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Where is the Advanced Training for AP?


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Long time Ps user here -- won't do the subscription thing.  Many of your tutorials are very good.  However, they are NOT what I'm used to in Ps.  Most of AP's tutorials are landscapes.  I do Wedding Photography.  I need more Portrait retouching, but mostly, I need way more work with a large number of Layers and Clipping masks -- you have ONE tut dealing with this.

I'm trying, and struggling to follow Ps Tutorials.  Mostlly, I'm finding things are there, but I'm tired of all these simplistic tutorials and frustrated with AP's differences with Ps on layers and clipping masks.  I need more help in this area -- and please -- no more Landscape Tutorials!  Is there help for me?

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What specifically do you want to see covered in the tutorials that are not covered in the existing ones? The principles are the same, whether applied to buildings or people, & to complex or simple layer hierarchies.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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I see it similar to @R C-R.
Search the youtube channel for "Affinity Photo Portrait Retouching" and you will see how many hits there are.

Affinity Photo 2.4:         Affinity Photo 1.10.6: 

Affinity Designer 2.4:    Affinity Designer 1.10.6:

Affinity Publisher 2.4:   Affinity Publisher 1.10.6:    

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22 hours ago, R C-R said:

What specifically do you want to see covered in the tutorials that are not covered in the existing ones? The principles are the same, whether applied to buildings or people, & to complex or simple layer hierarchies.

Here is an example of what I've been able to do -- Album page layout.  Not to be disrespectful, but Ps has dozens of Tutorials of this nature, while AP has ONE for masks and clipping.  By contrast, if you want Landscape Tutorials, there are dozens upon dozens for AP!  As examples of what I want to do please refer to the attached Screenshot. I had to find by trial & error how to Distribute the three small windows on the top -- I had to turn all the Snaps on, then watch the numbers on-screen; and I had to search for a Stroke command that hides in the Effects Group, called "Outline".  I'm sure I'm missing some things too -- like how do I drag/expand a clipping mask from the center?  I can do this in Ps.  I also had to change the grid size from "1.08" to 1", then use Grid to set an Image aspect ratio -- as AP apparently cannot set numerical values for a dashed rectangle.  Help is needed in these areas!

As you might be able to see from my screenshot, I'm showing less than half of the Layers generated -- and this is an extremely simple example.  By contrast most of your tutorials typically show one layer, and no clipping masks.

Is there any way to clip the images to the Clipping mask on a finalized Album Page Layout page to save storage space?

I would also like to find some Edges Packages (Ragged, torn, filmstrip, modern, etc.) that I can use in AP -- perhaps in addition to the "Outline" Effect.  I had some for Ps, (Perhaps as a Ps Plug-in) but they are no longer around.  Thoughts?

Here is a simple Album Layout Tutorial I found on YT for Ps:  (I'm sure there are dozens more)

 

TK's Page Layout.JPG

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21 hours ago, Gnobelix said:

I see it similar to @R C-R.
Search the youtube channel for "Affinity Photo Portrait Retouching" and you will see how many hits there are.

Yes, most of these revolve around AP's unique High/Low frequency command.  I can do all of that.  But what I want is Album Layout tips specifically for AP (See my other reply in this post.)

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Adobe Photoshop has been around a long time 25+ years, it has a massive user base; I mean huge, it's an industry standard and is dominant in practically every industry that has anything to do with media, people have made a living out of monetising their Youtube account and making Photoshop tutorials, practically everyone who ever uses/d Photoshop has made a tutorial of some sort, so its no wonder there are so many tutorials on how to do stuff.

Its feature set alone will keep the tutorialists in business for many years to come, but within the gamut of Photoshop tutorials there are good ones, average ones and absolutely dire ones, volume is not necessarily a measure of quality. You have people who think it is somehow "cool" to play Thrash metal in the background while talking, even when there is no narration that ain't good. 

Making a suggestion for tutorials to both Vimeo, Youtube and Affinity tutorialists is a start but you have to remember most tutorialists have another life and in a lot of cases have to work out what the requester actually wants to do, in detail, then translate that into a video, that video will generally have elements that have already been covered in other video's but in the video for the requester they amalgamate those snippets into a customised tutorial. 

Good tutorials take time, a lot of time, and in a lot of cases the person making the tutorial is learning on the fly, will make mistakes and actually show you how to correct that mistake within the video, then the narration, this I think is probably the hardest part of making a tutorial, if you are a fluent speaker you are blessed but for the rest they stumble through as best they can.

The best way to appreciate (I'm not saying you don't) a tutorialists efforts is to try and make one you think is worthy of the Youtube/Vimeo Masses, it's an eye-opener and be prepared to have criticisms but if you read them right you get to be a better tutorialist.

