Edit or Adjust Gradient

[Ron P.]

I would like the ability to go back and adjust or edit a gradient after applying it. Currently we must redraw a new gradient.

[Gabe]

Hi @Ron P.,

Have a look at this video:

Thanks,

Gabe. 

[Ron P.]

@GabielM, Thank you for your reply. I've watched that video numerous times, and understand how to apply and use gradients. What I was requesting is once we click off of or away from the gradient tool, to return and still have the gradient available for further editing. Most other apps such as Paintshop Pro, PhotoShop, have had this ability for as long as I can recall. It seems in AP once you lay down the gradient and click away from it, it is burned in. So to change that we must re-apply the gradient.

[v_kyr]

If you try and use instead Levels -> New adjustment level -> Adjustment - Gradient you should be able at least for that one to reuse and further alter/edit it's settings, via a double clicking in the layers panel on it's associated thumb icon.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Ron P. said:

What I was requesting is once we click off of or away from the gradient tool, to return and still have the gradient available for further editing.

Perhaps I don't understand what you're trying to do, but I can:

1. draw a shape in Photo, then
2. fill it with a gradient using the Gradient Tool, then
3. do work elsewhere in the image, and then
4. click on the shape again with the Gradient Tool and edit the existing gradient.

[Ron P.]

3 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Perhaps I don't understand what you're trying to do, but I can:

1. draw a shape in Photo, then
2. fill it with a gradient using the Gradient Tool, then
3. do work elsewhere in the image, and then
4. click on the shape again with the Gradient Tool and edit the existing gradient.

Yes I understand that it works with shapes and when using the Gradient Overlay in FX. What I'm referring to is applying a gradient fill to a pixel layer. Attached are 2 screen recordings to better illustrate what I'm referring to.

[kaffeeundsalz]

Create a new Fill Layer and apply a gradient to it. This way, the gradient settings will remain accessible at any point in time. Applying a gradient directly to a Pixel Layer will always be a destructive operation in Affinity Photo, but why would you want to do this?

[Ron P.]

58 minutes ago, kaffeeundsalz said:

Create a new Fill Layer and apply a gradient to it. This way, the gradient settings will remain accessible at any point in time. Applying a gradient directly to a Pixel Layer will always be a destructive operation in Affinity Photo, but why would you want to do this?

That will do what I need it to do. Why would I want to do this? Because I want to Until now, I would use gradients in an image/project for things like creating fog, smoke, adjustments. Later on after adding other layers/adjustments I would need to go back and edit the gradient and couldn't . Now I see that using Fill Layers instead of just adding a pixel layer and filling it with a gradient works better. I'm still learning AP, been used to PSP, where I could return to a layer later on to further edit/tweak it.

Thanks kaffeeundsalz

[lepr]

.

[kaffeeundsalz]

Hi @Ron P.,

glad I could help. 

9 hours ago, Ron P. said:

Until now, I would use gradients in an image/project for things like creating fog, smoke, adjustments. Later on after adding other layers/adjustments I would need to go back and edit the gradient and couldn't

I didn't actually question what you want to achieve, but how you want to achieve it. In one of your posts above, I got the impression that you have to use a pixel layer, so I was wondering why that should be the case. I get it now that you just described how you previously did it in other applications.

14 hours ago, >|< said:

That works the same as walt.farrell's solution of using a vector shape (for example, a Rectangle covering the entire canvas) with gradient fill.

I like fill layers very much, but you're right of course. That said, both approaches do have their (dis-)advantages, so it might be a good idea to cover the differences here:

• A Fill Layer always covers the entire document. This means that should you change the canvas size of the image, the Fill Layer itself will scale with it (but not the drag handles of the gradient).
• You don't need a separate mask layer to selectively hide areas of a Fill Layer because you can directly paint on the layer, the brightness value of the brush being translated to the opacity level of the Fill Layer pixels.
• If you must create a gradient fill in Affinity Designer, you have to use a vector shape and follow either @walt.farrells method or apply a gradient overlay as a layer effect. That's because other than Photo, Designer doesn't know about Fill Layers (but they can be edited in Designer once created with Photo).
• Vector Shapes are better if you want the gradient to have a specific size or follow a certain geometry. While you can reproduce this with masks on a Fill Layer (or with layer clipping), it's much easier and/or more flexible to use vector fills.

