Preview

[Jerry W.]

Ok, I am very new to Affinity Photo. A very basic question: In Photoshop, I open an image and everything I do or try out is previewed on that image for me. This is not happening with Affinity photo. Help?

[walt.farrell]

36 minutes ago, Jerry W. said:

and everything I do or try out is previewed on that image for me. This is not happening with Affinity photo.

Without knowing what you're doing, and seeing some screenshots or a video of your work in the application window, we're not likely to be able to help.

[Jerry W.]

I dont understand why this is such a hard question to answer. I'll make it as simple as I can. When I want to make a simple adjustment like color or contrast, I go to the slider and move it. Nothing happens on the image I am looking at. 

[Old Bruce]

1 minute ago, Jerry W. said:

I dont understand why this is such a hard question to answer. I'll make it as simple as I can. When I want to make a simple adjustment like color or contrast, I go to the slider and move it. Nothing happens on the image I am looking at. 

You may have set the Adjustment layer in the wrong place in the layers.

You may have the opacity of the adjustment layer set to 0% opacity. You may have the blending mode set to something other than Normal.

[Old Bruce]

For completeness here are the three places it will work when set to Normal and 100% opacity.

Very subtle horizontal difference, this is more to the right.

 (it should be highlighted too in order for it to be changed)

 

[walt.farrell]

21 minutes ago, Jerry W. said:

I dont understand why this is such a hard question to answer.

Because "everything I do won't preview" tells us nothing about what you're doing. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of things you might be doing. And for everyone of them there may be multiple ways of doing it, and some of them are incorrect. If you don't give us any information about what you're doing, we're left to guess.

[Old Bruce]

@Jerry W. A couple of more things, you may have the checkbox on the Adjustment Layer un ticked or you may have inverted the Adjustment Layer's alpha channel thus masking the adjustment.

[thomaso]

19 hours ago, Jerry W. said:

In Photoshop, I open an image and everything I do or try out is previewed on that image for me. This is not happening with Affinity photo. Help?

17 hours ago, Jerry W. said:

I dont understand why this is such a hard question to answer.

It is hard to answer because Affinity in fact does previews. You don't tell what "everything" means to you. Like in Affinity also in Photoshop there are many user actions which are not previewed before the user applies them. For instance most tasks without options, e.g. various Select commands like "Select All", "Select Reds", "Select Fully Transparency" or the various layer arrange commands like "Flip", "Rotate", "Move to Front", or "Delete", "Undo" etc. Also certain tools don't show a preview in both apps, e.g. the "Flood Fill Tool | Bucket" …

Whereas Adjustments for instance are previewed in Affinity. – Since you mention in particular preview only (but not a not working task or tool), I assume, you do get a result when applying the actions and are missing only the preview. Thus it can be helpful or required to see your detailed workflow in a screencast, unless a user has experienced the same before or might be able to guess the reason.

[Ron P.]

@Jerry W., Are you referring to not seeing any changes made, ie; preview when applying any of the adjustments? Here's a screenshot showing that they are previewed. If you're not seeing this, please provide a screen capture showing what you're having problems with.

[Jerry W.]

Thanks Ron I'm figuring it out. Please everybody excuse my impatience here. 25+ year Photoshop user, and gee I guess I'm going to have to read the instructions. Not a direct copy of Photoshop user functions. Thanks for your demo, figured out why I wasn't getting preview at all.

[Alfred]

34 minutes ago, Jerry W. said:

figured out why I wasn't getting preview at all

Is it a secret?

 

[Jerry W.]

Nope just my ignorance...Thanks Ron I'm figuring it out. Please everybody excuse my impatience here. 25+ year Photoshop user, and gee I guess I'm going to have to read the instructions. Not a direct copy of Photoshop user functions. Thanks for your demo, figured out why I wasn't getting preview at all.

[thomaso]

8 hours ago, Jerry W. said:

figured out why I wasn't getting preview at all.

What was causing the issue for you in detail?

A clear answer would help the community to understand what exactly went wrong (was done wrong) and thus give easier access for others with a similar issue to solve it.

[thomaso]

On 7/9/2022 at 8:53 PM, Jerry W. said:

I dont understand why this is such a hard question to answer.

Me too, in particular since you solved it you could be able to tell the answer. 😉

[Jerry W.]

Ok, in detail, it's about an xtra step (for me) in Affinity that I didn't have to make in Photoshop ie in Photoshop you just pull the drop down menu, select adjustment, pick say color, and blaze away. Affinity has the Default, Desaturate,Invert hue boxes which you must have selected to do anything and get a preview. Just old habits and "I dont need no damn instructions". I will learn it folks. Everybody calm down. Thanks to all who offered help.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Jerry W. said:

Affinity has the Default, Desaturate,Invert hue boxes which you must have selected to do anything and get a preview.

Or, use the Adjustments icon on the bottom of the Layers panel instead of using the Adjustments panel. Click the icon, select the adjustment you want from the list, and go to work.

[thomaso]

12 hours ago, Jerry W. said:

in Photoshop you just pull the drop down menu, select adjustment, pick say color, and blaze away. Affinity has the Default, Desaturate,Invert hue boxes which you must have selected to do anything and get a preview.

In Photoshop you also need to make any setting after creating an adjustment layer, by default its adjustments don't change the image, like in Affinity (in both the "Invert" adjustment excepted). So I still don't understand what was your initial problem which made you start this thread, in particular with your idea "I dont understand why this is such a hard question to answer." – With other words, actually I still don't see a real question which could have got answered at all.

12 hours ago, Jerry W. said:

"I dont need no damn instructions".

Hm? – Nevertheless, the forum community might need them in case of a question. At least I do. Can you give me more clear instructions to reproduce your issue?

[Ron P.]

13 hours ago, Jerry W. said:

Just old habits and "I dont need no damn instructions".

 

1 hour ago, thomaso said:

Hm? – Nevertheless, the forum community might need them in case of a question.

I see Jerry W.'s comment as the typical stereotype of men, at least here in the US. We don't need to read instruction manuals, and we certainly will not ask for directions to our destination, no matter how lost we may be. It's just not manly.

FWIW, he has figured out the difference between PS and AP, and what he thought was AP not working. Why press him?

[thomaso]

2 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

he has figured out the difference between PS and AP, and what he thought was AP not working. Why press him?

… not pressing but asking because I still would like to understand what in fact made the difference & solved the issue. I even don't know what exactly in your video made it clear to him. To me the workflow in Photoshop & Affinity appear to be the same when choosing an adjustment from the menu: No preview unless I alter a parameter + immediate preview as soon I alter a parameter. (aside the fact that Photoshop first opens an intermediate dialog window to let me name the selected adjustment – which may appear more cumbersome than Affinity)

[Ron P.]

3 hours ago, thomaso said:

I even don't know what exactly in your video made it clear to him.

The immediate preview of the changes being made. When you move a slider, you see on the image what is changing, without committing it first.

[thomaso]

33 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

The immediate preview of the changes being made. When you move a slider, you see on the image what is changing, without committing it first.

To me also Photoshop behaves like this. According to the OP there must be a difference between Photoshop & Affinity concerning adjustment previews. I would like to know this difference.

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, Ron P. said:

I see Jerry W.'s comment as the typical stereotype of men, at least here in the US.

I think it was intended only as a comment about needing to forget old habits learned in a different app to learn what works in a different one, with or without reading the instructions.

[thomaso]

14 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I think it was intended only as a comment about needing to forget old habits learned in a different app to learn what works in a different one

But WHAT works different concerning preview? – Definitely not "everything" as literally statet (or intended only?) by the OP's initial post.