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almost there but need some advice


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Been doing more reading (nice to have the .pdf) and viewing of videos and trying to get my thinking straight as using Affinity is a bit different from what I am used to with ON 1.

 

Ok -- here is the issue. One it did take a few times to get my selection almost correct. I did think I had used the refine after using the selection brush to create what will be shown in the two files attached. However, after doing all the work I would normally do to the base image file prior to adding additional images, I still have a small area where the adjustments did not get applied due to a small mistake in the selection process.

 

Please refer to the two files and see where I have gone from the original (well almost as it was a .jpg but strangely enough I must have lost those and just have the .png files but that is ok as they are able to be edited) to a base image that has had adjustments and the signature file added.

 

For further information, let me say that what I like to do is, after the image has been created in camera, take the image to the editor and then if necessary make any overall exposure adjustment. Now with Affinity's capabilities, I like the idea of being able to select the subject (knife) and make any further adjustments to it alone such as modest sharpening and maybe a couple of others such as vibrance, saturation, contrast, etc, etc.

 

Thus my idea was to make a selection of the knife and do those adjustments and then invert the selection and adjust the background. The two basic adjustments I normally will do is to darken the background with a simple exposure adjustment and then do a gausian blur as a live filter layer.

 

Once that has been done then I can add a live filter vignette and then add the signature.

 

Often then I would save this just in case I totally mess things up with the next additions which is how we get to the images we are showing.

 

Just one little problem. My selection was somewhat off and if one looks at the upper side of the subject, at the lower edge of the butt of the handle there is a light patch which after trying a few different times of using the burn and the blur tool, I just have not been able to get something that is satisfactory so was hoping that someone with more experience might have a suggestion. Figured I would get this info prior to adding other views of the knife to the background image.

 

not sure which is the better to upload  -- the .afphoto or the new .jpg so uploading both

 

Looks like I need to ask one more question  -- why is the .jpg such a small file size?

 

TIA

post-50267-0-18732100-1485817231_thumb.png

2ndwalrusfolderN5383.afphoto

post-50267-0-16024500-1485817408_thumb.jpg

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Did I understand you right murphy?

 

 

2ndwalrusfolderN5383.jpg

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I believe it's a different spot in question Kodiak.

 

Murphy:

However you made your selection, you missed that spot.

If you Alt click on the thumbnails of the adjustments/masks, you will see them in black and white and that area will be super apparent (except for the exposure layer where there was no marquee selection. It's all white.).

 

To fix: you need to paint with a white brush on the adjustment layers to fill in the trouble spot.

I think the main offending ones were: Exposure and Vignette layers above, and the Background Gauss Blur.

 

post-12544-0-45971500-1485821841_thumb.png

 

(a little side suggestion: instead of flipping a selection back and forth to work on knife then background.... I would select the knife, copy/paste it (it'll be on it's own layer then). Now you can do your adjustments more easily, imho).

 

YWIA (can we all do this please  :D )

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Yes Jimmy, I did miss that spot but did not realize it until I deselected after doing the work.

 

Ok next - you say "paint with a white brush". OK I used the Paint Brush tool B on the adjustment layer and then got a cross hair and clicked and move it about carefully with small brush at 0 hardness and that worked perfectly.

 

I understand what you are saying about copy/paste and I see that working when I add the next items to the composite but the background I am using actually includes the subject as it is the background I use when photographing almost all of the couple hundred knives I own plus generally others I might do as favors for friends or other collectors. What I used to do in ON 1 was to use a gradient to cover most of the image and then carefully darken and blur the area beyond the knife but I did not see that method available in Affinity and I rather like the selection method available in Affinity but find I have to be ultra careful to get it basically right.

 

My next issue will be to be able to make sure when I do the selection is to be able to save the shadow of the subject from the background from which I remove it (same as the original background just a different view of the knife) which means a bit of a different selection so that the copy/paste will include the shadow is part of the subject selection so that when it is pasted, it will look realistic. Now of course if anyone has other suggestions, I am open to learning.

 

Thanks to both for your input. Yes Kodiak, if you look at the upper RH corner of the knife at the lower part of the butt you will see the area that both Jimmy & I are addressing.

 

In addition to my other mentioned background work, I also have to remember to use the In painting tool (J) to remove any spots etc that might be an issue. In fact, I wonder if it would have done the job that the paint brush tool did or even if I had tried to clone but in any event, I will add this information to my notes so that I do have a method that was successful.

 

I like the ywia also Jimmy as for years I have used TIA and try always to thank anyone that has offered assistance and hopefully information I may have or learn and pass on will be of value to others.

 

When I finish this project or need more assistance I will also post the result. I wanted to just test because I have another piece in the mail which hopefully I will be able to photograph soon and prepare.

 

BTW  -- anyone that has general photography questions related to portraits, weddings etc I will try to help even though I have now been retired 17 years after a 33 year career as photographer and instructor. There is just a lot of digital stuff I don't know even though I have been doing a lot of it for about 16 years. Every new program offers additional challenges and learning experiences.

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Hmmm. Not a super simple topic. A lot depends on your preferences on how you like to work. I can only say what I would do....

 

If you need the shadow information to easily transfer to multiple scenarios, I would shoot the original image on a s close to a pure white background as possible. Then, after isolating the knife, with a simple multiply blend, you can place it over any background you want..... provided they are shot at the same perspective.

 

Starting from where you are presently.... I will again double down on isolating the knife technique. You can then duplicate that, fill it with black, blur it, fade it (do whatever you want with it) and it'll be a fairly convincing shadow.

 

super quick example...

 

post-12544-0-44481100-1485835882_thumb.png

 

As far as trying to lift the actual shadow off of the existing photo... it can be done. But I think it's the hardest most labor intensive option.

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...

My next issue will be to be able to make sure when I do the selection is to be able to save the shadow of the subject from the background from which I remove it (same as the original background just a different view of the knife) which means a bit of a different selection so that the copy/paste will include the shadow is part of the subject selection so that when it is pasted, it will look realistic. Now of course if anyone has other suggestions, I am open to learning...

 

Yes, as JJ writes, separate the subject from the presentation--in other words, remove the shadows as well. You'll have a clean subject and whether you are using the original background or placing in another image, or using a standardized background for product shots, it is all too easy to add a shadow.

 

post-255-0-87223800-1485836649_thumb.jpg

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As mentioned I was able to remove the bit of the area I missed with the selection tool on the original base image and so I decided to give adding a second image to begin the process of creating the composite and proceeded as per the base image with background and made adjustments to brightness/contrast, clarity and then some brush of burn & sharpening prior to using copy/paste of the selection. Darn, I have forgotten how to get back the selection after using CTRL + D.

 

Well when I pasted the image to the base I ended up with the light area down below the shadow area of the butt and along the shadow area below the whole closed knife plus there seems to be a bit of a rim around the front portion. Tried to go to the adjustments layer which was above the pasted background layer ( I meant to rename but forgot) but the only thing I found in trying a number of things was a white area drawn on the base image with no affect being done to the selected background image (the second image). Hope this is explained accurately.

 

I thought I would then maybe try to adjust the selection of the second image and then hopefully re-copy and after deleting the image pasted previously, try to paste a new image with none or less of the shadow showing. When working on that, the program crashed. I did save the selection as a file but not sure what to do with it.

 

Then I reopened the .png file and for some reason, it now has the lightened area at the butt of the knife but fortunately, I do now show the .jpg which I thought was missing available and can start again unless there is a method that I have not been able to find in order to adjust the closed image of the knife to not have the lightened areas as mentioned above.

 

Mike -- I have not seen any video nor found anything about how to add a shadow to an image. I particularly want it to look like what comes at the time of exposure in the camera. If you have a link or explanation, I can try that too.

 

I am attaching the file so you guys can take a look and see if there is something I can do with the way things are at the moment.

 

I may be doing things all wrong from the get go but with ON1 when opening a file, I would simply select "add as a layer" and then I would remove the areas not needed and the background of the base image would show through but I was never happy with the shadows as they never looked proper and this was a reason I thought using the selection tools available in Affinity would be a better solution.

 

Once I get this method solved, I will also ask about another method I have used in the past with DIP and see what info I can get because sometimes I like to make a selection and then add a colored border and add that as a layer to a base image or sometimes even use both methods on the composite. So far I have not seen how that might be done in Affinity but hopefully there is a method as I really am hopeful that all things required can be done in one program rather than moving between or among multiple programs.

 

Anyway, TIA for any help you guys may provide as it is most appreciated.

compositewithproblemwalrusfolderN5383.afphoto

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well, as I determined my original is not what I wanted. Tried some other ideas and then found another tutorial that might be putting me toward the right track.

 

I am attaching the image at this point in time but am not totally happy as the shadow area is not done like I want and I did not get even a clean selection when adjusted after the paste where the bolster and the background with shadow come together.

 

So what did I try? Well the creator of the composite video was placing a scene in some clouds which because of quite a difference between light and dark areas, it is easier to see what to do as opposed to my background of choice and this particular knife.

 

What he did do after making a selection was go to refine and Output > new layer with mask -- he said this made doing corrections easier but the only thing I found that would allow me to adjust to some extent was to use the erase tool and I did not do a very good job at adjusting the opacity to get a blend between the shadows of the knife and the background of the base image. What I had hoped to be able to do was to get a blend between that area and the background of the base image but did not find how to create that as of yet. Any ideas are appreciated.

 

I wanted to post this before I proceeded because for some reason in the image on the Affinity Photo persona window the outline of the move tool was visible and while I did not expect it to remain, I was not sure so did not want to spend a lot of time proceeding if I had created another problem. