About : Tools improvement and usability !

[Uncle Mez]

Hello Peoples !

Coming again here but with few questions that you may like or not but i believe it is quite useful to ask.
All my questions here are based on Beta version of Affinity Photo not on the stable version and they're intended for understanding and helping to improve what already exist and not to raise comparatives between Apples and Oranges.
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Object: The Ring Function! I've been using it (not that much) since it was added to HSL Adjustment; well i really enjoy it and found it very useful when it comes to narrow and make precise color selection ...but i only see it in few of the adjustment layer that aims to work on colors.
Q: Don't you think Recolor adjustment needs it to ?
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Object: I've seen that there is the gear icon on the bottom right of adjustment layer when we have them opened but for unknown reason it does nothing when i click on it.
Q: What it is intended to do or achieve ?
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Object: As we all know that there is not enough online tutorial talking about really crazy tricks with Affinity Photo, i usually watch PS tutos and work on applying them in my AP workflow and they just work but ... for some reason i get lost when it come to do the Blend if thing.
Q: Can you please point to a tutorial talking about that in details or simply share here how you do Blend if with Affinity Photo ?
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Object: i often use the blend ranges function and just found it not working even if you click a million times on that gear.
Q: Bug or me missing something ? Possible to fix it ?
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Object: Let say i select a red color and want to add more to already selected using the same method, well ! on other software such as PS i would simply sample more color selection color by clicking Shift + Click and drag or click to add to already selected color.
Q: How to that with Affinity Photo ?
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Object: It is really useful to save selection made on a Photo or any other pixel related stuff but in the same time i personally found it to be quite hidden, burried into menues.
Q: Possible to create a button on related tools (Sel. Brush - Flood Sel. etc.) next to the refine tool that allows that to be done without trying to find it in the menu ?
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Object: in this last one, i will come to something i already asked about but i see no change until now.
Let's talk about Masks (also i target adjustment layer because i love using their masking functionality). Okay ! Let's create a mask and press cmd/ctrl+i to invert it ... it stays the same i mean pure white when it should turn black (actually dark grey) when inverted and even when i paint with the brush tool on the mask it shows after i do another action such as cmd/ctrl+s or switch to another and start using it. Quite bad hein !
Q1: it is possible to fix this and make work as it should ?
Q2: Possible to make the painting on mask more live and less delayed ?

Okay !
Here i'm done with this. few here you will understand are bugs that need to be corrected and few other are kind of request but i count them as things that needs to be corrected at this level of development of Affinity Photo and what i point to here should also be checked and if possible get applied to Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher because all 3 are based on the same principle and should not grow independently one another when it comes to these basic stuffs.

Blessing to Y'all and don't forget it is not to raise a troll but to help improve the software.

[Chris B]

Object: The Ring Function! I've been using it (not that much) since it was added to HSL Adjustment; well i really enjoy it and found it very useful when it comes to narrow and make precise color selection ...but i only see it in few of the adjustment layer that aims to work on colors.
Q: Don't you think Recolor adjustment needs it to ? Possibly. I can find out if there is a plan to add this.
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Object: I've seen that there is the gear icon on the bottom right of adjustment layer when we have them opened but for unknown reason it does nothing when i click on it.
Q: What it is intended to do or achieve ? If you aren't talking about the Blend Options button on an Adjustment dialog—can you take a screenshot of what you're referring to? I can't see a gear icon on the adjustment itself.

It was requested that we add an icon to an adjustment layer when you've modified the blend ranges of said adjustment but AFAIK it hasn't been implemented.
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Object: As we all know that there is not enough online tutorial talking about really crazy tricks with Affinity Photo, i usually watch PS tutos and work on applying them in my AP workflow and they just work but ... for some reason i get lost when it come to do the Blend if thing.
Q: Can you please point to a tutorial talking about that in details or simply share here how you do Blend if with Affinity Photo ? I will speak with James who does our tutorials to see what he's planning. I do know he's in the process of doing some new ones so we might be able to chuck this in as well.
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Object: i often use the blend ranges function and just found it not working even if you click a million times on that gear.
Q: Bug or me missing something ? Possible to fix it ? Do you have a second screen? Perhaps the dialog is appearing off-screen or behind something else? It works fine for me.
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Object: Let say i select a red color and want to add more to already selected using the same method, well ! on other software such as PS i would simply sample more color selection color by clicking Shift + Click and drag or click to add to already selected color.
Q: How to that with Affinity Photo ? Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. I only ever open Photoshop when someone compares something to how we do it but I'm not overly familiar with all of its features. 
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Object: It is really useful to save selection made on a Photo or any other pixel related stuff but in the same time i personally found it to be quite hidden, burried into menues.
Q: Possible to create a button on related tools (Sel. Brush - Flood Sel. etc.) next to the refine tool that allows that to be done without trying to find it in the menu ? Please submit a feature request in the appropriate forum. We can often ask the developers to improve something that isn't working well but adding features usually goes down better when it has been requested in the feature request section of the forum and the idea snowballs. I agree this would be a nifty addition.
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Object: in this last one, i will come to something i already asked about but i see no change until now.
Let's talk about Masks (also i target adjustment layer because i love using their masking functionality). Okay ! Let's create a mask and press cmd/ctrl+i to invert it ... it stays the same i mean pure white when it should turn black (actually dark grey) when inverted and even when i paint with the brush tool on the mask it shows after i do another action such as cmd/ctrl+s or switch to another and start using it. Quite bad hein !
Q1: it is possible to fix this and make work as it should ?
Q2: Possible to make the painting on mask more live and less delayed ?
When I invert a mask, it goes transparent so I can use a white brush to paint the image back in. I feel like I'm missing what you are trying to tell me. Can you elaborate? 

