Object Selection Tool and Deleting Objects

[JTS]

Not that I am anwhere near understanding how to simply get rid of an object or person, apparently others who can use this maddeningly difficult photo editor do it with the inpainting brush tool. I can't get the tool to do anything when I'm selecting or not selecting, or rasterising, or layering, or moving, or hiding, or merging, or the million other things you need to know how to do. Half the time I think I'm not even on the screen that will allow me to edit. With the AI and the new object selection tool why can't a simple right click delete get rid of the selection. I haven't come across a tutorial that tells you if you can delete objects and how you'd do this given the selection is easy - working out what the different patterns and colours represent in a way that makes sense once I've selected is another thing.

 

[mmahmoodh]

Share a sample file and tell us what you need to do there. I will share a screen record and show you how, if it's possible or if I can.

[JTS]

Thanks mmahmoodh

I'm just completely adrift with the complexity of Affinity and think I have bought something beyond my capabilities. There are so many technical steps to carry out for even the simplest of tasks. Half the time I don't know what I can do because I don't know the "canvas" I'm looking at is or what is for, whether its locked or unlocked, whether I can move the image (I'm that bad at this) All I want to do is remove a person or an object from an image. I am able to highlight the selection and/or object (whicheverit is called in this context) which turns different colours (what do they mean? / then what do you do?

What is the final command you use to execute the final part of a task and make sure it is done. Is it delete, is it return, is it backspace or none of these and something else. I read something about a square being drawn around the selection...

And has the AI feature made erasing easier. I've never been able to get the Erase Brush Tool to do anything so after about a week and a half and probably 10-12 solid hours trying to understand this beast I's still yet to be able to erase anything in any photo. I couldn't even erase a watermark.


I'd like to be able to erase the entire plant and planter box in this photo.

What do the green and the blue mean? I know it is just a selection like the selection brush tool if just a white outline (I think)

Thanks for you offer to help. I'd appreciate it and hope you're not just wasting your time on my program challenged brain and I'll be able to follow your instructions.

[Fizmarble]

I'm sure it's possible to remove the plant from the image, but it will likely take an understanding of a broad range of tools and some creative use of those tools. Inpainting Brush is great for small objects you just want gone, and can even sometimes add back in a convincing background. But despite the machine learning model, Photo doesn't know what is behind the plant. I'm no expert in the software, but I would guess clone tool and patch tool would be good options for "removing" the plant.

Using one of your photos as an example, here I selected the plant and used the inpainting brush to remove the selection. The tool borrowed the texture from the door on the left, but did not leave a margin along the right side. It's also very clearly in the shape of the plant and planter box. This is where an understanding of the tools will help you to make a more convincing edit.

There is a lot of learning, but if you take things one tutorial at a time, before too long you will have a deeper understanding. Practice makes better. I wish you the best!

[mmahmoodh]

Used a combination of inpainting tool and clone tool to get the result. 

The result is rough since it was done quickly.

A tip, always grow the selection before inpainting to get smoother result.

Hope this helps.

[mmahmoodh]

You can copy the missing elements from the left door.

[carl123]

12 hours ago, JTS said:

What do the green and the blue mean?

Blue hatching means you are making your 1st selection
Green hatching means you are adding to any selection
Red hatching means you are subtracting from any selection

The context toolbar icons for New, Add and Subtract can be used to change the sort of selection you want to do (The hatching colour will update accordingly depending on which you select)