A few thoughts

[Scott Williams]

I have been playing with windows Photo for a couple of days and I have a few thoughts on this superb program.

 

 

In the curve editor I am accidentally creating new points when trying to move a point. I think the grab distance should be bigger and/or user definable. Also the cursor should change to arrows or something to show that you are within the select distance. 

 

The exposure adjustment layer slider seems to be far too sensitive. I am finding it too hard to make small adjustments. It is fine in the develop persona.

 

The shadows/highlights adjustment layer and sliders within the develop persona are not very effective. I think you should use something more like the shadows highlights filter in these places. The shadows/highlights filter works very well.

 

When in the develop persona you have to click of a button labelled "Develop"  to exit. This seems confusing to me. I would have it say something like "Done" or "finished". It seems odd pressing a button labelled "develop"when you are in develop already.

 

If you are in the develop persona and change the raw output format from within the assistant, the histogram should change automatically. At the moment it only changes when you move one of the sliders such as exposure.

 

It would be nice for me not to have to switch to 32 bit every time I load a raw file. This should be sticky in some way.

 

Double clicking on a slider handle should reset it everywhere in the program. For instance, double clicking the exposure slider in the develop persona resets it. But doing the same on the exposure layer adjustment does not. This is just inconsistent and looks messy.

 

When selecting a rectangle of pixels when zoomed in the size displayed within the transform dialog does not match what is selected until I release the mouse button. This is not very useful for accurate selection for sprites etc. It seems to have some rounding problems. I have fiddled with the setting but could not get it to work properly. Maybe I am missing something here?

 

The dodge and burn tools do not seem to work properly for me. The effected area curves seem to have too much reach so the effects are not isolated properly. No matter what I try I cannot isolate whites from blacks effectively. Burn shadow reaches too far into the highlights and dodge highlights reach too far into the shadows, I did a test with a gradient of grey circles within Photo and Photoshop to see what was going on and it seems that Photoshop have tighter gradient curves for effectiveness.

 

I should be able to quit the program from the develop persona without having to cancel or  commit. The dialog should allow me to discard my work.

 

Even though there are a few things I would change with this great program I can't wait to buy it. It is top notch.

 

Kind regards. Scott.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mark Ingram]

Thanks for the feedback, I'll move this to the Questions & Feedback forum.

[shiphayhill]

I'm not sure if this is the correct place for my comment, but here goes. I have been using Serif products for years and been very satisfied. However, I am not a professional and for my needs Affinity Photo appears far too complicated and, in some places, awkward. Here are 2 examples.

 

1.Why is it made hard to save as a jpg?

 

2.The simple controls in Photoplus for adjusting contrast, levels etc are there but quite hard to find.

 

I fear that Photoplus in the Legacy range will be discontinued. If that happens I will have to use another product, I cannot see Affinity Photo as suitable for my modest needs.

 

John Kelland