Pogo Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 New user here, and I've had a good read of the FAQs. Big picture - creating an eBook cover - I have already done so in ProCreate on iPad, but want to do the same thing in Affinity Photo desktop (as part of my learning and growth in using AP). In Procreate - I placed a photo as background layer - have done same with same photo in AP. Next - I have a Shutterstock photo - portrait with background - I used an iPad app called Photoscissors which 'cut out' the silhouette of the portrait and saved it to my Photos library (as PNG). In Procreate - I imported that photo in as next layer - worked a treat - I just got the silhouette with no backgound - all good. So, my issue is, that when I place that apparent silhouette into AP - I get a photo with the silhouette AND a white background. I'm wondering why the different result - and particularly, am I doing something wrong, or not doing something I should be doing? I do know that this is not a ProCreate forum - I include that description to just fully explain the issue. MacOS 10.15.7 and AP 1.8.6. Many thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl123 Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 First make sure the following is ticked... Document > Transparent Background Quote To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pogo Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 Thank you. it wasn't, but it is now. That didn't seem to change anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl123 Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 Can you upload the PNG file to the forum so we check it does have a transparent background? Or upload the APhoto document so we can check the above and everything else at the same time Quote To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pogo Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 Here is the PNG, exported from 'Photos' ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl123 Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 Downloaded and tested and that images does not appear to have a transparent background i.e. the background is white Quote To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pogo Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 Okey dokey then. Well, when I import that image to Procreate - it does have a transparent background. All I see in Procreate is the figure, not the white background. To import to AP - I have to export it from Photos first - that is the ONLY difference I can see - so, is there something in the export process? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl123 Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 Possibly but I don't use a Mac so I don't know Photos Someone with a Mac will hopefully be along shortly to assist you further Quote To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pogo Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 Many thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pogo Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 Hah!!! That's the answer - it's all in the export from Photos. Selecting the File>Export option from Photos, I was selecting the top option 'Export 1 photo' - which by the way, was 9.9MB - still exporting it as PNG. I just tried File>Export, and selected 'Export Unmodified Original' - still as PNG - this exported file was 15MB When I Place this latter file into AP - no white background - just the cut-out of the silhouette. Excellent. Not sure that I need to, but I'll upload that unmodified export so you can have a look .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmarcos Posted January 23, 2021 Share Posted January 23, 2021 On 1/18/2021 at 7:22 AM, Pogo said: Next - I have a Shutterstock photo - portrait with background - I used an iPad app called Photoscissors which 'cut out' the silhouette of the portrait and saved it to my Photos library (as PNG) Have you considered removing the background directly on Photo? You can either do it with the delete background or by selecting the silhouette and duplicating it in a new layer or something similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pogo Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 Thanks for that. Yes I have, and I found that no matter how much I tried, even with the 'refine' tool, it didn't do a very good job of the hair at the top of the head. Any suggestions on how to get that right would be appreciated. The 'Photoscissors' app, however, handled that much better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firstdefence Posted January 25, 2021 Share Posted January 25, 2021 Brushing around the hair edge in the refine panel generally gets a better matte. Quote iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9 (Please refrain from licking the screen while using this forum) Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pogo Posted January 25, 2021 Author Share Posted January 25, 2021 Yes, ta, that's what I would have thought - but it didn't, just got worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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