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Blur and Sharpen tools not changing anything


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I have had Affinity a few months and recently the Blur tool and the Sharpen tool dont make any affect, they did initially.  I have tried varying the pixels and diameter and various other settings.  I dont know if I have disabled or blocked something and cant find how to reset or what else to do.  Immensely frustrating as it is impacting other learning.

Any advice on how to reset or if I may of got a background/hidden setting wrong would be very much appreciated.

Thanks, Sarah

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The two things to immediately check (Affinity Photo) are:

1. Make sure the picture is not an image file, but a pixel layer. The blur tool will not work on an image file.

2. Make sure that the layer you are trying to blur, etc, is highlighted in the layers panel.

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

These are not my own words but I sure like this quote.

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11 hours ago, sarahkeast said:

I have had Affinity a few months and recently the Blur tool and the Sharpen tool dont make any affect, they did initially.  I have tried varying the pixels and diameter and various other settings.  I dont know if I have disabled or blocked something and cant find how to reset or what else to do.  Immensely frustrating as it is impacting other learning.

Any advice on how to reset or if I may of got a background/hidden setting wrong would be very much appreciated.

Thanks, Sarah

Hi Sarah,

Please could you go into the apps preferences and under performance could you try disabling Open CL? This should solve this problem :)

Thanks
C

Please tag me using @ in your reply so I can be sure to respond ASAP.

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10 hours ago, Callum said:

Hi Sarah,

Please could you go into the apps preferences and under performance could you try disabling Open CL? This should solve this problem :)

Thanks
C

What and/or where are apps preferences?  I am running on my laptop. I have deinstalled and reinstalled to no avail.  Reset settings [I think]

 

Really frustrated.  There seems to be no customer support or any contact information to actually talk to someone, other than interested people on forums and FB groups.  Need to talk to someone or even better sit down with them and work through all of this.

 

Sarah

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17 minutes ago, sarahkeast said:

What and/or where are apps preferences? 

Edit > Preferences (or Ctrl+, by default) on Windows.

17 minutes ago, sarahkeast said:

There seems to be no customer support or any contact information to actually talk to someone

Talk? No, the support is electronic here or via email. (With the forums preferred.)

But Callum, who responded above, is part of the Serif staff as you can see (on a laptop or desktop browser) by the markings on his post:

image.png.7e8a26ae0396901ea3fa15cea6278a62.png

And on the upper right: image.png.9b93b1fd1d13d7c8ce294edae2504f0b.png

If you're using a mobile device, with a smaller screen, you'll see the tiny badge on the upper right of the profile picture, and the user's name in red and the gray "moderators" tag above both of those.

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On 2/23/2022 at 11:52 PM, sarahkeast said:

I have had Affinity a few months and recently the Blur tool and the Sharpen tool dont make any affect, they did initially.  I have tried varying the pixels and diameter and various other settings.  I dont know if I have disabled or blocked something and cant find how to reset or what else to do.  Immensely frustrating as it is impacting other learning.

Any advice on how to reset or if I may of got a background/hidden setting wrong would be very much appreciated.

It always helps more if you also name the operating system (Windows, MacOS, ... or iPad) you are running "Affinity Photo" on! - Further there are three Affinity apps for Desktops, so explicitely naming the one you've the problems with will help more to give a fitting answer. In this case I assume Affinity Photo on a Desktop system (but which one?) here, due to the fact that you initially named the Blur tool and the Sharpen tool).

Ok, assuming you are using Affinity Photo on a Windows system, you said the following doesn't help and doesn't change anything ...

... then you can try to reset the app to it's initial defaults, in order to see if that fixes anything for the behavior you described. To reset the app see ...

  • [FAQ] How do I reset the app back to its default settings?

... and before doing that, also take a look at ...

If that too doesn't change anything in behavior let us know!

Other than that the following Online help to Affinity Photo might be helpful for you, in order to get an overview about the apps panels, settings etc.

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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42 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

It always helps more if you also name the operating system (Windows, MacOS, ... or iPad) you are running "Affinity Photo" on! - Further there are three Affinity apps for Desktops, so explicitely naming the one you've the problems with will help more to give a fitting answer. In this case I assume Affinity Photo on a Desktop system (but which one?) here, due to the fact that you initially named the Blur tool and the Sharpen tool).

Ok, assuming you are using Affinity Photo on a Windows system, you said the following doesn't help and doesn't change anything ...

... then you can try to reset the app to it's initial defaults, in order to see if that fixes anything for the behavior you described. To reset the app see ...

  • [FAQ] How do I reset the app back to its default settings?

... and before doing that, also take a look at ...

If that too doesn't change anything in behavior let us know!

Other than that the following Online help to Affinity Photo might be helpful for you, in order to get an overview about the apps panels, settings etc.

Thanks, I am on Windows.

 

I have reset everything, and uninstalled and reinstalled.  Still not working.

