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Affinity Photo Customer Beta (1.5 - Beta 1)


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well this is not about different workflow needs it is about basic functionality which is needed for professional work

 

This is the point I was making: there are customers who are, as of today, using the software professionally because their workflow does not require certain functionality - functionality that Photo currently doesn't have but likely will in the future. Requirements for professional work clearly differ depending on the work you are doing and the processes you are used to.

 

I apologise if you've been given the impression that your opinion doesn't matter. Like every other customer who posts on the forum, it does matter very much. In response to your previous tone where you called a poster's response "bullshit", I just implored you to try and appreciate that it's still very early days in Photo's development cycle. Every customer is going to have different requirements - professional or not - and just because requested features or improvements have not appeared thus far doesn't mean they haven't been noted. The developers and staff spend a considerable amount of time on the forums taking note of user feedback - it is all paid attention to.

 

I don't think there is a need to label people who would find use out of the new features being offered as "nerds goofing around with images". The new additions to 1.5 are going to benefit professional and amateur users alike. As a broad example, 32-bit editing isn't just for tone mapping merged HDR images. That would be the most common use for it, but having unbounded editing and OpenEXR/Radiance support is going to benefit 3D/digital imagery pipelines, as well as more refined editing of high dynamic range documents using layers, masking and all the other tools that Photo offers. These are all very much professional-grade workflows and requirements.

Product Expert (Affinity Photo) & Product Expert Team Leader

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James and all at serif, thank you for taking this project on ie Affinity products. It would seem that some people, csp for example, will never be satisfied.

 

Never mind. If he was using the 2nd version he must be very wealthy as using PS at that time would have cost about $300/hr. The first CS version wasn't released until 2002. Considering the nature of computers at that time it was fairly simplistic.

 

Just keep doing what you are doing, don't give up.

 

This software and its potential is amazing.

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This software and its potential is amazing.

 

I agree, but I also think there is an habit to settle for mediocrity, or because something is cheap or because is free.

AP potential is amazing and I think over time it will prove it even more.

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One change that I hope will be addressed with the 1.5 release is the option to rotate an image by 90 degrees in the develop persona. Currently you can rotate left or right by 15 degrees only. This means that if I want to edit a raw file that I shot in portrait orientation, I have to select one of these two rotate options 6 separate times to actually get it rotated by 90 degrees. This to be honest seriously frustrates me every time that I have to do this.

 

The question I have is why 15 degrees? Why not 90?

 

I do hope this is addressed in the 1.5 release. As of this beta it isn't.

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I get an error message when I try to start the beta. It says I need a purchased copy of Affinity Photo, which I have (AP 1.4.2). They are both installed in the /Applications folder.

Any help?

 

Thanks!

Arno, you need to trash the old Beta you have in Applications Folder, then download the new 1.5 Beta 1, expand the dmg and drag the Affinity Photo Beta 1 to  the Applications Folder.

It looks that for a reason, you have both Beta (the old 1.4.2 Beta and the New maybe)

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One change that I hope will be addressed with the 1.5 release is the option to rotate an image by 90 degrees in the develop persona. Currently you can rotate left or right by 15 degrees only. This means that if I want to edit a raw file that I shot in portrait orientation, I have to select one of these two rotate options 6 separate times to actually get it rotated by 90 degrees. This to be honest seriously frustrates me every time that I have to do this.

 

The question I have is why 15 degrees? Why not 90?

 

I do hope this is addressed in the 1.5 release. As of this beta it isn't.

Select Crop Tool, then press letter O three times until it shows all the photo selected. Then Drag the outside corner until you wish. Down at the bottom of the window you can read some instructions about it

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Does the new 1.5 version remember tools settings? 


 


It is painful when you have to setup options each time you activate specific tool.


 


Crop tool is an good example, for most cases photographers crop images using original aspect ratio of taken photograph, unfortunately the default mode is “unconstrained”. Additionally crop tool does not support modifier keys (to hold shift, alt, option etc) to constrain ratio when dragging selection frame.


 


The same for export settings, like size etc. 


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I've downloaded the beta right now to try if the stack focus is powerful enough to let me avoid to purchase Helicon Focus, that expires its demo mode just this morning...
Until now it seems ok, a lot slower than HF, with some artifacts than can be corrected easily. HF had artifacts also, some ghosting in the high lights, but lacks the editing capabilities of Affinity Photo.

Thanks from my wife for the avoided expense on another software...

 

:-)

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This is the point I was making: there are customers who are, as of today, using the software professionally because their workflow does not require certain functionality - functionality that Photo currently doesn't have but likely will in the future. Requirements for professional work clearly differ depending on the work you are doing and the processes you are used to.

 

I agree with csp and the point he was making:  IMO the topic is not about functionality and requirements of professionals vs. amateurs, but about how pretty basic features are implemented and work (or rather do not).

 

Some examples which prevent me from doing productive work with AP:

- Sticky settings missing: everybody who has a defined, repetitive workflow and works on multiple images in a row will suffer. It's extremely annoying to have to adjust tool properties anew for every image.

  This has been requested to be changed by many for a long time now.

- Dodging and burning offer highlights/midtones/shadows selective operation, but are nowhere near as effective as PS. The underlying curves just don't seem to be right. Burning shadows even kicks in at a hard threshold - just try with a greyscale gradient image.

- Highlight and shadow recovery in develop persona are not on par with most other RAW capable tools out there. Shadow recovery produces very flat, artificial looking images. I know that AP is not a specialized RAW converter but IMHO if you are offering RAW conversion then it needs to be up to date.

 

And then there are weaknesses which are not corrected for many releases, like when switching curves to LAB mode it's by default in a nonsensical "master" mode.

