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I posted the following thread 3 years ago but not a single person until today advised me to post that topic in this thread, claiming that no one from Serif diligently reads this forum such that my post was sure to have been overlooked these 3 years.  Seems odd to me, but fine.  Here it is:

 

I would advise Serif to just move that thread into this thread.  I would prefer that since I don't want to lose all the supportive posts in that thread.  For truly, it is more than just me who wants that dropper tool added to Affinity Photo.

 

Thanks.

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I would like to be the first to offer support in this thread. 

Adding 3 additional colour pickers for whites, mid grey & black to the curves tool would certainly add to the functionality. The facility to change and save the new colours gives the user the ability to use the tool for matching colours from a different image. This will be a big help for compositing. The ability to reset to default white, grey & black is also needed. This gives the tool far more flexibility than just using it to set black & white points. 

 

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4 hours ago, JDW said:

I posted the following thread 3 years ago but not a single person until today advised me to post that topic in this thread, claiming that no one from Serif diligently reads this forum such that my post was sure to have been overlooked these 3 years.  Seems odd to me, but fine.

Just to set the record straight, it was never claimed that anyone from Serif intentionally ignores any topic posted to the Questions forum, only that the developers do not habitually follow that forum.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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3 pickers in Curves dialog would be great! 

Additionally, I wish there was an auto button. Then you could automatically set black and white points and the fine tune them to fit the image. (In Photoshop there is also option to set target colours and clipping values but I find these unnecessary; manual fine tuning anyway negates clipping.) 

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11 hours ago, gonecamping75 said:

When will this be a reality? 

Three full years have expired since I first posted about the need for that important feature.  Nothing has happened.  Some speculate that nothing has happened because I failed to post my request in this "Feedback for Affinity Photo" forum saying: "developers do not habitually follow that forum."  So now that a link to my original post is firmly planted in this "correct" forum that the developers habitually read (apparently), based on my experience posting other feature requests and having no success, I simply cannot answer your question.

What I do feel strongly about is this.  The more Serif makes Affinity apps like Adobe apps in terms of key features, the more people will switch to Affinity apps. Yes, I really do think it's not too hard to convince people to break from an endless wallet-draining subscription. Even people who have never used Adobe apps can appreciate the goodness some of us are struggling to bring to Affinity apps.  All it takes is for Serif to recognize that fact, order engineers to implement more of our important feature suggestions by a certain date, and then the world can rejoice.  It's really as simple as that.  Fingers crossed.

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  • 8 months later...
23 hours ago, JDW said:

still ignored by Serif.  

This is highly unlikely.

Serif does not normally respond to feature requests.  If they decide to implement this, the first time you will know about it will likely be when it shows up in a beta.

They only have X amount of time to work with for each release and need to prioritize which features to work on when, so this is competing with a lot of other requests.

I agree this would be nice too, but in the end, you can work around it...  bug fixes obviously need to take priority, and when it comes to new features, there are other things being requested that would be much harder if not practically impossible to work around which should probably get higher priority.

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3 hours ago, fde101 said:

They only have X amount of time to work with for each release and need to prioritize which features to work on when, so this is competing with a lot of other requests

I reject that defense of the status quo insofar as my original post on the topic was July 2015.  It is now almost April 2020.  They've had plenty of time, and the fact they don't glean good ideas from us in the forum is a serious fault, not something worthy of defending.  Some of the best software companies actually listen to their users and prove that by participating in forums.  Serif merely has shown they actually don't listen to anyone other than their own inner circle of engineers and marketing managers.  No wonder so many still stupidly pay for that Adobe subscription.  Affinity apps still aren't appealing enough for those users to make the move over.  It's terribly unfortunate, and I am not going to hide that sentiment, even if it ruffles some feathers here.  The truth needs to be said in hopes that feathers at Serif will finally get ruffled enough that they'll start to see the importance of listening to our opinions and acting on them.

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9 minutes ago, JDW said:

They've had plenty of time, and the fact they don't glean good ideas from us in the forum is a serious fault, not something worthy of defending.  Some of the best software companies actually listen to their users and prove that by participating in forums.  Serif merely has shown they actually don't listen to anyone other than their own inner circle of engineers and marketing managers.

