1. These are most excellent tutorials. They are clear, provide just enough detail and are so well conceived. Thank you so very much. 2. I was an Adobe customer since before they bought up Macromedia in 2005. They produce excellent products however their pricing and total disregard for small customers began to irritate me to no end. Then they introduced the subscription model somewhere around 2012 and that finished me. wo At every single product major update, I spent hours with their horrible customer support trying to get updates to work. I looked around a bit and tried a few alternative pieces of before stumbling on Affinity. All I can say is wow! Their three products are outstanding, their customer support is excellent and their products rival Adobe's in most aspects while improving on several as well. There is a bit of a learning curve because it is obviously different software, but I certainly do not miss Adobe EXCEPT for Acrobat Pro and in that domain I wish Serif would consider developing a replacement. I currently am using another app, but it is marginal at best. Regardless, well done, Serif, keep going. You've got me hooked.🤗
I was fascinated by your method of sharpening with blur - and amazed that you provide us with a macro on this. Just downloaded it and can't wait to test it. Thanks a lot!
You are welcome. There does seem to be a problem with using the macro with the latest version of Affinity Photo. It looks like it does not work properly in 16 bit but is fine in 8 bit. I am looking into it.
I switched form Photoshop to Affinity Photo two years ago after getting fed up with Adobe’s price gouging. Your tutorials have been the best I’ve found so far for Affinity Photo. Thank you!
Thank you very much for taking the time to comment. Affinity Photo is great. More than enough for 99% of photographers. Photoshop is superb too but most people just don't need all of the extras that they are forced to pay for every month.
THANK YOU for being to thorough! I am a beginner to AP, and the different ways of doing the 'sharpening' in the many videos I saw, were driving crazy. It helps a lot! :)
Your mastery of AF really makes viewers smarter and more skillful. Double High Pass was a new one for me. So was Tone Mapping for sharpening. Brilliant!
Thank you, Scott: Your Bilateral Blur sharpening is exactly what I've been looking for . It sharpens the eyes in a way that was totally eluding me. A life-saver for portraits of mature ladies, who DON'T want anything else sharpened, thankyouverymuch!
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography One thing I've found is that; I use the macro as the last operation on an image & if I've gone back to the Background Layer (eg a final clean-up with the inpainting brush etc,) it does something horrible to the brightness & contrast; but if I'm on whatever layer I used previous it works proper.
Thank you very much Scott, you have a lot of talent, you know the technical tricks and can convey this knowledge excellently. An example: The music is not disturbing in the background but functional, because it calms and synchronizes Scott the transmitter on the receiver like me. Greetings from Germany
Thank you Georg. I am slowly getting the hang of producing these videos. Some people don't like the background music, but I think as my delivery is quite slow that it helps to fill the gaps. It also adds a little atmosphere.
Scott Williams Photography I am an advocate of your method, your speed of speech, your choice of volume and type of music. I am learning very effectively with you. I personally have had good experiences with Suggestopedia. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suggestopedia
Namaste Scott, loads of thanks...a great video for Affinity lovers, I thought its just another tutorial on Sharpening!! but got some real surprises, Sharpening from Blur? It was the best...even couldn't believe the Tone Mapping has it and macro as free gift is a huge one for me and must be for all...Keep teaching...loved your voice too..!!
Just tested your recommended sharpening against multiple versions of high pass filters (my previous favourite sharpening tool). For my taste, usually 1px for high pass is all I need but I tried 1.5, 15 and 30, each was acceptable (to my surprise) but none were even close to your method in quality. Absolutely amazing results, much better fidelity (if I can use that here). Thank you so much for posting, your sharpening method is now in my bag of tools.
Superb because of the explanations of how to use each approach, and thank you for the macro which is now in my Affinity. We all have an opinion about the BEST way to sharpen, but I wish we would express that as our FAVORITE way since there is no best in my humble opinion. I used unsharpen for years, then high pass, then tone mapping. Now I am going to be using the blur for a bit. Thank you!
Thank you I have changed camera system and moved from Adobe to Affinity, so much to learn and so many different ways of doing the same job, I'll subscribe and watch and learn!
Hi Scott, This was the first tutorial of yours that I saw. Great video!!! I was especially impressed by the blur sharpen method. I tried it on a mountain landscape of mine and it worked extremely well. It sharpened the mountain texture nicely, but not the clouds which is the effect I like. It also appears to me that it adds only minimal noise; an added advantage. Thanks very much. Jim
What a great lesson to see the 5 methods in one video. This will make it easy to consider which technique might best be applied for any image . Thank you. BTW, came across your work via David Patton, RTEP.
Outstanding video! I learned a few of new tricks for my toolbar. The only thing missing for me was a more in-depth opinion about the relative merits of each technique, and how they are best suited for achieving different purposes or for different type of images. Thanks!
This! Yes! I really liked the tutorial, but I too would like a deeper understanding. A) What exactly does each type of sharpening effect in an image? B) What method of sharpening is best for a particular type of image? Water, landscape, hair etc. And the monochrome and opacity settings were present in just about every adjustment you opened, and yet you didn't address them, or their impact. I rarely (almost never) comment on YT videos. Please take this as a sign that I really like what you're teaching here. I find I'm watching too many videos showing me how to do something, and not enough addressing WHY.
Thank you very much Mr. Williams - I have a lot of photos to sharpen, and will give it a go- thereby saving me a lot of time - I was using tone mapping and the detail version to save manual effort, but takes a lot of CPU to crunch through it....
