Secret Feature in the Affinity Photo Selection Brush

[@RobinWhalley]

A couple of people have spotted a mistake in the video at around 0:50. The text should say [ = decrease brush size and ] = increase brush size. Sorry if it's caused any confusion.

[@weldonf4081]

Thank you for this video and ALL Affinity Photo videos that you have uploaded onto your KZbin Channel. They are very helpful, and I hope you continue to add more lessons in the future. Much appreciated!!!

[@RobinWhalley]

Glad you like them! There will be more.

[@trevorburton4429]

Clear and easy to understand as always. Thank you Robin

[@RobinWhalley]

You're very welcome! Thank you

[@jacobj7980]

Thank you very much for your professionalism and certainly for your courtesy.

[@RobinWhalley]

You are very welcome. Thank you.

[@chrisefc3579]

Thankyou for this video, very helpful indeed.

[@RobinWhalley]

You're very welcome. I'm pleased that it was helpful.

[@StudioPetrikas]

That's a very neat tip. As you said, it isn't very obvious immediately. Learned something new today, thanks!

[@RobinWhalley]

Glad it was helpful! Thank you.

[@davidwilson2509]

great tutorial I'm just starting out with affinity. thanks

[@RobinWhalley]

That's ggreat to hear! Thank you. If you haven't already seen it, I have an Affinity Photo Course you can watch on KZbin. Here's the first video kzbin.info/www/bejne/iHTLqaiNrs-Uj8U

[@ozzy10881]

Very helpful and informative tutorial. Thank you

[@RobinWhalley]

You are welcome! I'm pleased you liked it.

[@MK-ni6gs]

Excellent vid!

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you

[@wonga07]

Great Video. Thank you

[@RobinWhalley]

Glad you liked it. Thank you.

[@jean_mollycutpurse_winchester]

Thank you. Just found you. Subbed straightaway.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thank you. I hope you enjoy my other videos.

[@jean_mollycutpurse_winchester]

​@@RobinWhalley Your welcome. While I am here, Do you know of a way to turn a paint brush stroke into a vector? Thanks.

[@fayevalentine3712]

this is really cool

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. I'm glad you liked it.

[@MOAB-UT]

Good tips!

[@RobinWhalley]

Glad you think so! Thanks

[@jacobj7980]

Robin Sorry for being so sloppy. At 3:57 you started talking about “all layers” confusion, then added the second image as a new layer in the layers panel. Adding the second image as a new layer and getting both on the monitor screen baffles me and getting to that point is my request. Thank you in advance for any assistance you can offer me. Joe Repanshek

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks for clarifying. The two images are two layers inside the same document. You only see half of the top image because there's a mask applied to it, allowing you to see the layer beneath it. What I'm trying to show is the effect of the All Layers setting and how you can use this to control if the active layer is used exclusively to create a selection or if all the layers are combined and used. That's why the selection follows the line of the mountains in the layer I have selected and ignores the trees in the visible layer. I hope that makes sense.

[@jacobj7980]

Can you explain how you added the second image on the screen?

[@RobinWhalley]

Can you tell me what the time of the video is when this happens as I don't understand what you mean by "adding a second image on the screen". Thanks

[@bransoncarlton4939]

Some of the features of affinity photo are not obvious even if you have been working in Photoshop for decades. I had come to the conclusion that the brush was vastly inferior to photoshop’s. Thank you for your clear demonstration of these parameters and I am hoping that the selection brush will be on par with Photoshop. Thank you so much for your series of videos and they have helped me tremendously getting up to speed. If you work with Affinity techs, please ask them to improve Path selection and path saving as it is the ultimate compositing tool.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. I'm pleased that you like the videos. Unfortunately I don't have any contact with the Affinity Photo Techs other than through commenting on their forum. If you're not a member it would be worth joining that as the team seem to be active. As for the Pen Tool, have you seen my videos kzbin.info/www/bejne/b3iUYo1srbZ1qqs and kzbin.info/www/bejne/fV7YiWptqceXh8k explaining how to use it in Affinity Photo. Again, whilst it's similar to Photoshop it's different enough to be confusing.

