Circling an object in a photo

[Ray Schoch]

I can't figure out how to draw a circle/oval around an object in a larger photo to draw attention to that object. I simply want to be able to draw a white/black/yellow line around an object without obscuring the object itself. Since there's no manual to speak of, and I've spent quite a bit of time exploring Affinity, without success, I'm hoping someone can provide specific instructions on how to do what should be a simple task

[Wosven]

HI @Ray Schoch and welcome,

Try using the shapes Tools and assigning a stroke and no fill:

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Wosven said:

Try using the shapes Tools and assigning a stroke and no fill:

Like in this circled detail.afphoto example.

[GarryP]

I’m curious as to why you “can’t figure out how to draw a circle/oval”.

The Ellipse Tool is displayed by default in the Tools Bar of Designer (but not Photo or Publisher, see next post) all Affinity applications (as mentioned by Wosven above) so can you see the Tools Bar, on the left of the application window?
If not, try menu “View → Show Tools”.
You can customise the Tools Bar to put the Ellipse Tool on it by using menu "View → Customise Tools...".

Edit: Forget to check and was corrected by PixelPest below. Have modifed my original comment.

Also, why do you say that “there’s no manual to speak of”?
I’m not the greatest fan of the Affinity documentation but the Help does contain a lot of information about what you need for this sort of thing.
Did you try searching the Help for “ellipse” or “circle” (without the quotes)?
If so, what did you find?

Edited September 12, 2021 by GarryP
Amended because of errors.

[PixelPest]

2 hours ago, GarryP said:

The Ellipse Tool is displayed by default in the Tools Bar of all Affinity applications

Not 100% true; while AD has an explicit circle tool, in APh+APub it´s part of the shapes-menu which remembers the last used option.

Why someone can´t find the circle tool escapes me though - obviously.

[GarryP]

Oops, sorry, yes you’re quite right. I’ve amened my earlier post as necessary.

[R C-R]

19 hours ago, Ray Schoch said:

Since there's no manual to speak of ...

From your other topic, it looks like you are using Affinity Photo on a Mac. If you open the Help menu & type "circle" into the search box, you will get references to several  help topics, the first of which is to the help topic for the Ellipse Tool.

To find menu items quickly without having to open every menu & submenu to search for them, you can type a word that is part of the item's name into the search box. In the list that pops up, if you hover the pointer over any of the items in the "Menu Items" section, the menu that contains that item will pop open & a large floating pointer will appear next to it.

To see how that works, for example without the quotes type "Color" into the box, & hover the pointer over any of the ten menu items with names that include "color."

Also, from the Help menu or the Welcome screen you can access the AP video tutorials.

Finally, while you are learning how to use the app, I suggest opening Preferences to User Interface & setting the Tooltip delay slider almost all the way to the left so the tooltips will appear quickly. This is very useful for identifying & learning the names of tools & icons.