How Do You Know What Layer You Have to Edit --

[GDPR-354025]

-- When you have a tremendous amount of layers? I make a new layer for every part of a photograph I edit, but sometimes impatience makes me forget to follow my own standard operating procedure. When starting on the latest edit, I forgot to straighten vertically a photo of a child in deep dudgeon on the long march homeward with a pesky intrusive new infant sibling . Okay: So, after making tons of layers of edits of the most expressive in this series, I realized (thanks to seeing the edit on an IPad) Apple wanted the background rooftops straightened. 

 

So I went back to Windows (do not have Affinity for IPad) and Crop-ped the image. 

 

I thought I would be able to either 1) Clone; 2) Patch; or 3) Copy + Paste material into all the empty ("checkerboard") pixels that were created from the straightening and "fill in" the empty pixels. I do NOT want to crop this photo; the distance is an aesthetic choice of what I anticipate will be a long work-in-progress, along with others in a series a sympathetic new father took the day his eldest's replacement was brought home. I mention this because no photo in this series was well-composed, all were taken by someone whose Rolleiflex never did such poor work, and I want to honor his memory the best I can.

 

I went to both the Background Image and Background Copy, and tried all the above. Affinity would not allow any manipulations. 

 

Attached are screenshots of both the original (sixty-year-old) photograph and of the Affinity-edited photo. Any answers to why I can't Clone, Patch, Paint, Copy/Paste, etc., would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

[toltec]

99.9% of the time this sort of problem is because,

A, You have the wrong layer selected,

B. The layer is locked,

C. It is an Image layer.

 

A. Select the right layer,

B. Unlock it

C. Rasterise it.

 

If not, can you post a screengrab of the whole Affinity window.

[EdD]

You could also try labelling your layers so you can tell at a glance which one you need.

[GDPR-354025]

Wow, thank you. I spent the weekend watching every video I could on the difference between Rasterize/Rasterise and Vector. While I now understand the difference, I do not understand at all your response--and please, this is a way of saying I intuitively know what you're saying is exactly addressing my issue; I just do not understand how it is doing so.

 

1) I do not understand what you mean by "Image Layer." (I thought all layers not using vector graphics were image layers.)

2) I have so d*mn many layers in this project. Are you saying that the layer on which I impulsively made the crop is THE layer on which I would be able to Clone, Patch, Paint, Copy/Paste additions to the photograph now "checkerboarded" because the crop threw everything off at least 5 degrees?

3) What is that checkerboard layer called, and why is there a lock on the image that starts a project? Why can/should you work on the Duplicate background layer if you're going to make "yay" many adjustment layers.

 

Thank you again. It is like speaking in a foreign language where I just know you are giving me the right directions but do not understand the words. 

 

Maybe I will paste the whole Affinity window. 

Edited August 14, 2017 by American
Prolixity

[GDPR-354025]

5 minutes ago, EdD said:

You could also try labelling your layers so you can tell at a glance which one you need.

 

Yes sir, that is exactly what I stated I *do* indeed do. I then said that I (and probably lots of Affinity users) deviate from that very well-advised standard operating procedure.

[toltec]

The chequerboard indicates transparency. It is not a layer as such. It is a background.

 

Any type of bitmap is on a pixel layer

Text on a text layer

A shape on a curve layer (although there are several variations)

Adjustment on an adjustment layer

Filter on a filter layer

Mask on a mask layer.

Lots of layers !!

 

An "Image" layer is something else. It is an image that is "placed" (either you "place" it from a file or cut and paste something). It is independent of the main picture, it has its own resolution so you can resize it without losing quality. However, it means Affinity locks it from most editing. I think mainly due to exporting it again in PDF files but there may be other reasons. ?

 

Look in the layers panel, if it says "Image" rather than "Pixel" then you need to rasterise it 

 

To edit an "image" layer, you need to go Layer > Rasterise. Now you can edit it like a normal layer, although it does still keep its own resolution. Technically, an Image layer is already a raster/pixel layer (bitmap), you are just telling Affinity you want to treat it like a normal pixel layer.

 

 

 

 

[toltec]

29 minutes ago, American said:

 

Yes sir, that is exactly what I stated I *do* indeed do. I then said that I (and probably lots of Affinity users) deviate from that very well-advised standard operating procedure.

Exactly, it's only a guide. Work the way YOU like.

 

I only follow guides or rules until I find a better way 

 

Or, at least, better for me.

[toltec]

25 minutes ago, American said:

Are you saying that the layer on which I impulsively made the crop is THE layer on which I would be able to Clone, Patch, Paint, Copy/Paste additions to the photograph now "checkerboarded" because the crop threw everything off at least 5 degrees?

 

Not sure what you mean, but you don't crop layers. You crop the whole document, which crops ALL layers.

 

Also, one thing to bear in mind, Affinity does not discard the bit you crop. It is still there. Go Document > Unclip Canvas and it will reappear.

