Spiral object

[Murnik]

Hello. Im new to the forum and relatively new to photo editing. I am trying to recreate the attached image. I have tried searching how to achieve this on YouTube, but have been unsuccessful. Does anyone have any advice?

[Ldina]

@Murnik  Welcome to the forum. Cool image. 

If you have a closeup image of the iris or an eye, and another of a spiral galaxy, you'll be off to a quick start. You can place both images into a document on separate layers. (Placed images are non-editable unless you rasterize them first, so right click on the thumbnail in the Layers panel and choose rasterize). If you have those two images, you can upload them to this site and some people will create a version to illustrate one or more different approaches, and some will even upload an Affinity Photo file for your review. 

I'll assume you put the galaxy on the top layer. Add an "layer mask" to the galaxy layer. Use a soft edge black brush (hardness of 0%) and paint the in the center of the mask on the galaxy layer to hide it and allow the eyeball to show through. If you paint too much, switch to a white brush to correct any errors. I'd probably use a Lower opacity brush where the eyeball and galaxy blend into one another for a softer edge. Masks are non destructive, so if you make an error, you can correct the mask by painting with black or white (or shades of gray for partial transparency).

(An alternative to is to create a selection on the mask using the Elliptical Marquis Tool, with a fairly large feathered edge (set in the context toolbar at the top when the selection tool is selected), then fill that selection with black to hide the galaxy. Since the edge is feathered, you will have a gradual 'gradient' to blend at the edges.)

If the colors aren't to you liking, you can add an HSL adjustment layer to alter colors. There are lots of ways to do an image like this. If you don't not have spiral galaxy image, that introduces a whole new level of complexity, which is a bit much if you are totally new to photo editing and Affinity.

There's a lot to learn and it can be a bit daunting at first. I recommend you check out the Tutorials section of this website and start with the Official Affinity Photo Tutorials by James Ritson. (Browse > Forums >> Tutorials). 

[Ldina]

@Murnik Here's a very 'quick & dirty example', using some non-optimal images I found on Pixabay (I just grabbed a few quickly). I only spent a few minutes on it and it is not a particularly good version, but the goal was to familiarize you with some possible techniques. Below is a JPG to show what my quick edit looks like. I have also uploaded an AfPhoto file so you can download it and see what's in this file and how the layers and masks were constructed. I purposely added a mask, a few HSL adjustment layers, and a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer, so you can see how the layers and adjustments work. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I'd recommend watching some tutorials to get your feet on the ground and learn some of the program fundamentals, interface and tools. Hope this helps.

Spiral Eyeball.afphoto

[Murnik]

Hello, thank you so much for taking the time to respond. Ive downloaded the file you attached, I love how its looking. Have you any ideas how I would match the colours of the iris with the galaxy to achieve the swirling colours. Ive tried looking for a brush, then adding an empty mask, that would give the swirl effect, then adding elements as you have done, but I have been successful. 

[Ldina]

@Murnik It's always helpful to post images, so people have something more definitive to work with, otherwise we are shooting a bit in the dark and our advice is less specific for your example, and perhaps a bit off base..

Here's my 'in the dark' shot....🙂

You can add an HSL Adjustment Layer to the eyeball layer. If you want to adjust the blue colors, click on the blue color circle in the HSL adjustment window. If you want to get more precise, you can then click the eyedropper, and pick an exact color of blue you wish to change. There will be 4 points around the blue colors in the big circle above. The inner two points will be modified 100%. The other two points show where any adjustment will end, and the space between inner and outer points will transition from 100% to 0%. You can move the four circles independently to adjust the range of blues you wish to modify. (Hope that was clear). Once you have targeted the color you wish to change, adjust the Hue, saturation and lightness sliders as desired..

You can also use a Selective Color Adjustment Layer, target the blues, greens, or whatever, then adjust the CMYK sliders to adjust color, saturation and brightness. That works well, but the color ranges of the targeted colors are preset and cannot be changed.

Color Balance Adjustment layer allows you to separately target highlights, midtones or shadows, one at a time. So you could brighten highlights and make them ore cyan, darken shadows and make them more blue, etc.

Another option is to use Levels or Curves. Using the composite RGB channel will adjust brightness and contrast. Targeting individual red, green, or blue channels will adjust those channels individually. Curves adjustment layers take some time to understand, so if you are not familiar with them, watch a few video tutorials. I use Curves a lot and they are extremely powerful once you understand them.. 

EDIT: another thing to try is playing with the Blending Mode of the top layer. It is set to Normal by default. You can try scrolling though the other blend modes to see how they affect the blending of your upper layer with the lower layer. If the effect is too strong, you can try lowering the layer opacity. Lots of tools to adjust things in Affinity Photo.

 

[carl123]

15 hours ago, Murnik said:

Does anyone have any advice?

APhoto has a live Twirl filter which can be used on any image. It may be able to assist you in your workflow