how to insert space in the middle of an image

[Louise Cloutier]

I've got an image with two faces, closeup and in profile looking at each other, with a white background (see attachment). I'd like to insert a lot more white space between the two faces, in order to put some text between them.

This is what I've tried:
Cropped the left face to remove the one on the right. Then I expanded that canvas (am i using the right term?), and filled the empty space with white.
Then I cropped the right face very tightly, copied and pasted that onto the enlarged canvas of the left one.

And here's the problem.

When I look at the right face in Affinity Photo, it is tightly cropped, exactly the size I want. But when I go to Affinity Designer, superimpose that right face onto the expanded left face image, I see the whole original image with both faces, slapped on top of the expanded left face.
So.. I went back to Affinity Photo. Expanded that right one the same way as the first, filled the empty space with white to cover up the left face, then cropped it tight.
But then again, when I copied and pasted the right face image onto the left, I see the right face with a whole lot of white paint, slapped onto the left face.

There has *got* to be a better way to do this, LOL...

Here's an attachment with the original image.

[dominik]

7 minutes ago, Louise Cloutier said:

I'd like to insert a lot more white space between the two faces, in order to put some text between them.

Hallo @Louise Cloutier,

I'd use two rectangles as masks. One for each person's faces.

1. Create a blanc document of the size of your final design.
2. Place the image via 'File > Place'. Duplicate the image via 'Edit > Duplicate Selection' (CTRL+j works the same way).
3. Create two rectangles with the rectangle tool. Each of about the size of the left head and the right head. Make them the hight of your design.
4. Now in the Layers panel drag one copy of the image over one of those rectangles. Make sure to drop it in the area right to the preview icon. Drop.
   This way you are clipping the image in order to just show one face.
5. Do the same with the other copy of the image on the other rectangle.
6. Now you can move the heads to the far left and right side of your document.

Note: since the background of the image is white there is no problem doing so. If there is a coloured background additional steps are required to fill the gap.

I prepared a Designer sample file but it failed to upload. Sorry.

d.

[anto]

You can also use in Designer or Publisher Divide

 

 

[Old Bruce]

Make a document of the appropriate size, Place the image and rasterize it so it is a Pixel layer not an Image layer. I would then slice the pixel layer, so I have one face selected, using the lasso tool or the Marquee tool. Cut and paste the selection, I now have two pixel layers. Use the Move tool to move either Pixel layer left or right.

[David in Яuislip]

Marquee the man
<ctrl>J - will copy man to new layer
Select original layer and press delete
<ctrl>D - delete marquee
Add fill layer at the bottom
Now you can extend the canvas as required
Right align man layer
Add text

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, anto said:

You can also use in Designer or Publisher Divide

Nice! – Is this option new in V2?

To me in APub V1 a Divide for Picture Frame + single Vector Line results in a rectangular "Curve" object (in size of the former Picture Frame) with the image nested. –> So it simply turns the Picture Frame into a Curve … without any visual / vertical divide.

[firstdefence]

Many roads lead to Rome...

1. Open jpg and unlock the background layer.
2. Select the rectangle selection tool.
3. Select the Woman's head to the middle of the document.
4. Press Cmd + X then Cmd + V (you now have two layers) Press Cmd + D to deselect.
   
5. Select the Move tool (V) and move the woman's head to the left, out of the original documents bounds.
   
6. Go to Menu: Document > Unclip Canvas (This expands the canvas to show the woman's head and widen the overall canvas to accommodate the text.
   
7. Select the Mans layer and Select the Fill tool and make sure it's set to white, then click anywhere in the transparent area to fill it with white
   

You can now merge the layers or leave them as is and just add text above both of the layers.

 

[Louise Cloutier]

2 hours ago, anto said:

You can also use in Designer or Publisher Divide

 

 

Hello, Anto:
I'm really intrigued with your suggestion and I'd like to try it. FYI, I'm working in Designer and this video demonstrates it in Publisher.

I've drawn the vertical line, no problem. It took a while to find the Divide tool, added that to my menu bar. Hunted around to find the Lyr option (I usually stay in the Character option). Okay... I was all set to try and assign one half of the image to one selection in the Curves menu, and the other half to another. But I confess, no matter how slowly I play your video, I can't figure out how to do that. Whatever I click, the Curves in the right column menu just continues to display black boxes.

