Had Enough - I give up.

[toltec]

Like lots of mentions of Best Photo App for editing non-destructively.  :D

[PhotoNewbie]

A static PDF Tutorial would be wonderful. But one thing that would have helped me, when first getting AP, and having never used an editing process any more complicated than in Apple Photos, would have been a tutorial on basic photo editing software. Because as I began to see, again at the beginning, there are similarities in all editing software. For examples, Layers, that is not proprietary to AP, and is one of the first things I had to learn, there was no choice. But other things I still dont understand:

 

Vectors

Rastersize

Merge Visible Layers(what for)

Simpler explanation for beginners on 8bit vs 16 bit

Color Management

 

Please dont try to take up the space here to explain those things to me. Some of them are discussed in the AP Tutorials but those tutorials still assume the beginner has some background in them and I, for one dont. Anyway, those above things are off the top of my head and there are others that are a part of the overall photo editing software process regardless of the creator i.e. AP, PS, etc. So my point to this post is if I and other beginners could be pointed to a good book on basic photo editing that contained the above and other topics, and background on what the topic means, that would be awesome. If we had some background, we might be able to figure out AP better, maybe even on our own. We also might be able to search for help better.

[toltec]

I'll take the first four because that's fairly easy.

 

A vector is a computer drawing that you can reshape, stretch, enlarge at any time without making it look pixelated and fuzzy. Even when you increase it's size a lot. Text is basically made up of vector shapes, thats why you can make a letter fill a screen and   look sharp until  you rasterize it, which turns Vectors into pixelated, bitmap images so it does look all pixelated at bigger sizes.

Try typing small text on a layer, rasterizing the layer and zooming in compared to typing a really big letter. That is the difference between a vector and rasterized image.

 

You merge visible layers to simplify things. If you save as a JPEG it does this automatically because JPEGs can't understand layers.

16 bit has twice as much colour information as 8 bit. 99 times out of a hundred nobody can tell!

 

Colour management would indeed take a lot more explaining.

[pruus]

Perhaps it's a steap learning curve. And what a joy of learning. If you set an extra computer with youtube next to your AP or AP computer than you can learn a lot in a very short time. After phase one you will get a smile on your face. Before you can run you have to learn walk. 

[R C-R]

Well, contradictions aside ;)  you would think a company that could come up with something like Affinity could manage an index, wouldn't you?

For the few of you curious about how this works for Macs, there is an extensive "Apple Help Programming Guide" available online. It includes way more info than most of us would ever want to know, but the Controlling Indexing of Your Help section explains what Affinity must do to include keywords for misspellings, synonyms, & such.

 

From what (little) I can tell they have to be added to each html file in every localization where they would apply. Like Mike said, not an insurmountable task, but also quite unlikely to be something that could be done in a few minutes or by someone not intimately familiar with the terminology used in a particular language.

[R C-R]

16 bit has twice as much colour information as 8 bit.

Apparently, math works differently in some parts of the UK than it does in the U.S. 

 

(Just a bit of fun, in response to the earlier comment about the American version.)  ;)

[DavidMac]

Perhaps it's a steap learning curve. And what a joy of learning. If you set an extra computer with youtube next to your AP or AP computer than you can learn a lot in a very short time. After phase one you will get a smile on your face. Before you can run you have to learn walk. 

Yes of course Pruus! What we all share is a common desire for learning to be a joy. I don't think anyone would dispute you for a second. But many of the posters in this thread are experienced well known names here who are already sprinters and marathoners ..... what they are discussing is not the principle but the method.  :)

[DavidMac]

So my point to this post is if I and other beginners could be pointed to a good book on basic photo editing that contained the above and other topics, and background on what the topic means, that would be awesome. If we had some background, we might be able to figure out AP better, maybe even on our own. We also might be able to search for help better.

 

And an excellent point it is too. The difficulty is that, despite the 'universality' of some of the principles, I think all books on the subject are specifically app based. I really don't know of a general photo editing book or web tutorials. That being said I learned a lot about AP from PS tutorials and, perhaps more unexpectedly, a lot about PS from AP tutorials. Looking at other apps tutorials gives you an idea what to look for ........ even if not how to find it or which button to press ........ 

 

Affinity is still very young so most of what is available comes only from Serif. There hasn't been time for a culture of independent tutorials to develop to a significant degree yet. PS has been around so long that there are hundreds of independent tutorials - many of them covering the absolute basics. Googling these can teach you a lot about general principles - even if you need to adapt the specifics to AP.

[Alfred]

Apparently, math works differently in some parts of the UK than it does in the U.S. 

 

(Just a bit of fun, in response to the earlier comment about the American version.)  ;)

 

In my part of the UK, math (or maths, as it is usually but inexplicably abbreviated in British English) 16-bit has the same amount of colour information as it does in the US, but it occurs to me that I should maybe have redressed the balance by referring to "the U.K." and "the US" in the above. 

 

(Just a bit of fun, since I would normally write either U.K./U.S. or UK/US, rather than mixing the two.) ;)

[toltec]

Apparently, math works differently in some parts of the UK than it does in the U.S. 

 

(Just a bit of fun, in response to the earlier comment about the American version.)  ;)

Well, I don't have that many fingers.

 

OK, I might have been guilty of trying to oversimplify things  :wacko:

[Petar Petrenko]

Hey,

you spent 4 pages in this topic only for manuals?

And there is much more in both apps to simplify, remove, improve...

[DavidMac]

Hey,

you spent 4 pages in this topic only for manuals?

And there is much more in both apps to simplify, remove, improve...

 

 

But that's another thread .......   ;) 

 

You could start one ......... things to remove could be interesting ......... most people post on things to add!  :)

[Alfred]

But that's another thread .......   ;) 

 

You could start one ......... things to remove could be interesting ......... most people post on things to add!  :)

 

One of my favourite quotations is this one:

La perfection est atteinte non quand il ne reste rien à ajouter, mais quand il ne reste rien à enlever.

(Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.)

[DavidMac]

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) said

 

La perfection est atteinte non quand il ne reste rien à ajouter, mais quand il ne reste rien à enlever.
(Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.)

 

Not nearly as profound, but in similar vein, the largest single part of my job as a Director of Photography is lighting the set. I have always followed the philosophy 'It's not where you put the light that counts ..... it's where you don't.'.

[Oval]

 

One of my favourite quotations is this one:

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) said

La perfection est atteinte non quand il ne reste rien à ajouter, mais quand il ne reste rien à enlever.

(Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.)

 

 

Much shorter: “less is more”.

 

Perhaps another reason, why there will be no printed reference manuals from Serif, but workbooks.

[toltec]

Much shorter: “less is more”.

 

 

I got my bank statement this morning and I can assure you "less is less".

[DavidMac]

I got my bank statement this morning and I can assure you "less is less".

:lol:  :lol:  :lol:  :lol:

[Sharkey]

I got my bank statement this morning and I can assure you "less is less".

 

Oh my innards ache!

 

When my monthly statement ends in 'black' ink I am content (ish).

 

Also the less important 'stuff' has become the 'more' content (ish) I have become.

 

Mr. A. Adams was content in his latter days with, I believe (corrections excepted), a simple manual 35mm body (prob Nikon) and 24 or 35mm prime lens (unknown maker).

 

I seem, despite our considerable differences in talent and skill to be drifting similarly :) .

 

The capture and my own appreciation of it seems now to be of precedent, the rest (public acclaim, income, technological advance etc.) and even my own further education.

 

Regards.   Sharkey