Remove Backgrounds in Affinity Photo 2.3

[deepblue]

Hello,
I would like to crop a few family photos with Affinity Photo 2.3. I've already spent several days trying to optimally crop a single photo in Affinity Photo, but the result is very poor. This wouldn't be a problem for me in Adobe Photoshop, but I fail completely in AF Photo.

My problem is that the path around the image is not clear. A jagged selection frame always forms around the path.

Does anyone have an idea whether AF Photos can also crop images cleanly?
I always seem to be doing something wrong.

I cropped all the images point by point using the freehand selection function.

I would be very happy about a few tips.

Thank you

[loukash]

1 hour ago, deepblue said:

I would be very happy about a few tips.

https://youtube.com/results?search_query=affinity+photo+freistellen

[deepblue]

There's no way it works with the automatic release of people.

Unfortunately, the mask around the object is very bad and you can always see these milled edges on the mask.

With the manual cutting tool it works a little better. After I have cut out the people in the picture, I would like to place these people on a dark blue background with a gradient.

What I always notice is that on the person (center back) the green background can be seen on the edges of the sweater.

How to solve this problem?

[loukash]

1 hour ago, deepblue said:

How to solve this problem?

By watching the aforelinked tutorials (assuming your native language is German as seen on your screenshot, otherwise there are tons of tutorials in other languages as well) and learning from them which tools to use and how.

[deepblue]

I have already worked through the individual tutorials on YouTube one by one. Some of the videos are based on version 1.8 and version 2.0. Now there is already version 2.3 and a lot has changed between the versions.

Especially when it comes to cropping objects in Affinity Photo, I would have liked a video that was created with version 2.3.

Cropping with the Freehand Selection (L) works quite well. It takes a little longer, but the exemption mask is great.

But I'm still trying to figure out how and with which technique I can get the best results.

Is the green background not so suitable for cropping?

Then next time I would prefer to choose a white wall for the photos.

[loukash]

39 minutes ago, deepblue said:

a lot has changed between the versions

The techniques to remove background from photos are still the same.

40 minutes ago, deepblue said:

Cropping with the Freehand Selection (L) works quite well. It takes a little longer

Well, that's the technique that we were using in Photoshop 2 about three decades ago…  

47 minutes ago, deepblue said:

Is the green background not so suitable for cropping?

Any background is suitable.

Since you're on Mac, and since the task seems to be a bit too complex for you to be accomplished manually (no offense intended! ), why not simply open your photo in Preview.app, select Tools menu → Remove Background, and … voilà.

[user_0815]

3 hours ago, deepblue said:

I have already worked through the individual tutorials on YouTube one by one. Some of the videos are based on version 1.8 and version 2.0. Now there is already version 2.3 and a lot has changed between the versions.

Especially when it comes to cropping objects in Affinity Photo, I would have liked a video that was created with version 2.3.

Cropping with the Freehand Selection (L) works quite well. It takes a little longer, but the exemption mask is great.

But I'm still trying to figure out how and with which technique I can get the best results.

Is the green background not so suitable for cropping?

Then next time I would prefer to choose a white wall for the photos.

For masking a colourful background isn't ideal because the colour reflects on the subjects.

If you want a soft edge on your selection or mask, use the refine feature. (Verfeinern). When the selection is active, click the Refine (Verfeinern) button. There you have different options to make the best selection. This also works for both selections and Masks. See the video.

[carl123]

16 hours ago, deepblue said:

I cropped all the images point by point using the freehand selection function.

Unsure what you mean? But you should be using the Selection Brush Tool for this and then hitting the Refine button to tweak your selection (if needed) then output as a new layer and add whatever background you want

Lots of tutorials on the Selection Brush Tool on YouTube etc for cutting out objects. Once mastered it's very easy to use on images like yours

APhoto file attached so you can change the background if you want

 

 

 

 

HoHoHo.afphoto

[deepblue]

Thank you for your support.

@user_0815
The next photos will be with a gray background 50%
create. Then the release should also be easier.

With the button (refine) it works very well.

@carl123
Thank you for the photo file and your effort. For me it's about learning the technique of cropping the images.

My problem is always the edges between the object and the background.

I think that using the selection brush tool and the refine function will make it quicker to isolate an object. Your result looks really great.

[GarryP]

I think it’s worth noting that what you are trying to do isn’t “cropping”.
Cropping is normally thought of as the action of reducing the dimensions of the image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cropping_(image)

I think it’s also worth noting that, because your image has such a brightly-coloured background, simply removing/replacing the existing background won’t give a pleasing result because the background colour can still be seen reflected onto the foreground objects

You can see this on the left of your photo where the seat has become green-ish. To get a better result you will need to modify the image further to try and remove this ‘reflected colour’, but I’m not the best person to advise on that.