[Uncle Mez]

3 hours ago, Chris B said:

 

When I invert a mask, it goes transparent so I can use a white brush to paint the image back in. I feel like I'm missing what you are trying to tell me. Can you elaborate?

Well it does work on normal Mask but try to do the same with an adjustment layer which also is a mask in itself and it doesn't work the same as a normal mask does.

3 hours ago, Chris B said:

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. I only ever open Photoshop when someone compares something to how we do it but I'm not overly familiar with all of its features. 

i'm talking about color selection on a subject or an object.
to make it simple please watch the attached video file, i trimmed it just to fit the Technic i want to achieve; please forgive because i couldn't speed it but leave in its normal speed so you can understand what i'm talking about. Please focus on the way he select the red color using the magic wand tool then press and maintain shift button plus click to add more to already selected color that helped him select a wider range. My point is : how to do the same with APhoto, I've tried the color select options but they're not working as expected and give more work.

3 hours ago, Chris B said:

I will speak with James who does our tutorials to see what he's planning. I do know he's in the process of doing some new ones so we might be able to chuck this in as well.

Please it is really needed and will surely help a lot.

For the other thing i mentioned please give me time to check them again as they tend to not work with one precise project i started.
I will start another project and see at what stage it get stuck.

Blessings !

[fde101]

29 minutes ago, Uncle Mez said:

with an adjustment layer which also is a mask in itself and it doesn't work the same as a normal mask does.

An adjustment layer is not a mask.  Not even close.

 

32 minutes ago, Uncle Mez said:

select the red color using the magic wand tool then press and maintain shift button plus click to add more to already selected color that helped him select a wider range

Set the Mode to Add in the context toolbar. 

Note also that this only works on a pixel layer, so if you have any vector objects or are trying to work across multiple layers that might be causing you some confusion.

[MEB]

Hi Uncle Mez,
The adjustment's built-in masks work the same way as regular masks except that you paint (or remove) with the adjustment's filter's effect itself rather than simply conceal/reveal the image as in regular masks. You can use the Layer ▸ Invert command (⌘ (cmd)+I) to invert the built-in mask of the adjustment/filter, just make sure its layer is selected in the Layers panel.

Currently Affinity Photo doesn't have a comparable tool to create selections from colours as the Colour Range dialog in Photoshop. You can use Select ▸ Select Sampled Colour and the Tolerance slider to adjust/set a range (no option to add/pick additional colours) or you can use the Flood Selection Tool in Add mode as suggested but it's still limited compared to the options Photoshop offers. Hopefully we will see improvements here in the future.

[Uncle Mez]

49 minutes ago, fde101 said:

Set the Mode to Add in the context toolbar. 

Note also that this only works on a pixel layer, so if you have any vector objects or are trying to work across multiple layers that might be causing you some confusion.

Well did that but nothing does, so i ask !
Maybe you can share a video or something on how you do that.

[Uncle Mez]

24 minutes ago, MEB said:

The adjustment's built-in masks work the same way as regular masks except that you paint (or remove) with the adjustment's filter's effect itself rather than simply conceal/reveal the image as in regular masks. You can use the Layer ▸ Invert command (⌘ (cmd)+I) to invert the built-in mask of the adjustment/filter, just make sure its layer is selected in the Layers panel.

Hi @MEB this is exactly what i meant when said the adjust. have its own mask or is a mask in itself.
Well the only thing is the built mask should react the same as a normal mask if i press cmd+I it should invert (turn blank or gray) as a normal mask does.
i make massive use of that function and found it really helpful and gives less work then PS it's just there and it works at perfection but please make it react the same as normal mask.
I should invert it and see it is inverted then start painting as i usually do, just to help drop down the level of confusion (did the command worked or not ? if you see !)

28 minutes ago, MEB said:

Currently Affinity Photo doesn't have a comparable tool to create selections from colours as the Colour Range dialog in Photoshop. You can use Select ▸ Select Sampled Colour and the Tolerance slider to adjust/set a range (no option to add/pick additional colours) or you can use the Flood Selection Tool in Add mode as suggested but it's still limited compared to the options Photoshop offers

Please make it happen this is useful.
i tried the flood selection thing = lost a lot of time (in the new beta it work a bit better than previous but not that okay when it comes to colors)
i tried the range selection = even bad
i tried them that i found and though could help but nothing so i stick with the flood selection plus add an adjustment layer, revert it and start painting using brush tool but still it is a lot of job and its often involve the use of another tool such as lasso tool to make it more precise.
So making it possible to do the same thing as in the video would be really helpful for everyone working on composition + it will help save more time and do much much better stuffs then we do now !
Well, i'm happy there is hope to see it implemented sooner than later.

Blessing !

[Uncle Mez]

BTW @Chris B this is kind of video we want often want to see from Serif regarding the Affinity line of products.
Something that demonstrate the real power, then other skilled peoples can discover more.

remember there are not that much much video tutorial on what exactly Affinity Photo can or enable us to do.
i can count how many peoples on the internet have channels dedicated to the power of Affinity products delivering real converting contents.
So please help us improve so we don't guess, so we also lose less time trying to figure out this or that and deliver good contents on and offline.

Blessings !