What are the specs for a really soft brush

[Michael_]

Hello to all,

what I use most of all in photoshop ist a soft brush with 1-5% Flow to paint masks, shadows, lights and color into my pictures. It is essential, that the flow is really low and the edges are very smooth. Please take a look on my example: I paint 10 tiny little circles with a normal brush (300px, opacity 100%, flow, 5%, hardness 0%). In Photoshop, the color builds up slowly to app. 50% ant the edges are soft and smooth. Same way in Affinity Photo i got 100% opacity and hard edges. 

I've tried a lot of way to create a brush that acts like the one in Photoshop. Nothing works. What should I do?

I've got Affinity Photo, Designer and Publisher Beta. These are really great tools. Especially publisher make me smile because I hope, I can kick Indesgin. And Illustrator and Photoshop too. But with brushes working like this, I can't do 90% of my retouching in Affiniy Photo.

I hope u can help. Thank in advance.
Michael

[gdenby]

Hi, Michael_

Use a different basic brush:

[gdavis]

Affinity does seem to produce a harsher result than photoshop.  Increasing the spacing may help soften it a bit, but it still shows some banding in 8 bit mode.  Maybe photoshop is applying dithering or something that Affinity doesn't, but even in photoshop I had trouble with subtle gradations so I started using 16 bit mode.  In Affinity, 16 bit mode provides a great improvement as well.

Oh, and you don't have wet edges enabled, do you?

[IndigoMoon]

I'm struggling with this problem as well. Is it a bug or simply bad performance?

@gdenby Unfortunately it does not work neither, after setting opacity, flow and hardness...

@gdavis Yes, in 16 bit it provides much bettes results, but still not like in PS. But what about 8 bit mode? Won't switch the mode all the time.

[gdenby]

Attached, a sample of what I get using the brush I mentioned w. the settings you specified. The bottom line is 3 passes, and is still lighter and more diffuse than the Ps sample.

 

Then I tried the 2nd recommendation, same setting, but the brush repeat to 20% instead of the default 10%. 4 dabs in the same place.

 

 

[Michael_]

Thank you all for your help.

@gdenby: I used the soft brush now

@gdenby: No, i didn't use wet egdes.

@IndigoMoon: 16 bit work!

Here is the result: In a 16 bit picture, a soft brush with 2% flow and (under "More") 35 distance works fine.

At least, Affinity Photo brushes act much more different than the PS-brushes. Thats OK if I can get the desired result.

have a nice sunday

Michael

 

 

[IndigoMoon]

@gdenby

Sorry, maybe I'm too stupid ;-) , but what is the difference between choosing a hard brush with settings like flow 5% and hardness of 0% and a soft brush with the same settings?

[gdenby]

Hi, IndigoMoon,

As far as I can tell, the individual "dab"  at any moment for the "hard" brush is a filled ellipse with a tone that is even across the entire area. As the dabs accumulate to form a dot or a stroke, they inevitably form bands even at the lowest hardness. The soft brush has stepped intensity from the center to the edges, and so the dabs' perimeter can be quite faint.

A real world analogy. A piece of inked hard felt will always leave a rather distinct edge. A cotton ball will have to be pressed all the way down to get anything as clear.

[lepr]

.

[IndigoMoon]

Thanks gdenby, that's what I've expected too, but in AP it looks like that it's the same brush dab. At least I can't see a difference and it's as >|< said just a different hardness preset.

Well, nevertheless thank you both for clarification!

[gdenby]

I stand corrected. I must not have been setting the parameters identically.