Thanks for the comment Boz. If you are having to sharpen many images you may be better off using something like LightRoom, Capture One or On1 Photo. You can move from image to image very quickly with these and apply sharpening much more quickly. You may even be able to just sharpen one image and then copy the sharpening to the other images in a single operation. Then just check each image quickly and tweak if needed. As I have to sharpen many images at once quite often for event photography, this is the way I approach the problem.
Thank you very much. It is really nice when people take the time to let me know that they are finding the tutorials useful. Don't worry more are on the way...
I cannot thank you enough, that last one was my goto for years in Photoshop to where I did it all with keyboard shortcuts, and then I took a few years off and could never get the combination of blending modes quite right. As a (formerly) experienced user of this technique, I should point out that any type of blur can be used on the inverted layer, each with its own behavior, and I have also achieved some incredible local contrast and clarity using variations on this. Thanks again, I've literally been trying to remember this for years!
And thanks for the quick reply! So, you started me thinking, "I should be able to accomplish this in most node-based editors (Blender, DaVinci Resolve, etc.) to process video too!" So I fired up Blender, and got pretty close (got a lovely warm glow using "divide" blend mode). But there's no "vivid light" mode in Blender (and for some reason no "divide" mode in A.P.)..? I'm stumped, any ideas?
I love Blender. I've not played with the video side of it but I have been using it to build models, sculpt and texture paint for years. In fact I created my TH-cam banner using Blender. I would have to have a play with it to come up with an answer. I may just do that one day. Version 2.8 is not far off. I've had a quick play with the beta and it is looking great. At last left click to select. This should help to make it more mainstream.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography I actually found a conversation thread in the development forum from like 2014 where some nice fellow wrote the code for the missing blending modes, got the code approved and even made a PowerPoint about it. But another developer was like "yeah, but nobody will ever need this"... 🤦♂️ That said, 2.8 is a total game changer and the beta is essentially done, and quite solid. Most of the 'must have' add-ons have been updated. Overall it is bound to be an industry shaking release, and I suggest you take a closer look. Left clicking as default is about the #1,472 coolest change! 😉
I certainly will be taking a closer look. Blender is always on my system. It is a must have program. And 2.8 is going to make it appeal to many more people who found the old interface a bit quirky. I must create a video on using blender for photographers. There must be many photographers out there who just don't know what a superb tool blender could be for them.
I have come late to these set of tutorials but they are still incredibly useful (and potentially timeless to be honest). Regarding the Bilateral Blur and Unsharp Mask, it is my understanding that Unsharp Mask is similar to that: it works with a blurred image and combined back, it would be great then if it allowed to select the underlying blur technique for it, because it’s probably using a default one like Gaussian blur vs the more ‘edges controllable’ bilateral blur. I didn’t know that last one though, having the layers and live filter allows for maximum control painting over too. Great one.
Thank you for the comment. Just take it bit by bit. Watch lots of TH-cam videos. And eventually you will start know know how to edit different types of picture without thinking about it. Most of all have fun!
Thank you for the tutorial it is really helpful :) I have a question, I'm working with 360 degree photos, should I do the sharpening before or after editing color or using with inpainting brush? I know I should totally try by myself to figure out but I wanted to ask if you got any tips on that.
Thank you so much for sharing this! 2 questions, 1) Is one method used for a particular type of photo verses another? I know you said using Clarity for the eye photo was a better method so I was curious if something like landscapes or architectural photography had preferred methods too. 2) Is there a reason, during the High Pass Filter section, you removed (is the term orphaned?) the two filters from the main photo and moved them above it? Does it make any difference if they're masked within the image vs outside of it?
I find your videos to be among the very best. Thanks for going to the trouble. I have a question as to why the bilateral filter works to sharpen. As I understand it, it replaces the intensity of each pixel with a weighted average of intensity values from nearby pixels. It preserves edges ( without halos) as it blurs an image while retaining areas of high contrast. I believe when you set the group blend mode to overlay you are enhancing contrast which the bilateral blur filter will protect but still you are blurring areas of lower contrast when you apply it . Not clear why you need to create two copies of the pixel layer. Thanks
Thanks for the compliment Hans. I really have no idea how the bilateral filter sharpens. This is an old method from Photoshop that uses the surface blur. I just adapted it to Affinity Photo. It is quite a neat trick though.
I did more research in the math of the filter and I believe the bilateral blur filter when used as you describe it with the blend modes you suggest protects the edges but it does not actually sharpen them. When you use the blend modes you describe you are in a sense adding contrast. The bilateral blur filter then protects these areas of higher contrast and does not blur them. BUT it does blur areas that are not of high contrast. In fact if you do not apply the blend modes such as vivid light that you used, what you call sharpening does not work at all and disappears when using the bilateral blur filter. You can find the math for the bilateral blur filter here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilateral_filter. I went through the math and would contend that the bilateral blur does not sharpen at all but protects areas of high contrast while blurring the rest of the picture. I would not call it a sharpening filter. It has its uses, however, if you want to soften (blur) certain areas and protect high contrast areas.
Great tutorial clearly explained. I've downloaded the macro but for some reason my Affinity library will not accept the import. I'm using the latest Affinity version, so wonder what the reason is.
Very good tutorial Scott, this how every tutorial should be :). I am slowly moving to Affinity from Photoshop and noticed that when opening a raw file through Photoshop, Camera Raw apply sharpening by default and it looks really good, I know that with Affinity Photo there is no sharpening applied by default, so I have tried many combinations of the ways you have showed but I am not getting the results I want as in Photoshop. Is there a way I can have a very good sharpness as applied by default in Affinity Photo as in camera raw?
