AREA SELECTIONS AND ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM

[henryb]

I have a photo (Screenshot #1) that shows venue illumination for a private event we've covered (the tree & table lighting's photos are the problems to fix via AP). The problem is that the camera "perceived" the background trees in an awful & unnatural light tint ("florescent"-looking green & cold white) which looks nothing like it did in real-life; so I am trying to fix those areas to make the photo look like the setting actually did.

I have made various adjustments to the photo (saturation, exposure, white balance, brightness, color adjustments etc) and have made the table lighting and the near-trees' lighting look as they actually did during the event. The problem is that while achieving this realistic look for the front part of the photo (trees, tables & general ambience), the background trees' lighting & color were also altered to the point were they look appallingly unnatural and nothing like they actually looked like.

This is what I want to fix. 

So, I tried making a new pixel layer (above the rasterized base photo - named "ugly green fix") in order to select the background trees (florescent green & white color) with the Flood Select Tool. However, the Flood Select Tool would just not select any pixel areas WITHIN the layer and the tolerance slider did nothing. It would only select the outskirts of the image as if it could not "see" the pixels in it. (Screenshot #2). So I then tried to rasterize this layer too so maybe it would maybe work. No difference.

**Why is this not working? I thought that the correct, non-destuctive, way to do anything in AP is to do it on a different layer. But AP doesn't let me do so. 

So, then, I had no choice but to try the destructive way, and tried to do this on the original base pixel layer (named "photo" in my project). For some reason I have not yet understood it worked there (Screenshot #3).

**But this means that I will be "destroying the original file so i would like to find out how to do it correctly on a separate pixel layer. 

From there I was able to select the florescent white light areas in the background area with the Flood Select Tool (the different cold-green and florescent-green areas would not be selected with this tool - I suppose because it is a different color than the white selected area - so I would do that later I guess). 

**But what is strange is that even though the white area IS selected, when I change adjustments (eg brightness as in Screenshots #4, #5, #6), the ENTIRE image is affected, not just the selected area/s!! What am I doing wrong? How do I affect ONLY the selected area/s?? (I mean, that's the whole point of selecting areas, right?)

 

**Last, as this photo is a perfect example of the things that I will frequently need AP for (adjusting selected areas within images) - which is actually exactly what I bought it for as Photos in Mac OS can't do this; it will be very important for me to know if for this photo, and for similar situations, the Flood Select Tool is really the best tool I can be using. (?) Maybe if a photo is more simple (lighting- and color-wise), the Flood Select Tool is very fast as it'll quickly select all the similar pixels and you can immediately do whatever you want to those areas. BUT, if it's a situation like this photo where the USER (myself) wants to decide which areas he wants selected (in this photo its the background tree areas that are bright white, bright green and florescent green) in order to adjust them together but separately from the rest of the image, even if they're not similar pixels; then maybe some other tool is faster???

**Maybe some magic tool that you guide around the area/s you want, and it "magnets" to the actual borders if it sees them?

 

I'M REALLY SORRY FOR THIS ESSAY, BUT SINCE YOU DON'T HAVE PHONE SUPPORT I HAD TO WRITE MY QUESTIONS OUT FOR AN HOUR (INSTEAD OF BEING ABLE TO VERBALLY ASK THEM IN UNDER A MINUTE!).  I hope an expert will reply ASAP as I'm on hold to get A LOT of work done, and I'm stuck now...

[firstdefence]

50 minutes ago, henryb said:

So, I tried making a new pixel layer (above the rasterized base photo - named "ugly green fix") in order to select the background trees (florescent green & white color) with the Flood Select Tool. However, the Flood Select Tool would just not select any pixel areas WITHIN the layer and the tolerance slider did nothing. It would only select the outskirts of the image as if it could not "see" the pixels in it. (Screenshot #2). So I then tried to rasterize this layer too so maybe it would maybe work. No difference.

You need to be on the Photo layer in order to make a selection of the pixels, if you are on the pixel layer you have created there is nothing there to select.

The white area is more commonly called Blown out, which means it has no detail to recovery. At this point I would ask you if you have a RAW file of this image or is this another file format like JPEG or TIFF?

[henryb]

12 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

You need to be on the Photo layer in order to make a selection of the pixels, if you are on the pixel layer you have created there is nothing there to select.

The white area is more commonly called Blown out, which means it has no detail to recovery. At this point I would ask you if you have a RAW file of this image or is this another file format like JPEG or TIFF?

No, I just dragged and dropped a photo from my Mac Photos app into AP (since it doesn't seem like there's another way to directly import images from Photos in AP - which is bizarre as I thought AP was meant to be 100% integrated with Mac OS...) so I guess it's not a raw file. 

I just got the info of the photo from my Photos app and it gave me the title "IMG_5708.HEIC". Whatever this format is wasn't chosen by me - the iPhone transferred the photo I took to the Photos app like that. I suppose that AP, being a fully-integrated/compatible Mac OS app, won't have a problem with these formats that it expects Apple to produce in their ecosystem, right? So anything that Apple "dishes out" is what AP has been built to work with, correct?

 

So, you mean that there's no other option other than to work "destructively" (directly on the photo layer itself), right?

 

 

[firstdefence]

HEIC is the file format name Apple has chosen for the new HEIF standard. HEIF stands for High Efficiency Image Format, and, as the name suggests, is a more streamlined way to store image files. Using advanced, modern compression methods it allows digital photographs to be created in smaller files sizes, all while retaining higher image quality than its JPEG alternative.

