Cutouts

[MTfrog]

How can I cut out an object from a picture? Photo plus 8 had a photo studio

[MEB]

Hi mtfrog,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Affinity Photo doesn't have a Photo Studio feature like PhotoPlus but it has the tools to do it. Check this video tutorial about cutting out images.

Also check the section 4. Selections and Masking in the In-house Affinity Photo Video Tutorials thread for more info/tutorials about this subject.

[hagenj1]

I have used all the iterations of desktop publishing from Serif since Page Plus X5. I find it quite annoying that the obsolete program was much more user friendly for making picture cutouts that were simple and effective and actually cutout the shape without keeping a rectangular box around the shape. I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get the proper cutout from the embedded affinity photo cutout feature. The "refine" process is too confusing and so I try all the options to see what I will get and in the end, it still will not just do a simple cutout. IMO, this is not an improvement and would you please fix it! 

[MEB]

Hi @hagenj1,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
If you use the Selection Brush Tool (see this video tutorial if you haven't already) and then a selection refinement (Refine Selection video tutorial) you should be able to get a clean cutout assuming you don't have a busy background with similar colours as the subject you are trying to cutout. Can you share the original image you are having trouble with please? Without a specific case/image it's difficult to be objective/helpful as each image may present different problems/situations do deal with.

[hagenj1]

As I mentioned in my first post, I know the technique, but what's frustrating is that the "cutout"  is just the photo with background removed rather than an actual cutout shape independent of the original. So the result is that when you want to put a bunch of clustered images close together, you have all this overlap from the rectangular box around the image. The previous versions of Page Plus gave me an isolated image. So that's my question- why can't we do that with Designer? of Photo? 

[MEB]

Hi @hagenj1,
In the Refine Selection dialog set the Output dropdown to New Layer.

[carl123]

On 2/12/2021 at 9:14 PM, hagenj1 said:

is just the photo with background removed rather than an actual cutout shape independent of the original.

After you Output to New Layer

Delete the original layer, then...

Document > Clip Canvas

[MEB]

The new layer is already the size of the object it contains, not the canvas, so there's no need to clip the canvas (unless i misunderstood something).

[carl123]

Visually (on screen) it appears to be the same size as the canvas plus if you export it, it exports at the original size of the canvas.

Clipping canvas after deleting the background layer will resize the document to the cut-out image's size and it will export at that size

[MEB]

The user may simply want use the same canvas for the composite (in case he has placed all the images there) and in case you really need to export the layer honouring its size, set the Area dropdown in the Export dialog to Selection with/without Background (or copy then File > New from Clipboard or use the Export Persona).