How to remove a feather from an image or selection, history not available.

[Affinity Rat]

Title says it. 😁

I presume its not possible, w/o history.

[v_kyr]

When the steps have just been applied/performed on an image, then via undo steps. - Other than that for some reopened images, where the operation has been once upon a time been performed (...without any saved history), I don't see much chances for being able to do so.

[Affinity Rat]

1 minute ago, v_kyr said:

When the steps have just been applied/performed on an image, then via undo steps. - Other than that for some reopened images, where the operation has been once upon a time been performed (...without any saved history), I don't see much chances for being able to do so.

Than , yeah thats what I thought too. My old software that had objects, feathers could be applied and removed later, each object had a feather parameter which could be set to zero, just like opacity.

 

[Affinity Rat]

It isnt possible to select the layer, make a selection of it, the go to alpha channel and paint it 100% white or something similar seems kind of logical to me.

 

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, Affinity Rat said:

It isnt possible to select the layer, make a selection of it, the go to alpha channel and paint it 100% white or something similar seems kind of logical to me.

 

Making a pixel selection does not change the layer. If you go to the alpha channel, that is the alpha channel of the layer not of the selection, so if you paint on it you are changing the layer, not the selection.

 

[Affinity Rat]

11 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Making a pixel selection does not change the layer. If you go to the alpha channel, that is the alpha channel of the layer not of the selection, so if you paint on it you are changing the layer, not the selection.

 

Ok but wont that get rid of the feathered edge of the layer.

I thot a feather was merely an 8 bit black/white layer where white was 100% and black was 0, so painting white with the constraint of the selection could replace the gray feathered edge with white therefore removing the feather.

The use of the selection was only to limit where you paint, I guess I dont really have handle on what the alpha channel actually represents.

[Affinity Rat]

I think my understanding of the alpha channel comes from other software that represented alpha in that manner and therefore easy to remove a feather, replacing what was invisible with the original image. Apparently APho doesnt work that way.

[walt.farrell]

4 minutes ago, Affinity Rat said:

Ok but wont that get rid of the feathered edge of the layer.

You haven't said anything about creating a layer; only about creating a selection.

If you create a feathered pixel selection, and then create a layer such as an adjustment layer, you now have a layer that has a mask with feathered edges. You also have a pixel selection that is active in whatever layer is active.

You will need to be more specific, and have actual examples, to have a truly meaningful discussion, I think.

[Affinity Rat]

I thought the title made it clear, but didnt elaborate.

Often I make a selection feather it and copy part of an image and paste it, now it appears feathered. 

So what I wanted to do was remove the feather of the copied layer, and get back the hard edge.

I was assuming the copied layer was precisely where the marching ants were, so the actual copied part had hard edges but the alpha dictated the edge visibility, so the hard edge could be “reclaimed” by painting the gray alpha edge white.

Not so in APho.

[Affinity Rat]

When I saw how the opacity worked with gradients,  it appears that every pixel layer in APho has a linear gradient or or rather creates one on demand but its opacity is set at 0.

Turning on Fx, sets the opacity of that hidden gradient layer to 100% and sets background opacity to 0. So seems like it works like I suggested… no?  I find it hard to believe that alpha doesnt work this way, but Im ready for an education. 😁

’

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, Affinity Rat said:

I was assuming the copied layer was precisely where the marching ants were,

No, the marching ants denote the line where the pixels are >= 50% selected. Pixels outside the line are < 50% selected, but any pixel that is > 0% selected is part of the selection and is copied in the scenario you just described. Given that you have copied and pasted a feathered layer like that, possibly your idea of adjusting its Alpha channel would work. But I will need to play with that, as I have done very little with Alpha channels.

(And there is a whole other discussion about how a pixel can be fractionally selected, but it is really about the alpha channel of the selection, I think. I don't remember the details and can't find the discussion at this time.)

[walt.farrell]

Sorry; I haven't found a way to do it. Perhaps someone more familiar with the Channels panel can provide a method I haven't discovered yet.

[NotMyFault]

On 1/7/2024 at 5:13 PM, Affinity Rat said:

I thought the title made it clear, but didnt elaborate.

Often I make a selection feather it and copy part of an image and paste it, now it appears feathered. 

So what I wanted to do was remove the feather of the copied layer, and get back the hard edge.

I was assuming the copied layer was precisely where the marching ants were, so the actual copied part had hard edges but the alpha dictated the edge visibility, so the hard edge could be “reclaimed” by painting the gray alpha edge white.

Not so in APho.

To remove feathering in the special case where layers have partial transparency:

1. Add a levels adjustment nested in masking position of layer
2. choose alpha channel
3. move white level to zero

[Affinity Rat]

I couldnt duplicate what NotMyFault did. 😗

Below is my awkward way of achieving what I wanted, not as eloquent as NotMyFaults method, and may not work in practice.

Not shown in video,

1.I drew a curve with a paint brush hardness set to 50% so significant feathering.

2. In the channel studio I hid the composite alpha layer, this showed the hard edges. Maybe optional

3. Then filled the pixel alpha layer from menu.

Some steps I did may not be necessary.

 

 

[Affinity Rat]

7 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Sorry; I haven't found a way to do it. Perhaps someone more familiar with the Channels panel can provide a method I haven't discovered yet.

Thanx for trying.

[Affinity Rat]

Tried again with an image which was copied with a feathered selection.

I had to do this in APho V1 because after creating selection and feathering it I couldnt copy it with the feather in APho 2, attempts to copy removed the feather, later realized with V1 the apply button for feather is adjacent to the feather parameters whereas in V2 it was hidden at the top of the screen, poor UI design, shouldnt have to go searching for something I didnt even remember existed. Using V1 I’m on autopilot to apply, because next to other parameters. I prefer APho 1 for multiple of reasons.

Anyway without any more ado

Notice I put a huge feather on the selection, for sake of demonstration.

 

 

[Affinity Rat]

While this method may work, it would be nice to use a brush so have finer control, I’m sure its possible but I’ve yet to find it.

[Affinity Rat]

A clumsy way using a brush, could also do flood fill.

Starts out with a paste of a feathered selection.

Must be better way.

 

 

[NotMyFault]

7 hours ago, Affinity Rat said:

I couldnt duplicate what NotMyFault did. 😗

Did you try?

[Affinity Rat]

29 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

Did you try?

I did but didnt seem to work. I didnt set the output white to 0. Yeah this works well. 😊👍🏽

 

 

[Affinity Rat]

ok I see output white to 0.

[walt.farrell]

8 hours ago, Affinity Rat said:

I drew a curve with a paint brush hardness set to 50% so significant feathering.

I am not convinced that adjusting the hardness gives feathering. It may give something that looks similar, but that does not mean it will act similarly.

[Affinity Rat]

18 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I am not convinced that adjusting the hardness gives feathering. It may give something that looks similar, but that does not mean it will act similarly.

 Ok

 

[walt.farrell]

18 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

To remove feathering in the special case where layers have partial transparency:

1. Add a levels mixer adjustment nested in masking position of layer
2. choose alpha channel
3. move white level to zero

That had no visible effect when I tried it. Am I doing somethig wrong?  (By the way, I presumed you meant Levels Adjustment not Channel Mixer Adjustment, as I'm not familiar with a "levels mixer" adjustment.)

 

sample-231.afphoto

[NotMyFault]

Probably the adjustment is child nested. It must be mask nested.