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carl123

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From looking at some of the wildlife & landscape pictures in this forum there is no doubt that there are many talented photographers here but I find myself no better off in my use of Affinity Photo just by looking at these stunning pictures. To be honest I could find the same sort of pictures just by using Google.

 

What would be nice is if the people uploading these pictures could supply a before and after picture and detail the steps used in Affinity Photo to get to the final results.

 

That way I am sure mine and others use of AP to create these stunning photos could be greatly improved. Isn't that what forums like these are all about?

 

Or am I missing the point and is it that professional photographers would rather not reveal their workflow in fear of increasing the competition in their chosen profession.

 

Honest answers appriciated

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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Oh yes, it would be great if we could learn about how these great shots were processed …  :)

 

(On the other hand, it is also clear that there were illustrations created in Affinity Designer that left you wonder how these were probably accomplished. So there must be a reason why “Share your work” and “Tutorials” are different forum sections. Nonetheless, some context to the exhibited works would be very appreciated …  :))

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It would be nice if the mod team consider splitting up this subforum in three: AP Gallery, AD Gallery, and something called How it's made (totally inspired by the Discovery Channel :P ), with the first two solely a showcase, and the latter an in-depth subforum. There has been a call earlier to create AP and AD subforums, especially for the help/support, and I really hope the mod team consider this one as well.

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I think the Share Your Work forum is simply what it says - an outlet for people to share their work so that members can see some examples.

Although these forums are a learning resource - there is also a decent community spirit, and some members are just curious to see other members work.

 

The tutorials section is where members can teach how these works are accomplished.

High-End Photographic Prints

 

 

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I read "share your work" as share your workflow

 

Yes the Tutorial section can be used for detailed tutorials/videos from start to finish, showing every single step of the process but what I would like to see, in this forum section, is a picture (before and after) and the basic steps needed to get there

 

Like.
 

1, Adjusted exposure
2. Adjusted levels
3. Boosted the saturation
4. Blurred background
5. Added vignette
6. Sharpened feathers on bird

 

At the moment this forum section just seems like a gallery of fantastic pictures, of which there are already hundreds of such galleries already available on the Internet.  Since this is an Affinity forum I was hoping to see/learn how the Affinity software made those pictures fantastic.

 

And to be perfectly frank what good is an "after" picture without the "before" one.  It's impossible to know how AP has improved the picture without seeing what it was like before.

 

 

PS If you really don't want to share your workflow can we at least see a "before" and "after" picture so we can see what AP is capable of achieving?

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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  • Staff

The share you work section is intended to be used as a showcase section, so everyone can appreciate what other's are doing/achieving with Affinity software. The tutorials section is for those kindly willing to expand on their process/share their knowledge about specific subjects or projects so everyone can learn from their knowledge.

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… is it that professional photographers would rather not reveal their workflow…

 

 

 

Usually, a pro photographer's work ends in the RAW converter.

 

In most cases it is the same for me but when it comes to wild-

life photography, I will use AP only to remove branches, twigs,

or fallen leaves that do not contribute to the visual quality of a

shot. Then, the inpating brush is my magic wand and it may

go to some cloning as well… operations hardly worth more tu-

torials than those already available on this forum.

 

Occasionally, the work is planned to go through heavy image

compositing. Like for this transport company's fantabulous air-

brushed new truck (tractor and trailer) I shot in October. It's

owner paid a small fortune for the artwork and wanted me to

create a 5m+ long poster of it for the company's headquarter's

entrance wall.

 

This was the stacking of 123 lighting takes and the stitching of

some 14 panoramic takes job for a total of 137 pictures session.

Performed using an 85mm PC lens on a D810.

 

Inpainting, cloning, frequency separation, stacking and stitching

etc are operations well documented here… no magic!

 

Yes, I personally have scruples went it comes to revealing in details

some shooting techniques but this is not the scope of this forum

anyway. Nor would I reveal my clients list ("in fear of increasing the

competition in the chosen profession"!) as you put it.

