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Affinity Photo Customer Beta (1.7.0.116)


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Status: Beta

Purpose: Features, Improvements, Fixes

Requirements: Purchased Affinity Photo

Mac App Store: Not submitted

Download DMG: Download

Auto-update: Available.

 

Hello,

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the latest beta of Affinity Photo 1.7 for macOS.

Photo 1.7 is a (very) significant change to the currently shipping 1.6 version, so, as ever, I would strongly urge users to avoid the 1.7 beta for critical work. This is a pre-release build of 1.7 - we will release more builds before 1.7 ships. Things will be broken in this build - please use it to explore the new features and not for real work.

If this is your first time using a customer beta of an Affinity app, it’s worth noting that the beta will install as a separate app - alongside your store version. They will not interfere with each other at all and you can continue to use the store version for critical work without worry.

It’s also worth noting that we aren’t done yet - we are still working through reported bugs from previous releases and hope to fix as many as possible before the final release of 1.7.

With all that said, we hope that you will enjoy the new capabilities introduced in this release and we look forward to any and all feedback you give to us.

Many thanks (as always),

Affinity Photo Team  :ph34r:

 

Ps. I promised to shorten this massive post but forgot, because I went skiing. I will sort it out soon!

 

Changes This Build

 

- Significant stability improvements when working on non-local files (network shares, USB drives, etc.).
- Added support for 12bit TIFF files.
- Resizing a document will treat Live Filters correctly.
- Tidied drawing of layer tag colours.
- Fixed some UI which was moving around when changing UI from light to dark (!).
- Drag & drop from browsers will now work properly again.
- Double clicking an asset will now switch to the place tool.
- Fixed some crashes caused by the new metadata library.
- Fixed some vector export issues (excessive rasterisation).
- Assorted Metal performance tweaks.
- Clone tool fixes (when using layers-beneath with transformed destination layer, etc.)
- Denoise improvements.
- Ability to drop things into the assets panel directly from Finder.
- Assorted vector tool improvements.
- Improved adjustments responsiveness.
- Patch tool now supports arrow keys for rotate / scale.
- Fixed live perspective tool drawing when resizing document.
- Fixed blend modes on adjustments when Metal is enabled.
- Paint mixer tool remembers settings.
- Fixed Export Persona sometimes rendering a black surface.
- Faster rendering of Styles panel previews.
- Fixed some double-click-on-slider-to-reset bugs in adjustments.
- Fixed inpainting preview not showing if you have a pixel selection.
- Fixed liquify not prompting for save sometimes.
- Fixed rasterise command sometimes moving layers.
- Fixed lock-children bugs.
- Fixed Brightness / Contrast in 32bit RGB mode.
- Assorted other small fixes.
- Improved help.
- Localisation improvements.

 

Changes In Previous 1.7 Beta Builds

 

- All ICC transforms are now performed using Metal, hence many times faster.
- Introduced new metadata mining - completely rewritten to improve performance, flexibility and correctness.
- TIFF export now has user selectable compression method.
- When using selection tools with no pixel selection, default to New / Add as appropriate.
- Add a button in general preferences to open a folder from which Photo will read LensFun-style XML files - if users wish to add / experiment with their own lens profiles.

- Compatibility with latest Designer / Publisher builds.
- Missing icon for Procedural Texture tool.
- Can assign keyboard shortcut to new Assets panel.
- Light UI improvement for advanced history view.
- Toggling “Apply tone curve” in develop assistant will correctly update the histogram.
- Improved rendering of mask thumbnails when layers panel is set to checkerboard previews.
- Can now drag .afassets into Photo.
- Fixed loading of monochrome RAW.
- Fixed some select tool issues (mainly bounding boxes, duplicate issues, undo issues).
- Pen tool / node tool improvements.
- “Lock guides” added to menus.
- New look for persona icons.
- Fix issues with bitmap fills when Metal is enabled.
- Fixed long standing issues with TIFF / RAW files opening in the wrong persona.
- Tidied up the colour tagging UI for layers.
- Implemented layer colour tagging PSD import / export.
- Fixed issues when trying to paste images copied from Safari.
- Fixed issue when toggling rulers in Develop persona.
- Assorted other small fixes.
- Localisation improvements.
- Help improvements.

