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Creating a mask from an HSL selection


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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. 

 

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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 😇)

 

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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.

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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!

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 :)

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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.  

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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 :)

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 :)

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  • 1 month later...

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.

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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.

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

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