Color picker changes the tone of the entire image in Affinity Photo

[-TR-]

Hi,

When I paste an image into Affinity Photo, then use the color picker (which should be a passive tool, meaning, it shouldn't affect the current image in any way) - it completely changes the color tone of the entire image, depending on what color I click on.

What's worse, when I click outside the image boundaries, the image disappears altogether. Not sure why this is happening or how to fix it. All I want is to sample the color under the picker.

Here's a quick video demonstrating the problem.

Thanks,

   TR

[loukash]

17 minutes ago, -TR- said:

the color picker (which should be a passive tool, meaning, it shouldn't affect the current image in any way)

And it is a "passive" tool, unless – as seen in your screencast – Apply To Selection is checked in the context toolbar which also seems to be the case by default.

In other words: user error, or "at best" a minor usability issue, but not a bug.  

[Rick G]

5 hours ago, loukash said:

And it is a "passive" tool, unless – as seen in your screencast – Apply To Selection is checked in the context toolbar which also seems to be the case by default.

In other words: user error, or "at best" a minor usability issue, but not a bug.  

I have had "Apply to selection" checked and do not get the issue that TR gets. Checked or unchecked, nothing changes

HOWEVER it does happen if you pate a new document from the clipboard so TR did find a bug as the "Apply to selection" is broken in both the release and the latest beta

[loukash]

4 minutes ago, Rick G said:

I have had "Apply to selection" checked and do not get the issue that TR gets. Checked or unchecked, nothing changes

It depends on the selected content in the Layers panel:

• "Pixel" type of layers/objects are not affected by the option.
• Image, vector and text layers/objects are.

[-TR-]

Hi,

From what I can tell, it behaves completely differently if the layer is of type Image or Pixel (rasterized) in a very unexpected behavior.

Furthermore, no selection was defined and yet the entire image was still modified (again, unexpected behavior for a "Apply To Selection" checkbox) by applying some visual algorithm I have no obvious control over.

Out of curiosity, why is it checked by default? I'm asking because that's a counter-intuitive behavior.

 

One final thing I noticed, if you have an Image layer and you modify the Secondary Color, it'll cause the entire image to undergo such color shift too. Again, it's unintuitive as to why this would happen, or how is the effect controlled.

Thanks,

  TR

[NotMyFault]

I agree that the behavior is not well document, and current help file is more misleading 

https://affinity.help/photo2/en-US.lproj/pages/Layers/layerImage.html

Image layers can be recolored much like an opened image or a pixel layer. If an image layer is drawn on, the layer will be rasterized and will adopt pixel layer properties. Rasterization is required to convert the image to the document's color space.

this totally ignores (or keeps secret) that image layers are effectively vector layers, and every vector layer can be recolored directly by choosing colors within color panel, and no rasterization will occour.

 

Never the less, the observed behavior is consistent since initial version in all Affinity apps.

I would suggest to improve the help text to explicitly mention that image layers can be recooked by choosing a color from color panel.

 

 

[-TR-]

Furthermore, when having an Image layer and using the Color Picker tool and clicking outside the image area, the image completely disappears.

Again, unexpected behavior. (I can provide a video if you're interested)