Introducing AP to newbies

[IanSG]

In a couple of months time I'll be running a photo editing session for my local U3A's photography section.  The idea is to give people some idea of what can be done with editors in general rather than highlighting AP, but I still want to play to AP's strengths.  The plan is that people will bring along 1 or 2 of their less successful images which we'll then critique and try to improve.  Some people are quite proficient with PS, but most have done very little editing - which tools, features or whatever do you think would #1 encourage people to do more post processing and, #2, choose AP to do it? 

[Callum]

Hi IanSG,

Its hard to say which tools would encourage people to do more post processing as I'd imagine thats a bit more personal preference based. However I can say that the first time I saw our in-painting tool my mind was blown.

https://vimeo.com/130966523

I'd say one reason to pick Affinity would be the amount of help documentation we have. We have a fully searchable help tool built within the app that lists all features along with a short description of what you can do. We also have many video tutorials with editing examples within them available on our website.

Thanks

Callum

[IanSG]

1 hour ago, Callum said:

I'd imagine thats a bit more personal preference based.

Absolutely - that's why I'm asking for other opinions.

1 hour ago, Callum said:

However I can say that the first time I saw our in-painting tool my mind was blown.

Yes, that's high on the list!

[carl123]

2 hours ago, IanSG said:

The plan is that people will bring along 1 or 2 of their less successful images which we'll then critique and try to improve

If you could get them to email you the pictures in advance, you can play with them beforehand, which may lead to a more polished performance of what Affinity can do.

 

[IanSG]

2 hours ago, carl123 said:

If you could get them to email you the pictures in advance, you can play with them beforehand, which may lead to a more polished performance of what Affinity can do.

 

Excellent idea - thanks!

[toltec]

I think I would start with:

Cropping for better image composition / straightening

Perspective correction

Colour balance / Exposure correction (demonstrate the Auto filters and manual correction).

Red Eye Removal / Blemish removal  / Inpainting

Sharpening (Unsharp Mask and Clarity).

To give an idea of something a bit more advanced:

Change the colour of something (that always impresses).

A lens blur or Gaussian blur to lose a messy background.

A bit of composition. Cut out/refine edges and composit.

Those three are pretty easy to do but have a good impact on new users.

Nothing that can't be done in just about any editor but AP does them all very well.

One more. A bit of body shaping with Liquify never hurts !

[IanSG]

Thanks for that - I hadn't thought of perspective correction!  In fact I'm starting to realise that whatever I do is going to be very superficial if I'm going to cover the bases.

17 hours ago, toltec said:

One more. A bit of body shaping with Liquify never hurts !

As a group, our average age is comfortably into the 70s - I don't think anyone's that concerned about their Tinder profile!