Trying to batch this simple workflow (rm background, crop to sel)

[TaylorTT]

hello, I'm new to Affinity Photo and trying to recreate my workflow from PS and could use some help. I'm a coin photographer and I was using photoshop to batch process photos to remove background, crop to the subject, increase canvas size some %, add a solid background color and drop shadow. I can't find a simple remove background tool, and the tests I've done with the flood select and selection brush tool don't make me to think they'd work well for batching this. Is there a way to select background based on sharpness? Also the only way I can find to crop to selection is to copy and file->new from clipboard but I the macro I'm recording seems to only be for the file I opened not the new file. Any help is much appreciated.

[NathanC]

Welcome to the forums @TaylorTT,

This might be a bit of a tough one to include as a part of a macro for batch processing dependant on the background, as it will more than likely require a manual selection. if the contents are on a white background this would be easy to remove as a part of a macro via Filters > Colour > Erase White paper but I can only think to use the Flood selection tool otherwise.

On 6/9/2024 at 4:33 PM, TaylorTT said:

Is there a way to select background based on sharpness? Also the only way I can find to crop to selection is to copy and file->new from clipboard but I the macro I'm recording seems to only be for the file I opened not the new file.

Not that i'm aware of, and creating a new doc from clipboard would be out the document scope so it won't be recorded.  However, if you have an active pixel selection and activate the crop tool it will automatically min fit around the selection area.

It might help if you could provide a few sample files as perhaps another forum member has a better workflow.