 

- Added an “Assets” panel to Photo.
- Ability to lock brush symmetry.

- Layers page - removed the glow around thumbnails.
- Layers page - added option for transparent background for thumbnails.
- Layers page - added multiple thumbnail size options.
- Layers page - added ability to tag layers with a colour.

- New ability to control how macros are scaled / aligned when playing back.
- The History page now has an “advanced” mode - which shows thumbnails and time info.

- Metal rendering performance improvements.
- Fixed issues when dragging the HSL adjustment wheel with no range selected.
- Added “Rasterise & Trim” into right-click menus.
- Tool shortcut improvements.
- Prevent Frequency Separation from being “faded”.
- Fixed bugs with mask rendering.
- Fixed lazy update of opacity / blend mode on adjustment dialogs.
- Added ellipsis to adjustments flyout in layers page.
- Improved macro recording of paint mixer (again).
- Dragging the crop tool frame will always pan.
- Crop tool - pressing “reset” will revert to “initial-drag-to-set” mode.
- Tone map white balance sliders should reset on double click.
- Fixed “Colour dodge” blend mode in 32bit RGB.
- Fixed import of PSD documents with groups containing only masks.
- Improved support for CR3 RAW in the Core Image engine.
- Fixed issues when live filters were placed inside vector layers.
- In the Develop persona, the state of the clipping toggles is now correctly updates when switching documents.
- Portrait images now work properly with the undo brush.
- Fixed inability to manipulate the lighting filter inner cone if it has been moved too far.
- Fixed issues where red inpainting previews could linger.
- Reduced memory footprint when developing RAW.
- Noise reduction slider range improvements.
- Improved stack alignment.

- Numerous other small fixes.
- Localisation improvements.
- Help improvements.
 


- Fixed some mask rendering issues.
- Fixed 32bit vibrance / saturation issues.
- Added a “Reveal Canvas” checkbox to the crop tool - defaults to off.
- Shorted the length of some crop tool context bar items.
- Crop tool remembers settings for darken, reveal, overlay. More to follow.
- Develop tool remembers the state of clipped shadows / highlights / tones.
- Metal stability fixes when under extreme memory pressure.
- Support for drag dropping .afstyles into Photo.
- Support for drag dropping .afpalette into Photo.
- Added new “Transform object separately” mode into Move tool.
- Sub-brushes can now added by dragging from the main Brush panel.
- Sub-brushes can now be drag-reordered.
- Fixed some dark mode UI issues.
- Potentially fixed some colour rendering issues (reported by ronnyb).
- Live field blur control handle fixes.
- Voronoi filter Metal implementation optimised - hopefully fixes issue where only part of it would apply on some GPUs.
- Tool cycling will now start with the last remembered tool in the group.
- Fixed Linear Burn blend mode issues.
- Improved speed of painting with Wet Edges in 16bit mode with Metal enabled.
- Removed extraneous “Filter” from live filters menu, added ellipsis.
- Implemented subtract blend mode for LAB.
- Fixed issue whereby setting clone brush to “Current Layer & Below” would produce hard edges.
- Clone brush origin now follows cursor properly when using Aligned mode.
- Fixed various issues with resizing documents - mainly to do with masks or filter effects.
- Fixed copying areas on rotated documents not copying the correct area.
- Frequency separation can no longer be “faded”.
- Numerous other small fixes.
- Help improvements.

 

