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I keep loading new betas hoping for some movement on these issues but as time moves on it looks like Photo isn't going to replace PS for me anytime soon. I have mentioned them early on in feature requests and bugs as appropriate. I admit I haven't had time to follow all the progress and I may well have missed something. If so great, please let me know how to do it and I'll be happy.

 

I know Dan Margulis evokes polarized opinions but usually in some fairly restricted domains. There are a ton of useful workflows in Professional Photoshop and Photoshop LAB Color that depend on the channel-specific blend-if sliders in the PS layer options dialog. If you do colour correction using those workflows blend-if can be the difference between spending minutes or hours on a correction. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't see these in Photo. The layer blending dialog in Photo is as far as I can tell completely ignorant of colour channels and therefore virtually useless for me.

 

The other thing that prevents me from doing a full correction, not a blocker but such an impediment that it's not worth the effort, is that I can't see how to apply e.g. a curves modification to a mask channel. Again if I just haven't found it, please let me know. I can use adjustments to prepare a mask based on e.g. the CMYK yellow or black. But it's hard to tweak in place.

 

In PS I can apply curves to anything I can see - maybe not as an adjustment layer but I can still do that. I like everything as an adjustment layer but if there's no immediate application of adjustments I need to be able to apply them to any pixel layer - including masks.

 

Photo seems like a great bitmap editor, great for collage work - splicing existing photos etc. But PS is still the only game in town for serious colour correction and unfortunately that's what I need to do. Most of the rest I can already do in Designer.

 

Also I still can't believe that we have a Master curve in Lab mode - and it's the default. That just doesn't make any sense. Doesn't make much sense in CMYK either (because neutrals don't have the same value across all channels) and should be avoided in RGB (because master adjustments can shift colours) but that's another battle.

 

So best wishes for Photo but it's not much use for me right now.

 

Also congrats on the Apple Design Award for Designer! You guys really do deserve it!

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i own and like  both of his books but with the progress in image quality coming from digital cameras i have stopped using his techniques long ago .  some of his tricks can also be performed with layer blending and some plugins like topaz detail offer a kind of channel blending option too. but in any way it would be far better to have this tool in AP.  but i totally agree we need to apply curves and other tools on a mask !

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@csp:  Whose books, what techniques?  I searched for Blatherus which took me to Owen Lewery, a photographer, but couldn't find any book ...

Retina iMac (4K display, 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM) OS X 10.11.6  Capture One 10.

 

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It's is already possible to do the blend-if with Photo (Icon next to lock), although it seems that they went with the more "curves-based" approach rather than sliders (like PS)…

 

correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that Blatherus was referring that with PS, there are checkboxes for specific channels for more control, but with Photo it's all or nothing at the moment.

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Could you please describe it a little further? I actually didn´t get it yet  ...

 

Thanks in advance! 

The Blend-If option can be accessed, as mentioned above, by pressing the icon next to the lock. Here is a screen shot showing how to open the Blend-If functionality:

 

post-5675-0-42036900-1434631972_thumb.jpg

 

I have not used this before and am only now experimenting with how it functions. If and when I figure it out I will post more information. Sorry for my lack to detailed knowledge about this area, but it is clearly something that I need to learn about because some of my efforts to replace a sky have not turned out so well because of my inability to mask the leaves and shrubs on the horizon. This functionality might solve that problem. If I get it figured out ...  :D

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Well I first saw it in a video where it was presented as a possibility of quick and dirty D&B.

Create a black and a white Layer and make the black layer visible in the dark areas (if there is a light area - do not show this layer), and make the white layer only visible in the white areas to enhance them.

I just tried it out with soft light and lowering the opacity and it was´t that great but the picture I just grabbed was´t that ether so there is some room for improvement.

 

Generally I want to use Blend-If if I want to color shadows or highlight.

For example in a black/white image you can give the dark area a sort of sepia color.

 

 

And well....too bad that i didn´t see the lock icon :D haha 

 

 

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Well I first saw it in a video where it was presented as a possibility of quick and dirty D&B.

Create a black and a white Layer and make the black layer visible in the dark areas (if there is a light area - do not show this layer), and make the white layer only visible in the white areas to enhance them.