There also had requests for hundreds, if not thousands, of different improvements. They need to decide which they think are worthwhile, then prioritize those against each other and against the other improvements they've planned. Then figure out an implementation order that is practical given the areas of the programs that would need to change.

And, by the way, it is common for users to think that their favorite improvements are the most important ones. 

Serif does listen, and had implemented functions requested in the forums. 

And the QA and Support teams at Serif participate in the forums daily, answering questions and helping resolve problems. The Developers participate less often, as their primary jobs are producing the code. But we do see some of them quite regularly, too, helping with questions and helping diagnose problems, or (occasionally) providing hints about functions that are nearly ready.

What they do not do is provide a list of upcoming items and a timeframe. But that does not mean they are not listening, and it does not mean they are ignoring the users. 

-- Walt
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It's not a matter of "users thinking their favorite improvements are the most important ones."  It's a matter of TIME combined with other people who chime in and agree that would be a major improvement too.  I am of the strong opinion that time should slowly but surely bump up feature requests in terms of importance, such that they too ultimately get implemented. A 5 year wait is too long, especially since we are still waiting.

I have yet to engage Serif in a conversation here in the forums about my feature requests.  And yet, I engage the developers of other software products in their forums all the time.  For example, Blocs is a web design app that I use, and I engage the developer, Norm, every few days.  And since Serif is not the size of Adobe, it cannot be said "Serif is too big to care on that level."  Prior to that, I used SoftPress Freeway, and I engaged the developers constantly, including the very engineers who wrote the program code.  I also am on beta lists of various apps, which takes feedback to a whole different level.  So it's not just me, some random guy on the internet, who posts a feature request last week and then gets upset it isn't yet implemented.  I am a realist, but at the same time, I am aware that Serif really doesn't put a lot of effort into implementing significantly meaningful feature improvements that would have persuasive impact on Adobe app users.

Rather than make excuses for the way things are, I'd like to see a more proactive approach on the part of Serif to engage people about features in the forum and start implementing old feature requests that have a lot of user support.  Only that is going to make a difference in the mind of many users.  Simply telling us about "the way things are" isn't reassuring at all.  

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2 hours ago, JDW said:

a more proactive approach on the part of Serif to engage people about features in the forum

There are two ways to make that happen: stop developing the software and waste the time they would have spent working on the code explaining things on the forums instead, or raise the price of the product significantly to offset the cost of hiring new people dedicated to chatting with users  on the forums...

 

2 hours ago, JDW said:

Simply telling us about "the way things are" isn't reassuring at all

Why should it need to be?

If your request is implemented in 10 months, 10 years, or not at all, you still got what you paid for.  Feature requests are just that - requests - they are not guaranteed to happen at all.

Your expectations are not in line with reality.

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  • 10 months later...
7 minutes ago, Pres said:

2021 here, still looking for this feature first requested by OP in 2015. :7_sweat_smile:

Better not talk about it too loudly or @fde101 will be telling you that "your expectations are not in line with reality." 🙂 

The sad reality is that Serif really doesn't care.  If they did, it would have been implemented by now or they would have cared enough to have one person from their company actually read this forum and chime in now and then.  I am in the forums of other software where it's a night and day difference.  Some developers care, while others don't.

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I disagree with the inference that serf devs don't care i think that's disrespectful. I also don't like users continually wanting AP to work like PS it has and should find its own way.

Having said that it's clear that having a wander through these threads there are a relatively small number of long standing valid issues and feature requests, like the OPs, that do on the surface seem to be reasonably easy to implement, low hanging fruit if you will (I accept that is a dangerous assumption though!)

Meanwhile how many hours were burnt on that astro module.

I get the wish/need to widen the apps appeal to a wider audience, new sales. We all benefit from this even if we don't use a particular new feature but there is a danger that maintenance/improvement and addition of functionality to older features gets left behind. 

It's not just about driving new sales you need to keep existing users happy too.  I'm 100% sure serf know their business better than me but as an outsider it does feel like the balance isn't quite right at times.

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2 hours ago, harrym said:

I disagree with the inference that serf devs don't care i think that's disrespectful.

I also don't like users continually wanting AP to work like PS it has and should find its own way.

I'm 100% sure serf know their business better than me but as an outsider it does feel like the balance isn't quite right at times.

