Graduated filter - as per Lightroom?

[Omaroo]

Hi all :) 

 

I'm new here, so please excuse me if this is the wrong section to post my question in. 

 

Is there a way to apply a graduated filter (not colour, but filter effect) across an image as per one of my favourite features in Lightroom? If I have a cloudy sky that I wish to gradually darken from the very top - lightening as it progresses down the image - either by gradually increasing exposure or lessening contrast, can this be done in Affinity Photo simply? i.e. I don't want to add colour, I want to apply a graduation of my chosen effect by nominating a start and end point. I use this feature in Lightroom to apply graduated angular vignettes coming in from an edge. This is something I rely in a great deal in Lightroom.

 

Nice program so far - I like it. Thanks a million! :)

 

Cheers

Chris

[MEB]

Hi Omaroo,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Have you tried to assign an Exposure adjustment to a gradient overlay in the Overlay tab in Develop Persona?

I'm afraid it's not exactly the same since the overlay gradient is linear (not mirrored as in Lightroom - although you can apply more than one).

 

In Photo Persona, you can apply an Exposure adjustment (or any other one you want) and use the integrated mask (all adjustment layers have one) to define how the intensity of the adjustment will be applied through the image. Here you can add more stops to control the gradient (mask).

[Omaroo]

Thanks very much Meb - I'll give it a go :) I must say that the way Adobe have designed their grad filter is very intuitive and lovely to use. Having to work with layers as distinct entities rather than the process staying under the hood, as it were, will take some getting used to. Future feature?

[Forssux]

I would love a function like that to, maybe you Affinity guys can make a tutorial video on how to achieve this?
Is a tool like this in the pipeline?
 

[MikeFromMesa]

I tried the APB gradient some time ago and came away completely puzzled. The gradient map produces a color overlay and even if I replace the colors at the ends with white and black (which I assume I am supposed to do) I can not get the gradient effect I want to blend skies or combine parts of different photos. I have been assuming that there is no regular gradient transparency adjustment in APB.

 

If I am wrong about that I would really like to see how to use the gradient map to do a simple thing like produce a transparency gradient mask to combine two photos or to produce a gradient effect by using the filters. As it is I have had to use other tools for that.

[MikeFromMesa]

Have you tried to assign an Exposure adjustment to a gradient overlay in the Overlay tab in Develop Persona?

I'm afraid it's not exactly the same since the overlay gradient is linear (not mirrored as in Lightroom - although you can apply more than one).

 

In Photo Persona, you can apply an Exposure adjustment (or any other one you want) and use the integrated mask (all adjustment layers have one) to define how the intensity of the adjustment will be applied through the image. Here you can add more stops to control the gradient (mask).

 

After reading this post I checked and found the gradient overlay in the Effects tab in the Photo Persona. That is an area I had never used before so I did not know it was there. I also checked and found the gradient overlay tool in the Develop Persona although no matter how I played around with either I could not seem to get the effect of a gradient transparency that I wanted. Perhaps there is some tutorial somewhere that can explain the proper use of both tools? If not could someone put one together?

 

UPDATE:

 

Did some searching and found this prior post by MEB:

 

There's a couple ways to go about this. Here's one:

1) Create a rectangular shape (vector) with the Rectangle Tool with the size of the photo (or the document if the photo fills the entire document).

2) Apply a gradient from black to white to the rectangle with the Gradient Tool.

3) With the rectangle still selected, go to menu Layer ▹ Rasterize to Mask. You should get the graduation you are looking for.

 

That seems to work although I would like to know what other ways there are to do this sort of thing. 

[Frank Jonen]

I just use the gradient on the live layer of the tool I want to apply. Keeps everything live and I can iterate much quicker. The white boxes you see when adding a live filter or adjustment layer, those carry the masks, just click there and paint away. Black is nothing, white is 'apply tool' (0 to 1).

 

Or to completely open it up. Put a bunch of adjustments into a layer group (just the filters, no pixels) and give that group a mask. You can get really precise that way. Do one overall gradient for example and in each layer add or take away where the effect is too strong or bothers you. Just a word of warning, stacking blur and sharpen filters together can lead to longer processing times when you export the final image.

[p_mac]

HI Chris, I read your post so here is my two cents.  I have been playing around with the gradient.  As Frank has stated above, start with a live layer, with the gradient tool active, it will show solid, fill with 50% grey

 

then change to linear, from there click on the lightest end and change the opacity to 0%  

 

 

Change layer to Overlay

 

Change color to Lightness  

 

Left point is 100%, midpoint is 50%, and right point is 0%.  By manipulating the mid point you can change the area of darkness to lightness and when on the left point you can change the intensity of the darkness.  This does not change to colour at all, but you can also do that by moving the dot in the colour area.  

 

Fill active  

 

Fill not active  

 

 

 

 

[p_mac]

Chris.  

 

I was also thinking that if you were good at writing macros, you could building a pretty good one with the ability to change all of the above to whatever you wanted.

 

I have also experienced using the HSL sliders instead of the Lightness.  It does some pretty nice things for multicolour points as any point can be built with whatever colour range you wish.  

 

I also do not work on the fill layer as far as masking, I always use a independent mask as I can fill it with whatever I wish, i.e. from channels, or just using a brush as you would do in LR by removing some of the masking.    

 

I therefore do not destroy any of the gradient, so if I wish to duplicate it to change the directions or type of the gradient, it is intact.