 

So, in conclusion, the greatest part of the quality in my photography

is all achieved without pixel editor. Well documented touchups are

rare and, since I am not a digital imagery artist but a photographer,

I am not a "reference" at all when it comes to pixel edition mastery.

 

…and I am not offended! :)

www.kodiakmedia.at

TeamViewer: 668 015 544
Skype: kodiakonline
 
If personal taste is involved,           Light is free,                       Mother Nature provides the light
discussion is pointless.                   capturing it is NOT.               but talent renders the image.
                                                                                                                        (Charlychuck)
 
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I hope I am making a contribution with my video tutorial at

Nice slow tutorial easy to follow.  Thanks for sharing. John

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I hope I am making a contribution with my video tutorial at

 

Yes you did, I have used the clone tool a lot but I had never considered using a selection to mask off just the area to be worked on. 

 

I can see how this can prevent accidental cloning onto an area not needed to be cloned.

 

So very beneficial to me to see how others do stuff.  Thanks

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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I think the Share Your Work forum is simply what it says - an outlet for people to share their work so that members can see some examples.

 

I think the Share Your Work forum is intended for sharing the work you've created with Affinity apps, not for sharing work created in Inkscape and imported into Affinity Designer, or created with your DSLR and not even developed or slightly retouched in Affinity Photo. I'm sure that not everyone will want to share their workflow in detail (and if they do want to share, then the Tutorials section is the place to do so) but I agree with the OP that for photos we really need to see the 'before' and 'after'.

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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...........

 

Usually, a pro photographer's work ends in the RAW converter.

 

In most cases, it is the same for me but, when it comes to wild-

life photography, I will use AP only to remove branches, twigs,

or fallen leaves that do not contribute to the visual quality of a

shot. Then, the inpatient brush is my magic wand and it may

go to some cloning as well… operations hardly worth more tu-

torials than those already available on this forum

 

................

Thanks, that's exactly the sort of things I wanted to hear (or not!). 

 

It sounds like as a professional photographer your pictures are already stunning without any post production work needed by AP and AP has just been used to slightly improve a picture that would have had us all stunned already.

 

"So, in conclusion, the greatest part of the quality in my photography is all achieved without pixel editor"

 

I was afraid that was the case.  I could not believe the quality of the pictures I was seeing was being greatly enhanced by the AP software and therefore had to be due to the skill of the photographer.

Not that I have not seen AP do some wonderful enhancements to images but yours (and others on here) were just blowing me away.  As I am not a professional photographer I guess I will have to make do with my mediocre images and use AP where I can to enhance them to a level where they were better than before but never to a level that a professional could.

 

Thanks for sharing

 

PS If someone uses AP extensively to enhance their pictures I would still love to see those "edits" if you are willing to share your techniques, in the future

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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If someone uses AP extensively to enhance their pictures I would still love to see those "edits" if you are willing to share your techniques, in the future

 

 

Sorry for the parts you didn't want to read! :(

 

For example…

 

This picture, taken during a master class I was hosting this last

summer, is a published UNPROCESSED RAW file. It means I

made a jpg version for you of the SOOC…  untouched:

 

 

B7050%20SO%201.jpg

 

And this is the processed picture in my RAW converter.  AP was

used to clean out the post… only that:

 

B7050%20SO.jpg

 

There is a difference on tonal quality between the two. It should be

understood that the capture must be as perfect as possible with a

mineral sensor. As a photographer, my main task in PP is to bring

back in the shot a more organic, natural look to the subject within

the RAW converter.

 

Being introduced to photography in the film times, I had to learn to

capture correctly a subject as, then, retouches were not so easy as

today and certainly very expensive… it could have eaten my profit!

 

I work the way I learned even in this digital world… and I teach the

same rigour and discipline. If one neglects his work prior to SR, so

much more work will have to be invested in PP.