Thank you very much. By default the macro sharpens the whole screen. But if you add a layer mask to the group that is created by the macro then you can use a black or white paint brush on the mask layer to paint out or paint in the effect to selected areas. Hope this helps.
Hi Scott, I'm afraid the macro doesn't work anymore in version 1.8.3. All blur adjustments are giving strange overheated pixel artifacts. Hope you can give it a look. Thx.
Hi Marius. I'm no expert on sharpening for print but I know the general rule is to sharpen less for glossy paper and sharpen more for matte paper. If you are using a professional service for your printing then they should be doing this sharpening for you. If you are printing yourself then you will have to experiment for the type of paper and the type of image you are printing. Again, the method would depend on the paper. I would start with the last type in this video, where I use the bilateral blur. But if my edges are getting lost because the paper is quite absorbent then I would use unsharp mask. Experimenting with the levels. As far as resizing for social media is concerned. First do the resize so you can see it at the size it will be and then try the last method. Then I would try the other methods. If you sharpen a small image then artifacts show up more easily, so it is best to start with something that gives a more clean output. Output sharpening is quite a big subject. My advice here can only be very basic as there are just too many variables to sum it up quickly. I hope this very limited answer helps 🙂
Great video, just one question I'm trying to apply the bilateral blur method but I don't see the difference between. Could it be something that has changed in the latest versions of Affinity Photo?
Cheers Maximo. I have just tested the macro on the latest version of AF and it works fine. This method is for very fine detail. The effect is subtle. It also works best with 8 bit images as AP seems to have some sort of bug that can cause artefacts on 16 bit images.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography Thanks for the response, maybe I'm doing something wrong I'm going to check. Thanks a lot for sharing this kind of content :)
Hello, Thanks for the great tutorials. I downloaded the macro, but when I clicked on it, it didn't import into my library. It asked me to select how I want to open it. I selected Affinity Photo, but now I get an error message saying that this is not an Affinity Photo document. What did I do wrong? Thanks
I followed the instructions which were to have the library open, click the button at the top (right side), import macro. Click the file in the resource folder. I'll try it again when I get home, thanks for the reply.
Good question. Create your curves with the pen tool. Select all the curve layers and go to layers->geometry and choose merge curves. Then choose selection on the pen toolbar. This will create a single active selection from multiple curves. Hope that helps. I think I will make a video about this as it will be useful information for others.
I have been using Affinity Photo for over a year, and am quite satisfied except that it does not have an asset management feature. I don't want to get into monthly subscriptions. What asset management software would work best as a partner to Affinity Photo? Right now I just use a bare bones Olympus Viewer program that came with my camera.
I personally use Capture One 12 but it is quite expensive. There is a link and a discount code in the description of this video. ON1 Photo Raw 2019 is very good and quite a bargain for all of the features it offers. Alienskin Exposure X4 is also very good and has an interface very similar to Lightroom. There are more but I don' know enough about them to give advice. There are also free or cheap programs like FastRawViewer and XNVewer. One of these may be enough for your needs. I really don't know anything about these programs as I have never used them. There are a lot of options out there. I suggest downloading the trial versions and having a play. You may find something to suit 🙂
Thanks for the great tutorial. One issue I found is that the method seems to get strange color artifacts is used on a 16 bit RGB image rather than 8 bit.
You are welcome Aik. The way I group layers while recording a macro is to create the first adjustment layer that I want to be within the group. Then group this one layer with the group icon in the bottom right. Now select this layer within the group. Now create new adjustments. The new adjustments will appear within the group. Hope this helps.
Is there a short cut to adjust just a single individual layer? Right now I bring up an adjustment layer and then I nest it into the layer. can I bring up an adjustment layer that will automatically just adjust a particular layer? Thx
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography I am asking about adjustment layers not filters and live effects. Is there a shortcut to adding an adjustment layer to just a single layer instead of having to create an adjustment layer and then having to click and drag it on the layer to make it a child of that one layer? Thanks
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography thanks for the tip, I’ll give it a try. I personally think that should be default and then you can choose to unrest it so that it adjust all layers. I think they have photographers more in mind than designers with at behavior.
I just downloaded Affinity Photo 2 and tried importing your macro, but Affinity can't find it. It's on my computer, for sure, but Affinity seems to have an issue with the file extension. Affinity can only search for files with an .afmacro extension. Your macro doesn't list an extension, but rather "AFMACROS File" Any suggestions?
The idea behind sharpening with blur is that you subtract a blurry image from the regular one, which essentially subtracts blurryness, thus sharpening the image. In other words, you pretend that someone blurred your image and then you reverse that same blur. This is actually possible mathematically, as you can invert convolutions just fine. This is actually how many sharpening methods are implemented under the hood, but they often just use gaussian blur. That's why large radius/high strength deep fries the image, because there is too much blur. Bilateral filter however does edge-aware blurring, hence you don't get this effect.
Thank you for the informative comment Max. Since making this video I have been looking into this stuff and doing a few programming experiments with convolution kernels etc. It is all very interesting. I like to know what is going on under the hood.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography there are a lot of cool things you could implement, from simple to advanced, so I hope you have fun with that :) you could for example check out what the Kuwahara Filter does (it is also an edge-aware blur filter). Or if you want to go very complex, NLmeans would definitely be a challenge to try and implement. That one is particularly involved, it gets rid of noise, like a blur, but it goes far beyond simple edge awareness
I have an Affinity question but it's not about the sharpening. How on earth did you manage to create that macro? I tried recording them myself (best way to learn stuff in my opinion) and I keep running in selection problems and how it can't move layers. How did you manage to make this macro?