In Photos if you Right-click (Long click) on the Thumbnail or larger preview of the image you can choose Edit With... and it will give you a selection of apps that you can edit that image with.

You can copy/make a duplicate of the Photo Layer so that you have a "backup" you can go back to.

Selecting the Photo Layer, you can make a selection, then you can copy that selection by using ⌘+C and then ⌘+V this will paste the area selected onto a new layer, from there you can work on adjusting the colours etc.

[firstdefence]

If you have another image that has that area exposed better you could make a copy of that area or at least be able to copy it and use it as a kind of texture overlay.

It might also be of help to upload this image for people to try and create a workflow that may be of use to you.

[henryb]

If what you meant was for me to upload the image so that anyone can make a mini tutorial - video (like you had offered to make in my other post - actually this scenario is EVEN more important to me than the objects' removing of the other post, as it's something that I know will be needed all the time!), or an images' tutorial, A. YES PLEEEASE!!   , and B. I am attaching:

1. The initially edited photo (attachment #1 and #3) in which I fixed the front trees lighting/coloring, and that of the tables, closer to what it actually looked like in real-life (but the background trees' areas need to be selected and fixed, as when I was adjusting the photo to fix the coloring of the front area, the background area turned all florescent-ish green & bright white which is completely off in relation to what it really looked like! I have not touched these background areas separately as I don't know what I'm doing lol).

2. Also attaching the same image in its completely untouched photo (attachment #2), as the iPhone had captured it, which, of course, has no relation to the real-life setting's actual coloring.. Maybe this would be of some use (?). The reality was somewhere between attachment #1 and #3 (apart from the background of course) 

*Note 1: The front area of the photo (trees & tables) was illuminated using warm-white lights (2300-2500°K), whereas the background area was lit using daylight-white light (approx. 4500°K). So, of course the background was a cooler tint of green in comparison to the front area, but was NOTHING like the photos show!

*Note 2: I began this post in order to learn how I can select the areas I want to fix (in this photo, and others like it) using the Flood Select Tool. However, if anyone is going to make a tutorial video (or an image-series workflow one) using my photo; it is best that he/she uses the selection tool/s that he/she believes is appropriate for the specific case, and not the Flood Select Tool just because I thought it was the appropriate one (obviously)!   

[henryb]

3 hours ago, firstdefence said:

In Photos if you Right-click (Long click) on the Thumbnail or larger preview of the image you can choose Edit With... and it will give you a selection of apps that you can edit that image with

Is this reply in relation to me saying that I can't seem to find anyway to browse & open my Photos's files & albums directly via AP?

Meaning that "the reverse can be done" (so I, therefore, can browse my photos within the Photos app as I would nnormally, and then whenever I want to open it in AP, I can just right-click on its thumbnail. and choose "Edit with" -> "Affinity Photo")?

It works just fine!  But is that what you meant to explain?

[henryb]

On 9/4/2018 at 10:25 PM, firstdefence said:

You can copy/make a duplicate of the Photo Layer so that you have a "backup" you can go back to.

If this relates to me asking why I can't select pixels from another layer (other than the original base photo layer) in order to not make destructive adjustments that would be stored on the original file: If I drag+drop from the Photos app onto AP, Mac OS Photos will create a COPY of the exported (dragged-out) image, so I cannot damage the original file by mistake!  But if I import the photo from the Photos app by right-clicking on it and choosing "Edit With" -> "Affinity Photo", then yes, it will save any changes onto the orginal file (just as it will if I drag a photo/image file from anywhere on my Mac, onto AP)! 

So unless I'm dragging/dropping from Photos onto AP, I should be very careful (or simply create a duplicate file of the original) before importing into AP!  

Just to confirm, though: It's true that AP can't open/browse amp files/albums directly from the app itself, right? (Not that I mind now that I know I can take the opposite route: Photos->Affinity Photo), but just to be sure!  

[henryb]

maybe the flood select tool IS NOT the right tool for this job? Maybe another selection tool with which i can select the areas, I want to affect, manually?

[Alfred]

On 9/4/2018 at 5:39 PM, henryb said:

I'M REALLY SORRY FOR THIS ESSAY, BUT SINCE YOU DON'T HAVE PHONE SUPPORT I HAD TO WRITE MY QUESTIONS OUT FOR AN HOUR (INSTEAD OF BEING ABLE TO VERBALLY ASK THEM IN UNDER A MINUTE!). 

I’m curious to know how you would have shared your nice screenshots over the phone!

By the way, it’s a good idea to avoid posting in all capital letters (not only in the message body, but also in the topic title).

[henryb]

4 hours ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

I’m curious to know how you would have shared your nice screenshots over the phone!

By the way, it’s a good idea to avoid posting in all capital letters (not only in the message body, but also in the topic title).

You are right - I wouldn't have been able to get image-specific support over a strictly-verbal form of communication. I was hoping that for any quick-questions I would get real-time, instant, replies (which would save tremendous time in writing back-and-forth, and especially waiting for the reply); and in the case that the AP tech-support representative needed to see what I was talking about - we would screen-share (just like the Apple support guys do for apps like Final Cut and Logic Pro for example). But, admittedly, the current support form (via forum posts) can help other AP users too as the Q&A remain on the forum for others with similar queries to see.   

Of course, will no longer capitalize titles!