 

I do not envy those who did not work with film before as they have

to rely more on work done post SR… 

www.kodiakmedia.at

TeamViewer: 668 015 544
Skype: kodiakonline
 
If personal taste is involved,           Light is free,                       Mother Nature provides the light
discussion is pointless.                   capturing it is NOT.               but talent renders the image.
                                                                                                                        (Charlychuck)
 
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I love seeing wildlife pictures, to be brutally sincere, I don't care a bit even if they have not even been saved or edited with Affinity's, as I'm not from Affinity's staff or a forum moderator... I just like the pics... :D I bet a lot think like me.... (hence the huge amount of views  -yet no posts: When I admire a landscape, I usually don't talk, just look and enjoy... ;) -  in Kodiak's posts  ...)

AD, AP and APub. V1.10.6 and V2.4 Windows 10 and Windows 11. 
Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB RAM,  RTX 3060 12GB, Wacom Intuos XL, Wacom L. Eizo ColorEdge CS 2420 monitor. Windows 10 Pro.
(Laptop) HP Omen 16-b1010ns 12700H, 32GB DDR5, nVidia RTX 3060 6GB + Huion Kamvas 22 pen display, Windows 11 Pro.

 

 

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I count several professional UK bird photographers as personal (flesh-and-blood) friends (Nigel Blake, for example, who speaks to me as an equal), and not one of them would claim that their work on an image is done once the Raw conversion is finished.

 

It is a fact (not an opinion based on a constituency of one) that Raw conversion (even given the image manipulation options available in many Raw converters these days) is the start, not the end, of the workflow as far as most photographers - and certainly many pros - is concerned.

 

If that were not true, they wouldn't be expert in the use of PhotoShop to the extent they are - and they all are - because there'd be no need for that expertise.

 

Just to make this point: Art Morris isn't a personal friend, but he makes prodigious use of the post-processing opportunities afforded downstream of the Raw conversion stage of his workflow.

 

And the results speak for themselves

 

Likewise Robert O'Toole. another pro - he actually sells Photoshop guides.

 

And there are plenty more where these came from...

 

It is beyond any sensible debate that the best results come from a full, well-developed workflow which includes pixel editing of the sort Affinity Photo provides for.

 

As to this forum: I am concerned about the possibility that it might become the kind of pointless, needy "please say something nice about my picture..." platform that pervades the internet - this isn't Facebook.

 

I'd argue that it needs to be a showcase for the capabilities of Affinity Photo in providing an end-result which equals or improves on the "the competition". By definition that implies that if AP hasn't significantly contributed to the end-result, the picture doesn't belong here.

 

But I don't think the "before and after" approach really works (I've seen it fail elsewhere). The problem is simple: which "before" do we talk about?

 

Do we mean the image as the camera might have rendered it?

 

Or the flat, unimpressive, charmless, unenhanced base Raw conversion?

 

Or the conversion after the application of the numerous adjustments available within the Raw converter of choice (which might, depending on the converter, involve some or all of cropping, highlight/shadows adjustment, noise reduction, sharpening, white balance, colour work, selective adjustments, object removal, and more)?

 

Personally (I'm quite happy to cite my personal experience in order to make the point, because I know that I speak for many) I do rather a lot of "processing" within my Raw converter of choice (Photo Ninja, these days - although I've used most of 'em, and have beta tested DxO Optics Pro and Capture One, and was on the Adobe Certified Professional program before ending my relationship with Adobe, all of which I mention purely to demonstrate that I have some credibility! ;) You don't have to call yourself a pro to produce professional-quality images) but I still hand off everything that I want to finish, to - now - Affinity Photo.

 

But it would be very hard in any given case to separate out the aspects attributable to the converter from those which are purely down to Photo: probably a fool's errand to try, really.

 

In my view, the best we can achieve is to post "finished" images, explain what was done in Photo, and let the results speak for themselves. It's arguably enough in itself for an experienced photographer to be able to say "this is as good (or better than) as the end result I get from PhotoShop".

