Affinity Photo Beta (1.5.0 - RC4)

[Andy Somerfield]

Status: Release Candidate

Purpose: Fixes

Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo

Mac App Store: Not Submitted

 

Download: 1.5 RC4

 

Hello all, 

 

We are still waiting for some localisation assets before we can release the Photo 1.5 update - so we've carried on fixing things and improving things in certain areas of the app. We'll continue to do this - including fixes for things reported in the RC release threads (thanks guys) - as long as is possible. We have a few things still on our hit list - RAW regressions being at the top of that list..

 

Fixes:

 

- Added optional noise reduction for HDR Merge.

 

- Prevented default snapshot creation for HDR Merge, Panorama.

- Reduce Tone Mapping memory usage.

- PDF font handling improvements.

- TouchBar improvements - mainly just missing icons left to do, time permitting.

 

- Fixed issues with UI not updating properly when switching between integrated / separated mode.

- Fixed weird cursor issues in the FFT denoise panel.

- Fixed cosmetic issues in the Batch panel.

- Fixes for recording the addition of filter, adjustment and mask layers in macros.

- Fixed inverted slider in Haze Removal panel.

- Fixed some images reporting 1dpi on load.

- Fixed right click crash in layers panel with no document loaded.

- Fixed further crashes with font flout.

- Fixed “Share” menu item reporting spurious errors which are not real.

- Fixed brush tools in Panorama.

 

- Help improvements.

 

More as it happens folks! Thanks again for taking the time to use this beta - we couldn't do it without you   :)

 

Affinity Photo Team      :ph34r:

 

 

Here's a recap of the new features in Photo 1.5, along with beta versions of the (excellent, in my opinion) tutorial videos which will accompany the features...

 

Focus Merge Support

 

Focus merging allows you to generate a detailed composite image from a number of images focused at differing lengths. Use File -> New Focus Merge to get started.

 

Video tutorials:

• Focus Merging
• Focus Merge Retouching
• Focus Merging Bracketed Images

 

HDR Merge Support

 

HDR merging lets you create a deep, unbounded 32-bit image from a number of exposure bracketed source images. Use File -> New HDR Merge to get started.

 

Video tutorials:

• HDR: Merging and Tone Mapping
• HDR: Tone Map Presets
• HDR: Panoramas
• HDR: Preprocessing
• HDR: Advanced Editing
• HDR: Ghosts Removal

 

New 32bit RGB Editing Mode

 

Photo now offers a full compositing / editing environment for 32bit unbounded images.

 

Video tutorials:

• HDR: 32-bit Editing

 

32bit Develop

 

Photo can now Develop RAW files directly into a 32bit document - so all highlights / shadows are preserved and recoverable at any time.

 

Video tutorials:

• 32-bit Raw Development

 

OCIO (OpenColorIO) Support

 

Photo now support end-to-end OCIO colour workflows.

 

Video tutorials:

• OpenColorIO Setup
• OpenColorIO Adjustment

 

Tone Mapping Persona

 

Full tone mapping Persona for both HDR and LDR images. This is obviously best used with an image merged by HDR merge - although you can use it on any image.

 

Video tutorials:

• Regular Tone Mapping

 

OpenEXR / HDR (Radiance) / 32bit TIFF Import / Export

 

Photo can now import and export .hdr (Radiance, RGBE) and .exr (OpenEXR) images. It correctly deals with 0-alpha cases (as per the OpenEXR spec) and generally operates in linear space. It support multi-layer EXR files and offers control (through Preferences) over alpha association and premultiplication.

 

Video tutorials:

• OpenEXR Multichannel Import/Export
• OpenEXR Import Options

 

Macros

 

Using the View -> Studio -> Macro and View -> Studio -> Library menu items, you can access new panels which will allow you to record actions, save them, then play them back later. You can also store them in a handy gallery.

 

Video tutorials:

• Macros
• Macros: Equations

 

Batch Processing

 

Using File -> New Batch job, you can queue up processing on a large number of files. You can resize, convert format and apply any number of macros to each file. The batch processing happens in the background - so you can continue working whilst the jobs are processed.