- Fixed occasional temporary corruption when using brush tools.
- Fixed crashes with Apple Photos extensions.
- Added round dot type to the halftone filter.
- Grouped tool shortcuts now default to needing the shift key held to cycle (option in preferences).
- Fixed orientation issues with tone mapping preset thumbnails.
- Improved inpainting stability.
- Add “Fill with Primary / Secondary” to the Edit menu for fast access.
- Allow adding an empty group from the Layer menu.
- Made more commands show a meaningful progress bar.
- Fixed erratic behaviour when continuing to drag after shift-clicking for a straight line in brush tools.
- Fixed failure to apply blend mode to Levels adjustment if Metal compute is enabled.
- Improved UI colour controls when working in RGB/32.
- Levels histogram how shows more visible black / white lines in light UI mode.
- Blend mode flyouts are now ordered and grouped.
- Fixed brushes with a “Final” texture looking different when used inside a pixel selection.
- Switch to next view now works in separated mode.
- Switch to previous view can now be assigned a shortcut.
- Fixed issue with White Balance rectangle becoming detached from mouse position in Develop.
- Fixed “New Stack” creating a blank document when “Align Images” is not checked.
- Fixed issue whereby freehand selection tool can get stuck when using polygonal mode.
- Fixed issue where rotating RAW can result in it getting clipped after developing.
- Fixed issue where the move tool can report incorrect boxes for pixel selections.
- The crop tool now obeys the global snapping enable state.
- New “Duplicate Selection” item in Layer menu (old behaviour). Duplicate now duplicate the whole layer ignoring pixel selection.
- Straightening in the Develop Persona now creates an undo entry.
- Spacebar-pan now works properly in Develop Persona.
- Numerous other small fixes.

 

- Fixed gamut clipping issues in develop.
- Develop now respects the output profile when previewing.
- Fixed CMYK render issues when using Metal.
- Fixed PSD import / export of 32bit masks.
- Fixed some PSD path import issues.
- Further Soft Light blend mode fixes.
- Fixed Diffuse Glow when Metal is enabled.
- Fixed blur issues with Mesh Warp.
- Histogram accuracy improvements.
- Made auto-rasterisation more consistent across tools / filters.
- Fixed HSL adjustment failing to clamp saturation and lightness properly.
- Adding a Live Denoise layer from the layers panel now uses the improved new algorithm.
- Added support for CR3 RAW when using the Core Image engine.
- All brush tools can now be axis constrained once brush has started - not just the pixel tool.
- The flood select tool now has a refine button.
- The symmetry lines number is now more correct / meaningful.
- Attempted to fix crashes with mixer brush etc.
- Small Touch Bar improvements.
- Fixed macro recording of brush commands (again).
- Fixed issue which occasionally produced blank panoramas.
- Improved selection refinement in 32bit RGB.
- Improve healing brush performance.
- New cube setup mode for grids.
- Focus merge now correctly respects ICC profiles.
- Fixed potential infinite loop in inpainting.
- Better inpainting of transparent parts of a rotated image.
- Fixed artefacts in the Patch tool.
- Alt / Option is now used to make a pixel selection from layer luminance. You can now also hold shift to add the result to the current selection.
- Fixed 16bit luminosity blend mode.
- Liquify now updates the UI properly and remembers settings on a per document basis.
- Inpainting now remembers the source mode properly.
- Fixed issues with the default “G” shortcut (gradient, fill).
- All brush tools now offer primary / secondary colours in the colour page.
- Fixed issues with some Fuji RAW files showing at the wrong size.
- Fixed colour picking issues in Edit -> Fill (mainly with CMYK).
- Attempted to fix some Core Image RAW loading issues.
- Attempted to fix slowness issues when doing a lot of painting.
- Try to fall back more gracefully if Metal fails for a particular operation.
- Numerous other small fixes.
- Help improvements and search fixes.

 

- Significant improvements to selection refinement.
- More tools will now rasterise non-pixel layers on use.
- Fixed histogram statistics (was including alpha channel in calculations incorrectly).
- Improved TIFF import support.
- Fixed some localisation issues on the Glyph Browser panel.
- Small UI alignment tweaks.
- Fallback to 96dpi for imported JPEG, PNG - not 72.
- Fixed mesh warp blurry issues when Metal disabled.
- Fixed Metal implementation of Diffuse Glow.
- Fixed some PSDs which would not import due to path issues.
- Fixed CMYK rendering (again) when Metal is enabled (blacks would go weird).
- Attempt to fix the odd black square appearing in the view.
- Further improved Scale / Rotate stacking alignment.
- Fixed orientation issues with some panoramas (upside down).
- Reduce file sizes by discarding old snapshots properly.
- Fixed recording of resize document sampler method in macros.
- Fixed recording of paint mixer brush in macros.
- We now use Ctrl+number to change flow in the brush tools - not Cmd. This fixes Cmd-0 zoom etc.
- Fixed resize document issues with layer effect scales.
- Fixed liquify tool auto-commit issue when switching persona.
- Crop tool Touch Bar fixes.
- Assorted small fixes.
- Help improvements.