[GDPR-354025]

24 minutes ago, toltec said:

 

Not sure what you mean, but you don't crop layers. You crop the whole document, which crops ALL layers.

 

Also, one thing to bear in mind, Affinity does not discard the bit you crop. It is still there. Go Document > Unclip Canvas and it will reappear.

Yes, that's what I meant to say--I cropped the whole document/file/project. Else, the blasted checkerboard wouldn't have appeared. I don't understand what "Unclip Canvas" means but will experiment with it. For now, I would just be satisfied with knowing what you call the checkerboard "thing." Is it something that doesn't really exist? I mean, doesn't really exist in terms of the document? (You will notice that the screenshots I posted did not show the checkerboad but just white 5-degree angles cut out of the image.)

 

What would one have to do to paste "stuff" on that space? Just find the right layer? If so, I will just try to paste, like, a star or something on every single layer. But something tells me that that checkerboard is not going to take it. 

 

I just realized it's 1:48 over there. I will wait until tomorrow to hope for answers to these questions. All I wanted to do was to clone and paste some grass, a blown-out sky, cement, and bricks!

[toltec]

The chequerboard does not exist. It is just what Affinity uses to display a hole, because a monitor, like a piece of paper, displays white where a hole would be.

 

Here is a document, with a hole (as indicated by the chequerboard display). Note, I did have to fake it by making a screengrab of the flowers AND the chequerboard, or the background would appear white on this page.

 

 

Note: Only one layer, no chequerboard layer !!!  It is just a display.

 

To "fill" it, I placed a layer with a picture of a sky

behind the flowers.

 

The hole (as indicated by the chequerboard) allows the sky to show through.

 

To fill the hole, just put any picture layer behind the image and it will show through.

 

Just one thought. You haven't done a screengrab at any time have you? If you do a screengrab of an image displaying the chequerboard, it becomes part of the image. i.e. no longer transparent. That is what I did with the first picture of the flowers. Otherwise it would just have just shown the white background when I posted it.

 

If you did, you need to delete it.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, American said:

For now, I would just be satisfied with knowing what you call the checkerboard "thing." Is it something that doesn't really exist? I mean, doesn't really exist in terms of the document?

The checkerboard thing is how Affinity (& many other graphics apps) display transparency -- any part of the document where there is nothing to display. Think of it like painting on a perfectly transparent pane of glass -- where there is no paint there is nothing visible to indicate that the glass is there.

[GDPR-354025]

So then it's impossible to work on it if your crop skews away from a 45-degree angle?

 

As for your analogy, thank you. But can you *do* anything on the checkerboard/transparency? Obviously, I could paint on a pane of glass. I guess I'm asking if the checkerboard is just a grid or place-holder, since I can't do anything with it now. If I Export the skewed image as a JPEG, I guess I could start all over again, but this project has taken so long and required so much work, I don't wish to do this.

[toltec]

On 8/15/2017 at 11:14 AM, Guest-354025 said:

But can you *do* anything on the checkerboard/transparency? 

 

 

Yes. You can paint on it  

 

You can also put something behind (or on top) and "merge the two layers, so they become as one. Effectively filling the hole.

 

 

[R C-R]

Just like in the pane of glass analogy, you can paint on the transparent area. To do this, you must have some layer selected in the Layers panel. This is equivalent to choosing which pane of glass in a stack of them to paint on -- otherwise it would be like trying to paint on air.

 

Note that most of the retouching tools (Inpainting, Clone, Healing Brushes, etc.) can be set to use either the current or current layer & below as a retouching source, or at a more advanced level to use global sources.

[GDPR-354025]

Toltec responded: You can also put something behind (or on top) and "merge the two layers, so they become as one. Effectively filling the hole.

 

This might be the answer!!! So then I can cut-and-paste for example empty sky on a new layer, and put that new layer BEHIND the original background duplicate? (I posted the original question only because I had tried for two hours to paint/paste/clone/patch the checkerboard, with no results.)

 

Affinity does not have two important things PhotoPlus had; first, it doesn't allow Windows users to Separate windows (it allows Mac users to do this), and, second, the "Save Selection as New Layer." So I suppose I would have to create a new Layer, cut-and-paste empty sky on it, and then "float" a window to compare the cut-and-pasted layer(s) with. 

 

Thank you. I will try this.

Edited August 15, 2017 by American
To show to which forum member I responded.

[GDPR-354025]

R-C-R: Yes, I'm familiar with Layers, as my original post might suggest. Thank you!

[toltec]

You can drag tabs off the toolbars and display them side by side. Go View > New View to get two views of the same document.

 

If you press Ctrl J (duplicate layer) it will "Save Selection as New Layer."

[GDPR-354025]

4 minutes ago, toltec said:

You can drag tabs off the toolbars and display them side by side. Go View > New View to get two views of the same document.