 

Video tutorials:

• Batch Processing

 

Live Projections

 

Photo 1.5 contains a new mechanism which allows you to edit an image in different spatial domains - we currently support the “Equirectangular” domain (360 pano - Ricoh Theta, etc.). You can use all tools when editing - and you can convert back once you have edited. This is especially useful for cleaning up stitching artefacts, or artefacts at the zenith / nadir of the image. Use the options in Layer -> Live Projection to get started.

 

Video tutorials:

• 360 Live Editing
• 360 Advanced Editing
• 360 Retouching
• 360 Multiple Views
• Live Perspective Projection

  

Improved Pixel Tool

 

The pixel tool is improved in 1.5 - you can hold shift when dragging to constrain the direction of painting (sorry we did not get this working sooner!). You can also select what happens when you hold Alt and drag - erase to transparent, erase to background colour, or erase to whatever the nominated snapshot / history location is (like in the Clone tool).

 

New “Pixel Art” Document Resizing

 

Photo now contains an alternative way to resize a document - using well known pixel-art resampling algorithms. If you work with pixel art and want to use this feature, it’s located under the Document menu.

 

Video tutorials:

• Pixel Art Resize

  

New “Accumulation” Brush Dynamics

 

Many users have asked for “Opacity Jitter”. For us, opacity is a constant thing and will remain constant. However, we have added a new property to brushes - “Accumulation” - which should allow you to get what you need    :)

 

Text Styles

 

Affinity Photo now has the same Text Styles support as Designer - it’s all shared code so it should work right out of the box    :)

 

New Marquee Modes (Polygonal, Magnetic)

 

Photo now has 3 modes for the freehand selection tool - Freehand, Polygonal and Magnetic.

 

Even more RAW cameras supported

 

Over 70 new RAW cameras are supported.

 

Improved Metadata Mining

 

Our detection of RAW / JPEG / etc. metadata has been upgraded and some serious bugs have been fixed.

 

Massive Improvements to Export Persona

 

Our Export Persona has seen huge upgrades in this cycle - you now have total control of exactly what resolution sets get exported. You can also use our handy batch export builders to quickly generate content for external consumption - ie. Xcode .assets - even Spline compatible metadata can be generated!

 

Layered TIFF Interop

 

Users have constantly asked us to support “Layered TIFF”. Layered TIFF is not a thing. TIFF with embedded data is a thing - and I’m happy to report that we now import embedded PSD / Affinity data and can write TIFF with embedded Affinity data.

 

Halftone Filter

 

We have a marvellous new halftone pattern filter in 1.5 - it can approximate monochrome, colour, circular and line halftones.

 

Video tutorials:

• Halftone Scanlines Effect

 

Improved Apply Image Filter

 

Users can how use the current layer as the source for Apply Image - or drag any layer from the layers tab into the dialog to use that as thr source. We also offer handy equations in the filter to control how channels are transferred - in an arbitrary colour source.

 

Video tutorials:

• Apply Image
• Apply Image: Equations

 

Improved Select Sampled Colour Filter

 

You can now select by intensity in the select sampled colour tool.

 

Equations Filter

 

A new Equations Distortion filter allows users to create custom spatial filters.

 

Video tutorials:

• Equations filter
• Macros: Equations

 

Dust & Scratches Filter

 

Many user have asked us for a “Dust & Scratches” filter - so we have made one. It’s extremely useful for removing sporadic small defects in images. Please let us know if it works for you.

 

Video tutorials:

• Dust & Scratches Filter

  

“Edit in Affinity Photo” Photos extension

 

This is something which we didn’t think we could do - a Photos extension for Mac OS 10.9 and above which simply allows you to use the full Photo app to edit your images - and stores the changes you have made as a layered document.

 

New Colour Picker Tool

 

After literally thousands of requests, we have implemented a dedicated picker tool for colours.

 

New Clone Sources Panel

 

We now have a new studio panel which allows you to store up an unlimited number of global sources for the Clone / Healing brush - it even works across multiple documents.

