Layer stack, layers showing through each other with no masking and normal blend modes..?

[cayenne]

Hello all,

I've been behavior I just can't explain. I've seen this on the iPad version and now on the desktop version.

Example:

I have two images I brought in as a stack, I did auto-align (tried with and without the live align)....

I see the stack, I open it up and can see the individual layers, one on top of the other.

The blend modes are all set to Normal.

For some reason, the lower layers are bleeding through and showing through the topmost layer, even with no masking, etc.....and I'm at a loss to see why?  I'm used to PS, where if you stack 2 layers, with nomal blend modes, the top one completely obscures the lower one, unless you mask it off, or have other blend modes enabled.

I'm guessing something is set different in AP, I just don't know how to get the behavior I'm expecting.

Right now, with both images there...I have them both turned on, again, expecting the top image to completely obscure the bottom one...but it looks strange, and if I turn off the lower layer...the top one becomes to look as it should be without the bottom one bleeding into it.

 

The images I've tried on desktop are .tiff images....the ones on the Ipad that did the same strange thing, were from an iphone emailed to me.

 

Can someone help me out here?  I'm just wanting to stack 2 images, and not have the bottom one(s) show through unless I mask out the top later....

 

Thanks in advance,

CC

 

 

[R C-R]

If you wanted the top image to completely obscure the bottom one, I am not sure why you brought the images in as a stack. But if that is want you want, just ungroup the live stack group.

[cayenne]

I'm not sure I understand...why would stacking layers allow bottom ones to show through to the top?

 

If I don't bring in as a stack...how do I get AP to align the layers...I thought that was the way you brought multiple images in for auto align?

 

Thanks in advance for the reply and suggestions!!

 

CC

[walt.farrell]

 

14 minutes ago, cayenne said:

I'm not sure I understand...why would stacking layers allow bottom ones to show through to the top?

I am not an expert in this area, but I've played with it a bit. From the Affinity Photo Help for Image Stack (with my emphasis): Non-destructive image stacks blend together a series of images based on the same scene or almost identical subject matter. Visual differences between images in the series can then be removed, composited together, or used for creative effects.

To me that says that while they remain a stack, they're being blended, and that means that you can't be sure which layer contributed what aspects of the image.

16 minutes ago, cayenne said:

If I don't bring in as a stack...how do I get AP to align the layers...I thought that was the way you brought multiple images in for auto align?

You have to bring them in as a stack to get the alignment done for you. But after that if you don't intend them to be blended I think you're going to have to ungroup them.

[cayenne]

49 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

 

I am not an expert in this area, but I've played with it a bit. From the Affinity Photo Help for Image Stack (with my emphasis): Non-destructive image stacks blend together a series of images based on the same scene or almost identical subject matter. Visual differences between images in the series can then be removed, composited together, or used for creative effects.

To me that says that while they remain a stack, they're being blended, and that means that you can't be sure which layer contributed what aspects of the image.

You have to bring them in as a stack to get the alignment done for you. But after that if you don't intend them to be blended I think you're going to have to ungroup them.

Ok, that worked...but WOW...is that ever UN-intuitive.....

 

I'm still not understanding the stacks blending tho...that does not make sense to me whatsoever.....is there a way to suggest this is a bug or maybe have them at least allow for auto alignment of image layers that come in that are not part of a 'stack'?

 

What would the use case for this current behavior be for?

 

Anyway, this worked and I"m back working again.

 

THANK YOU so much for helping me out everyone!!!

 

C

[R C-R]

15 minutes ago, cayenne said:

I'm still not understanding the stacks blending tho...

Like the passage @walt.farrell quoted from the Affinity Photo Help topic, this feature is intended to blend together a series of images based on the same or almost the same  scene.

27 minutes ago, cayenne said:

What would the use case for this current behavior be for?

Lots of different things. I suggest watching at least some of the videos in the Live Stacking section of the Official Affinity Photo (Desktop) Video Tutorials page to get an idea of what is possible using the different stacking modes.

[cayenne]

Ok thanks.

Quick question.

What is the preferred method, then....to bring in images as layers, and auto-align them in a simple manner, when wanting to mask and blend them manually , and not do focus stacking, HDR, etc....?

This is for desktop and ipad...I don't see a simple method to do this.

 

Thank you all in advance!!

 

C

[walt.farrell]

25 minutes ago, cayenne said:

What is the preferred method, then....to bring in images as layers, and auto-align them in a simple manner, when wanting to mask and blend them manually , and not do focus stacking, HDR, etc....?

As R C-R said above bring them in as a layer stack and then ungroup them. (For Desktop, at least; no idea about iPad.)