Questions regarding Affinity Photo for iPad…

[Macshroomer]

Hi gang,

I am working on a photo project for a couple months in the Faroe Islands and while I am mostly shooting B&W film, I am also doing some digital work and using a new 11” iPad Pro with the M1 chip. I am using Affinity Photo since it seems feature rich but there is a bit of a learning curve with it.

1. How do I delete the photos worked that always appear when I first open it up.

2. Burning and dodging in even areas like the sky seems to posterize with bands of lightening or darkening. There are like a zillion settings for it and I am just trying to get it to behave like standard photoshop does (Smooth).

Any tips in this regard would be a great help!

 

[Slartibart]

Not sure wether I understand you right, but regarding 1.: you can delete any project by choosing „close“ from the „hamburger“-menu in the right lower corner of the individual document icon in document overview.

regarding 2.: this depends what you want to achieve. (I know, not reeeeally helpful 🤓) For working on the sky in a photo I personally prefer to create a separate layer with the sky first, then switch to the tone mapping persona: there you bring down the tone compression, increase local contrast, adjust shadows and highlights, adjust the blackpoint. Then I switch back into the Develop persona and use the Clarity-slider (offers much better granularity then the live-filter). Develop this and then, in a last step, get rid of any spots etc. using the inpainting tool (which is a marvel!).

 

[kenoh]

Good choice of tool and yes quite the curve from LR.

I think the answer to the first point - if I read it correctly - is that you tap the three bars bottom right of each thumbnail and tap close - that closes your "project" for that image and it will disappear. Only do this once exported and and you are finished with it in Affinity.

For point 2, Sorry that is beyond my skillset I am afraid but I suspect it maybe that you are editing an 8bit image not a 16 or 32 bit?

Faroe Islands..... - no, I am not jealous AT ALL!!! 😂 but if you need a minion to carry your bags..... oh and if appropriate, tips after the trip would be awesome because I fully intend to go there in the not too distant future.

 

[Macshroomer]

The first one was easy….not sure why I never noticed the 3 bars, lol.

The second one, well maybe if I find the time I will see what I can do with it via tutorials and experimentation but honestly, I have never had an issue with the way the Adobe one in Photoshop works and I have been using it since 1992.

It’s not critical I use digital, this is 99.99% about B&W film images and .01% about digital.

 

[cupcakes2000]

I am just trying to get it to behave like standard photoshop does (Smooth).

I have never had an issue with the way the Adobe one in Photoshop works and I have been using it since 1992.

To be frank, it’s not Photoshop! You need to learn new software when you start to use it. It’s no one else’s fault if you can’t take the time to learn it, least of all the people that create the software. You cant expect it to work the same as other software, even if it does seem similar to you.

Photoshop does exist on the iPad, but it’s nowhere near the level of its desktop big brother yet, and nowhere near the power of AP either. Maybe worth a look though?

 

[Macshroomer]

To be frank, it’s not Photoshop! You need to learn new software when you start to use it. It’s no one else’s fault if you can’t take the time to learn it, least of all the people that create the software. You cant expect it to work the same as other software, even if it does seem similar to you.

Photoshop does exist on the iPad, but it’s nowhere near the level of its desktop big brother yet, and nowhere near the power of AP either. Maybe worth a look though?

I just thought I would post and see if there was a simple adjustment, did not mean to offend anyone.

I’ll learn it but it’s just not that important on this trip, I have more important things to do and digital image making is taking a far back seat to the analog variety. I doubt I will even fill the cards up once over the next two months so it can easily wait until I get home.

If I find I have a block of time to put towards it then I will dive deeper into it.

 

[cupcakes2000]

I just thought I would post and see if there was a simple adjustment, did not mean to offend anyone.

I’ll learn it but it’s just not that important on this trip, I have more important things to do and digital image making is taking a far back seat to the analog variety. I doubt I will even fill the cards up once over the next two months so it can easily wait until I get home.

If I find I have a block of time to put towards it then I will dive deeper into it.

You should- It’s worth it

 

[Macshroomer]

Well I’ll be darned, the app just showed it’s stuff. I had a last minute swap of a photo for a magazine cover and not only was I able to work in CMYK color, it seemed to do the burn in on a high key image just fine.

This is what I wanted the new iPad to be able to do, take a 50MP file and work just fine while on the road. Happy client, time for bed…

 

[kenoh]

Well I’ll be darned, the app just showed it’s stuff. I had a last minute swap of a photo for a magazine cover and not only was I able to work in CMYK color, it seemed to do the burn in on a high key image just fine.

This is what I wanted the new iPad to be able to do, take a 50MP file and work just fine while on the road. Happy client, time for bed…

Also, make sure it is actually blocking up in the image rather than AP just not rendering it fully. I moved away from Fuji thinking that the images were rubbish because lightroom mangled them. I then found out that exported images were actually fine it was just on the screen. So maybe next time you see it, take a quick break, export the image and open it in another app to see if the blocking is actually manifesting in the output. Might just be the way AP is rendering the image for speeding up editing - not that you need that on an M1 pro.

and yes you are absolutely allowed to ask a question like this just as we are allowed to ignore it if we wish.


The tutorials section in the app is very good when you have time and it is structured by tasks rather than by features which makes it a lot easier to locate valuable workflow information when you need it in a pinch.

Happy shooting and I hope you enjoy the trip.

 

[OldMacs4Me]

Further to what Kenoh offered. Your iPad is not displaying at 50 MP, so try to make sure the image is displaying at 25%, or 12.5% or 6.25%. Otherwise AP will probably pick a value that gives you a maximum size and as Kenoh said that may fail to resolve cleanly on your screen, even though the image is just fine.

Have a great trip and maybe share one or two of those B&W images when you are able.