I just tried it out with soft light and lowering the opacity and it was´t that great but the picture I just grabbed was´t that ether so there is some room for improvement.

 

Generally I want to use Blend-If if I want to color shadows or highlight.

For example in a black/white image you can give the dark area a sort of sepia color.

 

 

And well....too bad that i didn´t see the lock icon :D haha 

I guess I did not need to go through the details I wrote in the PM to you since you seem to know about how to use it. You can just ignore the last PM I sent to you, especially since it was based on some preliminary experimental steps and may not be completely accurate.

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Mike, everything is great! Thanks again!

 

Maybe there is a friendly person who wants to spend some time making a short tutorial about the blend If dialog in Affinity since it´s not the same as the one in PS at first glance.

 

I guess it might have the same functionality but it didn´t quite came clear to me so a short video would be really neat !

 

 

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Mike, everything is great! Thanks again!

 

Maybe there is a friendly person who wants to spend some time making a short tutorial about the blend If dialog in Affinity since it´s not the same as the one in PS at first glance.

 

I guess it might have the same functionality but it didn´t quite came clear to me so a short video would be really neat !

That would be very nice. I can see how to use it, but I am not sure that the process I am using is either the right way or the way to get the best out of the functionality.

 

Usually playing around with functionality and seeing what each part does is enough for me to get a handle on how to use it, but that does not mean that I am using it correctly or in a manner to give me the best functionality.

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Blatherus,

 

Thanks for the post - let me address the points you raise:

 

1.) Channel support in the Blend Options panel (Blend If) has been implemented and will ship in the RC1 build due on Monday - Blend If in AP is more sophisticated than the equivalent in other photo editing tools - supporting full spline maps etc. - and it just took us a little longer to get it working for all channels.

 

2.) It is already possible to use curves and a number of other adjustments on mask layers in a destructive or non destructive manor - but because masks in AP are a generic layer and can be moved to any position in the document, it might not be immediately obvious how to do it. The rough process is as follows:

 

  • Add a mask to a layer
  • Right click that mask and choose "Release Mask" - the mask will become a sibling of the target layer. Group these two if you require the mask to be limited to the original layer.
  • Select the mask and add a Curves Adjustment.
  • Manipulate the Alpha channel in the Curves Adjustment.

 

This process applies to *all* types of layers - masks, adjustments, live filters, etc. The process is incredibly flexible, but there is admittedly an extra step or so. I believe the flexibility outweighs the complexity.

 

3.) We currently show a Master channel by default for all adjustments in all formats. I agree that it has no relevance for LAB, Grey and possibly CMYK and accepted the bug reporting it some time ago. Trouble is, the bug causes no instability, crashes or odd behaviour - it's just an unnecessary option. Hence, it's way down the list of things to fix - we will fix it though - because it has been accepted as broken.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Andy.

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Andy, what's "RC1 build"?  Is that the same as (or close to) what is sometimes called "Gold Master" (GM)?   If so - looks like we are getting very close to the day we've been waiting for  :)

Retina iMac (4K display, 1TB SSD, 16GB RAM) OS X 10.11.6  Capture One 10.

 

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Hi,

 

RC1 means "Release Candidate 1" - a build which could possibly ship. It's unusual for the first release candidate to actually ship (this one almost certainly won't :D ) - but eventually one of the release candidates will ship and become Gold Master.

 

Thanks,

 

Andy.

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hallo andy,

 

 

thank you for this information !   please  have a look at this problem... 

 

 

did play a little more, seems all blur filter show this bug when used on a layer mask.

post-6494-0-04319200-1434798212_thumb.png

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Thanks for the RC1 info Andy - exciting times!

 

I agree. This means that we are getting close to actual product release. I can hardly wait for Monday to find out what functionality will likely be in AP (when we no longer have to use the trailing "B"). The only things I need are exif data and plugin functionality.

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Hi Mike,

 

The EXIF bugs / capabilities are fixed / done for the Monday release - but we are still working on PS Plugin improvements (this is mainly why the first RC will not ship). We will get them working properly very soon after though, then we might be good to go..

 

Andy.

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