 

Video tutorials:

• Clone Sources
• Clone Sources: Texture Creation

 

Direct PSD Write-Back

 

One of the most requested features - direct write-back to PSD. A number of 3rd party DAM applications will happily deal in PSD - but until now, Photo required you to File -> Export for PSD. No longer! You can now just hit File -> Save! You will need to turn this on - in File -> Preferences - please read the warning there carefully!

 

No Thumbnails Option

 

This is more a Designer feature, but I promised it some time ago so here it is - you can choose (in Preferences) not to write out a thumbnail with your documents. This has the advantage of making your documents use less space - but obviously you won’t get Finder thumbnails, etc.

 

Improved Vectorscope

 

Our old HSL vectorscope is no more - replaced by a vastly more appropriate Rec.709 YUV scope with an improved graticule    :)

 

Improved Photoshop Plugin Support

 

We have found a significant bug with our plugin code - it has been fixed    :) We are now finding the majority of plugins work properly.

 

Multi-monitor Colour Profile Support

 

Sorry it took so long to get this fixed - we now can profile different on different monitors.

 

Adjustment Performance Improvements

 

Found and fixed a simple issue which made changing adjustment parameters appear to be slow. Fixed.

 

This update also includes literally hundreds of fixes and small improvements, some of which are listed below:

 

- User control over two pass rendering on Retina devices.

- PSD import / export improvements.

- PDF import / export improvements.

- Snapping improvements - candidate-free snapping, gaps-and-spans (Alt key in Move Tool), so much more!

- Performance and stability improvements for macOS Sierra.

 

Download: 1.5 RC4

[gdippe]

Tested Sigma's X3F files. Unfortunately status quo.

The Foveon is such an extraordinary (low ISO) sensor and if you figure out "howto" it would be so great for many reasons.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

[ronnyb]

PSD Export bugs - I tried all three presets, and this happened in the last Beta as well...

 

1. AP crops layers at the document's bound, so when you try to move layers back in Photoshop, you'll notice everything outside the document bounds is clipped.

 

2. AP does not export type layers to PSD. This happens when I open up an PSD with missing fonts. I don't touch those layers, yet when I go to export, AP deletes the from the layer stack.

 

3. The white balance adjustment doesn't translate a PS adjustment layer. The layer simply gets rasterized.

 

4. PSD smart object layers get rasterized when exported... would be great if this was somehow preserved.

a. Might this be a cause for issues 1 and 3 ?

b. Can Smart Objects be translated to Embedded Documents on import and vice versa on export?

 

These fixes would help those of us trying to use AP instead of Photoshop while still being able to send clients master PSD files they can continue to use.

 

Thanks for your consideration and all you do!

[stuart]

I would greatly appreciate Sigma X3F file attentions too.   Love Affinity Photo and use it a fair bit in addition to Sigma PhotoPro to fine tune things.

Not been into Photoshop PSE for a long time now. Would be great to simply use Affinity exclusively.

[dagouda]

First and foremost I want to thank the Affinity team for creating photographic suite!!!

 

When working within the HDR persona -it crashed.  I have a copy of the crash report I would like to share with you.

 

dg

[-Markus-]

Unfortunately the issue with the undo brush has not been solved in AP 1.5 RC4

 

Please check attached screenshot…

 

 

[James Ritson]

Markus, although that issue would need to be looked at, it looks like you are trying to remove the effect of an adjustment layer using the undo brush - is that correct?

 

If so, I don't believe the undo brush was really meant for that - it's more for removing destructive operations like filter effects, layer merges, rasterised effects etc. If you want to mask the adjustment's effect you can simply grab the Paint Brush Tool and paint onto the adjustment layer with a pure black (or various shades of grey to control the strength).

 

One example of using the undo brush is after something like the dust & scratches filter - you can go back and restore detail to areas blurred by the filter.

 

Hope that helps!

[Bauke]

The annoying error sound still occurs when zooming out using space + command + option on MacOS Sierra.

[MacMac]

I am liking Affinity more and more. I want to break away from Photoshop and this IS the product that will allow me to do that. I HATE the idea of monthly fees to use a product. Thank you for developing Affinity Photo!

