overlaying and merging images in Affinity Photo

[funnyfarm]

I'm trying to overlay three images and then adjust them so that I can see aspects of each in a single "merged" image. I used to do this in Photoshop by placing the images in three separate layers and then adjusting the opacity and fill of each layer until they were blended in the way that allowed me to see the features of each I was interested in. I just can't get this to work with the opacity function in Affinity Photo. When the merged image is copy/pasted into Affinity Designer (where it will eventually go), the blended image looks really washed out..really different than it did while in Affinity Photo. There does not seem to be an analogous "fill" function in Affinity Photo to what there was in Photoshop. I've viewed a bunch of forums and videos, but none really seem to address how I'd accomplish this specific thing. Any ideas for me?

[firstdefence]

maybe an example of your goal would help, but in the meantime have you tried blend modes 

[toltec]

2 hours ago, funnyfarm said:

I'm trying to overlay three images and then adjust them so that I can see aspects of each in a single "merged" image. I used to do this in Photoshop by placing the images in three separate layers and then adjusting the opacity and fill of each layer until they were blended in the way that allowed me to see the features of each I was interested in. I just can't get this to work with the opacity function in Affinity Photo. When the merged image is copy/pasted into Affinity Designer (where it will eventually go), the blended image looks really washed out..really different than it did while in Affinity Photo. There does not seem to be an analogous "fill" function in Affinity Photo to what there was in Photoshop. I've viewed a bunch of forums and videos, but none really seem to address how I'd accomplish this specific thing. Any ideas for me?

I'm not sure what you want to achieve with merging but the resulting image should be identical in Designer.

Here on the left the image was merged in Photo by adjusting the opacity of the top layer. On the right is the resulting image in Designer, this was saved from Photo as a .afphoto file, then that file was Placed into Designer. File > Place

It looks identical to me. Try that method (not cut and paste, and see what happens.

Edit, More or less identical, but more saturated in Designer as owenr pointed out. Not really washed out though.

[lepr]

.

 

[toltec]

1 minute ago, owenr said:

Your image is distinctly more saturated on the right.

 

Damn. Anybody got the number of Specsavers ?

More or less identical then. Not washed really out as the OP found.

[lepr]

.

[toltec]

9 minutes ago, owenr said:

Your image is distinctly more saturated on the right.

 

Ah, but why ?

[toltec]

6 minutes ago, owenr said:

You said they looked identical. They are far from identical.

 

Yes, it's the crappy 11" netbook thing I'm using. But to be fair they did look identical (more or less) on that.

It is very clear on a real monitor, and I cleaned my glasses 

[Gabe]

Hi all. 

@toltec, you did not place the image in the same place. Some other parts of it overlapped, resulting in a more "saturated" image. 

Check below for my example. Left Photo, Right Designer. 

No difference between the colour. 

As for the image being desaturated @funnyfarm , you would expect is as you're decreasing opacity. Bear in mind that adding 50% + 50%  is not the same as adding up (50+50)%. Stacking 2 layers with 50% will give you a total of 75% opacity, not 100%.

Thanks,

Gabe. 

[toltec]

21 minutes ago, GabrielM said:

Hi all. 

@toltec, you did not place the image in the same place. Some other parts of it overlapped, resulting in a more "saturated" image. 

Ah, thank you. I wondered what I had done wrong.

I am struggling with a tiny screen and no mouse until I get home and was focusing on the OP's issue. Instead I created another. 

[lepr]

.

[funnyfarm]

Thanks to each for your comments. I figured out how to "Merge visible" which produced a new layer in the Affinity Photo file. Then I deleted the other layers and copy/pasted the new "merged visible" layer image into Affinity Designer and it looked like what I wanted. I'll definitely try the "File>Place" thing going forward.