Please advise --with idiot-proof directions

[Louise Cloutier]

2 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Make a document of the appropriate size, Place the image and rasterize it so it is a Pixel layer not an Image layer. I would then slice the pixel layer, so I have one face selected, using the lasso tool or the Marquee tool. Cut and paste the selection, I now have two pixel layers. Use the Move tool to move either Pixel layer left or right.

I'd like to try your suggestions, however...
I'd rather not use the lasso tool, since it never accurately selects all the stray hairs in an image. I've spent far too many hours manually repairing that. Tying to draw in stray hairs, painting in between them to match the background color, etc, etc.

I'm not at all familiar with the marquee tool. All the directions for using that look like it would take a while to master. Hoping there's a solution that doesn't require that learning curve.
 

[Louise Cloutier]

2 hours ago, David in Яuislip said:

Marquee the man
<ctrl>J - will copy man to new layer
Select original layer and press delete
<ctrl>D - delete marquee
Add fill layer at the bottom
Now you can extend the canvas as required
Right align man layer
Add text

I lost you at "Marquee the man".
Clearly I need to spend some time learning how to use basic tools in Affinity software. That would be great, but I don't have time to do that before this finished image is due today.
 

[Old Bruce]

10 minutes ago, Louise Cloutier said:

I'd like to try your suggestions, however...
I'd rather not use the lasso tool, since it never accurately selects all the stray hairs in an image. I've spent far too many hours manually repairing that. Tying to draw in stray hairs, painting in between them to match the background color, etc, etc.

I will use the Lasso tool because I can go outside of the canvas / picture area. You can use the Marqee tool to drag from outside the area as well.

I select an area (the smug fellow on the right) and cut it (Command + X). Then I deselect the area, clear the selection is another way to say it (here on Mac it is keyboard shortcut Command + D). Then I paste the cut area (Command + V)

 

 

[Louise Cloutier]

22 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Many roads lead to Rome...

1. Open jpg and unlock the background layer.
2. Select the rectangle selection tool.
3. Select the Woman's head to the middle of the document.
4. Press Cmd + X then Cmd + V (you now have two layers) Press Cmd + D to deselect.
   
5. Select the Move tool (V) and move the woman's head to the left, out of the original documents bounds.
   
6. Go to Menu: Document > Unclip Canvas (This expands the canvas to show the woman's head and widen the overall canvas to accommodate the text.
   
7. Select the Mans layer and Select the Fill tool and make sure it's set to white, then click anywhere in the transparent area to fill it with white
   

You can now merge the layers or leave them as is and just add text above both of the layers.

 

Okay, I haven't managed to "cross the Rubicon" here.

I got as far as the second step: "Select the rectangle selection tool". Hmmm.... I guess you're not talking about the tool that creates a rectangle. Perhaps that's part of the Marquee tools? (see my responses about that in previous comments).
These wonderful suggestions have shown me that I need to spend some time with Affinity tutorial videos. But I don't have enough time to do that today.

Hoping the Divide tool suggestion will do the trick. That one has a video (hooray!) although the steps go by so quickly, I've had to play it over and over again. Waiting to hear an answer from Anto, to get past where I got stuck with that one.

 

[anto]

29 minutes ago, Louise Cloutier said:

Hello, Anto:
I'm really intrigued with your suggestion and I'd like to try it. FYI, I'm working in Designer and this video demonstrates it in Publisher.

I've drawn the vertical line, no problem. It took a while to find the Divide tool, added that to my menu bar. Hunted around to find the Lyr option (I usually stay in the Character option). Okay... I was all set to try and assign one half of the image to one selection in the Curves menu, and the other half to another. But I confess, no matter how slowly I play your video, I can't figure out how to do that. Whatever I click, the Curves in the right column menu just continues to display black boxes.

Please advise --with idiot-proof directions

Here is video in Designer

 

 

[Louise Cloutier]

12 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

I will use the Lasso tool because I can go outside of the canvas / picture area. You can use the Marqee tool to drag from outside the area as well.

I select an area (the smug fellow on the right) and cut it (Command + X). Then I deselect the area, clear the selection is another way to say it (here on Mac it is keyboard shortcut Command + D). Then I paste the cut area (Command + V)

 

 

I've followed the steps you described. But when I paste the man's face back in, I see the original image, both faces close together. Whatever I do to grab his half of the image moves the entire image, including her face. Clearly I'm missing the step where I expand this image to make space between them.