[Pajogus]

Great software, both, Affinity Photo and Designer. I've tried them just one day and decided to buy both products and remove Photoshop and illustrator from my Mac. I'm an Adobe user for almost 20 years.

Thanks very much for this software, a huge job to develop but highly appreciated by me and its users regarding their comments. I also hate the monthly fees of Adobe software.

 

I've I may wish - it's almost 2017 ;) - then it would be an Affinity "Lightroom" alternative.

 

Thanks, 

pajogus, Belgium

[anon1]

-

[Maestrorobertus]

Good steps, what I however still dislike is the ability to quickly transform a selection. In Photoshop I can crop to a selection, in AP I need a different tool and then reduce the image. Nasty. Also I often just want to take a selection and then transform, not only move rotate but perspective transform, for that I need to copy&paste it to a new layer, then drop selection, then use a different tool (and most often loose the layer selection) And worse the perspective tool is not aligned to the selection, so its a for and back with the 'V' transform tool. 

I understand that AP goes different ways and often its really nice it does, but in some situation the workflow is simple so bad that I switch to Photoshop for it. Same for filters, for example the transform filters, you move the image 200 pixel and then want to repeat? Impossible, you have to reenter the values in the filter.

[EdD]

Am trying to batch process an image to test. There's only 1 .afphoto image in my test batch that I also have open in AP RC4. When I check off what I want it saved as (.afphoto and jpeg) and click OK nothing happens. I've done the same with other images that are also open in AP but for some reason this particular image won't work. I've also tried saving it first and selecting the background layer to no avail. Tried a Spotlight search for the image and it doesn't find anything.

 

Can't figure out why it doesn't work. Am I missing something or have I bumped into a bug?

[michalczajka]

Hello, touch bar and application show different amounts. eg. opacity on touch bar I have about 10% but on app show me 100%, and its really 10%. changing on touch bar not showing on app UI.

[alan48]

Panorama corruption is still happening as I detailed in entry for earlier beta.  I'm guessing this is a known bug at this point.  

[Nikos]

BUG:  

Open more than one file. Only one will be shown in the "Window" menu and you cannot navigate between them with CMD-`

 

 

[Patrick Connor]

Hello, touch bar and application show different amounts. eg. opacity on touch bar I have about 10% but on app show me 100%, and its really 10%. changing on touch bar not showing on app UI.

Yes, thanks we are aware that touch bar and App reflection are a work in progress. Any others stand out?

[illusie]

i would very much like to use my nik- and macphun plugins but none of them can be started from within affinity photo - while all of them work perfectly from within lightroom and photoshop).

 

[Johio]

for me the nik plugins are working. You have to reinstall them to use them. Somewhere in the forum there is a description of how to do it.

[Johio]

The annoying error sound still occurs when zooming out using space + command + option on MacOS Sierra.

try without option-key

[Bauke]

try without option-key

 

Hi Johio,

 

As far as I know, that would result in zooming in.

 

Bauke

[user_0815]

Just noticed that RC4 opens some files flipped horizontally. This also applies to version 1.4.3. When creating a stack, then it's flipped + rotated 90° (tif 16bit from the Pentax DCU raw converter). They are opened correctly in other apps.

[DeezWun]

Will we ever get a gallery batch preview workflow similar to Lightroom/Capture1? Having multiple little tabs opens to for a big job is very tedious, AP is one feature away from knocking Lightroom out.

[conrad2k]

I keep hoping that I could use the Lightroom "Edit in" function to edit a .psd file in Affinity Photo and then save the changes back to the .psd, while retaining the layers, etc.  Currently all I can do is have Lightroom create a .TIF, edit in AP and when I am done, choose "Document -> Flatten" and then File save.

[ronnyb]

Check AP's General Preferences for the "Enable Save over imported PSD files"

 

I keep hoping that I could use the Lightroom "Edit in" function to edit a .psd file in Affinity Photo and then save the changes back to the .psd, while retaining the layers, etc.  Currently all I can do is have Lightroom create a .TIF, edit in AP and when I am done, choose "Document -> Flatten" and then File save.