If you right click on the macro in your library you can edit the macro to see the steps. Follow them and you should have it. You won't be able to right click on the layers for grouping but you can create the group from the top menu which still works. Arrange->group. Hope that helps.
Thanks, but I can't make the 5th one work. Followed all steps exactly (many times) and the final one has no impact on image at all. Any help appreciated, as this seems neat if it works.
Hi Bill. I'm sorry you are having problems with the sharpen with blur method. I know it does work because I use it. And I have had no other reports of it not working. I will try to get someone I know to follow the instructions to see if they get it to work. I do want everyone to be able to use my tutorials 😀
Hi and sorry to be a pain, but I tried it for the fifth time, step by step etc. Still nothing. Strange, since others seem not to have this problem. I appreciate your follow up.
Not a problem Bill. I want it to work for you. I just tried the method to make sure that it works with the latest version of Affinity Photo. It works perfectly. I can't think of a reason that it is going wrong for you.
Thanks for trying; weird problem, as I'm really doing it as you say, and of course your other methods work just fine. I suspect it's what the more technically minded call, 'one of those things,' and in any case thanks for your videos, which have been valuable to me (and to so many others).
1. These are most excellent tutorials. They are clear, provide just enough detail and are so well conceived. Thank you so very much.
2. I was an Adobe customer since before they bought up Macromedia in 2005. They produce excellent products however their pricing and total disregard for small customers began to irritate me to no end. Then they introduced the subscription model somewhere around 2012 and that finished me. wo At every single product major update, I spent hours with their horrible customer support trying to get updates to work. I looked around a bit and tried a few alternative pieces of before stumbling on Affinity. All I can say is wow! Their three products are outstanding, their customer support is excellent and their products rival Adobe's in most aspects while improving on several as well. There is a bit of a learning curve because it is obviously different software, but I certainly do not miss Adobe EXCEPT for Acrobat Pro and in that domain I wish Serif would consider developing a replacement. I currently am using another app, but it is marginal at best. Regardless, well done, Serif, keep going. You've got me hooked.🤗
Thank you.
I was fascinated by your method of sharpening with blur - and amazed that you provide us with a macro on this. Just downloaded it and can't wait to test it. Thanks a lot!
You are welcome. There does seem to be a problem with using the macro with the latest version of Affinity Photo. It looks like it does not work properly in 16 bit but is fine in 8 bit. I am looking into it.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography Thanks for your answer, much appreciated. I will test it as is, and in doubt hope for your update.
Best greetings,
Claudia
I switched form Photoshop to Affinity Photo two years ago after getting fed up with Adobe’s price gouging. Your tutorials have been the best I’ve found so far for Affinity Photo. Thank you!
Thank you very much for taking the time to comment. Affinity Photo is great. More than enough for 99% of photographers. Photoshop is superb too but most people just don't need all of the extras that they are forced to pay for every month.
Marvelous explanation, fantastic english
Thank you very much.
THANK YOU for being to thorough! I am a beginner to AP, and the different ways of doing the 'sharpening' in the many videos I saw, were driving crazy. It helps a lot! :)
You are so welcome!
Your mastery of AF really makes viewers smarter and more skillful. Double High Pass was a new one for me. So was Tone Mapping for sharpening. Brilliant!
Thank you very much.
Thanks for this very helpful video with multiple options, cheers
No problem 👍
Thank you, Scott:
Your Bilateral Blur sharpening is exactly what I've been looking for .
It sharpens the eyes in a way that was totally eluding me.
A life-saver for portraits of mature ladies, who DON'T want anything else sharpened, thankyouverymuch!
Cheers for the comment Peter. I'm glad you are finding it useful.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography One thing I've found is that; I use the macro as the last operation on an image & if I've gone back to the Background Layer (eg a final clean-up with the inpainting brush etc,) it does something horrible to the brightness & contrast; but if I'm on whatever layer I used previous it works proper.
Thank you very much for the video and the free mako. It's absolutely phantastic!
You're very welcome!
Scott, thank you for the video and the macro, well done.
You are very welcome Zoltan. I hope you find it useful.
Thank you very much Scott, you have a lot of talent, you know the technical tricks and can convey this knowledge excellently. An example: The music is not disturbing in the background but functional, because it calms and synchronizes Scott the transmitter on the receiver like me. Greetings from Germany
Thank you Georg. I am slowly getting the hang of producing these videos. Some people don't like the background music, but I think as my delivery is quite slow that it helps to fill the gaps. It also adds a little atmosphere.
Scott Williams Photography I am an advocate of your method, your speed of speech, your choice of volume and type of music. I am learning very effectively with you. I personally have had good experiences with Suggestopedia. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suggestopedia
Namaste Scott, loads of thanks...a great video for Affinity lovers, I thought its just another tutorial on Sharpening!! but got some real surprises, Sharpening from Blur? It was the best...even couldn't believe the Tone Mapping has it and macro as free gift is a huge one for me and must be for all...Keep teaching...loved your voice too..!!
Thank you very much. I'ts always great to hear that someone is enjoying my videos 😃
What another excellent tutorial. And..... thank you for the free macro.. I will try it out at the next opportunity.
You are welcome!
Excellent presentation, and thank you for the free gift !
Glad you liked it!
Just tested your recommended sharpening against multiple versions of high pass filters (my previous favourite sharpening tool). For my taste, usually 1px for high pass is all I need but I tried 1.5, 15 and 30, each was acceptable (to my surprise) but none were even close to your method in quality. Absolutely amazing results, much better fidelity (if I can use that here). Thank you so much for posting, your sharpening method is now in my bag of tools.
