I never paint actually in the channels - why would you ? specifically the alpha channel?
thats what I use the layer mask for ?
Well there definitely are restrictions. I was eg hoping to get Coolorus running in Affinity. But that wasnt possible as it was utilizing photoshops ui. Extension plugins definitely wont work.
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Dodge and Burn is possible and you can also paste to each individual channel of pixel layers via spare channels . Beside that you can separately define which channels are visible and which one you will edit.
I assumed @Metin_Seven was referring to the layer mask, that was one of the main discrepancy with PS which I see it hasnât changed yet. Working directly on the mask itâs still limited, unfortunately.
what is it that it is missing ?
Have you tried Illustrator recently? Donât get me wrong, I hate the subscription lock. But I have to use it for work and it has actually improved quite a bit over even a few years ago. Much faster and even Apple Silicon ready with the latest updates. There are some interesting things coming to Illustrator and the Adobe array of Apps. Think of some fairly recent Adobe acquisitions that might be of interests to people on these threads.
I bought Affinity Designer last year and have used it some for personal jobs. Incredible software.
The things I mentioned above: dodge/burning (curiously, smudge works), pasting directly into the layer mask, combining selections from multiple masks (add/subtract/intersectâŚ)âŚ
Nice full list, free of bias.
Saved me hours even days your weeks. Thank you!
Hopefully I can return the favor some day. 
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Isnât that actually possible when you edit the mask ?
Dodge burn etc works just tested it
Hm⌠Nope, it doesnât work here. Iâm on Affinity Photo 1.9.2.1035 for Windows.
No worries though, I donât want to derail the thread. Iâll double-check on the Affinity forum.
Completely agree, in 32bit pano editing it has become my goto app, although to be fair, memory consumtion is higher. The other downside is that its brush engine is a bit weaker.
But yeah it fills all the little needs I have with my cs 5.5 ps version. And for that price its a steal and imho a non brainer to install it alognside.
Why pasting directly into mask when you can make âpixel contentâ link in between any mask and normal layer where you could do whatever copy/paste you want .
Itâs beside a fact that In affinity you could have a group with gazzilion own layers or embedded doc as a mask .
Performance-wise painting in AP is alright, but the brushes leave to be desired. Theyâre far from being as flexible as Kritaâs. Performance does drop a bit when using big textured brushes, but the it is generally comparable to Krita (which I use daily for illustration work). A weird one is the entire interface starts lagging a little when working on big documents and the layers docker is a pain to work with. Youâd think it would be well designed given itâs the âcenter of operationsâ but no itâs awkward to inspect and use.
Where it falls short is painting ergonomics⌠Krita really shines there but AP is not made for painters and it shows. Really just the choice of hotkeys (hardcoded!) for changing brush size, etc. is baffling. Reminds me of Modo and its three-key shortcut to⌠orbit the view. Some hotkeys are available to change, but not the modal ones, I mean the ones part of a tool. At least I havenât found them ? maybe that changed, Iâd have to check back.
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Many people use both. I gifted it to someone and they use it daily for only one thing, the frequency separation tool. All their photo retouching jobs start with that in Affinity Photo and then immediately go over to photoshop. They could have purchased a photoshop action that does the same thing for a similar price but it wouldnât be as interactive. Or they could have purchased a photoshop plugin that did the same thing for 8x more money.
I havenât upgraded since CS6. I know a few people who havenât upgraded since CS5. As a suite Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and Affinity Publisher for $75 combined is a hell of a lot better SUITE of applications than Photoshop CS6, Illustrator CS6, and InDesign CS6.
The personas, and the apps themselves, are like workspaces in Blender. If you didnât have to buy both Photo and Designer to get the pixel and vector personas in Publisher, 75% of people would only need to buy Publisher.
I would like to use Levels destructively on a layer mask but canât figure out how.
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After being a 20+ year user, I switched to Affinity Photo (from Ps) and Designer (from Ai) a couple years ago. For me, the fact that development and improvement of these apps are happening at such a fast clip (waaaaaay the f**k faster than Adobeâs snail-pace development - couple-features-a-year strategy) and the fact that I am no longer sending Adobe money each month for such laziness and complacency has me thrilled. So long as Affinity keeps kickinâ ass, I will never look back.
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You want to edit the mask itself via levels, right? What should definitely work desructively is to convert it to a pixel layer by rightclicking on the âmask alphaâ in the channels panel (âCreate GreyScale Layerâ) before your levels adjustment and back to mask afterwards
Preferences â Keyboard Shortcuts â lower one of the two lefthand flyout menus. There you can change brush size hotkeys per tool
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Interesting discussion
I found affinity layers and mask system to be a lot easier and logical to use than the old photoshop stuff
It Might also a workflow difference one needs to know
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Speaking of which - is there perhaps a way to create a new adjustment layer that upon creation automatically gets grouped under the selected/active layer?
Not that I tried that before
I often select a layer and the add the adjustment layer
Or later move them around as needed
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