Comments on tutorials

[Stuart444]

I'm relatively inexperienced in photo editing, having used PSE for a year or so before being persuaded to try Affinity by a friend. Part of the package is the tutorials, which I find quite good on the whole, but could I make a few of suggestions please?

 

1. Go slower! The speaker speeds on so quickly that I have to keep stopping an replaying to understand what information is available. Usually I run the tutorial on one monitor and Affinity on another to help me keep up, but even then I have to keep going back to catch what he said.

 

2. Please don't assume! Most people here must be inexperienced or beginners like me and it's so annoying to be told to do something without being told how to. Perhaps you think it's too simple to be needed, but often it's not. For example I've just been looking at one tutorial and he selected the brush tool and said "turn it to white" but didn't say how. The screen showed what I presume is a key stroke, an X an a white box, but that doesn't seem to work for me, so what is it? What other ways can I set it to white (or any other colour)? Lots of examples of this sort of omission occur.

 

3. Please help with basic mistakes and pitfalls! For example I've just been watching the tutorial on quick masks, and he shows how to use the paint brush on the mask. In the tutorial you can see transparency through the red layer as he hovers, and when he click drags the brush clears away the mask. Not in my case! Neither is happening. I've reviewed it several times and can't see the difference between the tutorial picture and what's on my monitor. I'm sure there will be a reason, but I can't progress without knowing the reason. Some comments on what to do if it doesn't work would be as useful as the tutorial on how to do it, if not more useful.

[barninga]

stuart,

 

since english is not my native language i partially share your thoughts.

anyway at last, i found this approach to be effective (for me): i watch a tutorial first, always carefully following the mouse pointer, and then try to make the same operation on a photograph. if i am stuck somewhere, i watch the tutorial a second time (eventually searching in it just the bit i'm missing).

 

also i found very useful giving myself a goal and trying to replicate in AP the steps i would walk with the software i was used to. before this, however, i watched all of theqtutorials, to have a complete tour of AP's features and at least a vague idea of its working philosophy.

 

about the third point, be sure to:

- activate the quick mask

- select the paint brush tool

- select white as the foreground color

 

my guess is that in this first approach to AP you miss some bt here and there, but you'll get accustomed soon to a new way to do things. the community here is willing to help, so post your questions in this forum and it' likely that you'll get an effective answer.

[Madame]

I sympathize with you. I struggled a lot before I understood the colour part of the app.

And the videos are difficult to get to grips with at first.

 

I have used the forum for what it's worth to understand it better.

 

The app is so young, so the videos are limited in compare to photoshop/elements, I think there will be lots and lots of them as the time goes by.

 

When you ask your questions it's helpful to link to the videos and/or take a screenshot (including  your layers panel) to illustrate what the matter is. Then you will get the help you need.
People here are very helpful and friendly. :)

As for the mask, it's the same as in Elements. If you do something to the layer, you can mask it, and paint it back or hide it with white or black paint.

Be sure that your mask is selected. You can tell by that the mask has a thin white border. The layers/masks get deselected if you click outside the working area.

[samos]

Brave to Stuart Ord. The tutorials go too far and it's hard to make out what the cursor is doing.

[samos]

Sorry, that shud have read "bravo" not "brave"

[pjglad]

This is an excellent intro to Affinity Photo

 

https://www.udemy.com/affinity-photo-101/learn/#/

[High Desert]

The irony here, pjglad, is buying a software app, then having to go (purchase) another piece of software to learn how to use what you just purchased.  Not too sure i'd agree with that.  Being a newbie, too, I find that things move quickly in the tutorials, but seem to find that I can grasp what is happening if I watch it over again.  Not being critical here, just a point of consideration.

[Stuart444]

Thanks for your comments. I agree with High Desert, a beginner course costing nearly as much as the software is a bit hard to stomach. The tutorials that Serif are doing are useful, just they could be improved a lot for beginners. Repeating them is no problem, but going so fast I can't keep up even using two monitors isn't sensible and so easily fixed. Some really basic instruction (such as using the basic tools) is missing. If the latter was done, perhaps this would provide the help in avoiding pitfalls that I'd appreciate. OK, back to the quick mask! Thanks for your help and suggestions, madame!