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7 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Adobe Photoshop has been around a long time 25+ years, it has a massive user base; I mean huge, it's an industry standard and is dominant in practically every industry that has anything to do with media, people have made a living out of monetising their Youtube account and making Photoshop tutorials, practically everyone who ever uses/d Photoshop has made a tutorial of some sort, so its no wonder there are so many tutorials on how to do stuff.

Its feature set alone will keep the tutorialists in business for many years to come, but within the gamut of Photoshop tutorials there are good ones, average ones and absolutely dire ones, volume is not necessarily a measure of quality. You have people who think it is somehow "cool" to play Thrash metal in the background while talking, even when there is no narration that ain't good. 

Making a suggestion for tutorials to both Vimeo, Youtube and Affinity tutorialists is a start but you have to remember most tutorialists have another life and in a lot of cases have to work out what the requester actually wants to do, in detail, then translate that into a video, that video will generally have elements that have already been covered in other video's but in the video for the requester they amalgamate those snippets into a customised tutorial. 

Good tutorials take time, a lot of time, and in a lot of cases the person making the tutorial is learning on the fly, will make mistakes and actually show you how to correct that mistake within the video, then the narration, this I think is probably the hardest part of making a tutorial, if you are a fluent speaker you are blessed but for the rest they stumble through as best they can.

The best way to appreciate (I'm not saying you don't) a tutorialists efforts is to try and make one you think is worthy of the Youtube/Vimeo Masses, it's an eye-opener and be prepared to have criticisms but if you read them right you get to be a better tutorialist.

I agree completely.  But for AP, you must agree with me that the vast majority of Tutorials are for Landscape Photography.  That's not necessarily representative of Photography in general.  AP needs a wider variety of Photographic Disciplines embraced with their Tutorials.  Can we agree on that?

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1 hour ago, tkarl__nn said:

Here is a simple Album Layout Tutorial I found on YT for Ps:  (I'm sure there are dozens more)

Compare that to Affinity Photo - Clipping vs Masking. Do you see how the techniques in the AP tutorial could be adapted to make very similar layouts as in the PS one? The method is the same whether there are two images or a dozen.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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4 hours ago, tkarl__nn said:

I agree completely.  But for AP, you must agree with me that the vast majority of Tutorials are for Landscape Photography.  That's not necessarily representative of Photography in general.  AP needs a wider variety of Photographic Disciplines embraced with their Tutorials.  Can we agree on that?

I think one problem is the lack of readily available subjects. These days you can’t just use people’s images, like you could a while back. You have to get permission which is not always easy, or possible, especially if the subjects are a bit unsure of what you are doing.. There are so many Photoshop users that there is a much wider image ‘pool’.

Generally speaking, landscapes don’t sue if you use their images ;)

Windows PCs. Photo and Designer, latest non-beta versions.

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27 minutes ago, toltec said:

I think one problem is the lack of readily available subjects.

There is no problem. The same methods are applicable regardless of the subject if you are trying to learn how to lay out images on a document, stack & nest adjustments & filters in simple or extremely layer hierarchies, & so on. Once you learn how to use clipping & masking with one photo, you can apply it to any other photos. Likewise, once you learn how to use the various retouching tools on people shots, you can apply that to landscapes, or visa versa.

It is true that face shots often require more work to get natural looking results, but that is only because we all know what faces are supposed to look like.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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Have a look around on this site (may need translation!)......Not necessarily what you are looking for...but worth a look anyhow

https://affinitytutorials.de/affinity-photo/

 

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@tkarl__nn Actually your Photo album looks better than the tutorial version :) Looks altogether neater and more professional IMHO so don't do yourself down, learning by trial and error is as good as any technique and usually you find a better way to do things, this can be a double edged sword as you also tend to find the limitations of the software. I agree there are fewer tutorials and if I had more time I'd make more. I'll see if I can create something when I have a bit more time, but at the mo I'm crazy busy at work.

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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8 hours ago, toltec said:

I think one problem is the lack of readily available subjects. These days you can’t just use people’s images, like you could a while back. You have to get permission which is not always easy, or possible, especially if the subjects are a bit unsure of what you are doing.. There are so many Photoshop users that there is a much wider image ‘pool’.

Generally speaking, landscapes don’t sue if you use their images ;)

There are plenty of free stock images to use.

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4 hours ago, firstdefence said:

@tkarl__nn Actually your Photo album looks better than the tutorial version :) Looks altogether neater and more professional IMHO so don't do yourself down, learning by trial and error is as good as any technique and usually you find a better way to do things, this can be a double edged sword as you also tend to find the limitations of the software. I agree there are fewer tutorials and if I had more time I'd make more. I'll see if I can create something when I have a bit more time, but at the mo I'm crazy busy at work.

Thank you!  Apparently there is no ability to resize a clipped window in AP from the center as there is in Ps.  This is an issue as there is also no way to precisely dimension a window for a photo.

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1 minute ago, tkarl__nn said:

Apparently there is no ability to resize a clipped window in AP from the center as there is in Ps.

