How to show red overlay when masking

[riekus]

So I was on the verge of buying the suite today, then saw the generous 3 month trail and thought, why wouldn't I trail it first. Coming from Photoshop and just want to support the smaller companies instead of all the big tech, and the price is really good.

I do mostly multiple exposure's and paint light. I was searching my ass of, I could not see my mask (only the complete black and white mask, which I thought I could maybe lower the opacity to 'see trough').

It really makes it unfunctional to not really see what you are masking..

I want to switch so bad but this stumbling upon this tread and seeing that is has been requested 3 years ago.. for such a essential photo editing tool..

What is really going on here? This shows that Affinity is not aiming to be the photoshop killer but just tries to gobble up the people that can't afford photoshop.

Edited June 9, 2021 by riekus

[Ron P.]

Welcome to the forums @riekus,

It's been too long for me to recall how you're going about masking in PS. However in Affinity Photo, there's different ways to achieve what I think you're trying to do. You had to learn how to use PhotoShop, so why don't you think you should learn how to use Serif's products? The learning curve is no more steep than PhotoShop's.

Have you tried using the Quick Mask?. 

Affinity Photo is not PhotoShop, and even the CEO himself, claims that they had no intentions of being the Photoshop replacement. Yet everyone thinks that Serif should darn near clone Photoshop. Why? If they want that, just stick with PhotoShop.

16 hours ago, riekus said:

This shows that Affinity is not aiming to be the photoshop killer but just tries to gobble up the people that can't afford photoshop.

That's ridiculous. Why put that in a feature request statement? Want a feature, or making suggestions is fine, but really is that necessary?

[Bman70]

Well I've been trying for an hour, there are various strange workarounds but no straightforward way to edit a visible mask while seeing the picture underneath. Which is the purpose of the red rubylith overlay in Photoshop. Yes, I can make a selection of the mask, then press Q. The masked areas show as a red overlay. But I cannot edit it in overlay mode, so it's pointless. 

Another strange thing with masking in Affinity, there seems to be no provision to adjust the opacity of an existing mask: I.e., if the mask is in black and white, adjust it so that it is gray and white, so that the mask is less opaque. 

Affinity is an interesting and strange program. It's great for spending hours in a creative world exploring, lost in fantasy. But it falls short with the basic bread and butter quick tasks that professional photographers and graphic designers need to do every day all day. 

[MEB]

Hi @Bman70,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Thank you for your feedback. Regarding your first point, yes this is an omission we are aware of for which I have filled an improvement request internally sometime ago. It's then up to management/development team to decide if/when implement it.
Regarding your second point, you can drag a Curves or Levels adjustment over the thumbnail of the mask in the Layers panel (to nest it to the mask) and set its channel to Alpha to control the mask directly (reduce its opacity) as you want.

[Bman70]

3 hours ago, MEB said:

Hi @Bman70,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Thank you for your feedback. Regarding your first point, yes this is an omission we are aware of for which I have filled an improvement request internally sometime ago. It's then up to management/development team to decide if/when implement it.
Regarding your second point, you can drag a Curves or Levels adjustment over the thumbnail of the mask in the Layers panel (to nest it to the mask) and set its channel to Alpha to control the mask directly (reduce its opacity) as you want.

Thanks for the prompt reply! I've been trying to nest a Curves layer to the mask since yesterday. It doesn't nest to the mask (which is already nested to another adjustment layer, which is the layer that needs masking). The new Curves layer only pops into the slot above or below the layer the mask is nested to. Then, unfortunately it affects both mask and layer, instead of only the mask. 

[Bman70]

 

OK I got the mask nested with the new Curves layer. (I had initially create the Curves layer. Then drag it and hold it over the Mask layer, and wait until a little blue highlight showed up while hovering.) The Curves is set to Alpha. But nothing I do with Curves changes the opacity of the mask (which would allow more or less of the Exposure Adjustment to show through).  

Update: After adjusting the Curves layer, and closing out the Curves panel, it reverts back to Master instead of Alpha. Is this normal? When I open it to make more Curves adjustments, it's automatically reset to the RGB Master instead of RGB Alpha. 

Edited August 18, 2021 by Bman70

[atomic101]

“this is an omission we are aware of for which I have filled an improvement request internally sometime ago”

not good enough

sorry, but it isn’t 

people have been screaming about this since the product launched and it is without doubt the biggest stumbling block in an otherwise great alternative.

this should be priority

[Bman70]

1 hour ago, atomic101 said:

“this is an omission we are aware of for which I have filled an improvement request internally sometime ago”

not good enough

sorry, but it isn’t 

people have been screaming about this since the product launched and it is without doubt the biggest stumbling block in an otherwise great alternative.

this should be priority

 

It is frustrating certainly, given this thread started in May 2017. But meanwhile, have you tried making a 2-step mask? For me this is fairly acceptable (though cumbersome) alternative. 

First, simply make a pixel layer above the layer you want to mask. You paint on this Faux Mask layer, in red or any color (I used light blue to stand out from the background). Adjust the layer's opacity so while you paint you can see the layer beneath. Paint over the areas you want masked. When finished, make a proper mask layer. Then select the shapes you painted (CTRL+click). Choose a paint bucket with black as the foreground color, select the mask layer and fill your selections with black. Of course make your Faux Mask layer invisible or delete it now. 

Edited August 18, 2021 by Bman70

[atomic101]

Bman 

love that solution and thank you for it. I shall certainly use it.

but when you have multiple masks on the go this rather than the conventional PS is so long winded.

they expect us to find all these workaround solutions to an industry standard format.

and having a thing that kinda works shouldn’t detract them from getting the solution that straight works.

