Managing panels

[JamesC]

Hi

I'm trying Affinity Paint as a less money-rapacious alternative to the Photoshop that I've been using for 20 years, and I hope you can help me with some trivial issues I'm having  

For starters I can't make sense of the way that the panels work.

I'm trying to use layers to paint adjustments onto an underlying image (masking, de-saturating irrelevant areas etc), but I can't even get that far

All I want is to have the painting tools and the layers panel visible at the same time. But the painting tools are only visible in Photo persona and the layers, bizarrely, are only visible in the Export persona (is there any possible reason for that?). 

The problem doesn't even arise in Photoshop because (a) it doesn't have the added overhead and confusion of personas and (b) you can open any panel at any time and put it wherever you want.

I have no doubt that there'a a perfectly simple answer, but I can't find it i the help or tutorials, so maybe some kind person can politely explain why I'm being such an idiot?

 

Thanks

J

Affinity Photo 1.6.11, Mac 10.14.1

 

[Callum]

Hi JamesC,

Both panels should be visible in the Photo persona please could you go to View > Studio > Reset Studio this should make your tools appear on the left side of your screen and the layers tab appear on the right.

Thanks

Callum

[JamesC]

OK! The reset did it. I must have ,screwed them up in my earliest attempts to learn Affinity / unlearn PS.

Can I go on please?

I open an image, add a mask layer. The mask layer is shown attached to the image layer and clicking either selects them both. How can I chose whether I an painting onto the image or the mask?

[lepr]

.

[JamesC]

OK. I clicked everywhere else but...

This is quite painful, like learning a new language. everything works, but on subtly different ways.

Thanks for your help

J

[Polygonius]

You can encollapse a layer with mask or adjustments, filters... inside. Think of it like a group. You do not need any masks for dajustments and filters, they are its own mask...

Something is in a better way different than PS, like this "inside-mask and nest-concept) ... something is not so good like eg. preset-handling or show/organize brushes. MOST is quite the same.

[JamesC]

Sure, I get that.

I'm English, but I've lived in France for the last 20 years.  At first it was painful trying to translate my English thoughts word-by-word into French,; idiomatic expressions were particularly embarrassing.

However, after a while I started to think in the French way, and everything became much easier.

I guess its the same starting with Affinity after 20+ years of Photoshop.  

Still 9 days of my trial version  to go...

J