10 Most Important/Useful Skills to Master on Affinity Photo

[melanie7]

For those of us new to AP and not technically sophisticated, what are the most important tools and skills to master in order to jump in and start editing photos?  I feel as though I'm spending all my time on tutorials and becoming overwhelmed, obsessing about what I can't do. I want to start editing photos!  

 

Thanks -- 

 

Melanie

[Uuiop]

Hi Melanie,

beware of information overload. It's probably time to go and do something completely different for a few days to let the new stuff settle, then, for a start, try playing around with the Curve Adjustment layer, using not just the Master, but the individual colours. 

 

Find the History panel and learn to go back and forward through your experiments

 

When you get stuck or something arouses your interest, look it up in the Affinity Photo Help files.

 

In the end the only way to go is to "do" something (playfully) on a few files, but make sure that these are copies, not the originals. Affinity won't bite, and if you work on copies you won't lose important data.

 

To really enjoy the experience take regular breaks, go for a walk or some other activity away from the computer  :rolleyes: 

 

 

 

[pixelrain]

New to AP or new to photo manipulation / raster graphics editors in general ?

 

Start with the basics: what raster means, what is color, what are layers, adjustments, blending modes, effects, brushes and so on.

 

After that you'll have a much clearer picture of what the app can do for you and you'll know how to use them to create whatever you have in mind.

Edited February 14, 2017 by pixelrain

[anon1]

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[Baggy42]

One of the key things to understand first is 'Saving As' and producing a afphoto file, this allows you to edit the photo in a non destructive way as your original image remains untouched. Then follow the advice as above; personally I watched the tutorials, swallowed my pride, and started with the Beginners Tutorial and soon realised I did not know it all! The Layers tutorial is a real key to using Affinity Photo; once you understand this and the principles of child and nested layers a whole new world opens up. James Ritson's delivery in the tutorials is clear, measured and extremely informative and I make a point of watching a tutorial on a daily basis.

[melanie7]

Thank you for the interesting and helpful responses!  Thank you Uuiop, yes, I do feel information overload and time away from the task is very revitalizing. I've mostly used Photos for Mac and Picasa, and they're very basic. Pixelrain, I have no idea what raster means and have never heard the word.  I also don't know what Gaussian means. I guess I have to accept that this is a very slow, labor-intensive process. Mbd and Uuiop I appreciate the recommendation to focus on Curves.  I did that and playing with curves seems to perform miracles for photos! Thank you!

 

Wonder if any of you can recommend a good and methodical tutorial for the novice. I have found the Affinity tutorials to be done way, way too fast, skipping a lot of necessary explanations, so I'll try to find some on youtube, but if you have any recommendations I'd appreciate it.

 

Thanks again! 

[anon1]

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[R C-R]

I have no idea what raster means and have never heard the word.  I also don't know what Gaussian means.

"Raster" basically just means the image is made from pixels, the same pixels you see in camera specs as "Megapixels" or "MP." Sometimes the term "bitmap" is used instead, because it describes how the digital bit numbers in the file are mapped onto a pixel grid to form the image. The term was borrowed from the video industry, back when TV images were made from raster scan lines 'painted' on the screen, line by line.

 

"Gaussian" just refers to a kind of blur based on a mathematical formula. (Gauss was a famous mathematician.) Luckily, you don't have to understand the mathematical basis to use it!  :)

[mur_phy]

Melanie  -- I can understand your frustration. I too have viewed almost every video available and have posted to the forums with questions and still have issues with some of the questions that I have not found solutions to. Some progress has been made but not enough to make full solution.

 

One thing you might want to do is to create a folder Affinity Photo -- (current version) and then sub folders with the .exe, a text file with documentation of your key etc and then one called videos. Inside the Videos folder create more sub folders into which you can drag the links to various videos you view and find useful into the appropriate folder. As you view more videos, the number of folders will increase.

 

Some videos you may not need to look at currently and others you may not find either useful, understandable or enjoy (eg. I don't like videos with no voice but just someone doing clicks and raucous background music)

 

Sometimes I will drag a link into more than one folder as that info may be of value in different ways.

 

I have and suggest reading the help menu either directly from Help or from the .pdf that one Forum user created. However, sometimes I wish that more info on the why's and when to do certain tasks would be available.

 

When you find info about a task that you think you may use frequently, perhaps create a text document (Wordpad in W10 -- don't know MAC) and slowly go through the video and pause it and type up your own tutorial which can always be added too at a future time depending upon different info provided by different video creators. It is a lot easier to read a topic (CTRL + F) than go through a video all over again when you wish to accomplish a specific task.

 

I hope I can learn this program because it seems to offer the most functionality of things I wish to do but there are some things I just have not found out how to accomplish so time will tell. Previously due to some lack of functionality I have had to combine more than one program to accomplish a task and hope this is not the case in the future.