You are very welcome.
What a great video, the last one really is amazingly impressive.
Thank you very much!
This is amazing! I'm gonna bookmark this specific video so I will never lose it!
Thank you Michele. I hope it helps you.
Superb because of the explanations of how to use each approach, and thank you for the macro which is now in my Affinity. We all have an opinion about the BEST way to sharpen, but I wish we would express that as our FAVORITE way since there is no best in my humble opinion. I used unsharpen for years, then high pass, then tone mapping. Now I am going to be using the blur for a bit. Thank you!
You're very welcome!
Very Nice Video. Learned a Lot
Thank you Stephen.
A VERY useful tutorial. i like how you explain different ways for different situations
Cheers Rob. It's nice to know that people appreciate the effort 👍👍👍
Really great explanation that helps me to work on a new level. Many thanks for it.
Thank you very much 👍
Love the macro. I’ve subscribed to your channel!
Awesome! Thank you. And welcome aboard.
Thank you I have changed camera system and moved from Adobe to Affinity, so much to learn and so many different ways of doing the same job, I'll subscribe and watch and learn!
Congratulations on the move to affinity. I don't regret the move one bit. Affinity Photo is superb. Happy learning 😀
The bilateral blur method is quite amazing. Thanks a lot.
This has really helped me. You have a wonderful channel. I love Affinity but it’s not the easiest program for a beginner. So thanks!
Great to hear!
This is a great help! I'm just getting used to Affinity... and I love how easy your video is to follow! Thanks!
Thank you very much Shannon. Affinity is a great program but can be a little daunting at first. I'm pleased my videos help 😀👍👍👍
Thank you for the tutorial and the macros!
You are very welcome.
Hi Scott,
This was the first tutorial of yours that I saw. Great video!!! I was especially impressed by the blur sharpen method. I tried it on a mountain landscape of mine and it worked extremely well. It sharpened the mountain texture nicely, but not the clouds which is the effect I like. It also appears to me that it adds only minimal noise; an added advantage. Thanks very much. Jim
Thank you Jim. The blur-sharpen also works really well on fine skin texture on for men. It adds a certain something.
Hello, Scott.
Thank you for a great tutorial on these sharpening techniques. The Bilateral Blur filter method is, as you say, brilliant! Subscribed.
It really is like magic. Thanks Terrance 👍
What a great lesson to see the 5 methods in one video. This will make it easy to consider which technique might best be applied for any image . Thank you. BTW, came across your work via David Patton, RTEP.
Thank you very much. I will have to thank David. I really like his channel. Laid back and cool.
Great work Scott. Thank you.
Thank you very much Mark. I hope you find it useful 👍
Thanks a Bunch, started Affinity about 7 mos ago and still learning.
It does take a while. Stick with it. Things start to fall into place eventually 👍
Very nice tutorial on sharpening by Affinity Photo.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for yet another very useful tutorial and macro.
You are very welcome David. Thank you very much for taking the time to comment.
Many thanks , Scott, both for the excellent video, but, also for the free macros. You rule!
Cheers Sid. You are very welcome. Thank you for taking the time to comment 😃
Outstanding video! I learned a few of new tricks for my toolbar. The only thing missing for me was a more in-depth opinion about the relative merits of each technique, and how they are best suited for achieving different purposes or for different type of images. Thanks!
Thank you Alec. That is a really good idea. I will try to explain the merits and best uses more in future videos. 👍👍👍👍👍
This! Yes!
I really liked the tutorial, but I too would like a deeper understanding.
A) What exactly does each type of sharpening effect in an image?
B) What method of sharpening is best for a particular type of image? Water, landscape, hair etc.
And the monochrome and opacity settings were present in just about every adjustment you opened, and yet you didn't address them, or their impact.
I rarely (almost never) comment on YT videos. Please take this as a sign that I really like what you're teaching here. I find I'm watching too many videos showing me how to do something, and not enough addressing WHY.
well made video, thanks for sharing, amazed more people dont use affinity...
Cheers Tom. I agree. Affinity Photo is all most people would need.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography lets hope they bring out cataloguing software to rival lightroom
Thank you very much Mr. Williams - I have a lot of photos to sharpen, and will give it a go- thereby saving me a lot of time - I was using tone mapping and the detail version to save manual effort, but takes a lot of CPU to crunch through it....
Thanks for the comment Boz. If you are having to sharpen many images you may be better off using something like LightRoom, Capture One or On1 Photo. You can move from image to image very quickly with these and apply sharpening much more quickly. You may even be able to just sharpen one image and then copy the sharpening to the other images in a single operation. Then just check each image quickly and tweak if needed. As I have to sharpen many images at once quite often for event photography, this is the way I approach the problem.
Nice Video and thank you for the macro file👍🏼
No problem 👍
Brilliant!! Thank you so much for this awesome tutorial! I started with Affinity Photo yesterday and you've taught me so much already.
Cheers Bill. It is really nice to know that I am helping people.
Another excellent demo, thanks!
Cheers Steve.
Thanks for the excellent tutorials, please keep them coming, I sure those that have found your channel really appreciate the effort you go to
Thank you very much. It is really nice when people take the time to let me know that they are finding the tutorials useful. Don't worry more are on the way...
Fantastic explanation!
Thank you!
Your voice is very relaxing like Bob Ross voice ☺️
Thanks for this awesome tutorial 👍🏻
Thank you Mal. You are very welcome.
Nicely done.
Thank you very much Michel.
I cannot thank you enough, that last one was my goto for years in Photoshop to where I did it all with keyboard shortcuts, and then I took a few years off and could never get the combination of blending modes quite right.
