Tech specs for newbies

[DrJon]

Hi there, just getting back into photo and learning Affinity! Great product. I was wondering if anyone pout there had a reference to technical details on what the different processing steps actually do? Cropping is straight forward, but the difference between Luminosity and Clarity an Vibrance? White balance and contrast? Etc. I was hoping there would be some kind of reference guide for these things. Lots of tutorials show how and when to use them but I can't find anything on what they actually DO. Any pointers would be appreciated. Thx.

Cheers

Jon 

[debraspicher]

Welcome, @DrJon

There is the main documentation (Press F1 in app) which shows examples. I suggest to just press F1 and search the term there, it will give examples in some cases.

Otherwise, it is better to see it in practice. The quickest way to see different functionality and their usecases (outside of experimenting on your own) a is through their official video tutorials, which are quite good, and can be done a little bit at time:
 

Official Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AffinityPhotoOfficial/videos

Luminosity Masks:

Clarity:

Vibrance:

[NotMyFault]

YouTuber InAffinity has some great tutorials explaining all the basics, especially the older ones.

 

[v_kyr]

12 hours ago, DrJon said:

I was wondering if anyone pout there had a reference to technical details on what the different processing steps actually do?

• Affinity Photo V2 Online Help
• Affinity Spotlight - Learning resources, Inspirations etc.
• Official Affinity Photo V2 Tutorials
• The Forum's Tutorials section
• ... and so on, do a Google & Forum search after the topics of your interest ...

[DrJon]

Thx guys, very helpful. Though I was wondering more on a "pixel level" what happens with (for example) "vibrance" adjustments as opposed to "exposure". All the examples and suggestions are very helpful for how to ue these things, but I still don't understand what's happening "under the hood" so to speak. But then, I tend to get lost in the weeds and it might not be that helpful to know.

Thx again though! I love the open source and chat communities!

Cheers

Jon

[debraspicher]

6 minutes ago, DrJon said:

Thx guys, very helpful. Though I was wondering more on a "pixel level" what happens with (for example) "vibrance" adjustments as opposed to "exposure". All the examples and suggestions are very helpful for how to ue these things, but I still don't understand what's happening "under the hood" so to speak. But then, I tend to get lost in the weeds and it might not be that helpful to know.

Thx again though! I love the open source and chat communities!

Cheers

Jon

I don't know this answer absolutely, but from experience, Vibrance just seems to be a "pickier" version of saturation adjustment. It doesn't boost certain colors as high as others, so the saturation boost is more balanced across the spectrum. Personally, I prefer an HSL filter and to adjust my colors in custom.

I'm not sure Vibrance can be compared to Exposure. Exposure is tied to gamma/brightness (i.e. light). Vibrance is tied to saturation.

[debraspicher]

11 minutes ago, Red Sands said:

Vibrance explained in just a few words from our friends at Adobe:

https://helpx.adobe.com/dk/photoshop/how-to/adjust-vibrance.html

Affinity's manual had similar answer, but it referred to color clipping:

[DrJon]

Thx Guys!

Really helpful

What I'm trying to do is put together a little cheat sheet that might help remind what tool does what and when with some explanation as to what is being manipulated. See attached (distribute/use freely if it is of any help to anyone) particularly bullets 4-13. 

Cheers!

Jon

PhotoedElements.docx

[v_kyr]

22 minutes ago, DrJon said:

What I'm trying to do is put together a little ...

See also the already written Tutorials series referenced here in the forum ...

 

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, DrJon said:

explanation as to what is being manipulated. See attached

Quote

Contrast
    •    Increased contrast spreads out the histogram
    •    use to focus attention

It's interesting that currently your bullets 4.-12. mention the Histogram panel only for the aspect "Contrast" – though all different aspects of modification can occur in the histogram. Actually I would even say each of them always affects the "contrast" of an image but 'just' get set by a different property. Also note in APh the Scope panel which displays the image contents in a few more ways, some not only by pixel values but by position in the image. – Different to other apps in APh the histogram is read-only and can not be used directly for modifications (like tools, sliders or value fields do).

The Histogram and Scope can be quite informative and thus it is helpful to understand what they show since they are the only panels which display the various aspects of an image (aside the image itself and the navigator panel). I guess if you understand to 'read' histogram and scope you will easier understand the various aspects of your bullets 4-12. – This 20 min. tutorial about histogram & scope might interest you …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e88LCA3YWpo

[Lisbon]

I find it quite interesting how vibrance works. Low saturated colors get an extra boost in saturation compared to already highly saturated colors.
But this extra protection on the reds i dont understand why. I admit that it can be useful when there are skin tones but not all images have skin tones.
Photoshop works the same.

[Lisbon]

1 hour ago, Red Sands said:

The algorithms of good and professional programs examine for the limited colour ranges that characterise skin tones, and possibly examine for several parameters that determine whether an image contains faces and significant areas of skin. Only these ranges are protected.

Are you including adjustment layers?
I always had the idea that adjustment layers were very simple compared to, say... adjustments within raw developers.
Wouldn't that affect greatly the performance after a few adjustments if they were performing complex operations on the background?

1 hour ago, Red Sands said:

But keep in mind that vibrance is probably mainly intended for the many people who just need to protect skin tones and blue skies from what saturation does.

I agree. And with very nice results i must say.

1 hour ago, Red Sands said:

This screenshot, refers to A.Photo right?

I only ask because in Photoshop, the saturation slider within the vibrance adjustment also affects reds differently.