 

It might generate some meaningful conversation too, if a viewer has a specific question about how a particular aspect of the result was achieved.

 

The viewer can then decide whether Photo is contributing to the quality of the end results being displayed. I think you'll find it's obvious that it does...

Keith Reeder

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Carl 123

 

 

This forum is for the enjoyment of the individual member who joins.
It is not for any member to dictate to another individual member how they should or should not contribute to the forum. If you want to know anything just ask, but do not be offended if you do not get the reply you want and let it go at that.
To quote you: "  I guess I will have to make do with my mediocre images and use AP where I can to enhance them to a level where they were better than before but never to a level that a professional could. " Why should you not achieve that standard? ;)  :) 
Might I suggest {in a friendly way} that you take inspiration from the superb images you see. Learn how to use AP by the use of the vast array of tutorials {either free or paid for) and experimenting with the tools. This is my learning method. Then look at your own images and alter them accordingly to make the improvement.
I have a friend, semi pro,  who produces brilliant images and has never used PP except for resizing. Developing a good taking technique is the best way forward,
Lets all enjoy the forum in our own way ;)  :)  :) 
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Carl 123

 

 

.......
 
Might I suggest {in a friendly way} that you take inspiration from the superb images you see.
 
..............
 

 

 

I have taken great inspiration from the images I have seen and it is that which prompted me to start this topic.

 

I do graphic and website design for a living so I am quite happy working with any software package on the market. But photography is something I only do for a hobby, my hope is that AP can enhance my photography to a degree that my work can improve and approach the level of some of the superb images I have seen on this forum.

 

I suspect that this will not be the case as the skill of a professional photographer cannot be underestimated. But if AP can be used in ways that can significantly improve the end results of my photography, then I would love for people (who don't mind sharing) to share their techniques with the rest of us.

 

PS I have viewed every single one of the in-house Affinity tutorials and loads more on Youtube

 

PPS I don't dictate.  Sorry if you thought that I did.  I am simply requesting that people share their techniques if they want to.

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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Yes you did, I have used the clone tool a lot but I had never considered using a selection to mask off just the area to be worked on. 

 

I can see how this can prevent accidental cloning onto an area not needed to be cloned.

 

So very beneficial to me to see how others do stuff.  Thanks

 

Don't forget to feather the brush accordingly, very important. ;)

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Hello everyone:

                       It seems I may have caused a conundrum by trying to clean a version of my posted video, off my YouTube account. The replaced video is at very poor res. I will attempt to fix it. I will soon replace this tutorial with a new one of better quality (I hope).

 

Cheers,

 

R.J.

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I love seeing wildlife pictures, to be brutally sincere, I don't care a bit even if they have not even been saved or edited with Affinity's, as I'm not from Affinity's staff or a forum moderator... I just like the pics... :D I bet a lot think like me.... (hence the huge amount of views  -yet no posts: When I admire a landscape, I usually don't talk, just look and enjoy... ;) -  in Kodiak's posts  ...)

 

I'll get some more soon enough… for you pleasure I hope!

www.kodiakmedia.at

TeamViewer: 668 015 544
Skype: kodiakonline
 
If personal taste is involved,           Light is free,                       Mother Nature provides the light
discussion is pointless.                   capturing it is NOT.               but talent renders the image.
                                                                                                                        (Charlychuck)
 
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… and was on the Adobe Certified Professional program before ending my relationship with Adobe, all of which I mention purely to demonstrate that I have some credibility! 

 

Thanks, that explains a few things!

www.kodiakmedia.at

TeamViewer: 668 015 544
Skype: kodiakonline
 
If personal taste is involved,           Light is free,                       Mother Nature provides the light
discussion is pointless.                   capturing it is NOT.               but talent renders the image.
                                                                                                                        (Charlychuck)
 
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