As a (formerly) experienced user of this technique, I should point out that any type of blur can be used on the inverted layer, each with its own behavior, and I have also achieved some incredible local contrast and clarity using variations on this.
Thanks again, I've literally been trying to remember this for years!
You are very welcome. And thank you for the helpful and constructive comment.
And thanks for the quick reply!
So, you started me thinking, "I should be able to accomplish this in most node-based editors (Blender, DaVinci Resolve, etc.) to process video too!"
So I fired up Blender, and got pretty close (got a lovely warm glow using "divide" blend mode). But there's no "vivid light" mode in Blender (and for some reason no "divide" mode in A.P.)..?
I'm stumped, any ideas?
I love Blender. I've not played with the video side of it but I have been using it to build models, sculpt and texture paint for years. In fact I created my TH-cam banner using Blender. I would have to have a play with it to come up with an answer. I may just do that one day.
Version 2.8 is not far off. I've had a quick play with the beta and it is looking great. At last left click to select. This should help to make it more mainstream.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography I actually found a conversation thread in the development forum from like 2014 where some nice fellow wrote the code for the missing blending modes, got the code approved and even made a PowerPoint about it. But another developer was like "yeah, but nobody will ever need this"... 🤦♂️
That said, 2.8 is a total game changer and the beta is essentially done, and quite solid. Most of the 'must have' add-ons have been updated. Overall it is bound to be an industry shaking release, and I suggest you take a closer look. Left clicking as default is about the #1,472 coolest change! 😉
I certainly will be taking a closer look. Blender is always on my system. It is a must have program. And 2.8 is going to make it appeal to many more people who found the old interface a bit quirky. I must create a video on using blender for photographers. There must be many photographers out there who just don't know what a superb tool blender could be for them.
Excellent tutorial. TYSVM
Thank you very much 👍
Just found your channel and its amazing. Thanks a lot for the macro, you got a new subscriber :)
Thank you very much.
As always love your tutorial. Thank you so much !
Thank you Neng. Happy new year 👍
Really brilliant, astonishing!!! Thanx a lot Scott! Subscribed!
Thank you for the very kind words. Always appreciated 👍 👍 👍
Great tutorial that cleared up a few things I was having some trouble with.
Cheers Clive. Glad to be of help.
I have come late to these set of tutorials but they are still incredibly useful (and potentially timeless to be honest).
Regarding the Bilateral Blur and Unsharp Mask, it is my understanding that Unsharp Mask is similar to that: it works with a blurred image and combined back, it would be great then if it allowed to select the underlying blur technique for it, because it’s probably using a default one like Gaussian blur vs the more ‘edges controllable’ bilateral blur.
I didn’t know that last one though, having the layers and live filter allows for maximum control painting over too. Great one.
I'm glad you are finding the tutorials useful.
Outstanding tutorial! Thank you.
Thank you very much. It's really nice to be appreciated 👍
awesome video!! i am new to this…. and whewwwww… so overwhelming! but your vid. Definitely helps A LOT!!
Thank you for the comment. Just take it bit by bit. Watch lots of TH-cam videos. And eventually you will start know know how to edit different types of picture without thinking about it. Most of all have fun!
Great advice, to have fun!!! And yes, I did subscribe to your channel and I am definitely looking forward to learning more!!
Great great teacher!!!!
Thank you very much Lee 👍
Wow! I had no idea there were so many ways to sharpen!
I know. Affinity Photo is a very powerful app.
Great tutorial, thanks.
Thank you Keith. You are very welcome.
Thank you very much for the macro! And for the lesson!
You are very welcome. Thank you for leaving a comment.
I thank you so much for these great various techniques..very useful lesson.
Thank you.
Love it, simple, straight forward and to the point. Really can't think of anything wrong with it :) I'm going to check out your channel :D
Cheers Jack. I hope you find the channel useful 😀
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography I can tell your channel will in the future :) I have subscribed :D
Thank you for the tutorial it is really helpful :) I have a question, I'm working with 360 degree photos, should I do the sharpening before or after editing color or using with inpainting brush? I know I should totally try by myself to figure out but I wanted to ask if you got any tips on that.
I don't think it really makes any difference.
Thanks for a great video tutorial, keep up the good work!
Thank you. I will try my best 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this! 2 questions, 1) Is one method used for a particular type of photo verses another? I know you said using Clarity for the eye photo was a better method so I was curious if something like landscapes or architectural photography had preferred methods too. 2) Is there a reason, during the High Pass Filter section, you removed (is the term orphaned?) the two filters from the main photo and moved them above it? Does it make any difference if they're masked within the image vs outside of it?
You are welcome. All methods are suitable for all types f photography. As the filters are not needed anymore I just removed them.
thanx very much Scott!A really really useful tutorial,nice job :-)
Thank you very much. I hope it helps.
brilliant, and thank you!!
You're very welcome!
Thank you so much the second last one is superb ❤️👍👍🙏🏼
You are very welcome.
thank you, I have a screen shot I want to enhance certain areas and I THINK your video will help me achieve my goal
You are very welcome.
Thanks Scot good video. Thanks also for the Macro warmest regards!
You are welcome Victor. Thanks for taking the time to comment 😃
many thanks scott got it now
You are welcome Stephen.