 

- Hide / Show / Show All Layers options in layers menu.
- Remove new destructive modes from crop tool (for now - will revisit).
- Fixed crash when RAW contains malformed GPS data.
- Fixed levels adjustment alerts.
- Fixed 32bit issues with Soft Light blend mode.
- Fixed flood fill bugs when colour is not opaque.
- Fixed various TIFF files which tried to load into develop persona.
- Fixed Voronoi bug if image has alpha channel.
- Allow Cmd key to be held when typing numbers in a brush tool (will change flow instead of opacity).
- Fixed remaining LUT export bugs.
- Small memory management improvements.
- Fixed red-eye correction in develop.
- Develop noise reduction performance improvements.
- Improved visibility of selected hue range in HSL UI in light mode.
- Fixed issues where sub-brushes could get reset.
- Sub-brush spacing / size sync buttons work properly.
- Dark / light UI improvements in brush editor panel.
- Fixed more Radeon R9 issues.
- Fixed more CMYK issues.
- Fixed some PDF import bugs.
- Numerous other small fixes.
- Help improvements.

 

- The crop tool now defaults to the old behaviour (destructive).
- Added lens correction data for more cameras.
- More double click support for resetting adjustment sliders.
- Further HSL improvements in 32bit mode.
- Fixed issues when using Edit -> Fill with a transparent colour.
- Fixed issues exporting HDR files when some pixels have negative values.
- Fixed TIFF ZIP compression issues.
- Fixed a sporadic crash when exporting PSD.
- Fixed lens correction for Panasonic DMC-TZ60.
- Fixed orientation of RAW images during HDR merge.
- Fixed noise reduction in non-RGB documents.
- Fixed scale + rotate alignment mode in stacking.
- Reduce develop memory usage and further improve loading speed.
- Fixed recolour adjustment slider colour issue.
- Fixed displacement map “load from beneath” sometimes including the current layer.
- Fixed CMYK rendering on Radeon R9 GPUs.
- Fixed motion blur etc. disappearing in 16bit documents with Metal enabled.
- Fixed equation transforms not working in macros.

 

- Fixed incorrect RGB / BGR / Red-major-order export of LUTS.
- Ability to either rasterise or rasterise and trim a layer. Previously recorded macros will trim.
- Fixed issues when parsing autofocus rectangles in RAW develop.
- Show which autofocus rectangles were in focus and which were selected by the camera (yellow, green respectively).
- Fixed inability to open photos from Apple Photos from file -> open. Now correctly asks for permission.
- Threshold adjustment will always present an intensity histogram.
- Improved histograms on curves and levels adjustments.
- Fixed LAB issues with edge detection filters.
- Switching between adjustments and filters will close any existing panels accordingly.
- Fixed incorrect ability to drag a locked layer when there is no layer selection.
- Fixed loading of 8/16bit images with linear RGB profiles.
- Can now double-click most sliders in adjustments UI to reset the individual parameter.
- Make it obvious which nozzle is selected in the brush editor UI.
- Other small fixes.

 

- Improved Metal stability / performance with large documents.
- Fixed a number of dark mode issues.
- Fixed preview glitches in split preview mode for filters / develop.
- Fixed batch processor not obeying dimensions correctly.
- Improved Procedural Texture UI in light mode.
- Allow brush rotate / size key changes while dragging.
- Numerous text engine improvements.
- Fixed cursor issues with HSL and other adjustments.
- Fixed issues with some menu shortcut keys.
- Improved PDF export.
- Improved localisations.
- Numerous other small fixes.

 

- Fixed CMYK rendering when using Metal.
- Fixed loading of huge JPEG files.
- Added “Alpha Similarity” to Select Sampled Colour tool.
- Fixed a number of crash bugs in the adjustment panel.
- Fixed issues with some existing user documents crashing in 1.7.
- Assorted other fixes.

 

- Show the Curves / Levels histogram in the correct colour space.
- Fixed some GPU memory management issues.
- A further attempt to fix the HSL UI crash.
- Improve performance on Intel Iris Pro GPUs.
- Improved help.

- Numerous other small fixes.


