Using layers

[DebSki]

Hi

I've always found layers a bit confusing - the concept I get, the using I struggle with. Yesterday I watched one of your tutorials (Affinity Photo for Beginners - Top 10 Things Beginners Want to Know) & thought I'd got a better understanding & so today thought I'd have a play with an image.

I've worked out that most of these adjustments have to be done in a jpg not a raw file, so my first question is at what point do I develop raw file/export as jpg in order to make the changes?  To date, I've been making changes mostly in my raw file, then when I get it how I want, export to jpg. I acknowledge that that's probably a really bad way to do things...

I've exported an image to jpg to play around with &, as per the video, added a curves adjustment layer. This is where I seriously get confused (& always have with layers).

I did exactly the same is in the video - adjustments button, curves. Sure enough I get a new adjustments layer & the box appears on the screen. The big difference is that on the video, the adjustment layer is shown above the image layer in the studio, but on my PC, it's shown as next to (embedded? child?)

Whenever I've tried to follow a video tutorial (& I've tried quite a few times) the placing/moving of layers never works as it does in the video! 

The tutor drags a layer & it magically goes wherever they want it. I drag it, hover, place,whatever the instruction is & I can never (or very rarely) get it to do what it's supposed to do. A couple of times I've managed to do it & think I've cracked it, but the next time I try, back to square one & not able to do what I think it should do.

As I understand it, having the layers in the "right" order makes a big difference to how the programme works, so this is a key thing for me.

If someone can explain to me what I'm doing wrong, that would be marvellous!

In the above example, with curves layer, is there a setting that I've missed to get a new adjustment layer to default to above rather than child? So far as I know, I've not changed any of the default settings & I've always had this issue, with AP V1.x.x & now V2.5.3

Thanks

 

 

[walt.farrell]

18 minutes ago, DebSki said:

I've worked out that most of these adjustments have to be done in a jpg not a raw file, so my first question is at what point do I develop raw file/export as jpg in order to make the changes? 

No, they have to be done after the raw image has been Developed. Your raw image will open in the Develop Persona. You make any adjustments there that you want to make, and click the Develop button. Then you're in the Photo Persona, where the adjustments you're talking about can be done. There is no need to Export the file as a JPG at this point. Just work on it until you're happy, then Export it. Or simply save it as a .afphoto file if you want to continue working on it later.

21 minutes ago, DebSki said:

Sure enough I get a new adjustments layer & the box appears on the screen. The big difference is that on the video, the adjustment layer is shown above the image layer in the studio, but on my PC, it's shown as next to (embedded? child?)

How that works is determined by your Assistant options in your Photo Settings. That's something that most tutorial creators I've watched don't bother to explain.

Help: https://affinity.help/photo2/en-US.lproj/pages/Workspace/preferences.html  (look for the Assistant Options)

But if it ends up in the wrong place (e.g., above if it really needs to be nested, or vice-versa) you can simply drag it in the Layers panel and put it where you want.