Paint Mixer Brush, sample from all layers?

[dizzwave]

Hello,

I'm not sure if this is currently possible, but I would like to be able to use the Paint Mixer Brush, while mixing in colors from layers beneath the active layer.  For context, I am following a Photoshop tutorial on frequency separation, and so far so good, but this part is tripping me up. Is there a setting I'm missing, or is it just not possible?

Thanks!

[MEB]

Hi @dizzwave,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
I'm afraid that's not possible. Only the Clone Tool and some brush tools (Healing Brush, Inpainting, Blemish Tool) allow such interaction.
There may be other alternative ways to achieve the same goal through Affinity Photo but I don't know exactly for what and how are you using the Paint Mixer Tool.
Maybe if you post a link to the video you're following we can offer some advice/suggestions?

 

[dizzwave]

Hi @MEB, thanks for the reply. I don't have a link to the video because it's part of a paid course on skin retouching. But I've seen it mentioned elsewhere around the web, that the mixer brush does a better job with blending skin tones, than other tools like the healing or inpainting brush. I haven't verified this for myself, as I am a noob with this particular technique (Frequency Separation)....

The gist of the technique is to create the FS layers (which Affinity's FS filter seems to do a great job of), then add a blank pixel layer between the LF (low freq) and HF layers. This blank layer will be the non-destructive working layer for retouching the LF data (color/light of the skin). The idea is to use the paint mixer tool on this blank layer, sampling from below layers, thus not altering the pixels on the LF layer in case you want to change them later. 

So I guess my options are 1) to use one of the tools that can sample from lower layers (nondestructive), or 2) to use the paint mixer directly on the LF layer (destructive)... or I guess 3) duplicate the LF layer so I have a backup, and use paint mixer on that one (faux-nondestructive :)).   For my non-pro skill level, I'm sure one of these options will be fine for me.  But I just wanted to follow the course as closely as possible, and see if i could do that.

Thanks!

[Old Bruce]

6 minutes ago, dizzwave said:

So I guess my options are ... 3) duplicate the LF layer so I have a backup, and use paint mixer on that one (faux-nondestructive :)). 

I would think this is your best choice for what you want to do. You'll still have two layers, just not one of them that is mostly clear pixels.

[dizzwave]

Thanks Bruce!