- Fixed hardware acceleration issues on certain iMac devices.
- Fixed a number of brush bugs.
- Fixed hang in HDR merge with GPU enabled.
- Fixed HSL adjustment UI crash,
- Fixed Procedural Texture UI issues when switching from dark to light UI.
- Fixed Curves adjustment clamping issue when GPU is enabled.
- Fixed 3DLUT adjustments when GPU is enabled.
- Fixed issues with sub-brush UI.
- Numerous other small fixes.

- Added pixabay.com to Stock panel.

- New welcome screen graphics.
- New persona icon graphics.
- New splash screen.


Changes Since 1.6 Release


Performance

- The core processing engine in Affinity Photo has been rewritten to take advantage of the powerful discrete AMD GPUs in modern Mac hardware. It will now automatically use any compatible discrete GPU, alongside the Intel GPU support present in 1.6. Typically this improves compositing / editing performance by at least 1000%. Performance when using integrated Intel GPUs has also been massively improved.

- External GPUs (eGPU) are also supported - including hot-plug-and-unplug support.

- Multiple GPUs are supported - if you have more than 1 GPU (ie. Intel + AMD in MacBook Pro, or Intel + eGPU in other Macs) Photo will use them all, at the same time, to improve performance. There is no limit to the number of GPUs which can be used.


Brushes

- Photo 1.7 introduces a new “sub-brush” mechanism, developed in conjunction with Paolo Limoncelli (DAUB® Brushes). This exciting feature allows any brush to have a list of other brushes attached which will draw at the same time. Each sub-brush has a fully separate and customisable set of dynamics. You can control when the sub-brushes are drawn and how they blend with the main brush.

- The brush engine in Photo has been rewritten to use the new GPU architecture described above. With GPU support, even huge brushes with 1% spacing will perform well. All brushes / brush tools are accelerated.

- Symmetry (up to 32-way) is now supported - including on-canvas controls and optional mirroring. We have more symmetry features on the way - so stay tuned during the beta process.

- Wet edges and accumulation are now available on colour brushes and brushes with HSL variance.

- Brushes with multiple nozzle textures have always chosen the nozzle at random. In 1.7, the nozzle choice has a dynamic controller and ramp for greater control.

- All brush tools now support left and right arrow keys for rotation - a common feature request ;)


RAW

- The RAW processing engine in Photo has been rewritten - producing better results and improved performance. It also takes advantage of the GPU architecture changes described above.

- RAW files now load much more quickly - especially if you have a compatible GPU.

- Reimplemented support for XTrans sensors.

- The denoise algorithm has been rewritten. It produces better results and takes advantage of the new GPU architecture.

- Hot pixel removal is now automatically performed by the Serif Labs engine.

- Profiled lens correction are more stable, apply more quickly, and can be toggled in the Develop UI.

- The histogram in the Develop persona is now presented in the output colour space - as opposed to always being linear.


Filters

- New “Procedural Texture” filter with advanced presets support.

- New “Voronoi” filter.

- Denoise, Clarity and Shadows / Highlights filters have been rewritten (using technology from the Develop Persona).

- More filters are now available as Live Filters - including the new Procedural Texture filter.

- Live filters have been rewritten to improve performance - especially when multiple filters are used in a document.

- Improved Polar to Rectangular and Rectangular to Polar filters.


Adjustments

- The HSL adjustment layer has been rewritten. It now supports custom hue ranges, a new algorithm, new UI and picker controls.

- The Levels adjustment layer now supports output levels - a common feature request.

- The White Balance adjustment layer has been rewritten.

- The Selective Colour adjustment layer has been rewritten.

- PSD import / export of adjustments has been improved.

- The Vibrance adjustment layer has been rewritten.

- The Recolour adjustment layer has gained a lightness slider.


Tools

- The Crop tool has been rewritten - it now supports resolution changes, absolute pixel size and has a much improved preset mechanism.

- The Sponge Brush tool now gives more correct / pleasant results.

- A general tools overhaul has been performed - providing editing of grids, guides, page origin, across multiple tools (not just in the Move tool)


General

- “Alternate futures” for document history have been added. Traditionally, if you roll back the undo history then do something else all your changes after that point are lost. Photo will now display a small branch icon in the history tab when you do this. Pressing that button will cycle between all the different “futures” after that history entry - meaning you will never lose work you have done.

