Posts by ldina

Attached is a link to a PDF file I wrote on converting color film negatives (with the orange colored mask) to positives in Affinity Photo. It's fairly comprehensive and provides step ty step instructions.

Processing Color Negatives in Affinity Photo-Rev B.pdf

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Darwin was right.

I just completed an illustration of a Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly at the request of my brother. I had done one previously, but he wanted a version with the forewings raised higher, so the trailing edges were horizontal, exposing more of the underwings. It was easier to start over from scratch than to modify my first version.

This illustration is mostly vector based. With Affinity, "Path Brushes" aren't true vectors, so I guess you'd call it a hybrid, done mostly in the Vector Studio. I did use some FX, blurs, gradients, Procedural Textures, and background textures, but very little was done using pixel based brushes or painting. I did use the Smudge Brush some, which is pixel based.

My brother has many butterflies mounted and hanging on his walls and he wanted this to match the size, frames and backgrounds of his existing butterflies and moths. So, I used a natural textured paper image in the background (to simulate cotton batting and provide some texture), and a black frame on the outside. The result is much more crowded than I'd normally choose, but his requirements dictated these sizes, borders and dimensions.

Quote from Oufti

As soon as I chose Show special characters, the Preview button is toggled Off.

So it is!! Thanks.

On my Mac, "Show Special Characters" seems to work with Preview mode ON or OFF, and it also works even if the text box is not selected.

I think you can find it in the Main Menus...Text > Show Special Characters (in English).

You should be able to set up a shortcut for that command in Settings, as shown below. I hope this is what you are looking for.

Quote from walt.farrell

In your Affinity Settings, under Assistant: click Develop Assistant (at the bottom of the the list). What do you have specified for Default Lens Profile?

Auto Select.

It works fine for supported lenses and my Canon cameras. It just doesn't seem to work for the Leica Q2.

I was able to download a Leica Q2 DNG image from DPReview and it opened fine in the v3 Develop Studio, but as you said, the lens profile was NOT automatically picked up and assigned...I had to do that manually. It worked, but was an extra step.

Same here.

I downloaded the Lensfun XML file from GitHub and installed it, but it didn't work. I think it should have, since the Q2 is included in that XML file. I have read on the old Affinity Forum that the XML file needs to be coded exactly right in order to work properly. See David in Russia's reply at the link below. This is for a Panasonic camera, but the same principles should apply, I would think.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/234216-affinity-photo-2-%E2%80%94-lumix-lens-profile-not-applied-automatically/#comment-1390609

And below is the link the the Lensfun XML file for Compact Leica cameras. Maybe minor tweaks to the file will make it work.

lensfun/data/db/compact-leica.xml at master · lensfun/lensfun

The Lensfun project Git repository. Contribute to lensfun/lensfun development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

If all else fails, you can save the Leica Q2 and Compatibles as a "favorite" but it will still be a manual process.

Apple iPhones do a LOT of processing in the background...i.e., multiple exposures to extend dynamic range, machine learning and AI algorithms, etc, then they combine and package the result inside of a DNG wrapper (if shooting in that mode). What comes into Affinity (v2 or v3) depends on how you bring it into Affinity. A lot of those issues are problems with Apple and their lack of clarity and transparency. I have an iPhone 16 Pro and the whole process it hit and miss. Some of that probably lies with Affinity, but I think Apple is mostly at fault...they want everyone to live within the Apple ecosystem. I haven't used Halide, so I don't know what it does when saving as DNG.

Both the Leica Q2 and the iPhone 14 are shown as supported for RAW. HEIF/HEIC at still a bit of a moving target. The fact that all the big players are engaged in turf wars over HDR, JPEG-XL and other standards doesn't help clear the air.

I don't know the answer to your question, but if you are willing to provide a link to a couple of problematic DNG files, I'd be willing to see if I can find anything. If you do, please provide some info on the compression algorithm used (JPEG or JPEG-XL), software used to generate the DNG, etc.

You can also search for "DNG" on the old Serif Affinity Forum (which is only applicable to v1 and v2).

What is the camera source for your DNG files? And does your DNG file save with standard JPG compression or JPEG-XL compression? The DNG specification was updated not too long ago to add JPEG-XL. That's a selectable option with Apple iPhone cameras. Many new cameras combine multiple exposures and combine them into a single file, then package them in various ways. I have heard that some smartphones generate DNG files that are non-standard and can be problematic for some software packages.

I process DNG files on a regular basis without any problems from my Canon 5Dmk2 camera (files converted from CR2 to DNG using Adobe DNG Converter).

Cassel Below are two screenshots...one of a Light Charcoal Brush (for open curves) and one for a Light Charcoal Brush (for Closed Curves). The first screenshot is for standard OPEN curves. You'll notice there red dotted line on each side at 384 px and 2944 px (both measured from the left edge of the stroke). The portion between those red dotted lines will be repeated or stretched, depending on your settings. The left and right sections (outside the dotted lines, i.e., head and tail) will be appended at the beginning and end of the stroke.

Compare that with the below screenshot. This is for CLOSED Curves. This brush is the same overall, but you will notice there is NO HEAD and NO TAIL, and just as important, the right and left edges are pretty much identical...same thickness, texture, etc. So, if you use this in a rectangle, ellipse, etc, the ends will join perfectly, or close to perfect. It's all how the original PNG files were created and saved. It would be nice if you could choose to "Ignore" the Head and Tail (via a toggle or checkbox), but I don't think that is currently supported.

