Burn tool not burning

[Comrade Haz]

I've noticed that the burn tool on the 'shadows' setting seems to do little more than a dark grey overlay, which isn't really useful as a burn tool. Not to compare with PS, but I feel like it should be able to 'burn out' the darker details, but in it's current iteration it feels more like I'm using the paint brush.

Am I just using it wrong, or is this an issue with the tool it's self?

Edited June 8, 2019 by hazitgood

[HVDB Photography]

A screenshot would be helpful ..

Is the correct layer selected ?
Are you sure you're using the burn tool and not the dodge tool ?
On the context toolbar check opacity and hardness.
 

[Comrade Haz]

ok, I'm not sure if it is super easy to see through screenshots rather than use, but here it goes. The first screenshot is the image before burning, the second I've put two thick lines of burn through the image, the top one with protect hue off, the lower one with it on, both at 100% opacity and flow (not what I would actully use but it seems to show what I'm talking about.

focusing on the bottom one, it looks to me as though the burn tool is not 'burning out the shadows, as much as putting a dark grey brush stroke over the top. the blacks do not go super black, but rather just a slightly darker grey. with the way it treats highlights, it looks to my eye more like I had 'midtones' selected, and everything comes out looking more grey than burned in. Hopefully, that makes sense...

 

[HVDB Photography]

It seems to occur when dragging the brush.
Repeatedly clicking does a better job, but is tedious

[Comrade Haz]

3 hours ago, HVDB Photography said:

It seems to occur when dragging the brush.
Repeatedly clicking does a better job, but is tedious

That's very strange, but thanks for work around. I still think it needs looking at though.

[HVDB Photography]

1 hour ago, hazitgood said:

I still think it needs looking at though.

I agree.

[Gnobelix]

I also think that, the Burn tool a revision is needed.
see image.
As you might expect, Photoshop does the best job followed by Gimp.
The bottom line is unfortunately Affinity Photo

The test is done with similar setting of the Burn tool.

[Bussty]

There is definitely something up with the Dodge and Burn Tools.

The attached image shows a Grey Scale with 100% Opacity and Flow Dodge and Burn Brushes drawn horizontally as follows...

 

Burn Highlight  - Looks OK possibly burning more shadow detail than I would have thought

Burn Middle Tones - Probably OK surprised it darkened the whole range

Burn Shadows  - Hmm seems to really burn middle tones more than anything!

Then 

Dodge Highlight - OK

Dodge Middle Tones - Probably OK again quite surprised it lightened the whole range

Dodge Shadows - Something wrong here looks just like the middle tone dodge.

Definitely looks like some work needs to be done here or am I missing something?

Cheers 

 

Andrew

 

Edited June 9, 2019 by Bussty

[Jowday]

I think Serif Labs needs more time to polish the algorithm that must be an inside job. 

• Serif launched Serif Photoplus in 1999; 20 years ago. Serif released 14 version of it before they retired it.
• Then Serif launched Affinity Photo 3 years ago. But with almost two decades of experience developing algorithms for photo editors.

I expect more from a company with 20 years of experience. It is simply time to hire some experts and engineers. More than ever.

@Gnobelix I have seen that Affinity effect in real life - but it was smog in Beijing.

[Chris B]

For what it's worth, I have bumped an improvement request that we have logged with the developers. Thanks for your feedback.

[Bussty]

Thanks Chris, fingers crossed!

If you look at work by Cole Thompson he lives by the Burn and Dodge tools and in particular how you can target just Highlights, Middle Tones or Shadows. AP would just not be an option for him with the current functionality.

Cheers 

Andrew

[Comrade Haz]

Just to reiterate, this is still an issue after the new update (not that I would have expected it to be fixed this fast) but I believe this is an important feature of any photo editor so I want to keep this in the eyes of the developers.

[IndigoMoon]

On 6/10/2019 at 4:21 PM, Chris B said:

For what it's worth, I have bumped an improvement request that we have logged with the developers. Thanks for your feedback.

Yes, that is really annoying, how it works now. Please don't lose sight of quality of the tools, features and algorithms

[Rkash]

Hi guys!

Newcomer here... 

Have you had any news regarding this subject?

I´m using version 1.8.3.641 (trial) and apparently this issue still persists...