 

If you press Ctrl J (duplicate layer) it will "Save Selection as New Layer."

 

Thanks again for the Ctrl J information. As for New View, I think it's a bit class-ist not to give Windows users the drop-down choice of Separate that Mac users have, because New View requires not only more than a mouse-click to achieve two views, it also requires the waste of a great deal of time. But that's just one Windows-user's opinion.

 

THANK you sincerely for the help!

[toltec]

Quite right right. Nobody likes being treated like a second class citizen. 

 

One thing about New View, if you don't pull the tabs off, you can have two zoom levels and press Ctrl + Tab to swap between views. I use that a lot as it much faster to set up than Viewpoints.

[GDPR-354025]

2 minutes ago, toltec said:

Quite right right. Nobody likes being treated like a second class citizen. 

 

One thing about New View, if you don't pull the tabs off, you can have two zoom levels and press Ctrl + Tab to swap between views. I use that a lot as it much faster to set up than Viewpoints.

 

Oh, yes! I just tried it. Very good! Sadly though this keyboard shortcut does not Split Windows. Not only does it require Time + Manipulation; it is not disabled-user-friendly. One enthusiastic past forum member was totally mobility-disabled and would have been penalized for not being able to afford aristocratic technology. This inability is regrettable for many reasons. 

 

Anyhoo, if I get the edit done to perfection, I may enter it into the Affinity contest, so I better keep my criticisms to a minimum. 

[R C-R]

On Macs, choosing the Windows menu > Separated Mode item separates the toolbars from the document window but it does not automatically create any new views. If there are already multiple views or multiple documents open in tabs, it does move them into individual windows, but they are stacked one above the other with just the title bars of the lower ones showing, so there is nothing 'second class' about the Windows implementation.

 

Basically, the Mac Affinity separated mode just emulates what Windows already does for document windows, so if anything it is Mac users who are treated as second class users in this respect!

[GDPR-354025]

3 minutes ago, R C-R said:

On Macs, choosing the Windows menu > Separated Mode item separates the toolbars from the document window but it does not automatically create any new views. If there are already multiple views or multiple documents open in tabs, it does move them into individual windows, but they are stacked one above the other with just the title bars of the lower ones showing, so there is nothing 'second class' about the Windows implementation.

 

Basically, the Mac Affinity separated mode just emulates what Windows already does for document windows, so if anything it is Mac users who are treated as second class users in this respect!

 

Thank you. I'm probably the most stupid forum member Serif/Affinity photo-editing has ever had, but I swear, I cannot think of even a stupid reason why Affinity did not allow the 2002-era capability of being able to compare multiple or dual projects with the choice of automatically separate windows. I am going to work on the above project in PhotoPlus for a while, until I get the "checkerboard thing" under control.

 

[R C-R]

Using a single window to contain multiple tabbed documents instead of individual document windows is actually a post-2002 era UI innovation with several interrelated benefits:

 

1. It allows users to view or work on documents at larger window sizes without the need to stack them or to move around & downsize windows to fit all of them in the available screen space.

2. It scales much better as the number of documents increases -- imagine trying to work with a dozen or more different documents, each in its own window on a laptop-sized display.

3. "Under the hood" it allows more software & hardware resources to be allocated to the current document tab. This can significantly reduce the real memory (RAM) required and/or the need to constantly page in & out of virtual memory, which can cause lags & 'wait' cursors while needed resources are reloaded into memory. It also can reduce how much work the CPU & GPU has to do to keep the display refreshed, which is of particular importance for maximizing battery run time on portable devices like laptops or tablets. This also reduces the amount of heat generated, which can extend the life of the hardware.

[GDPR-354025]

Replying to R C-R: Well, for now, this information is very good to have but unfortunately not something that will, for example, persuade man-on-the-street photo editors that it was the right choice.

 

Getting back to the matter that Toltec brought up: The strangest--strangest--thing of all happened when I began to succeed in PhotoPlus with the New Layer from Selection Copy. When I successfully covered up part of the sky with the Copy, I attempted to Clone some other parts of the sky--and the entire Background Copy went to Transparency.

 

I suppose I will abandon the project. This is a shame, because I spent so much time--the entire weekend and more--on it. 

 

Thanks to everyone who tried to help and spent time responding. I'll wait until this coming weekend and try to start from scratch. 

 

Have a good week.

[R C-R]

On 8/15/2017 at 1:51 PM, Guest-354025 said:

Replying to R C-R: Well, for now, this information is very good to have but unfortunately not something that will, for example, persuade man-on-the-street photo editors that it was the right choice.

Which is why you (& every other 'man on the street' user) still have the choice to use tabbed windows or not. You can even have a mix of tabbed & untabbed document windows & arrange & resize them however you want, along with panels & toolbars, subject only to the limitations of the size of your screen(s) & the capabilities of your hardware.

 

The only thing you don't have is a single choice that is optimized only for certain workflow/device combinations.