Multiple burns in one layer / open in Develop Persona from Bridge

[Announcement]

Hi all,

I'm settling into Affinity Photo 2 after a decade and a half of working in PS. It's been pretty painless for the most part, but there's one step in my workflow that has become significantly longer in Affinity because I can't figure out a way to do it more efficiently. I'm also using Bridge to sort and label my images, and the preview in Bridge and the Develop Persona image are vastly different. So was wondering if y'all had some help and input for me here, so here are the actual questions:

1) I edge burn nearly every single image I develop by dropping a neutral gray fill layer into overlay and using the gradient tool to burn the edges I need to. In PS I could do this in one layer, but in Affinity it seems I need a layer per edge I wanna burn. I've googled, and it seems it's not possible to do multiple burns using the gradient tool in one layer - is this correct? If yes, is there a way around this that is more efficient than doing one layer per edge? Right now I'm spending unnecessary time fine-tuning opacity and masking edge burn intersections, and I find it frustrating that what was previously about five clicks has become five clicks per edge, plus masking on top of that.

2) Speaking of fill layers, is there a keyboard shortcut to creating new ones? In PS CTRL + Shift + N would open a super handy panel where you could check off "fill with 50% gray" and drop it into overlay before it was ever created. CTRL + Shift + N now just creates an empty layer. Is there an equivalent to the new layer panel from PS that is accessible by keyboard shortcut?

3) A question more out of curiosity than need - I use Bridge to sort and label my images, and open in Develop Persona through Bridge. However, the Bridge preview is much more saturated and has higher contrast - when I open in Affinity, the image is suddenly much more muted and less saturated (check the attached images). Why is this? I assume Bridge is adding some kind of filter to the preview, but is someone privy to the details here? Would love to know exactly what's going on.

Thanks for the help!

 

 

[Chris26]

Is the Curve information in the Top image EXACTLY the same as the curve information in the bottom image? 

[NotMyFault]

2 hours ago, Announcement said:

1) I edge burn nearly every single image I develop by dropping a neutral gray fill layer into overlay and using the gradient tool to burn the edges I need to. In PS I could do this in one layer, but in Affinity it seems I need a layer per edge I wanna burn. I've googled, and it seems it's not possible to do multiple burns using the gradient tool in one layer - is this correct? If yes, is there a way around this that is more efficient than doing one layer per edge? Right now I'm spending unnecessary time fine-tuning opacity and masking edge burn intersections, and I find it frustrating that what was previously about five clicks has become five clicks per edge, plus masking on top of that.

In Designer (not Photo) you can use Appearance panel to add multiple gradients. If Photo we might find an alternative approach to achieve the same effect. Is it correct that you add a kind of vignette by the process? You may use a vector shape and layer FX / blur or outline / shadow fo the same effect.  

[NotMyFault]

2 hours ago, Announcement said:

2) Speaking of fill layers, is there a keyboard shortcut to creating new ones? In PS CTRL + Shift + N would open a super handy panel where you could check off "fill with 50% gray" and drop it into overlay before it was ever created. CTRL + Shift + N now just creates an empty layer. Is there an equivalent to the new layer panel from PS that is accessible by keyboard shortcut?

You can define your own keyboard shortcuts, please check if this function is available (not on my PC currently, cant check)

https://affinity.help/photo2/en-US.lproj/pages/Workspace/customizingShortcuts.html

 

[NotMyFault]

2 hours ago, Announcement said:

A question more out of curiosity than need - I use Bridge to sort and label my images, and open in Develop Persona through Bridge. However, the Bridge preview is much more saturated and has higher contrast - when I open in Affinity, the image is suddenly much more muted and less saturated (check the attached images). Why is this? I assume Bridge is adding some kind of filter to the preview, but is someone privy to the details here? Would love to know exactly what's going on.

Sounds like color profile related issue. Which color profiles are you using in Photo documents, Display, and PC/Mac settings for Display?

Most viewers will show the embedded JPG for RAW files which was generated in Camera, using all settings (like exposure, sharpness bias etc).

Affinity ignores the embedded JPG, and presents the RAW data, interpreted using the „Development Assistant“ settings which can be totally different from Camera presets / embedded JPG. Unfortunately for most modern camera models, Affinity is unable to read „receipts“ or „camera profiles“ from RAW images, since those meta-data belong exposure / white balance is often encrypted, only available for SW vendors willing to pay some ransom license cost.

[Announcement]

4 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

In Designer (not Photo) you can use Appearance panel to add multiple gradients. If Photo we might find an alternative approach to achieve the same effect. Is it correct that you add a kind of vignette by the process? You may use a vector shape and layer FX / blur or outline / shadow fo the same effect.  

Hi, thanks for your response! Yes, the way I edge burn essentially creates a type of vignette. Photo does have a couple of options for the gradient tool that lets me burn all edges at once (elliptical, for example), but that doesn't give me the control I want and need to adjust the gradient size and angle of each edge. I don't have Designer, so that's unfortunately not an option for me.
 

4 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

You can define your own keyboard shortcuts, please check if this function is available (not on my PC currently, cant check)

https://affinity.help/photo2/en-US.lproj/pages/Workspace/customizingShortcuts.html

 

Thank you so much! I was able to remap the "new layer" shortcut to "new fill layer", so that's going to save me quite a bit of time moving forward - much appreciated!
 

4 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

Sounds like color profile related issue. Which color profiles are you using in Photo documents, Display, and PC/Mac settings for Display?

Most viewers will show the embedded JPG for RAW files which was generated in Camera, using all settings (like exposure, sharpness bias etc).

Affinity ignores the embedded JPG, and presents the RAW data, interpreted using the „Development Assistant“ settings which can be totally different from Camera presets / embedded JPG. Unfortunately for most modern camera models, Affinity is unable to read „receipts“ or „camera profiles“ from RAW images, since those meta-data belong exposure / white balance is often encrypted, only available for SW vendors willing to pay some ransom license cost.

Hey, thanks for your input! Yeah, I figured it was something like that. It really is mainly out of curiosity since I prefer the flatter RAW as a baseline to work upon anyway, so it isn't really a problem to me that what Bridge displays and what Photo displays looks different. In any case it's a small price to pay when the alternative is to lock into subscription based software that you will lose access to the second you don't wish to pay anymore.

Edited September 17, 2023 by Announcement

[Announcement]

5 hours ago, Chris26 said:

Is the Curve information in the Top image EXACTLY the same as the curve information in the bottom image? 

Hey! No curve in Bridge since it is a file management program, but if I had Camera RAW access I would assume the curves would be different.

[Chris26]

2 hours ago, Announcement said:

Hey! No curve in Bridge since it is a file management program, but if I had Camera RAW access I would assume the curves would be different.

Well not exactly, I know that, but RAW files open up in Adobe Bridge, after all, that is the program you click on.  No the curve would not be different if, as I am assuming, you are comparing your Bridge RAW file with your IMported file into Affinity WITHOUT any editing or adjustments, then the curve info would be the same regardless of how it looks on the screen.