Affinity Photo Desktop Course: Export & Adjustment Layers (lesson 2)

[@wayneviglione6879]

These are excellent, well paced lessons that can be watched by beginners and intermediate users alike. Thank you.

[@RobinWhalley]

Glad you like them. Thank you.

[@kincept]

14:18 - I believe the shortcut corresponds to Layer -> Merge Visible

[@RobinWhalley]

Yes you're correct.

[@ashleyrowland2123]

Legend! 👍, most comprehensive and helpful tutorials for new users. found your channel looking for alternatives to Photoshop as their CC Subscription is a rip off for general users. Thank you, I will be moving to Affinity for sure now 😁

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. I'm pleased that you like this little series of lessons. I have a lot of other Affinity Photo videos which I hope you find helpful and there are more tutorials on my website.

[@manuelferreira1279]

Thank You Mr.Robin for this new video of Affinity Photo with very good information :)

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you very much. I'm currently working on the third lesson in the series so it's nice to know you like it.

[@kenalexander8714]

Thank you Robin. This series of videos is proving very useful.

[@RobinWhalley]

You're very welcome!

[@RFD7]

Excellent well done very helpful

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you very much.

[@SuperEarther]

thanks for the guide! i was previously using fotor but the night photography rendering doesn't work so i am trying this! i think getting used to this compared to fotor will be a challenge

[@RobinWhalley]

I suspect Affinity Photo will be more challenging to learn and use but having taken a quick look at Fotor, I think it will be far more powerful and worth the effort.

[@SuperEarther]

@@RobinWhalley i think you are right! after watching these lessons i can now edit my photos and im already impressed

[@zoltanpuskas4722]

Thank you, Robin, as always, this is good information presented in a balanced approach.

[@RobinWhalley]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you.

[@kyriamartin503]

Very helpful video, thank you! Can you tell me more on the exporting options? For sending real estate photography or family portraits to clients, what format is best to exports those photos in?

[@RobinWhalley]

If you are going to be sharing images with others then most of the time JPEG is the best option. You can then adjust the compression to control the size and quality of the image. They will thank you for making the file size small and most of the time they won't notice if you use a high compression. The only time you need to export to something like a TIFF file is for something like FIne Art printing or if the image will be edited further.

[@ausfan100]

Excellent video Robin. One thing that might have been helpful for learners (like me) in the EXPORT feature - You rightly stressed that exporting as a jpeg, loses the layers that have been used in completing the project. I could have used the "Save/Save As" option you mentioned earlier in the piece, however, that wasn't an option for me as I found the resulting 'af photo' file, doesn't allow opening or using that format in other applications on my computer. What I wasn't aware of from your video is that I could have retained all my layers if I had known that exporting as a TIFF file kept them for possible later adjustments. Certainly the result is a larger file, however, at least I have retained the steps I used.

[@RobinWhalley]

Yes, the only software that can read the .afphoto format is Affinity and it's the default for saving images edited in Affinity. As you mention, TIFF files are quite a lot bigger but you can set Affinity to use zip compression in the Export dialog when you save them. It's slower but the files are smaller. Another useful option is to export the files in the Photoshop PSD format. This is also smaller than the TIFF format and retains layers. DO check with these alternative formats if you lose things like History though and be sure to watch the other lessons in the course.

[@ausfan100]

@@RobinWhalley - Thanks Robin. I've not tried that Photoshop format, but now you've alerted me to it, I'll give it a try. Thanks for the other useful videos.

[@RobinWhalley]

@@ausfan100 You're welcome

[@jean-benoitdestaercke3638]

Super !!! Merci.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you 😀

[@11941leechie]

Hello can you put a links to different parts of your video. Would really help.

[@RobinWhalley]

No, I'm sorry. I did think about doing that at one time but that defeats the idea behind the course. Because I only cover the essential elements in many of the course videos I don't want to encourage people to skip around. When I've done it in the past, people skip sections, become confused and then give up.

