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paste black and white image into adjustment layer so it uses it as the mask


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I add an exposure adjustment layer to a pixel layer:

image.png.17b38318636883c860e6e9bf5ef8a4ac.png

 

I then copy a black and white image, and now want to paste it onto the adjustment layer to control which pixels are affected.  

The intuitive way would be to alt click the adjustment layer and then choose the paste, or paste into option.  Unsurprisingly, neither work (because this is without doubt the most unintuitive software ever devised :D )

Any clues?

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1 hour ago, 3d illusions said:

I then copy a black and white image, and now want to paste it onto the adjustment layer to control which pixels are affected.

Dont try to copy/paste. Try this instead. Load the luminosity of your Pixel layer as a selection and, after that, add the Exposure adjustment.
To load the luminosity as a selection press Ctrl+Alt+Mouse_Click on your Pixel layer thumbnail (Layers tab).

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49 minutes ago, 3d illusions said:

Thanks, I gave up though and just did it in Blender's compositor.  Free and the node based workflow is much more intuitive 👍

 

I see you've already solved your problem but if you want to give A.Photo a second chance there is another way to do what you asked. Maybe more intuitive.

Rasterize to mask your B&W image (Layer > Rasterize to mask OR Right click and Rasterize to mask)
Drag/Drop your mask over the Exposure adjustment.

Hope this helps.

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Thanks for your answer.  What a terrible software though.  Not being able to utilise the adjustment layer's built in mask simply by pasting into it after alt clicking to edit it, is yet another example of why this software sucks.  I'm sick of the most obvious method of achieving things, never being the actual way to do it.  Thanks anyway 👍

p.s the alternative method didn't work, it just sent the image transparent after dragging the new mask onto the exposure adjustment:

image.thumb.png.cb68a4ae0248dabd12ef82659241cec9.png

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I also find it very confusing that there's no inset to indicate which layer masks and further adjustments are affecting.  For example, it's this background mask was dragged onto the exposure layer:

image.png.aaa14b6f89533bdc25f200a6effd1ad1.png

 

Just wondering why this isn't visually represented like this.  Mask affects the exposure layer, levels affect the mask only:

image.png.23ca3f61254fdb3ae4a7082bb8a5de19.png

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1 hour ago, 3d illusions said:

Thanks for your answer.  What a terrible software though.

Yeah i know that feeling. Especially when I use a software that is very different from what I am used to. I felt the same when I tried to use GIMP. How do they manage to work without adjustment layers?
I promised myself that when they had adjustment layers I would learn to work in GIMP. Meanwhile, a decade has passed and no adjustment layers.
Curiously, I didn't feel any great difficulties with A.Photo because I found it to be very similar to Photoshop.
The first method i gave you i learned in Photoshop. If i'm not mistaken even the shortcut keys are the same.

1 hour ago, 3d illusions said:

p.s the alternative method didn't work, it just sent the image transparent after dragging the new mask onto the exposure adjustment:

image.thumb.png.cb68a4ae0248dabd12ef82659241cec9.png

 

Your mask is not afecting just the exposure. Just drag it into the right place.

MaskExposure.png.afef082a1092d43822261d311437f9a2.png

Notice that the Exposure Adjustment gets that ">" sign.

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you need to drop the mask layer to the thumbnail of the adjustment layer - not the area with the name.

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2 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

you need to drop the mask layer to the thumbnail of the adjustment layer - not the area with the name.

I think he is using A. Photo version 1.

14 minutes ago, 3d illusions said:

What's the right place?  I'm dragging it here so that the small blue rectangle is over the right hand edge of the exposure thumbnail. 
image.png.eb80c1bc2760c6cc89990c2a70cdcdf6.png

Thats it @3d illusions!
Your screenshot shows the correct position to drag the mask. Drag to the right of the Exposure thumbnail and you will get a little blue vertical rectangle.
Thats the masking position.

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Ah in V1 you must use a trick. Affinity does not show nested layers in masking position below Level 2.

So first, unnest the exposure adjustment.

next, nest the mask layer to masking position of exposure adjustment

finally, nest exposure adjustment to child position of background pixel layer. The mask becomes invisible, but is still active.

 

V2 solved this inconvenience.

Mac mini M1 A2348 | Windows 10 - AMD Ryzen 9 5900x - 32 GB RAM - Nvidia GTX 1080

LG34WK950U-W, calibrated to DCI-P3 with LG Calibration Studio / Spider 5

iPad Air Gen 5 (2022) A2589

Special interest into procedural texture filter, edit alpha channel, RGB/16 and RGB/32 color formats, stacking, finding root causes for misbehaving files, finding creative solutions for unsolvable tasks, finding bugs in Apps.

 

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3 minutes ago, 3d illusions said:

oh ok, it's a bug. 

I don't think so. I think it's just an area that could be improved (as they did in V2).

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
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The only promise was to fix issues related to OS patches breaking V1 apps, for a undefined period of time. There will stop supporting V1 finally - not yet decided when exactly. Cant find the original thread, from memory.

Mac mini M1 A2348 | Windows 10 - AMD Ryzen 9 5900x - 32 GB RAM - Nvidia GTX 1080

LG34WK950U-W, calibrated to DCI-P3 with LG Calibration Studio / Spider 5

iPad Air Gen 5 (2022) A2589

Special interest into procedural texture filter, edit alpha channel, RGB/16 and RGB/32 color formats, stacking, finding root causes for misbehaving files, finding creative solutions for unsolvable tasks, finding bugs in Apps.

 

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4 hours ago, 3d illusions said:

Just out of interest, has the second bug I mentioned here been addressed in version 2?

 

The problem you refer to no longer exists in v2:  now the user can freely nest and access objects within mask-nested objects to an arbitrary depth.

However, there are bugs in the rendering of nested objects, which may or may not affect your particular work.

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