Applying gradients as per Lightroom

[BetonyWarrior]

Good afternoon all, 

 

First time poster, long time Affinity struggler. 

 

I am trying to apply a graduated filer to an image as per this video (around the 32 min mark). 

 

I know I can create a new fill layer and apply a gradient, but this only seems to be applicable to a blend mode. In the video above the user is able to apply a graduated filter to affect exposure and importantly colour - this is really bugging me as I am trying to create more creative edits. 

I am aware this is a Lightroom tutorial, but I have noticed there is a lot of crossover between the two editing programs and so even Adobe tutorials can be helpful. Is there no way to do what is demonstrated in the tutorial in Affinity? Do I need to be in a different persona perhaps? I am most familiar with the Photo persona - am I in the wrong place? 

Many thanks! 

[BetonyWarrior]

Bump

[Ron P.]

Welcome to the forums @BetonyWarrior,

I didn't watch much of that PS tutorial, but I do think it's very possible to get the same results from AP (Affinity Photo), the path is probably different.

What I can suggest, since you have an idea what you want to accomplish, is you watch a few AP tutorials to see how it's done in AP. Version 2 offers a lot more, especially with Live Masking. I still don't fully understand how to use them, and have watched these tutorials a few times now, but it takes that to understand your tools.

Serif's Official Affinity Photo Tutorials

• Mask Layers
• Clipping and Masking Layers
• Compound Masks
• Luminosity Range Masks
• Hue Range Masks
• Band Pass Masks

Those should get you started. I can't find a tutorial done for using the Layer FX. It's the FX icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel. They really modified it, and made it more powerful than Version 1.

You notice in the PS tutorial, the man uses several layers, several techniques. The same goes for Affinity. It takes time, and most of the time, there's not a single-click done method.

EDIT: I just watched the part of the PS tutorial about the gradient. I then done basically the same, however used a different method/technique to achieve it. I wasn't recording it at the time. I'll go back and make a short video showing how I done that using AP2, and post it when I'm done.

 

[Ron P.]

Here's a quick screen video of how I done what the PS tutorial is doing. I generally always duplicate the botton/background layer, for insurance against messing up.

1. Assumption is made that you understand how to cut out or mask parts of an image.
   1. To get the best I can do, I use the Channels, find the highest contrast Channel, Create a grayscale layer. Use that to make my selection using the selection brush, then make sure I have all Channels enabled in the Channels panel, and use the Refine Selection to refine it. I output that to Layer with Mask.
2. Once I have the object cutout/isolated, then just go to the Duplicated Background layer, and Apply a Gradient Overlay FX. The plane shouldn't be affect since it's on it's own layer above the background layer.

Hope this helps.