Darken dark areas on new layer

[Lombra]

Hi,

How can I do something like make a rough (eg a rectangle) selection of a person's nose and then make the nose shadow darker, and save the difference on a new layer, such that I could overlay it on a similar picture with a different skin tone? Meaning the overlay should be transparent except for the amplified shadows. (or dark areas, or however it could be defined)

I hope it makes sense, and this is all rather foreign to me, so please bear with me.

Thanks

[dominik]

12 hours ago, Lombra said:

Hi,

How can I do something like make a rough (eg a rectangle) selection of a person's nose and then make the nose shadow darker, and save the difference on a new layer, such that I could overlay it on a similar picture with a different skin tone? Meaning the overlay should be transparent except for the amplified shadows. (or dark areas, or however it could be defined)

I hope it makes sense, and this is all rather foreign to me, so please bear with me.

Thanks

Hello @Lombra and welcome to the forums.

I think what you are looking for is something that is called 'doge and burn'. This is darkening or lightening areas of an image.

In Affinity Photo you create a new pixel layer and fill it with a 50% solid grey colour. The layer needs to be above the image layer. Set that layer to mode 'soft light'. This will make this layer basically invisible.

Then use a paint brush and set its edges to very soft and its opacity to something like 30%. Select black as your foreground colour and start painting on the newly created layer. This will darken shadows. Select white as foreground colour and it will lighten.

Vary the opacity and experiment what works best for you.

You do not need to select an area before you start painting.

By hiding the layer you can completely remove the effect. By copying the layer you can transfer the effect to a different image.

d.

 

PS: another technique is explained in this video

Absolute Beginner's Course Series 2: Episode 20: Dodge and Burn Using Layers

 

[Lombra]

Thank you! Looks like a good start. I was hoping there would be some way to do it more automatically, however. Something like... increasing the contrast, but instead of bright becoming brighter, it would become transparent.