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Improving the sky in Affinity Photo


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what kind of improvement do you need? there is a tutorial that explains how to substitute the sky taking it from another image:

 

 

however, depending on the image, you could add some adjustments, like contrast, highlight/shadows, hsl, clarity, noise reduction... the improvements that can be made are practically infinite and everything depends on the image you have and the results you want chieve.

take care,

stefano

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Thank you for your reply, I have watched this video but at the moment I want to adjust just the sky enhancing the existing clouds etc., giving more of a punch to them.  I know in Lightroom which I trailed before purchasing Affinity you could drag down a line and then adjust the area you wanted and from different angles.  I didn't know if Affinity had this or something similar.  I like Affinity and am working through the videos although they do speak to fast to follow at times but not sure where to look. 

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in affinity photo you can apply live adjustments: this means that you'll be able to edit or delete any single adjustment even after applying subsequent adjustments.

in addition, any adjustment you add to your image has an implicit mask. you can paint over the mask (that is, over the square icon that is added to the layer stack when you add an adjustment)to hide the adjustment (if you paint black). or, you can invert the mask (cmd-i) and paint it white where you want the adjustment be visible.

you can drag an adjustment over a layer: it will be indented in the stack layer and will be effective only for that laer; adjustment whose icons are not indented are effective for all the layer below.

i never used lightroom and i am not sure i understood the workflow you described, but i find affinity photo's live adjustments and mask very practical, easy and effective.

take care,

stefano

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try something simple:

 

1) load an image

2) add an hsl adjustment

     - click on the small half dark / half white circle icon below the layer stack and select the hsl adjustment

     - you'll notice that a new item appears in the layer stack, and it is a white square

3) move the cursors to apply an adjustment

     - you'll notice that it is applied to the whole image

4) click on the white square representing the adjustment (or better, its mask)

5) select the brush tool

6) select the black color

7) start painting

     - you'll see that the hsl adjustment disappears where you are painting

8) press cmd-i

     - this inverts the effect mask: now the adjustment is applied only where you painted (and the icon is now black with some white detail)

 

by selecting different options for the opacity and hardness and flow of the brush you can fine-tune where the effect is shown

 

this is a basic technique for applying adjustments in affinity photo. you can apply more adjustments following the same steps; you can later double click on the mask of a previously applied effect to make the control window appear and modify it.

take care,

stefano

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  • 2 years later...

Hi there,

 

as a lot of your newer users, I use(d) lightroom 5.7.1 to develop my pictures.

Some of the features still draw me to the product which we will not name again.
For instance I could lay a gradient which lowered the exposure. that Graduated Filter didn't only work for exposure.
is there something in Affinity Foto?

 

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@Forssux,

you can apply a gradient mask to adjustment layer: just use the gradient tool on the adjustment layer.

afaik, this technique will blend the gradient into the mask permanently. if you'd like to have a non-destructive gradient, you can use a shape (usually a rectangle) as a vector mask: apply a gradient to the shape and set one of its endpoints' opacity to 0.

take care,

stefano

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Just now, barninga said:

@Forssux,

you can apply a gradient mask to adjustment layer: just use the gradient tool on the adjustment layer.

afaik, this technique will blend the gradient into the mask permanently. if you'd like to have a non-destructive gradient, you can use a shape (usually a rectangle) as a vector mask: apply a gradient to the shape and set one of its endpoints' opacity to 0.

Yes I just saw a movie on Youtube, it's not the same as my former program nor as fast and intuitive,  

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Re gradient masks

13 hours ago, Forssux said:

Yes I just saw a movie on Youtube, it's not the same as my former program nor as fast and intuitive,  

Maybe I'm missing something, but while the AP implementation is very powerful, I find it's far from intuitive.  A dedicated graduated ND filter effect would be nice!

AP, AD & APub user, running Win10

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a dedicated graduated nd filter would be an interesting plus, ihmo. easy to use, but limited to its scope.

the ability to create graduated filters of any kind is obviously more powerful.

however, the fact that a gradient affects a mask destructively (as far as i could understand by experimenting) and you need to use a vector shape as a clipping mask to apply a non destructive gradient sounds like a bug to me, or at least like a flaw in AP's mask implementation (it's not the only one; i'd add the inability to dodge and burn in masks).

take care,

stefano

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  • 1 year later...
On 1/9/2016 at 9:42 AM, barninga said:

what kind of improvement do you need? there is a tutorial that explains how to substitute the sky taking it from another image:

 

 

 

however, depending on the image, you could add some adjustments, like contrast, highlight/shadows, hsl, clarity, noise reduction... the improvements that can be made are practically infinite and everything depends on the image you have and the results you want chieve.

we are two, I am new, and looks they talk like they are in a competition who finish first.

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  • 2 years later...
On 1/9/2016 at 5:42 PM, barninga said:

what kind of improvement do you need? there is a tutorial that explains how to substitute the sky taking it from another image:

 

 

 

however, depending on the image, you could add some adjustments, like contrast, highlight/shadows, hsl, clarity, noise reduction... the improvements that can be made are practically infinite and everything depends on the image you have and the results you want chieve.

I think that this video is from the official AP tutorial site and is one of the easier videos that they provide but once again it could be so much better to provide a link to the two images used to enable beginners to try out and learn on the job as it were. I kinda recognised that guys voice after endeavouring to follow through his tutorials and as I say this is much easier to follow than some of the others.

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