Refining Selections with Affinity 2.6

Refining selections with Affinity 2.6 is a matter of understanding the options available on the tool that you use to create the selections and in many cases, including the new machine learning assisted tools, using the Refine Tool.

This post extends the more generalised review – AI Selection Tools in Affinity Photo 2.6

Video

This post fills in the detail demonstrated in the video above.

Where is the Refine Tool?

Once you have created the selection, you can invoke the Refine Tool from the options bar where you adjust the setting of the tool itself.

Note that when you load the Object Selection Tool, the Preview it shows reflects the default settings in the tool. In other words it applies some selections so if the Preview looks good, don’t make the mistake of pressing Cancel, this will simply revert back to the initial state.

The first thing you will see after pressing the Refine… button will resemble this screenshot.

Refine Selection Settings (or Preferences)

The following settings can be adjusted from the dialog, note that you can apply these selections in real time, with the dialogue open. You’ll see the image redraw on the screen as you go.

• Preview—sets the way your selection and page display. Select from the drop-down menu at top right.
  • Overlay (default) – shows the selection overlaid against red, translucent area indicating that area is not part of the selection.
  • Black Matte – shows the selection against non-selected areas being blacked out.
  • White Matte – shows the selection against non-selected areas in white.
  • Black & White – shows the selection as white while non-selected areas as black.
  • Transparent – shows the selection against a checked pattern indicated as non-selected.

Simply choose the Preview value that enable you to see the selection best.

• Matte Edges – when selected (default), the selection area closely follows image edges. If this option is off, selection doesn’t follow image edges as closely.
• Border width – expands the scope of the selection by adjusting the width of the border. This tells Affinity roughly where to look for potential edges.
• Smooth – determines the curvature of the selection’s edge.
• Feather – determines the softness (opacity) of the transition at the edge of the selection. Useful for blending the selection in where this is appropriate.
• Ramp – In areas where there is a gradual transition from opaque to transparent pixels it makes the transition sharper and moves the selection in or out, depending on which direction you drag the slider. Fully opaque and fully transparent pixels are unaffected. A smaller value will give you a sharper selection.

All of the above are adjusted in real time – you’ll see the image update as you release the slider.

The following are adjustments you can manually make to refine a selection.

• Adjustment brush – determines the adjustment brush’s refinement mode.
  • Matte – re-analyses the selection and attempts to separate foreground detail from the background. Perfect for fine detail refinements such as stray hairs or similar thin elements of a subject.
  • Foreground – adds to the selection (revealing more of the foreground).
  • Background – deletes from the selection (revealing more of the background).
  • Feather – softens the alpha edge of the selection.
• Width – sets the width of the brush tip. Type directly in the text box or drag the pop-up slider to set the value.
• Output – determines how the selection is applied upon exiting the dialog. Select from the pop-up menu.
  • Selection – applies the refinement directly to the selection.
  • Mask – applies the refinement to the selection as a mask.
  • New Layer – applies the refinement to the selection in a new layer.
  • New Layer With Mask – applies the refinement to the selection as a mask in a new layer.

The size of a brush (when using the Matte option) determines what is taken into consideration when Affinity Photo evaluates the apointed areas. Use a brush size that allows the app to recognize the differences between pixels and don’t be afraid to paint your strokes to cover both the areas you’d like to select and those you’d like to exclude as this aids calculations.

Selection and Mask are ideal when applying adjustments and filters after refining the selection area. New layer and New layer with mask are suited to cutting out and compositing; color ‘decontamination’ is also used for achieving high-quality cut-out results. Use the Foreground adjustment brush to select the interior (top left, brush strokes; top right, resulting selection), then the Matte adjustment brush to paint along the edge and individual hairs (bottom left). Use the Preview options to inspect the refined selection (bottom right).

Smooth

In Affinity Photo, smoothing the edges of your selection can be performed via the dedicated in-dialog slider.Smooth setting effect with a low (left) and high (right) value.

As you increase the slider value, you’ll notice the amount of details included (left) and excluded (right) from the selection. The setting takes effect by evaluating edge pixel data and delivering a softer result as you increase the pixel value, which is great for at least a couple of scenarios: one, where you need the selected object to fade into the underlying image; or two, whereby you’d like for it to stand out with solid, more defined edges.

Feather

Feathering the edges of your selection can be performed by either adjusting the dedicated in-dialog slider, or setting the brush mode to Smooth. Feather setting effect with a low (left) and high (right) value.

The Feather brush mode allows for the borders of your selection to be smoother, even more refined with edge pixels progressively blurred as you increase the brush size. In addition, you can modify these edges further by experimenting with the Feather slider in the dialog – the brush mode works in tandem with the slider to deliver the desired effect.

Brush size can be adjusted mid-stroke with the [ and ] keys.

To better visualize the effects of feathering refinements, change the Preview mode to Black and white.

To refine pixel selection edges:

1. Do one of the following:
   • From any selection tool’s context toolbar, click Refine.
   • From the Select menu, select Refine Edges.
2. Adjust the settings in the dialog and/or select the brush mode, as required.
3. If you wish to adjust the selection edges by painting, drag on the preview.
4. Click Apply.

Re-refining pixel selections

If you selected New layer with mask output option the first time you refined the selection, simply right-click on the mask in the layers panel and select Refine Mask. If however your output was either to Selection or New Layer, and you haven’t deselected your object yet, use the same Refine button on the context toolbar, as before.

Conclusion

I hope this adds sufficient clarity to the video. Much of the content here was sourced from the Affinity Photo Help pages with some clarification added by me. The problem with video tutorials is that not every option is explored as the picture may not require them to be used!