Difficulty following Photo Workbook "Enhancing the Image"

[Cecil]

Affinity Photo WorkBook, Peak Country 2: Lumsdale Falls:  I hit a stiff wall on page 164, Enhancing the Image.  I tripled checked the selection of the Background (Pixel) image, the layer order was as stated in work book. I set Inpainting Brush (J), With and Hardness.  In context toolbar I changed from Current Layer to Current Layer & Below.  As I painted over the leafs I notice no red paint showing, as normal, with Inpainting Brush and leaf was not removed.  I tried numerous times, same results; however, I did notice that occasionally the rendering bar would scroll, as if it was attempting to render “something”.  I did try changing to Current Layer, to see if brush would paint in red, no.  My largest mistake was not screen recording process to post.  I just toss in the towel and continued to next step, Saturating Tones.  I completed Chapter, without another problem.

Posting, just in case, someone else runs into this problem or if someone can replicate problem.  IMac, 2019, eight Core, I9, SSD internal/external and Affinity Photo 1.7.

[Dan C]

Hi JustMeTo

I've followed the tutorial and I'm not seeing the same issue, however I note you've mentioned you had your Background layer selected, not the New Pixel Layer created a few steps previous. 

Please also double check both the Flow and Opacity were set to 100% as otherwise the tool would not function as expected. I hope this helps!

[Cecil]

5 hours ago, Dan C said:

Hi JustMeTo

I've followed the tutorial and I'm not seeing the same issue, however I note you've mentioned you had your Background layer selected, not the New Pixel Layer created a few steps previous. 

Please also double check both the Flow and Opacity were set to 100% as otherwise the tool would not function as expected. I hope this helps!

I know I created the new pixel layer above the Background Layer and recall naming it Inpainting   I may had then clicked on the Background layer; however, as it did not work, I did click the other layer.  I will redo the project from step one.  I do thank you for letting me know it worked for you,  My question now: if I changed Context Toolbar to Current layer, should Inpainting then work on the Background layer?

[Dan C]

No problem at all, please do let us know how you get on.

16 hours ago, JustMeTo said:

if I changed Context Toolbar to Current layer, should Inpainting then work on the Background layer?

It certainly should do, providing the aforementioned context toolbar settings are set correctly!

[Cecil]

I did redo the project.  Inpainting barely removed the leaves and repeated process several times.  I then selected background layer and changed context tool bar to current layer and no problem removing unwanted leaves.  I guess the lesson was meant to show that multiple layers could be used to remove unwanted items; however, IMHO it worked better on single layer.  Not questioning lesson, just providing feedback.  So much to comprehend processes that will be beneficial when working on my photos.

[Cecil]

Concerning the Work Book and specifically, iMac 2019, 27' display, Radeon Pro 580X 8 GB.  My display is set on default System Preference, iMac Color.  Page 207, shard.tiff (04) Curve adjustment, I noticed a vast difference in the Histogram shadows and highlight levels.  My question:  Should I change my Color Profile to a specific one to expect similar Histogram views and picture adjustments when I view my display results vs. what my eyes see on Work Book.  I did follow (typed) exact values.  Many thanks.

[Dan C]

Sorry for the slow reply Cecil, I've followed the workbook and I can confirm that your colour profile is no issue. The first step - applying Haze removal - is a manual process where the sliders do not have units, therefore the book allows customer choice here as to how much of an effect is applied.

The haze removal is destructive, and this will affect the images composition and therefore the histogram, so no 2 users histogram (or curves histogram) will be the same after following these steps. I've included a screenshot of the image I produced following the workflow - if you're still struggling please let me know!