[@11941leechie]

@@RobinWhalley found a way. On a iPad is hard to see the drop boxes and actually where the mouse is pointing. I like the shortness of the video.

[@lynnemarafino83]

Robin love your videos ! I have been using Affinity photo for awhile but I always learn something from your videos! I do have a question about the long shortcut you show merge everything into one pixel layer. Does it do the same thing when you right click on the layers panel and select merge visible? I think it's the same. I hope so because I will never remember that shortcut. LOL

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you. To answer your question, yes it does the same thing (although I'm sure it didn't in a very early version of Affinity I had).

[@lescphotos]

I've been watching your Affinity tutorials with interest Robin as I bought Affinity a while back as a backup for Photoshop in case the subscriptions ever got too high. However the selection methods in the Develop persona are just so basic and light years behind those in ACR/Lightroom that I can't really see myself using it over Photoshop unless I really had to. I hope Affinity continues to improve and rival Photoshop one day.

[@RobinWhalley]

Yes, the localised adjustments in the Develop Person are very crude in comparison to other tools. But, I think we need to take a different approach to using the Develop Persona. All we really need to do is create a good starting image. The best tools are in the Photo Persona and it's then non-destructive as well. That said, it would be nice to see the Develop Persona developed a little further and become non-destructive.

[@lescphotos]

@@RobinWhalley Thanks Robin, I'll persevere & see how it goes! As you say, would be nice to see the Develop Persona become a little more sophisticated; hopefully that will come in time :)

[@alx7157]

Brill vid, Robin. Exceptional value that convinced me to not go back to PS. What's your take on AP2? Personally, I could've used some AI in the update. We shall see... Respect, fam.

[@RobinWhalley]

I'm very impressed with Affinity Photo 2. There are some nice new features that make it easier to work with images and produce better results. I particularly like the new masks. I realise people are complaining about there being no DAM but that's now what Affinity Photo was designed for. It's like complaining there isn't a DAM manager in Photoshop.

[@alx7157]

@@RobinWhalley Agreed. I'm totally looking forward to the future with AP.

[@MottiWolkenbruch]

@@RobinWhalley Are you going to do a tutorial about the new masks in AP2? Love, Thomas.

[@RobinWhalley]

@@MottiWolkenbruch Do you mean this one? kzbin.info/www/bejne/omeXp2x4eq-aodk

[@ilonawielosik4971]

Very informative but for a beginner I found the speed of the voice really fast and also no breaks in-between new set of informations and robotic voice makes it really difficult to follow. Sorry just making this comment to highlight some difficulties many people who are new to photo editing may encounter, but thank you for your work anyway🙏

[@RobinWhalley]

I can understand your comments. Try slowing the speed in the playback or pausing. When I'm too slow and leave gaps I receive complaints. Sorry.

[@ilonawielosik4971]

Thank You@@RobinWhalley The tutorials are really good though

[@photographedemode]

👏

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks

[@oliveroflanagan2677]

X

[@RobinWhalley]

?

[@Fiveash-Art]

Too much nonsense going on with the way this program handles the layers .... It's convoluted and overly complicated. It seems the program is trying to hold your hand, but in that, it's just bombarding the user with too much useless information. Some of us know how to handle what we do with our layers, making decisions, sticking with them and simply putting a fork in it. IT'S DONE .. 'non destructive' just sounds like a gimmick to me and it's just straight up annoying. I feel like I have to go through so many different edits just to do something that should be much more simple and straight forward. The layer window just looks like a mess and it's a headache to look at, much less keeping track of what the user is doing. Bad form .. seriously .. what the hell were these programmers thinking with this? It's terrible. So far, I'm cool with most of the layout and concepts they've achieved in a basic emulation of PS .. but the core is a serious misstep .. THE LAYERS .. of course this is the function they'd screw up. It's the foundation of the program, and it's ass backward. I keep thinking 'is this a joke?' .. and then I have to curse at the screen.