How to Remove White Backgrounds in Affinity Photo

[@74bish]

Love those short tutorials and the fact that you don’t use background music like other channels. ❤

[@AffinityRevolution]

I like when tutorials don't have music in them, so it's good to know I'm not the only one who prefers that! :)

[@tedlyszczarz9944]

Great tutorial. I suggest adding a dark-colored fill layer under your image after deleting the white to test your results. Any residual white areas will be immediately obvious. Also, if you are starting with a high-contrast graphic image rather than a photograph, you may want to increase the tolerance to 25 or 30. This can be helpful in selecting and deleting the nearly white anti-alias pixels that surround the colored shapes in the image. If these pixels are left behind, you can see a jagged white outline around the shapes. This seems to work best on high-resolution graphics.

[@KenSiarkiewicz]

Thank you for pointing out the details easily overlooked; like contiguous and antialias. I personally will too often glance over the context bar.

[@AffinityRevolution]

Thank you! I'm glad you found that useful 😊

[@dennisballester3935]

As usual you do crystal clear tutorials and very easy to follow! many thanks! 👌

[@AffinityRevolution]

Thanks so much! 😊

[@MorgaineChristensen]

Maybe it is me learning new software but I feel Affinity Photo’s Flood tool seems to work better and more accurately for me than Photoshop’s Magic Wand tool ever did, especially with complex backgrounds. Thanks for sharing this information!

[@AffinityRevolution]

I'm glad you're liking Affinity! 😊

[@ellissimpson9231]

So easy when you know how. And now I know. Your videos are great. Thanks for sharing.

[@AffinityRevolution]

Thank you! Glad you liked the video. 😊

[@eyewaves...]

Thanks Ali !!! Your videos are always inspirational and great help.

[@AffinityRevolution]

Thank you! 🤗

[@annavegazumeta]

Thank you so much for these tutorials. They are really helpful ❤

[@AffinityRevolution]

You're welcome! I'm glad you like them 😊

[@philparker97]

Nice and easy bite-size tutorial 👍

[@AffinityRevolution]

Thank you! 😄

[@keithwjones]

Great info for remembering settings.

[@AffinityRevolution]

Thank you! :)

[@harleycook1948]

I always appreciate your great videos. They are easy to follow. Could you please comment on why you did not choose to use the "Erase white paper" filter? Thanks

[@AffinityRevolution]

The advantage of the Flood Select Tool is you don't have to remove ALL the white in the photo (i.e. if there were white elements scattered throughout the model of your photo that you wanted to remain white). I hope that helps. 😊

[@johnreynolds6074]

Nice short and to the point video. Thanks

[@AffinityRevolution]

Thank you! Glad you liked it 😊

[@geoffc1862]

Very useful, thank you. I'd guess as long as the background is a single colour, it doesn't need to be white for the method to work?

[@AffinityRevolution]

Yes, that's true 🙂

[@packmanct7384]

Is there an advantage using this method over the "erase white paper" filter? (found under : filters | colors | erase whte paper)

[@AffinityRevolution]

That is a great filter! The advantage of the Flood Select Tool is you don't have to remove ALL the white in the photo (i.e. if there were white elements scattered throughout the model of the photo that you wanted to stay white)

[@paulfredfield]

@@AffinityRevolution Aha. Good point! I must remember to use this method!

[@raffriff42]

Cool, never noticed that filter. On this duck image though, it makes large areas semi-transparent.

[@ChrisB257]

Another good one Ally -thanks.

[@AffinityRevolution]

Thanks Chris! 😊

[@HaunaniPao]

I usually like to remove the "busy" background with people in it, not one with one contiguous colour. Can you do a video on that topic?

[@raffriff42]

Her "How to Create Perfect Selections in Affinity Photo" was more advanced than this short video.

[@georgetorres8980]

Cool, thanks for the video.