Switching to the more appropriate luminosity mode is of course just one click, but has to be done for every image anew, because of no sticky settings ...

 

I agree with other comments here: your really did a great job in bringing this SW to life, and for me it is the only likely contender in the market to Adobe.

There's just one step missing, and it's not this or that fancy feature - it's bringing basic features and handling to state of the art level.

 

I bought AP a year ago and really would want to use it productively but as of today I just can't. Like csp I come back every few months and try the new release, find the same weaknesses again and go back to PS.

And I am not a professional.

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Professional or amateur, the lack of sticky settings slows everyone down.  And it is one of the few things that make Affinity Photo and Design feel less than Professional-grade.  It has wonderful features and we greatly appreciate them but we need sticky settings.  Please make this a priority over new features that will themselves require constant re-setting.

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Select Crop Tool, then press letter O three times until it shows all the photo selected. Then Drag the outside corner until you wish. Down at the bottom of the window you can read some instructions about it

Yes that should work. I never thought about using the crop tool simply for rotation. I still hope the this is addressed. I can't think of another editor that doesn't have basic rotation / flip options.

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Thank you kindly for posting this rather fabulous set of improvements and new functions. While I don't usually Beta-test, I'm glad to know that soon we'll have some great stuff (after the Betas) to get our hands working. Like most on this forum, I can't wait for (the final) 1.5 to be released.

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  • Staff

Everyone,

 

As I said a few posts back - the first beta release of Photo in each cycle tends to introduce the headline new features - because they usually take the most time / effort to test and tweak.

 

Improvements and fixes to other features usually start to come in after a couple of weeks - sticky settings is a good example - it will become available during the 1.5 beta..

 

Don't think that we aren't aware of the requests existing users make - we absolutely are - but things happen in a certain order for a good reason..

 

Thanks,

 

Andy.

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First off thanks for all the hard work. This looks terrific. Lots of wonderful new tools. I have just started playing .......

 

However I am sorry to say I have one instant complaint right out the box! Why on earth did you scrap the old vectorscope?

 

I am a Director of Photography for movies. For us this tool is industry standard. It's on all our professional digital movie cameras. It's how we assess and set our initial exposure and it's how we monitor and control our exposure and contrast ratios throughout the post production and in the final colour grading. To me, as a movie professional who works with this constantly, it's indispensable and I was so thrilled to discover it in Affinity when it was first released. Now it's gone!

 

To add new tools can have many motives, but to scrap one it needs to be no longer useful or appropriate ..... and for many of us that quite simply isn't the case! 

 

I am really looking forward to trying the rest Andy - this is all so exciting ..........

 

But please ............ "If it ain't broke ........"

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  • Staff

DavidMac,

 

I hasn't gone! It just works properly now! 

 

The old scope was using HSL as a model - which is not right. The new one is based off Rec.709 YUV and has an improved graticule which shows the skin line.

 

If you are used to a using a scope in video editing, this new one will behave much more like you expect..

 

Thanks,

 

Andy.

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A big thanks for the "New “Pixel Art” Document Resizing"! :wub:

 

Are there any other algorithms planned? Like hqnx, xBRZ and others? I was mentioning some of them here https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/21462-advanced-scaling-algorithms/.

The results for small pixel art images, thumbnails or very low-res images are fantastic -  or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_gallery_of_image_scaling_algorithms.

 

Thank you!

UX/UI designer, IT analyst & consultant, Business Architect at Cool Ticket (www.coolticket.co).

MacBook Pro 13'' Early 2015, 3,1 GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1867 MHz DDR3, Apple Thunderbolt Display 27'' (2560 x 1440).

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Pinching myself! You guys are truly amazing. Cannot wait to dig in to this Beta. With add ons and improvements like these, I'll have a full plate! Keep cookin up the good stuff and we'll let you know if it needs any salt or pepper!  ;)

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DavidMac,

 

I hasn't gone! It just works properly now! 

 

The old scope was using HSL as a model - which is not right. The new one is based off Rec.709 YUV and has an improved graticule which shows the skin line.

 

If you are used to a using a scope in video editing, this new one will behave much more like you expect..

 

Thanks,

 

Andy.

I am covered in embarrassment Andy. How did I miss it! Thank you yes. It is there! Working my way through the rest of the new stuff at the moment. Looking good.

 

David Mac

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  • Staff

A big thanks for the "New “Pixel Art” Document Resizing"! :wub:

 

Are there any other algorithms planned? Like hqnx, xBRZ and others? I was mentioning some of them here https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/21462-advanced-scaling-algorithms/.

The results for small pixel art images, thumbnails or very low-res images are fantastic -  or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_gallery_of_image_scaling_algorithms.

 

Thank you!

 

Glad you like it! 

 

We examined a number of algorithms - including the ones you suggest - but they all appeared to be earlier / less capable versions of the two we have shipped..

 

That said, if there is a good reason to implement others - we will certainly do our best to oblige!

 

I continue to be surprised at the number of Photo users who do pixel art - there are thousands of you!! That's why we added this feature - along with the improvements to the Pixel Tool listed in the 1.5 Beta launch post. We think the Alt-Drag-To-Paint-From-History is especially handy - let us know if it works for you :)

 

We'll continue to improve Photo for pixel artists too - feel free to make suggestions / feature requests as necessary..

 

Thanks,

 

Andy.

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DavidMac,

 

I hasn't gone! It just works properly now! 

 

The old scope was using HSL as a model - which is not right. The new one is based off Rec.709 YUV and has an improved graticule which shows the skin line.

 

If you are used to a using a scope in video editing, this new one will behave much more like you expect..

 

Thanks,

 

Andy.

You diamond.

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