I realised that the pinpointing brush needed to be used again, and once again, it does not work, I have attached the latest layers panel and would be grateful if you could point out, specifically, what I am doing wrong. It is clearly a basic error and I need to get this right if I am going to succeed with this software. 

 

Also, could you tell me if there is a simple way of comparing the original photo, to the adjusted one. I am laboriously unpicking layers to get to the original, but would like to see a side by side comparison, if such a feature exists.

 

Thanks for your help.

post-20606-0-27294100-1449492175_thumb.png

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Please note the difference between toggling the visibility of a layer and the selection of a layer …  :)

 

Ticking (or unticking) the visibility checkbox just changes the visibility of a layer, it does not select (or deselect) it. You have to select (“highlight”, “activate”, “set as a target for your actions”) the layer you want to paint on, i.e. the entry of this layer in the layers list must have a blue highlight, just as the uppermost one in your screen shot has. To select a layer, simply click on the respective entry in the layers list.

 

What concerns your second question: With the difference between toggling the visibility of a layer and selecting a layer understood, you can select multiple layers by Shift + clicking (thereby selecting all layers between the active and the shift-clicked one) or Command + clicking (thereby selecting only the clicked layers) entries in the layers list. Now you can just toggle the visibility of all selected layers at once, by unticking the visibility checkbox of one of these layers. So you could, for instance, select all your adjustment layers and set them invisible for easy comparison.

 

There is also a very good topic in the help (Help > Affinity Photo Help) about layers and working with layers.

 

Hope that makes sense …  :)

Alex

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Hi Alex,

 

I think that the penny has dropped somewhat after your explanation of the difference between ticking a layer and 'selecting' one. 

 

After all that, my inpainting was not successful anyway. I have a photo of my two grandchildren at a restaurant table and I was trying to remove a rose, which seemed to me to be dominating the photo. It did not work as what surrounded the rose was too complex for the inpainting feature to cope with.

 

Thanks for your help, it is much appreciated.

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  • 1 month later...

I had this problem too, and could find no way to solve it UNTIL I realised that the photo has to be a raster layer before these tools will work. Bingo - problem solved.

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This was the thing I was getting wrong all of the time with the inpaint, dodge and burn tools.

 

It was really frustrating trying to apply subtle changes and thinking I was trying to be too subtle only to realise I didn't have the background layer selected.

 

I'm getting it right most of the time now, but I'm still getting it wrong occasionally.

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billbir, in the last screenshot you uploaded, an adjustment layer is selected.

to make the inpaint tool work (like many other tools) you have to select a "pixel" layer.

again, referring to your last screenshot, just click on the layer called "background" to select it and the inpaint tool will work.

take care,

stefano

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> I am beginning to think that Affinity is too complex for my level.

Hang in there, it's worth it! See for example http://manuschwendener.ch/2015/12/23/affinity-photo-dodge-tool

 

> I am having the same issue

> Impainting brush, healing brush, blemish removal brush

 

If you're new to Affinity Photo and - as I am! - new to working with layers, maybe try the inpainting brush etc. as the first step after opening a picture in AP. 

 

Like this you'll get the hang of it and know what to look for when it's disabled.

 

---

 

A very usual workflow for me is:

- I open a picture

- I crop it

- In the right hand column I click Adj for Adjustments

- I click on Levels

- I drag the Gamma slider to left left to make the picture brighter

- I close the popup from the Levels adjustment
 

- Now I want to remove some of the branches using the Inpainting brush tool

-> Inpainting brush has no effect whatsoever :(
 

Solution (see screenshot): 

- In the right hand column I have to switch from the Adjustment tab to the Lyr. tab

- Here I see that the (Levels Adjustment) layer is active <- which AP created and made active without my knowing

- All I have to do now is click on Background (Pixel) so this is blue and the (Levels Adjustment) isn't blue any longer

-> Inpainting Brush Tool is working again

post-5549-0-17469600-1454245967_thumb.png

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Personally, I try to always keep the Layers panel visible to minimize the frustration of trying to work on the wrong one, or none at all.

 

There are several ways to do that, including dragging that panel into its own 'slot' in the Studio or dragging it out into the workspace so it is a free floating one.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Apologies R C-R but I have not got a clue what "There are several ways to do that, including dragging that panel into its own 'slot' in the Studio or dragging it out into the workspace so it is a free floating one." means. Is there a video tutorial which would let me see how this is done?

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There are probably video tutorials for that but I did not find any with a quick search. However, the Affinity help topics cover most of this. For starters, maybe read the "About workspace modes" one & then the "Customizing the workspace" one.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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billbir,

 

It took a little more searching but I finally found a video tutorial that covers (very quickly) the basics of the workspace options.

 

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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  • 6 months later...

Hello everyone  :) ,

I've read this thread closely and watched a number of tutorials. And I've looked in help which I did not find helpful.

I'm also having trouble with inpainting brush - one of my main interests in Affinity Photo.  I've tried the advice of a poster above and started from scratch as the first task but still it won't mask out the area I select.  Here is a screen grab.  

I believe I have the image correctly selected as the layer is blue.  I then clicked on inpainting brush, selected the width but nothing else works. I'm not using a mouse but using this on a laptop. 

 Please can you advise on what I'm doing wrong.  

Many thanks for your time.  :) 

impainting_brush_image.jpg

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