Below is a link to an excellent tutorial, very well explained, on Vector Brushes, how they are created, how they work, etc. These are now called Path Brushes in Affinity v3.

DarkClown Thank you.

I'll try to give a brief overview, but this bluebird illustration took me a couple of days, evolved as I went along, was very involved and employed a lot of different tools and techniques. There are many ways to approach a design like this, so mine is just one. I've done other illustrations like this with very different approaches.

I started with a vector outline of the bird body. I created separate outlines for the legs/feet, branch and background. Inside the bird body outline I created Groups for different sections...beak, eye, etc. As someone correctly mentioned, eyes are very important, so I spent a lot of time on both the eyes and beak, mostly using vectors, Gradients, Blur FX, etc. Unlike many other portions of the bird, these needed to remain sharp.

The bird's body, I decided to break down into color sections...blues, grays/blacks, white and orange. I blocked in the colors using vectors. I used the new Gradient Mesh a fair amount, especially for the orange breast and blue head, for variation of color and tone. My goal was to block in the colors and blend them as seamlessly as possible before moving onto additional vector and pixel based enhancements. I often (not always) try to do as much as I can with vectors before moving onto pixel work. It could probably all be done in vector, but I usually blend vector and pixel elements, since this is a strength of Affinity.

The illustration was fairly smooth at this point, but lacked detail and nuance. I used a few texture images and Blend Modes to add a little texture to the feathered areas, and even some lighting effects, which helped break up the smooth vector look. Then, I did some painting with vector and pixel based brushes, many of which I have created myself, for things like feathers, etc. I often need to step back and see what works and does not work, then I have to figure out how to modify a section to achieve the effect I'm looking for. That is something that evolves as I move along, and the solution varies accordingly. I even used the new Glitch Filter (Blast), which you can see if you zoom in close, where the orange breast meets the body. I wasn't totally happy with that, but it did help break up the transition. I kept the amount fairly low so it wouldn't be too noticeable at normal viewing magnification.

Once I am happy with the overall look, I often add a duplicate layer (Merge Visible) for Smudging. In this case, I selected the entire bird outline first, then I refined the selection using "Pixel > Pixel Selection > Outline". I adjusted the outline width to select mainly the edges of the bird, which I pasted to a top layer (I didn't want to hide most of the underlying bird layers, in case I wanted to work more on them. (Affinity needs to add a non-destructive Smudge Brush, which I have submitted as a new feature requests.) Below is a screenshot of the "outline" pixel layer, which I smudged. If you zoom in, you can see the softening effect and also some fine feathers/hairs. This helps to break up the hard-edged vector look.

Anyway, I used the Smudge Brush on that top layer with a very small radius brush (varying between 1 to 10 pixels) and used it to add some small feathers, smooth edges, and add some distressed look so the bird didn't look overly sharp everywhere, which looks fake to me.

I used DelN's wonderful Nature Brushes to create the forest background. They were too sharp, so I added a small Gaussian blur to the background, adjusted Hue, Saturation and Lightness, etc.

Hopefully, this will give you an idea of one possible approach. Complex illustrations like this always evolve for me, depending on what needs attention. I don't know what's needed until I get there, then I need to decide on a tool that will get me there. I use a wide variety of tools, filters, adjustments, etc. And sometimes, a tool or approach doesn't work out to my satisfaction, so I delete that layer and start over using a different approach.

I hope this is helpful. These sorts of illustrations take a lot of time, patience, perseverance and attention to detail.

Quote from marce

Can you elaborate a bit more?

Sure. First, I assume your text is inside of a Text Frame.

Select the Text Frame brush and double click inside your text frame to make it active. Then, simply drag your cursor over the text you wish to select. Include the parentheses if you wish to select them too. Once selected and highlight, you can alter the text any way you wish...change font, size, color, etc.

I hope that helps.

You can do it manually with the Text Frame Brush Tool, either with or without the (). No problem. I actually downloaded your message text and did it inside of v3.0.3.

jmwellborn Thank you for the kind words. You've commented many times on birds that you have also seen. I'm curious where you live...I didn't see it in your profile. No problem if you don't wish to share that online...just curious.

My latest illustration of a Bluebird, done with Affinity v3.0.3. I did a lot of vector work on this one, but also did some pixel based work with brushes, filters, textures, FX, etc. I hope you like it.

I'd like to thank DelN for his beautiful pixel-based Nature Brushes, which I used to create the green jungle look in the background. His brushes are incredible and extremely versatile, with a lot of lovely texture and variation. Nice work, Del, and thank you for your generous sharing.

Here's a template I made for a 7x5 inch card and use all the time. Works with Affinity 2 or 3. It is set up for 8.5 x 11 inch paper and I fold and trim after printing. I'll also include a horizontal layout. Hope it works for you.

Affinity trace works well on some images, terrible on others. It currently lacks the control and flexibility many other vector trace algorithms provide. Many programs have specialized settings for different types of originals...simple graphics, engineering drawings, photos, maximum number of shades or colors, etc. Hopefully, they will add more flexibility in future releases.

Works perfectly on my end. Good luck.