Removing Backgrounds like a Pro with Affinity Photo's Selection Brush Tool

The Selection Brush Tool in Affinity Photo allows you to make precise selections of specific areas in an image with ease. Simply paint over the desired area to select it, and use the tool's refine edge function to perfect your selection. This tool is perfect for removing backgrounds, isolating objects, and making intricate selections.
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[@mirekkoz]

I'm just switching from Photoshop to Affinity. Even though at first glance the programs seem similar, it's actually a completely new adventure. Great selection tool. Wonderfully explained! Thanks.

[@bydesignmethod]

Thanks so much for watching! Affinity has a bit of a learning curve but once you get it you'll love it!

[@hbpscompetitions823]

Brilliant, I learn't more in this than any other similar video. Thanks very much.

[@bydesignmethod]

You're so welcome, thank you so much for watching. I'm glad it helped!

[@1nceuponatube]

Thank you. I was not using the refine button. The explanation of the matte, foreground and background buttons was very helpful.

[@bydesignmethod]

Glad it was helpful and thank you so much for watching!

[@cremecut6659]

You are my hero today! Mwaaahh. I work in designer and have watched a host of videos on background removal and yours simplifies things beautifully. Appreciated.

[@bydesignmethod]

You are so welcome and thank you so much for the kind words!

[@KathleenRenninger]

This was very helpful. I like your clear explanations. I hadn't understood the function of "refine" prior to this, and didn't know about selecting " New Layer" as a quick way to make the selected image into an object. Learned other things as well. Thank you!

[@bydesignmethod]

You're very welcome Kathleen, thank you so much for watching and taking some of your time to leave a comment!

[@SantiagoDigitalDesign]

short and sweet and I love how you actually took the time to create a second short video to explain what you forgot - I only wish other Creators would do this! Great job please keep it up!

[@bydesignmethod]

Thank you so much for that lovely comment Santiago! I really do appreciate you taking some time to leave me such a great message.

[@benjfischer]

Nice! Glad that I found another Affinity channel!

[@bydesignmethod]

More to come over here Bernard! Thanks for watching and taking the time to drop a comment, welcome!!!

[@gotcomps]

YEHH BUDDY! This is what I'm talkin about! Another eye opener DM! Thanks for this! Particularly for touching on the Foreground & Background options. And the 'Black and White' preview is a Game Changer in my opinion. Aaand... Once I master 'the right touch' with using 'Matte', I'll be just fine. That's where I struggle right now. Great Share Sir! And I'll share a shortcut that I tripped across a couple of weeks ago to adjust the size of the Selection Brush - for those that will come here after me. Hold down CTRL & ALT and click drag to the left or right. It's a lot faster to using the brackets, once you get used to it. I have no doubts that you already knew this though DM. It's not like you're able to share everything in an 11 minute video. LOL.

[@bydesignmethod]

Great tip Comps! shortcuts definitely speed up your workflow and make things easier - thanks for sharing!

[@djskate9183]

Thank you, you are a super hero! I have struggled with the brackets for long time because my keyboard is slightly different from the usual.

[@ianbrowne9304]

well explained and handy enough to get newbies started and easy enough to do images with clearly defined edges on solid colour background . However it is so much harder/more difficult when the edges are not well defined , or even a bit blurry , or bordering colours are similar . I'm thinking outdoor bush/woodland/nature/flora photography I normally do where the selection brush tends to wonder off the line a lot more . In these cases the refine brush often makes it worse . Personally; I feel Affinity needs to improve the select process greatly to keep up with some others . In cases like this I have learnt not to drag the brush along the edge . Instead ; place the (smallish) cursor close to the edge > left click >drag away a little from edge > move along and repeat . If the marching ants jump off line , hold Alt to correct . There are times the Lasso tool comes in handy also Note: not sure if it's left or right click as I have the mouse in left hand and a pen in the other 😁 and I have no idea how I set it up for myself . I just use it . I also have your normal right side panels on the left and a smaller tool panel floating --- just to be different 😀 but it works for me .

[@bydesignmethod]

Hey Ian, Thanks for the wonderful tips, that sounds fantastic for really refining your selection. It's all part of the fun creative process!

[@dkickelbick]

Thank you for showing!

[@bydesignmethod]

You're so welcome, I hope it helps! thank you so much for watching!

[@carolward1142]

This is really helpful thanks - as below, learned a lot and very easy to follow - it works! 😁

[@bydesignmethod]

Thanks Carol! Appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment!

[@friedricey]

Best selection instructional video on how to use the selection brush tool. Affinity's guide is really difficult to follow because it requires reading through their from or help text...

[@bydesignmethod]

Thank you so much, I'm glad it helped! I really do appreciate you taking a moment of your time to leave me a comment. All the best designing!

[@stevewest131]

Nice video bruv. Going to take a look at your channel👍

[@bydesignmethod]

Hope you enjoy Steve.

[@djskate9183]

Great tutorial. Thank you.

[@bydesignmethod]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching and taking some time to leave me a comment!

[@stop619]

Very helpful; thanks!

[@bydesignmethod]

You're very welcome stop619, thanks for watching and taking some time to drop a comment!

[@mikelockwood2104]

well done

[@bydesignmethod]

Appreciate it!

[@joansimons6945]

Thanks so much, I found this really helpful and easy to follow

[@bydesignmethod]

I'm so happy to hear that! 😀 Thank you for watching and taking some of your time to leave me a comment Joan!

[@eneacreativedesign]

Very helpful tutorial, thanks!

[@bydesignmethod]

You're welcome! thanks for watching!

[@lesjohnson5933]

Excellent video! But in the second example in the layers panel you begin with 3 layers so you can superimpose the model onto/into the brick wall. How do you gret the other 2 layers there so you can use them in the finished product?

[@bydesignmethod]

Hey Les! I had those pictures already imported but I had them turned 'off' in the layers panel. I added them before-hand by going to 'File > Place' and finding the pictures I downloaded previously on my computer. Let me know if that clears it up - happy to answer any questions and thank you so much for watching and leaving a comment for me to read!

[@Michael-fw5ef]

I was using ACDSEE and it is amazing at selecting the object, but the program doesn't have a smooth option, so every mask is slightly rough and there is no way to actually make it smooth. Therefore, I am considering buying Affinity. Problem with Affinity is that it lags while running on my computer and I don't know how to solve that performance issue.

[@bydesignmethod]

ACDSEE looks interesting, I had never heard of it before. Affinity has always run fairly smooth for me luckily, my problem is I keep everything open and never restart!

[@lavatr8322]

I actually want to extract white letters from balck background..How do i do that? can we do Selection by colour?

[@bydesignmethod]

Hey if you have good contrast between the letters and the background you could try the flood select tool (pay attention to the Tolerence slider when using this tool - the lower the more picky it is) or you could try applying a 'Levels Adjustment' first to really make a better contrast before selecting. Selection by colour works really well in Affinity Designer but Photo not as much. You can select colour ranges and tonal ranges by going to 'Select > Colour Range' and try to refine from there. Hopefully it helps!

[@elisestewart6202]

Could you do a more complex example of removing the background.. A lot of the tutorials have plain backgrounds which is easy to remove... Id like one with a complex background... something difficult to do.. Thanks

[@bydesignmethod]

Hey Elise, I can certainly do that! I also have a video called 'Powerful Pen Tool' which explains how I get tricky selections using both the Selection Brush and the Pen Tool together, it's the best way for sure! Thank you for watching and leaving me a comment!

[@bayareafactorbaby8913]

Love this learned alot some reason when i open my affinity 2 i dont have the number on the top or left side how did you get them there on the border

[@bydesignmethod]

Hey Bayarea! just go up to your 'View' menu and select 'Show Rulers' and you're good to go!

[@bayareafactorbaby8913]

@@bydesignmethod 👌 thank you fam 💯

[@godxavier]

Is there any way of isolating the shadow from the original photo? PS has the color select > Shadows and it lets you select the shadow as well.

[@bydesignmethod]

This is a great question and I've been testing it for a few days, nothing unfortunately as simple as the Photoshop way. Going to look into this more as I think it's important.

[@pas9ify]

Before you do anything, you need to be in "Pixel Persona"!

[@bydesignmethod]

Hey this would be the case if you were using Affinity Designer, absolutely. We're using Affinity Photo here but that brings up a great point for Designer users, thank you!

[@flightographist]

@@bydesignmethod Yup, it's a super sweet suite...all I can afford is photo though, since I found you, me thinks it's all I need.

[@mihaimihai7505]

Select a leaf on a white background.....pffff put the leaf on grass and select ....

[@bydesignmethod]

not sure what that even means but thanks for watching mimi!