I'm sure I've missed something, but these are the differences that I can think of right now.

[Ron P.]

Thank you for your detailed explanation. It really helps me better understand how AP works. I think I've watched all of the official video tutorials but there's some things like using Fill Layer vs filling a pixel layer that I must have missed or not there. As for Designer it does look like a great program, but I can't justify getting it. I've got CorelDraw GS, which is much more powerful and rightfully so since it costs way more. Oddly I don't use Photo Paint though, it just has never clicked with me.

Since I stopped using PS, and started using AP, I'm really liking it more and more. Still use LR for its D.A.M. and it does a decent job at developing. Attached an example of how I've been learning how to use AP. Having thousands of images collect digital dust on my harddrives, I decided to find a way to use some of them. This is a composite of 6 images.

[jdvoracek]

I am an amateur photographer who never learned PS in depth like I am trying to learn Affinity Photo. I have a similar question, and I hope I word it correctly. I often apply gradients to levels, curves, color balance and unsharpen adjustments. At times I want to go back and edit the gradients, often elliptical, but once committed to these layers, the gradients seem inaccessible for modification. Do they apply destructively to adjustments as well as pixel layers? Thanks in advance!

[Old Bruce]

16 hours ago, jdvoracek said:

Do they apply destructively to adjustments as well as pixel layers? Thanks in advance!

Yes.

[carl123]

17 hours ago, jdvoracek said:

Do they apply destructively to adjustments as well as pixel layers?

You can add a Fill Layer (or Rectangle Shape) of any colour as the mask to the image and then apply the gradient to the Fill Layer and adjust the opacity of the gradient nodes to adjust it.

That gradient will then still be editable later on.

 

[jdvoracek]

3 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Yes.

Thanks. Makes sense but I was hoping it wasn't so.

[jdvoracek]

2 hours ago, carl123 said:

You can add a Fill Layer (or Rectangle Shape) of any colour as the mask to the image and then apply the gradient to the Fill Layer and adjust the opacity of the gradient nodes to adjust it.

That gradient will then still be editable later on.

-------------------------

Thanks, but I was asking about gradients applied to Adjustments layers (levels, unsharpen mask, etc.), not to Fill layers. Once applied, these gradients do not seem editable.

 

[loukash]

3 hours ago, jdvoracek said:

gradients applied to Adjustments layers (levels, unsharpen mask, etc.), not to Fill layers. Once applied, these gradients do not seem editable.

Layer hierarchy matters. Sometimes it's confusing what must go where, and I think there's also a display bug somewhere that will hide a clipping layer of a clipping layer.
But Fill layers work perfectly with adjustments and filters:

To edit the fill layer gradient later, select it in the Layers panel while having the gradient tool active.

[jdvoracek]

17 hours ago, loukash said:

To edit the fill layer gradient later, select it in the Layers panel while having the gradient tool active.

I was wishing to edit the gradient of an ADJUSTMENT not FILL layer. From what has been posted, a gradient applied to an adjustment layer is destructive and cannot be later further edited. Thanks.

[kaffeeundsalz]

But @loukash has shown you in the video how you can use Fill layers as masks for Adjustment layers. The masking effect is absolutely the same. You don't explain why you insist on using the internal mask of the Adjustment layer.

[loukash]

Komu není rady, tomu není pomoci…

[jdvoracek]

On 3/26/2021 at 6:11 PM, loukash said:

aph_gradient_fill_mask.mov 27.24 MB · 3 downloads

To edit the fill layer gradient later, select it in the Layers panel while having the gradient tool active.

Thank you @loukash! I couldn't get it to work for the longest, but I finally discovered you have to position the fill layer almost exactly over the mask area of the adjustment layer.

 

 

 

[jdvoracek]

On 3/27/2021 at 12:04 PM, kaffeeundsalz said:

But @loukash has shown you in the video how you can use Fill layers as masks for Adjustment layers. The masking effect is absolutely the same. You don't explain why you insist on using the internal mask of the Adjustment layer.

Hi, see my reply to loukash.