[BeauRX]

Just thought I would pile on for good measure. +1 Selection is still one of the more time consuming aspects of my editing.

I won't say this is a trivial or could easily be done in X time (since it's infuriating to developers), but will note the UI (dropdown/button) and underlying rendering capability is already implemented to work in one set of conditions so this is an incremental effort. Thx

[smadell]

Although it would be nicer for Serif to implement something official, this solution has been available for the past 2 years. It is a free download, and I encourage everyone to see if it will work for them.

 

[loukash]

7 hours ago, smadell said:

this solution has been available for the past 2 years

Hm, I tried that a while ago and while it was a workable workaround, it's actually quite complex.

Today we have linked layers, and the workaround now goes much easier and faster like this:

 

[cgidesign]

On 4/16/2021 at 6:20 PM, loukash said:

To have an editable overlay mask à la Quick Mask or the Refine mode:

1. create a Pixel layer, fill it with solid color, e.g. full red
2. Layer > Duplicate Linked
3. Link panel > unlink all but Pixel Content
4. crop the bottom linked layer to your image
5. set opacity of your top linked layer to your liking
6. use the Eraser tool to mask on the top linked layer
7. voilà

Thanks for the list but I struggle to get it working:

I can create the layers and set the links but missing the step to make the result a mask.

Maybe it is: "4. crop the bottom linked layer to your image"

What is meant by this here? I know cropping as removing parts of an image I don't need but here it seems to have a different meaning.

Thanks for help.

 

Serif please implement an editable, visible mask system.

[loukash]

6 minutes ago, anim said:

Maybe it is: "4. crop the bottom linked layer to your image"

What is meant by this here?

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/114361-layers-guide-understanding-masks-moves-crops-clips-and-adjustments/&do=findComment&comment=771765

[cgidesign]

Thanks a lot. This will help with the affinity layer confusion I am facing at the moment.

[Bman70]

I also have difficulty understanding the workaround mentioned by smadell. For now I prefer to just paint on a layer of transparent color, then select it and fill the selection with black on a new mask. If I need to edit this, I just repeat by selecting the mask areas then filling with color on a transparent layer. 

But anyway, I signed up for the Photoshop plan and I have to say it feels like a whole different level of ease and power. I'm finally enjoying my graphic and photo work again, not to mention unlimited free fonts and Lightroom. I'm a fan of Affinity's indie feel, but I still have to choose the software that gets me the results I want. Maybe I'll take a look at Affinity again in a few years. 

[Mark Koolen]

As a full time photographer this thing is the one and only piece that let me grap Photoshop after monthly trying Affinity. I just want to see and edit my mask in a quick and easy way. Hitting the \ key in PS and I see direct the mask and I can adjust it. I really hope the Affinty comes with it in an update. And I'm not the only one in my network that wants to move to Affinity but keep using PS because of this mask reason.

[Tor]

Dear Affinity Photo developers,

I'm also waiting for the Overlay function for editing a mask (Preview as Overlay). It should be a basic function. 🙄
Still wondering because the Overlay function is already available for a longer time for the "Refine Mask…" and the "Quick Mask" function but not for "Edit Mask".

Why it is so complicate to enable this Overlay function as well for the "Edit Mask" function?

When is the Overlay function planned for to be integrated ("Show Mask As Overlay" in red/transparent) for "Edit Mask"?

Best regards,
Tor

[MilkyP]

I am also in desperate need of this request. I purchased Affinity Photo not knowing this basic function was missing. I mostly used photoshop for masking, and I moved to Affinity Photo to continue to do this, but I am now regretting my purchase, as masking is so much more cumbersome without this feature. It's incredibly worrisome that this has been requested for 3 years now and hasn't been added. 

Edited January 7, 2022 by MilkyP
Grammar

[Komatös]

I don't understand the question? Isn't the Quick Mask function enough for you?

[Tor]

5 hours ago, Komatös said:

I don't understand the question? Isn't the Quick Mask function enough for you?

No, the Quick Mask function is not enough!

Working with Masks is essential for many functions but this means not only to create Masks, e.g. by using the Quick Mask function.
It is also essential to Edit Masks, that means modifying existing masks after creation, later on again.

Use Case:

1. Create a mask to mask a pixel/bitmap layer
2. (do something else...)
3. Select in Layers window the existing mask (as created some time before) and select "Edit Mask"
   
4. Try to modify the mask in context with the background layer (where the mask is applied on)

-> Here we still need the "Overlay function", so that you can modify the mask in context with the background which is currently not visible!

As I wrote before for "Quick Mask" and "Refine Mask…" the Overlay is working but "Edit Mask" is a different use case, for that the Overlay is not working.
e.g. if you want to use the "Paint Brush Tool" to add black or white areas into the existing mask in context with the background layer.
 

[InigoRotaetxe]

I just can not believe after so many years this has not yet been implemented. It is so basic an needed.

[DoneItWrongAgain]

Every couple of months I end up looking at this thread after I have accidentally painted on a mask layer and want to turn on a mask overlay so I can correct it.

I forget that this is still not a feature, and the workarounds sound are not easy to remember either!

Also, being to switch on/off the visible mask overlay may also be helpful for beginners trying to understand masking.

Any, see you all on this thread in another couple of months.

[Mark Koolen]

Exactly that. Every 4 months or so I check the changelog. No red overlay is no recommendation to my students photography. This is really a game breaker for commercial work in AP

[WMax70]

Mask workaround?

I often use the negation or reflect blend mode to show what is affected and what not.
Using those I get a kind of mask and I can correct my "mask" with via these settings. Once ready I swap my blend mode back to that what I want to achive to check the  final result. 

For the time being (and that takes long at affinity) I think might be a solution / workaround.
Hope this helps a bit.