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1 hour ago, sarahkeast said:

I have reset everything, and uninstalled and reinstalled.  Still not working.

Hmm, how do you load the image into Affinity Photo, via "Open..." or "Place file...", further did you first selected the image background layer before trying to apply those filters? Another thing to check is the coresponding tools settings and the brush type used for them.

See also:

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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2 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Hmm, how do you load the image into Affinity Photo, via "Open..." or "Place file...", further did you first selected the image background layer before trying to apply those filters? Another thing to check is the coresponding tools settings and the brush type used for them.

See also:

Thank you for replying.  I am just dragging and dropping, the same as I have always done.  I am doing nothing different that I am aware of.  It has simply stopped working to blur and sharpen in any way. I have tried varying the settings for the tools and the brushes to no avail.

I am frankly despairing and very disapointed that I have spent my limited money on software that doesnt work and isnt simple to get fixed.

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The blur tool works for me, but I find seeing its effect depends on the size of the image and the zoom level.  The "blur" images show what I achieved with about 15 strokes of the brush (set to 100% opacity/flow/hardness). If you zoom out to about 12% (from 100%) you'd think nothing had changed.  Image size is 3840 x 5760 px.

original_zoom_100.jpg

blur_zoom_100.jpg

original_zoom_12.jpg

blur_zoom_12.jpg

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19 hours ago, sarahkeast said:

Thank you for replying.  I am just dragging and dropping, the same as I have always done. 

What sort of files? Are there layers in the Layers panel? Have you chosen the topmost pixel layer to work on?

Do you have the Basic Round brush chosen from the Brushes panel? The Blur and Sharpen tools need to use a brush from the brushes panel.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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19 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

What sort of files? Are there layers in the Layers panel? Have you chosen the topmost pixel layer to work on?

Do you have the Basic Round brush chosen from the Brushes panel? The Blur and Sharpen tools need to use a brush from the brushes panel.

I have checked the brush tool settings, all reset.  It doesnt work on anything at all, let alone when I start to do layers.

I am at the point of giving up and binning Affinity.  Disappointed with level of 'Customer Support' from a product problem. Only had it a couple of months.  Waste of money.

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Could you provide a screenshot showing the layers panel and context toolbars (whole screen in other words) when trying to use the tools you say are not working. It might be a simple thing that a screenshot will easily expose.

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

These are not my own words but I sure like this quote.

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10 minutes ago, AffinityJules said:

Could you provide a screenshot showing the layers panel and context toolbars (whole screen in other words) when trying to use the tools you say are not working. It might be a simple thing that a screenshot will easily expose.

I would suggest even a step further. Maybe a short vid of Sarah doing her thing.
Or should I say, the tools NOT doing their thing.

Edit: Sarah posted while I was typing. First thing I see is your opacity is under 50%. So you're staring out under half strength to start. 
Also, what exactly in that scene are you sharpening? The owl I assume?.... (why a vid might help more)
You might also try changing the mode to Harsh, just to crank things up (after, of course, increasing opacity).

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Something to try here that might help prove that the tools are working.

Try setting the opacity and flow to 100% and try it again. Does it work?

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

These are not my own words but I sure like this quote.

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One other setting to try on the Sharpen Tool is changing the Mode from Clarity to Harsh or Unsharp Mask.. Clarity applies a real subtle sharpening. You also may need to zoom in to near or at 100% to see if it's making a difference.

Finally, to have a comparison, try duplicating the layer, then applying the sharpen or blur. Now to see if there's anything being applied, simply uncheck/check the layer your working on to see a comparison to your original (bottom layer). It's a real quick before/after viewing.

Affinity Photo 2.4..; Affinity Designer 2.4..; Affinity Publisher 2.4..; Affinity2 Beta versions. Affinity Photo,Designer 1.10.6.1605 Win10 Home Version:21H2, Build: 19044.1766: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz, 3301 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s);32GB Ram, Nvidia GTX 3070, 3-Internal HDD (1 Crucial MX5000 1TB, 1-Crucial MX5000 500GB, 1-WD 1 TB), 4 External HDD

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I was trying different opacitys etc to make sure I had at least a chance of something showing.  Nothing. Same in 100%

The owl picture was just one I had randomly put in to see if anything worked.  I have lost heart to do any proper editing with this, which is frustrating as I have some great shots I want to process, but not worth it on Affinity if it doesnt work.

Adding video is more than I am set up for.

Clarity and Harsh on the Sharpen tool is the first time I have seen any change, albeit an ugly big streak, a bit like the Dodge tool does.  Not workable, but at least something shows.

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I take it you're using a basic brush rather than a specialised brush?

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

These are not my own words but I sure like this quote.

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Just now, sarahkeast said:

Errr, I think so, I havent changed anything.  I dont think.

Click on the brush tab and select basic.

Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.

These are not my own words but I sure like this quote.

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