- HEIF images can now be loaded directly into Photo. If they contain a depth map, this will also be loaded as a second layer. Because depth maps are typically lower resolution than the main image, optional “smart” upsampling will be performed.

- A large number of new cameras are supported for RAW development (we will provide a list of the new supported cameras as soon as possible!).

- The batch process dialog now fully supports expressions for height and width - available constants are “w”, “h” and “dpi”.

- Photo now supports custom document presets - a popular feature request.

- A new blend mode - Linear Burn - has been added.

- New “Move inside / outside” commands have been added - useful for quick operations on clipping masks etc.

- The Hard Mix blend mode has been improved.

- New provider options have been added to the stock panel - support for Unsplash and Pexels. Both of these providers offer full-resolution stock imagery which is free to use.

- Metadata is now dynamically synchronised with your document - so if you resize then export, the values will be correct.

- Numerous text improvements have been made - including new features.

- Significant PDF import / export improvements and fixes.

 - Numerous other bug fixes - too many to list!

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I have noticed 1 thing that I really want fixed is the rainbow coloured style is missing I don't think I will like that in the final build as I do like to use it. Idk if some of the others are missing or not also but maybe someone can check on that I love them all but I also love the new ones added in the beta. I just probably won't update to the official build if there is some missing or keep using the old with the new but my space is limited on my Mac so please add it back. I love everything else currently with the new beta.

Screen Shot 2019-04-02 at 7.16.25 PM.png

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10 hours ago, ellj said:

I have noticed 1 thing that I really want fixed is the rainbow coloured style is missing I don't think I will like that in the final build as I do like to use it. Idk if some of the others are missing or not also but maybe someone can check on that I love them all but I also love the new ones added in the beta. I just probably won't update to the official build if there is some missing or keep using the old with the new but my space is limited on my Mac so please add it back. I love everything else currently with the new beta.

Screen Shot 2019-04-02 at 7.16.25 PM.png

For now you can export them from 1.6 and add them to 1.7. You will have to rename the category from Default to something else otherwise the import will fail. I'm not sure why they have all gone, I was under the impression we had just added more so I'll find out for you. 

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10 hours ago, Chris B said:

For now you can export them from 1.6 and add them to 1.7. You will have to rename the category from Default to something else otherwise the import will fail. I'm not sure why they have all gone, I was under the impression we had just added more so I'll find out for you. 

Thanks so much I love using your software and I really hope that can be fixed. It has been something that has bothered me for a while now I just had to figure out how to report the issue for to fix it. I will try and export them I will have to figure out how to do that I'm assuming it isn't too hard to do. At least with exporting them I will have a backup of them incase anything ever happens to them. I might upload them to my Google drive for a cloud backup as well incase anything happens to my computer ever.

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OPINION: I'm not sure where to post this as it pertains to a big picture idea of Photo and Designer software. I'll try to keep it simple and to the point to avoid confusion. First of all, I love Affinity and all they have contributed to the design world the last 5 years or so- I've been with them and still am since the first beta to the first version of Designer came out. I had to say that. I also really like other design and photo apps and have tried them but I always come back to Affinity, I don't think I would ever move away from,  no matter what. My concern is that there are lots of apps that are going in a different direction when it comes to UI and the access to all controls are all basically sliders that reside on the right side of the screen. I mean the adjustments are ALL stacked and one can grab one or all, reference Pixelmator Pro, Luminar, Lightroom CC, they're all sliders to control the adjustments. I just wonder if the current UI is or isn't the future of what Affinity apps should look like. I know why Photo looks like it does, mostly to convince PS users that Photo is just like (but better I know) and that you should be able to find everything with some sense of familiarity. I mean you won't get too lost. Now I just think no one wants to be like Photoshop or even look like them but yet Photo does. Now the newly updated breeds of apps are showing to adopt a new UI template that I think IMO looks like a faster and more efficient way to get to the adjustments. They are already ready to be "slidden". Again this is a total opinion and observation and in no way am trying to create any controversy, I just wished I had somewhere to post my opinion and thoughts about this. 

