mistertaylor Posted September 9, 2023 Share Posted September 9, 2023 Hello, How can I make take an image of the moon and make the background (including where the sky shows through the craters) transparent? I feel like I'm missing something obvious... So my steps have been to duplicate the image, apply a layer adjustment to make it greyscale and then apply a threshold layer adjustment to limit to black and white with the moon being white and the "sky" being black - this is my mask. I've tried numerous ways of applying this mask to the original image (eg "mask to below", manually adding a mask, etc), but none actually perform the mask and the image remains unchanged. Please help! Moon.afphoto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted September 9, 2023 Share Posted September 9, 2023 Hi @mistertaylor, welcome to the Affinity Forums! Layers of type "Image" don't work this way as mask (are rather just a rectangle). To use your prepared setup you can choose via right-click "Rasterize to Mask" (+ then move / nest the layer as wanted). Alternatively you could select directly the black (e.g. with Flood Select Tool) + invert the selection + click the "Mask" button in the Layers panel. mistertaylor 1 Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v_kyr Posted September 9, 2023 Share Posted September 9, 2023 Well, there are several (many) different ways possible to accomplish this, one of them would be to ... Rasterize first the image (so it get's a pixel layer) Select -> Tonal Range -> Select Shadows and/or Select Midtones and then delete the selection (black tonal areas are deleted and will get complete transparent) Making also a selective color adjustment after the black color and giving it -100% ... Further ... ... playing with the layers transparency setting and blend modes if wanted ... ... etc. etc. Moon_play.afphoto mistertaylor 1 Quote ☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan ☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Return Posted September 9, 2023 Share Posted September 9, 2023 I would choose the blendranges for this. 2023-09-09 12-58-11.mp4 mistertaylor 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistertaylor Posted September 9, 2023 Author Share Posted September 9, 2023 Thank you! Is there a way to keep the adjustment layers and still have the mask? Rasterising them merges the layers and makes them non-editable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Return Posted September 9, 2023 Share Posted September 9, 2023 Infinite possibilities when changing layers in the stack with blendmodes and blendranges. Just play. 2023-09-09 13-24-14.mp4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted September 9, 2023 Share Posted September 9, 2023 18 minutes ago, Return said: Infinite possibilities when changing layers in the stack with blendmodes and blendranges. Just play. I think the missing point in this play is the masking of the black background. Note, the two adjustments in the OP's file were apparently created to affect the masking area only, not the entire / visible moon. Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomaso Posted September 9, 2023 Share Posted September 9, 2023 2 hours ago, mistertaylor said: Is there a way to keep the adjustment layers and still have the mask? Rasterising them merges the layers and makes them non-editable. I am not sure if this simplified workaround works for your needs as wanted. Instead of a Mask layer it uses blend mode "Erase" for the grouped adjustment (and thus doesn't need the B&W adjustment) + blend range curves for both the erasing group and the threshold layer. Moon_erase.afpub moon erase mask.m4v Quote macOS 10.14.6 | MacBookPro Retina 15" | Eizo 27" | Affinity V1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistertaylor Posted September 11, 2023 Author Share Posted September 11, 2023 Perfect - thank you for your responses - I think the blend option was the "best" solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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