Tools not working on all photos

[takefive]

 

Hello,

I've purchased Affinity Photo Workbook and I am now going through Core Skills. By following the procedure described by the book it is easy to modify a resource (e.g.impainting_people.jpg by using the Impainting Brush) And yet I cannot reproduce the same effect on my pwn photos. Going exactly through the same procedure described by the book I do not get the same effect on my own photo. Am I doing something wrong, or am I missing some procedural detail ? Thank you.

[Alfred]

Are you getting unexpected results, or no effect at all? If the latter, go to the Layers panel and make sure that the selected layer is designated as ‘(Pixel)’. If it says ‘(Image)’, you need to right-click it and choose ‘Rasterize...’ from the context menu to convert the layer type so that it’s suitable for work at the pixel level.

[manu schwendener]

Or, if you're not using layers on purpose yet (some actions create a new layer on their own): make sure your background layer is activated to get the inpainting tool to work (see screenshot).

If that's not working either, try the inpainting tool as the _first_ step after opening a photo in AffinityPhoto.
 

PS:
I use that tool a lot. When I get a result I like, but am not finished yet, I go to the navigation on the top and select 'Document – Add Snapshot'.
Then I continue cleaning up my photo; if the next inpainting action doesn't give the result I want I can go back with 'Document – Restore Snapshot'.


 

[takefive]

Thank you Alfred and Manu ! I will work on your suggestions and then report back the result (which might be useful for other beginners). I was under the assumption that just by selecting the tool I would get the same effect on my photos. I was unaware that I needed to make adjustments in the Studio Panel or Menu.

P.S. BTW, I can see that the tool selects the area which I want to work on, but then when I release the mouse button I do not get any effect. IOW, before releasing the button I can see that the application is working on my demand but there is no effect at the end.

[carl123]

30 minutes ago, takefive said:

P.S. BTW, I can see that the tool selects the area which I want to work on, but then when I release the mouse button I do not get any effect. IOW, before releasing the button I can see that the application is working on my demand but there is no effect at the end.

Make sure you have the correct image layer in the Layers panel selected and the Opacity at the top of the screen is set to 100% when the Inpainting tool is selected

If you still cant figure it out post a screenshot of the program showing the layers panel and the Inpainting tool selected which may help

[manu schwendener]

> I can see that the tool selects the area which I want to work on

So the area _does_get a red overlay before you release the mouse button?

Check the value for opacity? (edit: See screenshot)
 

If that's not helping, maybe start with another of your own pictures: easy candidates are twigs in a blue sky, or bright spots on an otherwise dark background (just to get it to work).

[MEB]

Hi takefive,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Make sure you have a Pixel layer selected in the Layers panel (rasterise it as @αℓƒяє∂ explained in the second post in case you are working with an Image layer type) and that both the Opacity and Flow are NOT set to 0% in the context toolbar right above the work area. If it still doesn't work please post a screenshot of the application with the Layers panel visible and the layer you want to edit selected so we can see how you have the layers structured in your document. Thanks.

[takefive]

Hello, although I could not compare your suggestions with my photo files that I closed prior to reading your comments, in opening my photos again this morning I made sure that your recommendations were complied with. And now everything works fine. Thank you again for your assistance.

P.S. Assuming that, yesterday, my photos were opened with your indications already automatically in place, I would think that the fact that tools were not yielding any effect could be due to an "out of memory" condition, as I had been editing for quite some time. If this were the case, my assumption might be considered by other users.

Manu : upon opening my photo, opacity was automatically set at 100%

MEB : I assume that seeing "Background (pixel) checked upon opening the file meant that that was as it should.  I do not think I needed rasterizing because my file has a jpg extension and to my (very limited) knowledge this kind of file, not being a vector file, does not need rasterization. Thank you all for your assistance.

[takefive]

Manu : in my answer to you, I forgot to specify that the area was not actually getting a red overlay.

[manu schwendener]

Good to hear that you got it to work.

[takefive]

3 hours ago, carl123 said:

Make sure you have the correct image layer in the Layers panel selected and the Opacity at the top of the screen is set to 100% when the Inpainting tool is selected

If you still cant figure it out post a screenshot of the program showing the layers panel and the Inpainting tool selected which may help

Hi Carl123. Thank you for posting. I assume that having, under Layer in the Panel : Opacity 100%, Normal, and Background (pixel) checked, is what you mean with your post..

Manu : in my answer to you, I forgot to specify that the area was not actually getting a red overlay.

[MEB]

36 minutes ago, takefive said:

MEB : I assume that seeing "Background (pixel) checked upon opening the file meant that that was as it should.  I do not think I needed rasterizing because my file has a jpg extension and to my (very limited) knowledge this kind of file, not being a vector file, does not need rasterization. Thank you all for your assistance.

Hi takefive,
Glad to know you've sorted the issue. Regarding rasterisation, if you have opened the JPG file directly, then the (background) layer is already a pixel layer as you can edit it at a pixel level as you are used too, however if you dragged a file over an existing opened document or used the File ▸ Place command to insert a file/image into an existing document they will be added as Image layers (not Pixel layers). Image layers are a special layer type that retains all the original image data - you can think of them as embedded images. They can be transformed globally (rotated, skewed etc) without losing quality but they cannot be edited/manipulated at a pixel level. Most raster tools don't work with them. For that they must be rasterised first as described earlier (right-clicking on them in the Layers panel and selecting Rasterise).

[carl123]

6 minutes ago, takefive said:

Hi Carl123. Thank you for posting. I assume that having, under Layer in the Panel : Opacity 100%, Normal, and Background (pixel) checked, is what you mean with your post.. 

No, the Inpainting Tool has it's own Opacity setting which you can see at the top left-hand side of the screen ONLY when you have the Inpainting Tool selected

If you do not see it make sure you have View > Show Context Toolbar ticked, then it will show

[takefive]

Thank you MEB for a very clear and exhaustive explanation. I'm glad to learn.

[takefive]

Thank you Carl123 for pointing out the difference. I'll keep that in mind.

[takefive]

I apologize for taking some more of your time but this concerns "replies to a post", because I do not know whether I am doing it right. Specifically, when I want to reply to a specific post (e.g. MEB) I seem to have no other option than going to the bottom of the page and post my reply. Question : how do I know whether my reply goes "only" to MEB ? I'm asking because I do not want to bother all the participants in this thread with replies that concern only one of them. Trying to make it according to the Forum rules. Thank you. I promise I won't post anything else on this topic !

[manu schwendener]

As far as I know if you only want to see one person what you write, you have to click on that person's name and send a message via their profile.

But if you reply in a thread, it makes sense that all people following (or finding) that thread see your post. And yes, your reply goes to the bottom, so it helps if you include what exactly you're replying to; for example by using the 'Quote' button or just copy & paste.

PS about the forum: if you get stuck with another AffinityPhoto tool you might want to post in 'Questions' instead of 'Resources'.
Full list of subforums: https://forum.affinity.serif.com.

[takefive]

Thank you Manu, a very useful reply. I do appreciate your assistance and time.