[Louise Cloutier]

5 minutes ago, anto said:

Here is video in Designer

 

 

Ohhh, I'm supposed to start with a larger blank image and put the picture inside it!!
I didn't know that. Okay.. gonna try it.

[anto]

1 minute ago, Louise Cloutier said:

Ohhh, I'm supposed to start with a larger blank image and put the picture inside it!!

No, it is page A4 in Designer by default. And you can drag and drop your image on page.

[Old Bruce]

8 minutes ago, Louise Cloutier said:

I've followed the steps you described. But when I paste the man's face back in, I see the original image, both faces close together. 

This means you have an Image Layer. Rasterize that layer. Or Duplicate it hide the original and rasterize the duplicate. This rasterizing will give you a Pixel layer. Image layers are useful for many other things but not cutting selections out.

[Louise Cloutier]

23 minutes ago, anto said:

Here is video in Designer

 

 

3 hours ago, anto said:

You can also use in Designer or Publisher Divide

 

 

Anto:
I'm looking EVERYWHERE, and I can't find any menu that includes all of these commands: Cut, Copy, Group --and Convert to Curves. Cut and Copy are under the Edit drop down menu, and  Group is in the Layer menu. How did you get them all in the same one, and where the heck is Convert to Curves?
 I have played that little segment of the video a dozen times now, watching for your cursor to see how you got that menu. But every time, the menu with all those items just pops out like magic.
Sigh...
I appreciate the time you're taking to help me. I just can't figure out how to get that menu to show up.

[anto]

1 minute ago, Louise Cloutier said:

I'm looking EVERYWHERE, and I can't find any menu that includes all of these commands: Cut, Copy, Group --and Convert to Curves.

Right mouse click on image

[Louise Cloutier]

2 minutes ago, anto said:

Right mouse click on image

Thank you!
Convert to Curves is grayed out, no matter where I right click in the image. The white background, the faces, even clicking outside the image entirely. Nothing gives me the option to click Convert to Curve.

[Louise Cloutier]

I tried clicking the grayed out "convert to curve" just for the heck of it. Then I drew that vertical line and tried to separate them. But now that line is apparently attached to the background, because if I drag and drop, the faces move all together on top of a stationary line.

[anto]

Could you record your screen what are you doing?

[Louise Cloutier]

7 minutes ago, anto said:

Could you record your screen what are you doing?

Sigh.. I don't know how to do that. Yet another thing I'd have to google and learn how to do.

"Convert to curve" is not grayed out in your video. I thought perhaps there's a setting that I had in place that messed things up when I was poking about trying to figure this out on my own.

So I shut down Designer completely, started from scratch. Created a new document, pasted the double face image on top of it. Right clicked on it and... Convert to Curve is still grayed out.

Then I decided to Google that specific problem. I'm not the only one struggling with this.
https://www.google.com/search?q=affinity+convert+to+curve+grayed+out&client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=556573016&sxsrf=AB5stBi73uT7M1BIKKtQDXRjGhFdNDWnTw%3A1691953150679&ei=_ifZZM77KNWeptQPpPuYoAY&ved=0ahUKEwjO8pbUqNqAAxVVj4kEHaQ9BmQQ4dUDCA8&oq=affinity+convert+to+curve+grayed+out&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiJGFmZmluaXR5IGNvbnZlcnQgdG8gY3VydmUgZ3JheWVkIG91dEgAUABYAHAAeAGQAQCYAQCgAQCqAQC4AQzIAQDiAwQYACBB&sclient=gws-wiz-serp

[anto]

9 minutes ago, Louise Cloutier said:

So I shut down Designer completely, started from scratch. Created a new document, pasted the double face image on top of it. Right clicked on it and... Convert to Curve is still grayed out.

I do not know. For me it works.

If you cannot convert maybe it already converted? Try to do next step. Select line and picture and Divide them.

 

 

[Louise Cloutier]

5 minutes ago, anto said:

I do not know. For me it works.

If you cannot convert maybe it already converted? Try to do next step. Select line and picture and Divide them.

 

 

19 minutes ago, Louise Cloutier said:

I tried clicking the grayed out "convert to curve" just for the heck of it. Then I drew that vertical line and tried to separate them. But now that line is apparently attached to the background, because if I drag and drop, the faces move all together on top of a stationary line.

I did. See the comment above.
When I draw a vertical line through it, then select one half of it, the whole image moves around on top of the vertical line, which stays put.