 

For many of us this is a grand adventure. Heck, I spent 33 years as a professional photographer and after retiring at the beginning of 2000 I embarked into the realm of digital photography and still have lots of things to try to learn so just be sure to be patient and ask questions as usually there are folks in this Forum that will be willing to help. Then be sure to subscribe to the youtube channels that you like and continually check to see what is new as the many guys doing tutorials are adding things almost daily.

 

Most importantly is to have fun with both your camera and Affinity Photo.

 

Best of luck to you.

[John Rostron]

I'm currently working my way through the Udemy 'Affinity Photo: Solid Foundations' tutorials. This currently costs £30, but I bought it for £10 on special offer. I certainly feel it was a good buy at that price. I am around half-way through and am having no trouble following it.

 

John

[pooh]

I second John's suggestion above.

I paid $15 and it is still $15 for two more days.

Simon Foster has produced a large selection of tutorials that not only explain 'how to do' but also 'why to do' and are set at a slower pace.

https://www.udemy.com/affinityphoto-solid-foundations/

 

pooh

[PeanutsA]

I second John's suggestion above.

I paid $15 and it is still $15 for two more days.

Simon Foster has produced a large selection of tutorials that not only explain 'how to do' but also 'why to do' and are set at a slower pace.

https://www.udemy.com/affinityphoto-solid-foundations/

 

pooh

Why are not Serif running their own courses?

I would gladly pay for such courses adding not only to my knowledge (little as it is) and enjoyment of my hobby but also to Serif's cash flow.

 

Coming from every version of Serif PhotoPlus X I thought that I could handle 'basic' photo editing but I am finding the jump to Affinity rather a large one and am find the tutorial videos are causing me 'information overload'.

For some things that I consider basic I have had to revert to PhotoPlus because I cannot find out how to do them with Affinity, or even if the facility to do them exists.

I must admit that I find Affinity  'Help' rather unhelpful, with its plethora of technical terms which I do not understand. I appreciate that this is (perhaps) because Affinity is now aimed at the more 'professional market' due to Serif's laudable, understandable and to be encouraged entry into such a market.

I also admit that I find these Affinity Forums rather unhelpful/difficult to navigate with the 'jumbled-up' of Affinity Photo & Designer  ---- another plea for segregation.

 

Plus another plea ------ for an Affinity Photo work book very soon.

I appreciate that Affinity is still it's 'development stages' and future versions might/would make a work book out of date but a work book (soon) would give those of us who would like/need one a start, to enable us to progress (easier) to changes in future versions and not possibly fall further and further behind.

With the (apparent) ethos of 'hanging on until Affinity is finalised' we will soon have along with private courses an independent Idiots Guide published for Affinity Photo, a missed opportunity for Serif.

[silver]

Hi there

i would recommend any beginner to watch the Affinity Photo Essential Training Course From LinkedIn Learning website. It is a free 3h 31 course. I add the link here. https://www.linkedin.com/learning/affinity-photo-essential-training

[mur_phy]

Thanks silver for the link. I have saved it and as usual created a folder and will view the videos. I also have purchased the Affinity Photo Workbook but have not spent much time as I am involved in other stuff too. Trying to learn ON1 RAW 2018, Luminar 2018 and Aurora HDR 2018. 

 

While I find that HDR done in Aurora is the best with ON1 being second best as far as results are concerned, it is extremely slow compared to ON 1 load/process time. So far I have not had great success with Affinity HDR processing.

 

I know folks have been looking for Affinity tutorials and yet I have seen no one mention those done by Carl Surry which are nicely done and he keeps finding new topics to discuss. He is involved in a FB group but all the tuts are also available on youtube.

 

 

[firstdefence]

I find Practical application is be best learning method. Learning something because the program can do it is like "if you don't use it, you lose it." There has to be a reason to learn, a desire, a seed for creativity. Getting an image and playing with it, just isn't as satisfying as having a reason to create an image and then edit it to it's finished result. It's your creation, you are personally involved, you have invested thought, time and probably money so the incentives to learn are much stronger, this is what forms the desire to learn, by having the desire to learn you will retain that information more so and be more optimistic in your approach when solving problems that occur when you lose your way or get stuck within the creative process.

 

There are no wrong, dumb or stupid questions, an expert is just someone who has walked the same path as you are walking but they started a bit earlier. If you find yourself going in circles, stop, come here and ask a question, go and make a cuppa, hit the Prosecco or go straight for the Gin lol! watch a bit of TV, do yoga, clip ya toenails, eat popcorn (not necessarily in that order ) and come back to see what you get.

 

If the mouse won't do what you want it to do or the keyboard is typing in Swahili, you've probably overdone the Prosecco or Gin, so go to bed lol!

 

 

 

 

[Petar Petrenko]

Udemy is cycling its prices. If you are patient you can buy a course for $10.