jimh12345 Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 I understand how to use AP's HSL filter to select a range of color and modify it. What I'd like to do is use this selection as a mask for another filter, like Blur. In my case I've used HSL to select just the blue sky and change the tint and saturation a bit. Now I'd like to also do a Gaussian blur on that sky - without affecting all the tree branches. I Googled this and did find a couple of videos. BUT the methods for creating the mask seemed extremely complicated; I got lost. In Capture One, for example, this is literally one click on the Color Selection tool: "create mask". The color selection can then be used as a basis for other adjustments I'm thinking there has to be a simpler way within Affinity Photo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lem3 Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 Select -> Select Sampled Color ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimh12345 Posted April 13, 2022 Author Share Posted April 13, 2022 Well that would come close, probably close enough, but doesn't let me tune the selection like I did with HSL. I'd like to use the selection I already have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyJack Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 Interesting. The problem is that the HSL Adjustment itself isn't really making a static selection. If you had someone wearing a blue shirt and targeted the HSL to "see" blues then the "shirt area" alone is affected. But if the layer under the very same HSL was all blue then the whole layer would be "selected". It's quite a bit different than masking the HSL. Do you have links to the vids making this work? (yes, I'm lazy.... not gonna google it myself 😇) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lem3 Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 3 hours ago, jimh12345 said: Well that would come close, probably close enough, but doesn't let me tune the selection like I did with HSL. I'd like to use the selection I already have. HSL allows you to target a set of colors, but it isn't making a selection in the "marching ants" around a set of pixels sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Dan C Posted April 13, 2022 Staff Share Posted April 13, 2022 Hi @jimh12345, Welcome to the Affinity Forums Are you able to provide a copy of the image where you are editing the sky? I'd like to offer my suggestions but this can vary on an image by image basis, as to the fastest or best methods! As mentioned above, the HSL 'colour picker' doesn't create a selection that can be directly used by other adjustments or features, it simply 'picks' a colour/colour range to selectively adjust, with the HSL sliders. Many thanks in advance! Quote Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave. If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap. Many thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimh12345 Posted April 13, 2022 Author Share Posted April 13, 2022 Correct, HSL doesn't make a 'selection' although one is implied. That's really my question - is there a simple and direct way to make a usable mask layer or selection, once HSL has the color range you want? Capture One has it, but it appears AP does not. Although it can be done (as per the videos I found) the method is too complicated to remember. And I can live without this - because "Select - Selected Sampled Color" is good enough for most purposes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Dan C Posted April 13, 2022 Staff Share Posted April 13, 2022 1 minute ago, jimh12345 said: is there a simple and direct way to make a usable mask layer or selection, once HSL has the color range you want? Unfortunately not currently, but I'll be sure to log this as an improvement with our developers as I can certainly see the benefits of this and something we can look to add in a future update! 2 minutes ago, jimh12345 said: I can live without this - because "Select - Selected Sampled Color" is good enough for most purposes. No problem at all, many thanks for letting me know jimh12345 1 Quote Please Note: I am now out of the office until Tuesday 2nd April on annual leave. If you require urgent assistance, please create a new thread and a member of our team will be sure to assist asap. Many thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
francwoods Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 I also just saw a video where Photoshop had a "fuzzy" slider for their Color Range selection. This would also be useful. For a new / improved Color Range selection, bring up a mini version of the image and allow "picking" the color to select then use a slider to increase or decrease the color range to select. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smadell Posted June 13, 2022 Share Posted June 13, 2022 I agree (wholeheartedly) that Affinity Photo needs a dedicated Color Range Selection panel, in much the same vein as Photoshop’s panel of the same name. Personally, I’ve never gotten satisfactory results using Select Sampled Color… because it always selects the color throughout the image, and there is very little ability to tweak the results. However, I get much better results using the Flood Select tool. Flood Select has the same “tolerance” slider, and I typically set this to a fairly low number (usually between 1 and 3). But, it also has a Contiguous checkbox, so the selection can be limited to a specific area. And, it has different modes, so each click can creare a New selection, or can Add to or Subtract from the existing selection. I typically follow the areas selected by using the Quick Mask, in which the selected/unselected areas are segregated by a rubylith overlay. A dedicated panel would be better, but i have found that Flood Select usually gives me fairly good results. Quote Affinity Photo 2, Affinity Publisher 2, Affinity Designer 2 (latest retail versions) - desktop & iPad Culling - FastRawViewer; Raw Developer - Capture One Pro; Asset Management - Photo Supreme Mac Studio with M2 Max (2023}; 64 GB RAM; macOS 13 (Ventura); Mac Studio Display - iPad Air 4th Gen; iPadOS 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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