Trouble with 360 Live Projection > Equirectangular Projection

[Big Swifty]

I'm new to both AP and working with 360x180 photos and am still playing around, trying to figure some things out.

I took an interior photo with a window that is still bright (for my liking) after merging 5 bracketed images in Photomatix. After stitching in PTGui I bring the TIFF into AP for editing and use adjustment layers to add an S curve, boost brightness, vibrance, and use color correction to deal with a color cast. I also go into the Develop Persona to add a bit of Clarity and Detail Refine. All easy.

One of the other adjustments I make (back in Photo Persona) is to use the selection brush to select the still bright window and then create a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to darken it up a bit. All good up to this point.

The problem is that when I go to Live Projection > Equirectangular Projection to be able to move around the photo, the darkened window selection (at the same size the selection was made at before switching to Live Projection) remains static in the frame, not moving with (or attached to) the window. 

What am I doing wrong, or not doing that I should be in order to fix this selection (and any other edits I may have issues with in the future) to the selected area? The Affinity Photo Tutorial on editing 360 photos only shows how to use the Inpaint Brush and the use of adjustment layers - all done within the Live Projection. Would flattening/merging the layers before going into Live Projection be a solution, even if it means I could no longer edit individual layers?

[Dan C]

Hi Big Swifty,

Welcome to the forums

9 hours ago, Big Swifty said:

The problem is that when I go to Live Projection > Equirectangular Projection to be able to move around the photo, the darkened window selection (at the same size the selection was made at before switching to Live Projection) remains static in the frame, not moving with (or attached to) the window. 

Unfortunately this is a limitation of the Equirectangular projection, as it only applies to a singular pixel layers and not adjustment/mask layers.

You'll need to Merge Down (right click on the adjustment layer for this option) any adjustment layers that contain masks for certain areas of your image - unfortunately this does mean the adjustment is destructive and no longer live.

I hope this helps!

[Pavinder]

On 10/8/2019 at 7:22 PM, Dan C said:

Unfortunately this is a limitation of the Equirectangular projection, as it only applies to a singular pixel layers and not adjustment/mask layers.

You'll need to Merge Down (right click on the adjustment layer for this option) any adjustment layers that contain masks for certain areas of your image - unfortunately this does mean the adjustment is destructive and no longer live.

I too wanted something similar - masking out windows and wanting to adjust the exterior view in equirectangular mode.

The following is a bit cumbersome, but something of a pseudo-workaround. It still doesn’t allow for live adjustments within the equirectangular projection, but it does at least make things non-destructive.

Duplicate the layers/masks before doing the Merge Down, then merge the duplicates and view the equirectangular. Then, if you realize the mask needs adjusting, you can simply delete the current layer and make the necessary adjustments back on the original mask layer.

Yes, it’s really time consuming, and not optimal. But by automating the duplication/creation process with a macro, this might at least speed it up a little.