I find your videos to be among the very best. Thanks for going to the trouble. I have a question as to why the bilateral filter works to sharpen. As I understand it, it replaces the intensity of each pixel with a weighted average of intensity values from nearby pixels. It preserves edges ( without halos) as it blurs an image while retaining areas of high contrast. I believe when you set the group blend mode to overlay you are enhancing contrast which the bilateral blur filter will protect but still you are blurring areas of lower contrast when you apply it . Not clear why you need to create two copies of the pixel layer. Thanks
Thanks for the compliment Hans. I really have no idea how the bilateral filter sharpens. This is an old method from Photoshop that uses the surface blur. I just adapted it to Affinity Photo. It is quite a neat trick though.
I did more research in the math of the filter and I believe the bilateral blur filter when used as you describe it with the blend modes you suggest protects the edges but it does not actually sharpen them. When you use the blend modes you describe you are in a sense adding contrast. The bilateral blur filter then protects these areas of higher contrast and does not blur them. BUT it does blur areas that are not of high contrast. In fact if you do not apply the blend modes such as vivid light that you used, what you call sharpening does not work at all and disappears when using the bilateral blur filter. You can find the math for the bilateral blur filter here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilateral_filter. I went through the math and would contend that the bilateral blur does not sharpen at all but protects areas of high contrast while blurring the rest of the picture. I would not call it a sharpening filter. It has its uses, however, if you want to soften (blur) certain areas and protect high contrast areas.
Great tutorial clearly explained. I've downloaded the macro but for some reason my Affinity library will not accept the import. I'm using the latest Affinity version, so wonder what the reason is.
Thank you. I have no idea why your macro is not importing. it is importing fine for me.
Very good tutorial Scott, this how every tutorial should be :). I am slowly moving to Affinity from Photoshop and noticed that when opening a raw file through Photoshop, Camera Raw apply sharpening by default and it looks really good, I know that with Affinity Photo there is no sharpening applied by default, so I have tried many combinations of the ways you have showed but I am not getting the results I want as in Photoshop. Is there a way I can have a very good sharpness as applied by default in Affinity Photo as in camera raw?
Not that I know of.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography Thanks for your reply, would you say that the sharpness applied in Photoshop is better than in Affinity?
It sure is.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography thank you.
now i am in a good mood
👍
The sharpening methods you have taught seem better than the Topaz Sharpen AI. Have you ever compared? Thanks.
Cool. I've not compared.
Thank you for another outstanding tutorial. Will your macro affect a pre-selected area only?
Thank you very much.
By default the macro sharpens the whole screen. But if you add a layer mask to the group that is created by the macro then you can use a black or white paint brush on the mask layer to paint out or paint in the effect to selected areas.
Hope this helps.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography Thank you.
Hi Scott, I'm afraid the macro doesn't work anymore in version 1.8.3. All blur adjustments are giving strange overheated pixel artifacts. Hope you can give it a look. Thx.
Thank you very much for letting me know. I will look into it.
I think there is something wrong with the bilateral blur when editing 16 bit files. If you convert your image to 8 bit then it seems to be fine.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography you're right. As soon as I convert to 8 bits it works. Thank you for the input. Stay safe 👍
This is great information. Brilliant. Where can I get the free Macro download?
OK, I got it, but when I try to apply the radius or telerance, nothing is happening. Any tips?
I have just tested it here. It works fine.
Scott, what would be the best sharpening method for print?How about how to resize/sharpen for social media sharing?
Hi Marius. I'm no expert on sharpening for print but I know the general rule is to sharpen less for glossy paper and sharpen more for matte paper. If you are using a professional service for your printing then they should be doing this sharpening for you. If you are printing yourself then you will have to experiment for the type of paper and the type of image you are printing. Again, the method would depend on the paper. I would start with the last type in this video, where I use the bilateral blur. But if my edges are getting lost because the paper is quite absorbent then I would use unsharp mask. Experimenting with the levels.
As far as resizing for social media is concerned. First do the resize so you can see it at the size it will be and then try the last method. Then I would try the other methods. If you sharpen a small image then artifacts show up more easily, so it is best to start with something that gives a more clean output.
Output sharpening is quite a big subject. My advice here can only be very basic as there are just too many variables to sum it up quickly.
I hope this very limited answer helps 🙂
Great video, just one question I'm trying to apply the bilateral blur method but I don't see the difference between.
Could it be something that has changed in the latest versions of Affinity Photo?
Cheers Maximo. I have just tested the macro on the latest version of AF and it works fine. This method is for very fine detail. The effect is subtle. It also works best with 8 bit images as AP seems to have some sort of bug that can cause artefacts on 16 bit images.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography Thanks for the response, maybe I'm doing something wrong I'm going to check. Thanks a lot for sharing this kind of content :)
Hi. How do you resize your tools area on the fly? Also clicking RMB does nothing. it there any use for RMB ?
You can undock the tools. On the menu it is view->dock tools.
Scott, Super thx :D
You're welcome!
thank you so much!
You are very welcome.
Hello, Thanks for the great tutorials. I downloaded the macro, but when I clicked on it, it didn't import into my library. It asked me to select how I want to open it. I selected Affinity Photo, but now I get an error message saying that this is not an Affinity Photo document. What did I do wrong? Thanks
The instructions for adding the macro are in the video.
I followed the instructions which were to have the library open, click the button at the top (right side), import macro. Click the file in the resource folder. I'll try it again when I get home, thanks for the reply.
How can I make two active selections with pen tool in Affinity in one photo?
Good question. Create your curves with the pen tool. Select all the curve layers and go to layers->geometry and choose merge curves. Then choose selection on the pen toolbar. This will create a single active selection from multiple curves. Hope that helps. I think I will make a video about this as it will be useful information for others.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography it worked perfect. Thank you so much.
You are very welcome.
Thank you for this can you do the same for the iPad version as well?