Please don't beat me up too bad guys! I love Affinity! #affinitytillidie

 

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1 hour ago, evtonic3 said:

I'm not sure where to post this as it pertains to a big picture idea of Photo and Designer software.

Perhaps it would be better posted to the Suggestions for the Affinity Suite of Products forum, especially since it isn’t about one particular product and it doesn’t relate to the beta releases.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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Hello @Andy Somerfield
Well the download was a bit hard, failed couples of times but finally succeeded.
Install went well, no issue at all.
I just noticed the package is now 402MiB of size which means a lot of work have been done: Pleasure to see that !

Everything seems to work fine but i will give it serious try during the day to see how its really works as it is now 1.52AM in the morning.

Blessings !

Never be the Same Again !
---
Dell Optiplex 5090 SFF
Intel Core i5-10500T @2.30GHz with 12GiB 2666MHz DDR4
Intel UHD Graphics 630 for 10th Generation
M.2 2280, 512 GB, PCIe NVMe Gen3 x4, Class 40 SSD

Windows 11 Pro x64 22H2 + LibreOffice 7.5.3

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1 hour ago, Marco63 said:

I see that even in this beta there is no RAW support for the new Nikon Z6 and Z7 cameras.

I asked the developer involved and We are looking to add more new formats, which may be in a beta soon. 

1 hour ago, Marco63 said:

It will be possible in the future to have an independent update system from a new release?

That is less likely, sorry, as it is complex programming code, unlike lens correction that can be done via a definition file. Apple add cameras to Apple Camera raw in OS updates independent of our updates, but we will add more than the current beta list, just cannot say when.

 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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  • 1 month later...

I have been using Affinity Photo for over a year now, and there remains a glaring problem with the shadow/highlights slider.

Shadows/Highlights are almost as important as white balance and exposure when it comes to making key adjustments to an image. It is CRITICAL that this functionality work properly, and yet Affinity has still not made the necessary changes, even in the beta 1.7 which clearly states there has been a rewrite of the shadows/highlights algorithm. In actual use, I see zero evidence of any positive changes in this regard.

It beggar's belief that a problem as significant as this has remained noted, yet unresolved, since the first version of Affinity Photo. 

I appreciate that the solution might be difficult to deliver, but surely a team capable of delivering a complex suite of applications that are otherwise very well performing are also capable of finding the solution to such a problem over several years time (which it has now been). 

As it stands, affinity photo remains a neutered application with a borderline use case and purchase justification. If just this one core feature (shadows/highlights) were properly fixed, Affinity Photo would be an excellent product. 

For those who are unaware of how bad the shadows/highlights functionality is, I urge you to compare the Affinity photo result to that of Photoshop or Capture One. Affinity is not even close. 

Please will you actually solve this problem? I would be willing to pay an addition fee (as I'm sure many would) just to have this one thing fixed. 

Thank you.

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ASQI,

My guess here is that you are using the Shadows / Highlights *adjustment* layer. This is a simple algorithm which works as an adjustment. It's only there for legacy compatibility and may be removed soon (or at least the ability to create new ones removed)..

The new and improved S&H is the filter version (also available as a live filter - so usable in place of the adjustment) - "Filters -> Shadows / Highlights" in the menu.

Hopefully this is more like what you wanted!

Thanks,

A

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Thank you for your prompt and helpful reply Andy. You are correct that I was using the layer adjustment alone. I had not noticed any problems using layer adjustments for other properties and consequently had not thought to look elsewhere for an alternate solution. On using the shadows/highlights filter tool, there is a marked improvement in performance.

That said, in Affinity 1.6.7 there remains a fairly strong effect on black levels when adjusting shadows using the filter tool. This remains more or less even when making fine tune adjustments to the range and radius of the shadow filter. It is my opinion that black levels should not be strongly effected by shadow adjustments. Being able to set a stable black level and then adjust for the brightness of colour data in the shadows is the ideal situation and is how the shadow tool in Photoshop and Capture One functions.

In using the shadow adjustment filter in Affinity Photo Beta 1.7 I can see that there is in fact further improvement, with less effect on blacks. Definitely headed in the right direction. Removing the layer adjustment for shadows/highlights altogether sounds like a good idea until such time as its performance is improved to that of the filter. 

Cheers,

Andy

Edited by ASQI
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