I disagree profoundly with most of the above 3 statements, although the second half of the third sentence above does seem like an admission of sympathy toward your fellow Affinity app users, which I sincerely very humbly appreciate. But I must refute the other statements as follows...

Is it “respectful” to boldly say that you "don't like" your fellow Affinity users repeatedly requesting something you yourself do not find necessary? (If one answers “yes“ to that question, then one must recant and admit that users asking for features which resembles PS must also be deemed "respectful." But if one answer is “no“ to that question, then one’s own statement about "disrespect" suddenly becomes null and void.)

 I personally feel we give Serif our biggest "respect" when we pay them money for their software.  If one tries to argue with me saying, "Yeah, but we don't pay much," I shall boldly refute such by saying, "that is the fault of Serif, not you or I!"  What if Serif approached us and said, "would you pay us a bit more for some of the features you have been requesting?"  I have little doubt most users who want those features would say YES!  And yet, Serif has never given us such an opportunity.  They don't even engage us in the forums either, unlike other developers do.  So all is left is for us to express our pain and suffering as best as we can in this forum, in hopes that someone in a power position at Serif will one day read what we write, then kick the engineers in the pants to get cracking on it!  Yes, I can be provocative in what I write, but so was Steve Jobs with his people.  Sometimes you have to be a bit forthright to clear stubbornness out of the way and make a little progress.  Some will hate you for that, but many others will love you for the end result.

Next, you said you are 100% sure about Serif's intentions.  That is a bold statement. Yet you do not work for Serif as per your admission of being an "outsider."  Again, I appreciate your saying "the balance is not right," as that plainly justifies all I have written to date.  But the fact remains you made a very big assumption on the part of Serif which you really cannot be 100% sure about.  But let's analyze that by considering just how many YEARS it has been since Affinity apps first came out...

What headway has Serif made in dethroning the Adobe beast in all these years?  Answer: Hardly any at all.  Is there any clear evidence Affinity app users are growing by leaps and bounds?  No, I cannot see that.

That is not the fault of price though.  That is not the fault of NOT having a horrid subscription model.  Serif is brilliant in having made those decisions!  I sing the name of Serif unto the highest heavens for that!  That is why I am still here, my friends! I really do love Serif's creations.  I just find them lacking in some areas and everything within my being screams out at me to voice those deficiencies.

So what then is the problem with growing our user base?  Is it that people refuse to use any software without the holy "Adobe" named stamped upon it?  Doubtful.  Is it that people want to continuing working as they always have, with a familiar set of tools, yet without that horrid and detestable subscription model?  I cannot speak for everyone here, but in my own case, that is a resounding YES!  And yet, for some users of Adobe apps, the feature set of Affinity apps is still incomplete.  

Again, it's not like Affinity apps came out yesterday, last week or even last year.  These apps have been around FOR YEARS, and yet the feature set is not advancing in such a way to break more Adobe users away from the very subscription model they hate — they do hate it, if they admit the truth.  Therefore, I must logically conclude that Serif is trying to forge its own path without thinking much of Adobe users, merely hoping that Affinity becomes so popular in the market that popularity alone will magnetically pull Adobe users toward Affinity apps.  But if that is indeed the way they think (and I am not "100%" sure about that), Serif is deliberately overlooking the fact that to become big in this market, you must pull users away from Adobe.  How does one pull users away from Adobe, you ask?  Answer: COMPELLING FEATURES!  That is the very heart of this thread and my other feature request threads.

All said...

Serif, please stop dilly-dallying and just implement "Set White Point, Photoshop-style."  We want it.  You know it would be great.  Now be like Nike and JUST DO IT.

THANK YOU!

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Adobe has been around for YEARS, Serif's Affinity maybe 6 yrs at most, so you're wrong about "these apps have been around for years".

Most all the feature requests seem to have strings back to Adobe. Add this feature because it's in PS, make this like it's done in PS. Then there's the "this is the one thing that's keeping me from dropping PS". All a bunch of bunk!! If it's PS that does the job for you, then please go use it and stop whining to Serif. I've posted it before, if Serif would suddenly clone PS, Illustrator, InDesign, but dramatically raise the price to be in line with Adobe, would you drop Adobe for Serif's Affinity apps? My guess is, probably not. All these pleas for Affinity to be like PS, is due to the programs being inexpensive. Right now, with all the bugs, if Serif charged over $150 per app, I doubt there would be many people here posting feature requests, or be interested in using them.