[@AffinityRevolution]

Thank you! 😊

[@silversurfer4195]

I was stuck for a while, for in my WIndows version (2.5.0 and then 2.5.3), Affinity Photo does not change the background to the checkered pattern I see in the video. After some tries, I realized that it was actually removing the background, but it would only show in the icon on the layer. Is there a setting I can adjust? Thanks for the tip!

[@raffriff42]

Document menu, "Transparent background" should be checked.

[@bigstew2000]

Brilliant as always!

[@AffinityRevolution]

Thank you for all the support! 😄

[@turlinturlin2988]

bonjour, toujours excellent ,merci!

[@AffinityRevolution]

Merci! 😊

[@CoelhoRocha-n1i]

Obrigado ajudou muito!

[@AffinityRevolution]

De nada! Que bom que você gostou do vídeo. 😊

[@whatworkedforme]

a strange anomaly on my trial of this image (Affinity Photo 2.5.3) when I get to part 1:22 of this video and press delete as you have Ally, the whole photo disappears and just an outline (marching ants) of the duck is there.. everything is gone to checker background? Help?

[@whatworkedforme]

i left a question about this on Affinity forum.. my problem was using the snipping tool of the image rather than downloaded. .. Anyway following their advice to rasterise the snip first solved the problem. I often use snipping tool and had this problem before without knowing why. hope this helps someone like it did for me!

[@AffinityRevolution]

Thanks for sharing the solution you found! 😊

[@graphguy]

Thanks! Just getting started with Affinity photo 2.55.... I can't believe there is not an auto background removal tool???

[@nmastroianni]

I will still hope for channel masking. I miss that from that other photo editing tool

[@pixelfungaming]

affinity has channel masking and one of the courses from the channel covers it.

[@AffinityRevolution]

Here is a video that shows channel selections in Affinity Photo: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXiTg62EpcqCh7Msi=1L2K67jeAeRQt8Fw

[@darleneroach2848]

Oh my! I hope background removed following your steps works that simple. Been desperate to actually achieve clean background easily. Still wish one click to remove backgrounds were available in affinity software. All software folks know very often we need to remove backgrounds, why don’t they STEP UP AND GIVE US 1-click? Thanks I’m gonna give your process a try…

[@1947marcia]

when I select the white background and then click delete it deletes the duck too.

[@AffinityRevolution]

It sounds like your photo was not rasterized. That can happen if you open a photo in a way other than File > Open. I recommend you use File > Open to open the photo, and then follow along with the tutorial. Alternatively, you can right click on your photo's layer in the Layer’s Panel, and then click “Rasterize & Trim”. Then everything should work as expected. I hope that helps! 😊

[@1947marcia]

@@AffinityRevolution Yes that worked. So easy. Thank you for your quick response.

[@latresebedford6330]

It deleted my subject as well as the white

[@AffinityRevolution]

It sounds like your photo was not rasterized. That can happen if you open a photo in a way other than File > Open. I recommend you use File > Open to open the photo, and then follow along with the tutorial. Alternatively, you can right click on your photo's layer in the Layer’s Panel, and then click “Rasterize & Trim”. Then everything should work as expected. I hope that helps! 😊

[@latresebedford6330]

@@AffinityRevolution yes it worked with file open not when placing an image. Thank you

[@soup8000]

mine literally doesn't work. did the exact same thing as u. didn't work

[@AffinityRevolution]

It sounds like your photo was not rasterized. That can happen if you open a photo in a way other than File > Open. I recommend you use File > Open to open the photo, and then follow along with the tutorial. Alternatively, you can right click on your photo's layer in the Layer’s Panel, and then click “Rasterize & Trim”. Then everything should work as expected. I hope that helps! 😊

[@nulightpros136]

your videos are very helpful, but affinity's back round removal is horrible. i have to use another program.

[@SceneArtisan]

It's easy if the subject has crisp edges, but if the subject has shadows that are very close in tone to the background, then it's almost impossible.

[@BrightExposure]

I always use mask instead of deleting.

[@AffinityRevolution]

That's a very good way to do it! I just wanted to keep this video simple for people that are new to Affinity Photo/are unfamiliar with masks, but masking is always a great idea. 😊