The video tutorial I mentioned previously in this post demonstrates how to do that.

3 minutes ago, tkarl__nn said:

This is an issue as there is also no way to precisely dimension a window for a photo.

There are several ways to do that. You can use Guides, Grids, or the Transform panel.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
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1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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6 hours ago, tkarl__nn said:

I watched the entire video, but I missed sizing from the center.  Me or you?

This is one of the basic features of the app. If you have not already done so, go to the Official Affinity Photo (Desktop) Video Tutorials (200+) page, scroll down to the Basics section, & watch (for example) the Scaling and Transforming video. (Start at about 4:30 if you are in a hurry.) Features covered in the Basics section are often used in other video tutorials without further explanation, so this is where you should start for anything you don't understand shown in the others.

BTW, you can also do this using the Transform panel & the center anchor point.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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16 hours ago, R C-R said:

This is one of the basic features of the app. If you have not already done so, go to the Official Affinity Photo (Desktop) Video Tutorials (200+) page, scroll down to the Basics section, & watch (for example) the Scaling and Transforming video. (Start at about 4:30 if you are in a hurry.) Features covered in the Basics section are often used in other video tutorials without further explanation, so this is where you should start for anything you don't understand shown in the others.

BTW, you can also do this using the Transform panel & the center anchor point.

Thanks so much -- I'm learning a LOT!  Can't find any tutorials on applying Textures.   There are two on creating Textures, but none on applying them.  Ps has an entire palette for this.  What am I missing?  (Apparently, I save a Texture as a .png; then apply a gradient over the area, but change the Gradient Tool to Bitmap?) -- I found that on YT.  I think I got it!!!!!!  (See below)  But I think there could be a Tutorial on this.

BTW: the only issue I see with Clipping Masks is that changing the Clipping Mask shape also distorts the image.  I need to take my Image out of the Clipping Mask, resize the mask window, then replace the Image.

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On 8/6/2018 at 3:35 PM, rickd said:

Either Affinity program works great for album pages. I usually use Designer so I can see all the pages at once in artboards. As far as clipping use place and drag under the shape to the right and it's there ready to resize.

8.5x11 ½ 1V +2H.jpg

Pen Tools are GREAT!  What is it that you cannot do in AP?  I found the Stroke option in the Rectangle Tool also works with the Pen tool.

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6 hours ago, tkarl__nn said:

BTW: the only issue I see with Clipping Masks is that changing the Clipping Mask shape also distorts the image.  I need to take my Image out of the Clipping Mask, resize the mask window, then replace the Image.

There is a difference between Clipping and Masking., although both do similar things. I don't think there is such a thing as a "Clipping Mask" ?

Clipping would be better for your purpose.

If you clip an image, in a shape.

heart1.jpg.e5fde59a2566f1a151a0869825c5b2f0.jpg

You can resize the shape without image distortion

heart2.jpg.6182eeca7a3471ce3be7978c14602c4f.jpg

Change the shape, without image distortion.

heart5.jpg.f01aabdbec0fa4f9ce6b9200b6e84acf.jpg

Resize the image inside the shape

heart3.jpg.dc2d35670d86e473f26b4a8937c10746.jpg

Or replace the image inside the shape (without removing the old image first.

girl2.jpg.b145bb6819dc208f66057c53c3e6018a.jpg

1. Drag the image to the nesting position of the clipping shape.

clip.jpg.a4ab9680ca0164a8a329da12942b4648.jpgNesting position

2. To adjust just the shape, without affecting the image. Click Lock Children on the Context Toolbar.

lock.jpg.4b37fe4087879658e9b8cabd36f42a35.jpg

3. To adjust the image size or position inside the shape, without affecting the shape, double click so the image's blue bounding box appears. 

4. To replace the image*. Double click and click Replace Image on the Context Toolbar.

replace.jpg.7d32b5c250af115c9b394fdb328055c6.jpg

* This only works with an image you 'Place' on top of the main image (File > Place). You can clip the background image but you can't 'Replace' it using step 4.

 

You can save a bit of time on the process.

1 Create a shape.

2 Click Insert inside the selection.

inside.jpg.d7ba841d096fdcda220994e30342828f.jpg

3. Go File > Place and the image you load will be automatically clipped inside the shape, drag the Place handle to position and size it. This saves you having to drag the image on the shape to clip it..

All the other moving, sizing and replacing operations work as listed above.

P.S. If you select the shape tool (or the Node tool if it was a hand drawn path, rather than a shape) you can adjust the shape.

fat.jpg.334d8de2d3de9c0d9969ab3c9fc50f1e.jpg

Maybe convert the shape to curves and use the Node Tool? In case the Groom didn't show up ;)

broken.jpg.762674318251167285ed494ef0ec8362.jpg

 

Windows PCs. Photo and Designer, latest non-beta versions.

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