Frequency Separation Actions

[photoadele]

Hello!

Like many, I'm seeing if Affinity Photo can work for me other than Photoshop.

I have MANY actions for PS, some will not work in AP, so is there a reliable source to get a good frequency separation action? For a few years I've been using this:

https://retouchingacademy.com/product/beauty-retouch-panel/

It allows me to adjust everything as needed. Of course, they aren't going to create one for AP LOL

I'm looking for a source that I get some actions to get me started. 

Thanks so much.

[MEB]

Hi photoadele,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Photoshop actions, extensions (panels) and plugins relying on automation are not supported in Affinity Photo. These add-ons where developed with Photoshop in mind and rely on Photoshop's features/scripting and/or on Photoshop SDK (software development kit) to provide such functionality. I don't know if you are already aware but Affinity Photo provides a basic built-in filter for Frequency Separation... (menu Filters -> Frequency Separation...). There's a video tutorial here covering how it works (it's for version 1.6 but it can be followed in v1.7 as well).

I believe some users also developed and shared a few frequency separation macros (for Affinity Photo) in the Resources section on this forum but I may be wrong. I will post them here if I find them.

[photoadele]

21 hours ago, MEB said:

Hi photoadele,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Photoshop actions, extensions (panels) and plugins relying on automation are not supported in Affinity Photo. These add-ons where developed with Photoshop in mind and rely on Photoshop's features/scripting and/or on Photoshop SDK (software development kit) to provide such functionality. I don't know if you are already aware but Affinity Photo provides a basic built-in filter for Frequency Separation... (menu Filters -> Frequency Separation...). There's a video tutorial here covering how it works (it's for version 1.6 but it can be followed in v1.7 as well).

I believe some users also developed and shared a few frequency separation macros (for Affinity Photo) in the Resources section on this forum but I may be wrong. I will post them here if I find them.

Thanks, I had no idea!!! 

[VanessaPhoto]

I have been driving myself crazy trying to make my own frequency separation action with median blur, or even dust and scratch, instead of gassian blur. I’ve kind of given up, but I would realllly appreciate that feature!! I really hate gassian blur for frequency separation.. and also the mixer brush doesn’t work like photoshops... I have to manually click “clean brush” every time I make a stroke, so if Affinity could add “clean brush after each stroke”, that would be AMAZING!! If anyone has made their own frequency separation action,  or knows how to make it with median blur, please let me know! Would be a life saver❤️

[John Rostron]

Look at this link for a discussion of this problem.

John

[0Kami]

On 5/3/2020 at 6:36 PM, VanessaPhoto said:

I have been driving myself crazy trying to make my own frequency separation action with median blur, or even dust and scratch, instead of gassian blur. I’ve kind of given up, but I would realllly appreciate that feature!! I really hate gassian blur for frequency separation.. and also the mixer brush doesn’t work like photoshops... I have to manually click “clean brush” every time I make a stroke, so if Affinity could add “clean brush after each stroke”, that would be AMAZING!! If anyone has made their own frequency separation action,  or knows how to make it with median blur, please let me know! Would be a life saver❤️

Below is a simple workaround that allows you to let Affinity Photos automatic frequency separation filter do the hard work but still use whatever blur method you want:

Open your document and create as many copies of the original background layer as you would like to have blur affects. For example, AP’s FS filter will create a High Frequency Layer and a Low Frequency Layer based on Gaussian Blur.

If I wanted to have a Median Blur and a Dust and Scratches Blur you would create three additional copies of the original Background Layer. Use the top one to run AP’s Frequency Separation filter. Afterwards the Layers panel would look like this:

High Frequency 
Low Frequency (Gaussian Blur)
Background
Background
Background (Locked)

You could then apply Live Filters (editable) to each of the two Background Layers above the original/locked Background Layer.

Then your Layers panel would look like this:

High Frequency 
Low Frequency (Gaussian Blur)
Background (with child layer - Median Blur)
Background (with child layer - Dust and Scratches)
Background (Locked)

At the point you can turn on only the blur layer between the High Frequency layer and the Original locked layer that you want to apply to the image. The High Frequency Layer will provide the texture to whatever is your blur preference. You could even combine blur effects by using the opacity slider.

Just something to experiment with.

Have fun.