At the moment I don't use iPad but if I ever do then I'm sure I will.
Thank you
Magnifique
Thank you.
Thank you so much
You are welcome Kenny. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
I could not get your link to work.... great job on the video
Cheers Fred. The link is working fine here.
I have been using Affinity Photo for over a year, and am quite satisfied except that it does not have an asset management feature. I don't want to get into monthly subscriptions. What asset management software would work best as a partner to Affinity Photo? Right now I just use a bare bones Olympus Viewer program that came with my camera.
I personally use Capture One 12 but it is quite expensive. There is a link and a discount code in the description of this video.
ON1 Photo Raw 2019 is very good and quite a bargain for all of the features it offers.
Alienskin Exposure X4 is also very good and has an interface very similar to Lightroom.
There are more but I don' know enough about them to give advice.
There are also free or cheap programs like FastRawViewer and XNVewer. One of these may be enough for your needs.
I really don't know anything about these programs as I have never used them.
There are a lot of options out there. I suggest downloading the trial versions and having a play. You may find something to suit 🙂
Thank you for the advice. @@ScottWilliamsPhotography
No problem Rob. I hope you manage to find what you are after.
Thanks for the great tutorial. One issue I found is that the method seems to get strange color artifacts is used on a 16 bit RGB image rather than 8 bit.
You are welcome Louis. You are correct about the artefacts in 16 bit . There seems to be a bug in Affinity Photo.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography Thanks for quick reply. Glad to know it's not just my system.
Thank you
You are very welcome.
thanks for the video, how can I group in macro recording?
You are welcome Aik.
The way I group layers while recording a macro is to create the first adjustment layer that I want to be within the group. Then group this one layer with the group icon in the bottom right. Now select this layer within the group. Now create new adjustments. The new adjustments will appear within the group.
Hope this helps.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography many thanks for the help
Is there a short cut to adjust just a single individual layer? Right now I bring up an adjustment layer and then I nest it into the layer. can I bring up an adjustment layer that will automatically just adjust a particular layer? Thx
The filters section in your top main menu will operate on the currently selected layer.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography I am asking about adjustment layers not filters and live effects. Is there a shortcut to adding an adjustment layer to just a single layer instead of having to create an adjustment layer and then having to click and drag it on the layer to make it a child of that one layer? Thanks
Th only one I know of is to set the option in the assistant to automatically add an adjustment layer as a child of the current layer.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography thanks for the tip, I’ll give it a try. I personally think that should be default and then you can choose to unrest it so that it adjust all layers. I think they have photographers more in mind than designers with at behavior.
I just downloaded Affinity Photo 2 and tried importing your macro, but Affinity can't find it. It's on my computer, for sure, but Affinity seems to have an issue with the file extension. Affinity can only search for files with an .afmacro extension. Your macro doesn't list an extension, but rather "AFMACROS File" Any suggestions?
Import from the library panel as shown in the video. The file will need to be unzipped first.
Thanks for the tutorials there very handy .but please tell me where I get the macro it would be very useful thanks steve
The link to the macro is in the video description.
The idea behind sharpening with blur is that you subtract a blurry image from the regular one, which essentially subtracts blurryness, thus sharpening the image. In other words, you pretend that someone blurred your image and then you reverse that same blur. This is actually possible mathematically, as you can invert convolutions just fine. This is actually how many sharpening methods are implemented under the hood, but they often just use gaussian blur. That's why large radius/high strength deep fries the image, because there is too much blur. Bilateral filter however does edge-aware blurring, hence you don't get this effect.
Thank you for the informative comment Max. Since making this video I have been looking into this stuff and doing a few programming experiments with convolution kernels etc. It is all very interesting. I like to know what is going on under the hood.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography there are a lot of cool things you could implement, from simple to advanced, so I hope you have fun with that :) you could for example check out what the Kuwahara Filter does (it is also an edge-aware blur filter). Or if you want to go very complex, NLmeans would definitely be a challenge to try and implement. That one is particularly involved, it gets rid of noise, like a blur, but it goes far beyond simple edge awareness
I have an Affinity question but it's not about the sharpening. How on earth did you manage to create that macro? I tried recording them myself (best way to learn stuff in my opinion) and I keep running in selection problems and how it can't move layers. How did you manage to make this macro?
If you right click on the macro in your library you can edit the macro to see the steps. Follow them and you should have it. You won't be able to right click on the layers for grouping but you can create the group from the top menu which still works. Arrange->group. Hope that helps.
@@ScottWilliamsPhotography aaah, that's the trick. Thank you!
You are very welcome.
What method do you use to unblur an image ?
Sharpen is unblur.
Thanks, but I can't make the 5th one work. Followed all steps exactly (many times) and the final one has no impact on image at all. Any help appreciated, as this seems neat if it works.
Hi Bill. I'm sorry you are having problems with the sharpen with blur method. I know it does work because I use it. And I have had no other reports of it not working. I will try to get someone I know to follow the instructions to see if they get it to work. I do want everyone to be able to use my tutorials 😀
Thanks! I'll also revisit it.
Hi and sorry to be a pain, but I tried it for the fifth time, step by step etc. Still nothing. Strange, since others seem not to have this problem. I appreciate your follow up.
Not a problem Bill. I want it to work for you. I just tried the method to make sure that it works with the latest version of Affinity Photo. It works perfectly. I can't think of a reason that it is going wrong for you.
Thanks for trying; weird problem, as I'm really doing it as you say, and of course your other methods work just fine. I suspect it's what the more technically minded call, 'one of those things,' and in any case thanks for your videos, which have been valuable to me (and to so many others).