23 hours ago, JDW said:

Is it “respectful” to boldly say that you "don't like" your fellow Affinity users repeatedly requesting something you yourself do not find necessary? (If one answers “yes“ to that question, then one must recant and admit that users asking for features which resembles PS must also be deemed "respectful." But if one answer is “no“ to that question, then one’s own statement about "disrespect" suddenly becomes null and void.)

That's the biggest political-type double speak I think I've read in a while. Pose the question in such a way regardless of how it's answered you appear to be right and the other person wrong. How about this? Is it wrong to say, I think it's ridiculous for all the requests, demands, pleas, for Serif to make THEIR PRODUCT just like Adobe's.

Oh and you do know that there's one way to get Affinity Photo to be so much like Adobe PhotoShop one could not tell the difference? Yep, big corporations like Adobe, Corel, have used it numerous times. When your competition gets too close, so close that it does threaten your market in a big way. You simply buy them out. Don't think for a minute if Serif were offered some real serious cash, they wouldn't take it. I've seen both corporations I mentioned do that and then just kill the app, don't release it, just put it on the shelf and let it collect dust. So keep edging Serif towards being just like Adobe, and we will get to see what Adobe does to protect it's interests. ;)

Affinity Photo 2.4..; Affinity Designer 2.4..; Affinity Publisher 2.4..; Affinity2 Beta versions. Affinity Photo,Designer 1.10.6.1605 Win10 Home Version:21H2, Build: 19044.1766: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz, 3301 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s);32GB Ram, Nvidia GTX 3070, 3-Internal HDD (1 Crucial MX5000 1TB, 1-Crucial MX5000 500GB, 1-WD 1 TB), 4 External HDD

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47 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

Adobe has been around for YEARS, Serif's Affinity maybe 6 yrs at most, so you're wrong about "these apps have been around for years".

LOL.  I am NOT "wrong."  I do know the English language natively, so perhaps there is a translation error on your part. 🙂  "For years" & "6 years" are pretty much one and the same, my friend.  It really is a long time in computer years.

With that said, it doesn't matter if Adobe has been around longer than Serif.  "Why not," you ask?  Quite simply because we are NOT asking Serif to recreate EVERY SINGLE FEATURE of Adobe apps.  You got upset and jumped to conclusions in thinking that was being asked of me and others like me.  That was not and is not what is being asked.  As such, any comparison between those 6 years and Adobe's app existence since the 1980's (even before Adobe acquired those apps), is largely irrelevant because we are talking about a simple few features here and there.  They are key features though, which is why I keep pounding on them as people come across these ancient, spider-web laden threads originally started by me.  

51 minutes ago, Ron P. said:

If it's PS that does the job for you, then please go use it and stop whining to Serif.

Based on what you wrote, I seriously doubt that if I stopped what you call "whining" that you would respond in kind and suddenly stop bashing your fellow Affinity lovers over their strong persistence in asking for a few new features.  Let's face it. We are in the same boat whether you like it or not.  The fact we all have purchased and use Affinity apps puts us in that boat.  Some of us have different needs though.  It would be great if you could be more open-minded about that, but I realize some folks prefer to worship the status quo and avoid thinking beyond the box of features they already have.  But here's the thing...  If the existing feature set pleases you, great!  I'm happy for you.  I really am.  But please don't bat the rest of us over the head for asking for more -- even during those times we ask for it repeatedly and even provocatively.  

If ultimately Serif does add more features that tickle Adobe users pink and bring even more them over to Affinity apps, those new features won't IN ANY WAY transform Affinity apps into the Adobe apps you seem to dread.  Again, we're talking a few features here and there.  That's it in a nutshell.

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  • 11 months later...

The holding down Alt key to preview white and black points is neat, but there's zero hints about that in the UI itself, which results in this:

There were even more threads when I searched, so I hope Affinity can make their UI about this more intuitive in the future...

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Some photographers prefer to have neutral grey card or guaranteed grey object in their shoot so they can instantly set colour balance by eyedropper. I have used this time to time.

Eyes tend to adapt to any lighting or colour cast so eye calibration can drift a lot...

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