[@bransoncarlton4939]

@@RobinWhalley YES, I need a refresher and will check them out pronto. Again, first rate videos and THANK YOU!

[@SolihullRog]

I have bought your book on Essentials fo Affinity Photo 2. I am up to Page 247 or 2229. I can paint black over my mask, but it I make a mistake and change to white, it has no effect. I've followed the book and this KZbin but neither give me a clue.

[@RobinWhalley]

Can you let me know which version of the book and where you purchased it please. The page numbering changes, especially with eBooks. Would you also email me a screenshot of when you are painting with white. Please use my email [e-mail]. There could be quite a few reasons for the problem so I need to see your setup. Thanks

[@trevorcarpenter6678]

Good tutorial explaining well something I've wondered about. Have you any idea why my selection brush is a plain circle while yours has the smaller circle with a cross in. Is there a difference.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. You can turn on the cross in the centre in the Affinity Photo Preferences. Select the "User Interface" preferences and you'll find an option for "Always show brush crosshair". Hope that helps.

[@trevorcarpenter6678]

@@RobinWhalley Thanks for coming back on that

[@trevorcarpenter6678]

@@RobinWhalley thanks for that info

[@zoltanpuskas4722]

Robin, well done, as usual. The price point is a little high.

[@RobinWhalley]

Thanks. Not sure what you mean about the price point being high though.

[@zoltanpuskas4722]

@@RobinWhalley , sorry, this comment was for the video about Dehancer Film Emulation Plugin

[@Chriswoodworker]

Please don't think I'm being a spy or anything but I couldn't help but notice you had a Creative Cloud icon on your top menu bar. Does this mean you still use Photoshop? And if so, why if Affinity is so good? Just wondering...

[@RobinWhalley]

I don't think you are spying and it's a good question. Yes I still use Adobe products for several reasons: 1. I have a large back catalogue of images to manage and have spent years keywording them in Lightroom. I'm not risking switching to a different packages when Lightroom is doing the job for me. Remember, photography is a business for me so I'm thinking differently to someone who might only be interested in editing photos as a hobby. 2. Affinity Photo is excellent but there are additional tools and techniques I use in Photoshop that aren't in Affinity Photo. A good example of this is Luminosity Masking where I use several extensions for Photoshop like Lumenzia and TK Actions. Affinity can't support these or anything similar at the moment. Yes there are ways to do Luminosity Masking in Affinity Photo but they are no where near as developed as what I can do in Photoshop. 3. Although many people have moved away from Adobe because of their subscription model, their products are still excellent. I also think personally they are good value and they save me time. A monthly subscription fee for me as a business isn't a big deal and it's not a reason to switch. I hope that gives some insight.

[@bransoncarlton4939]

I Robin I had come to the same conclusion. They’re just way out in the front. But I am retired and I have given untold thousands to adobe. I have an older computer with Lightroom that is not hooked up to the Internet and never will be for that reason. I resent Adobe and will never give them another penny. Affinity represents a good value and I think it will make do since I am retired.

[@garyhunt8455]

Robin - unless I missed something I think you incorrectly typed what the left and right brackets do. This was around the 50 second mark.

[@RobinWhalley]

Good spot. I have no idea why I did that. I even check each video through a couple of times and didn't spot that. Unfortunately it's not something I can change now.

[@garyhunt8455]

@@RobinWhalley Not being critical. Just wanted you to be aware of it.

[@JohnCollins-iy1pw]

CTRL+ALT and right and left mouse key gives you brush diameter and hardness.

[@RobinWhalley]

Yes, good tips and thatnks for adding them. I don't like to put too much information in short videos because it can overwhealm but these are very useful shortcuts to know.

[@signedelacroix7213]

That was V 1.

[@RobinWhalley]

Yes it was but this approach also works in version 2. You can also influence the selections by the direction of the brush strokes making them either towards or away from an object. I cover all the Affinity Photo selection tools in my "How To Select It" book: lenscraft.co.uk/project/how-to-select-it-book/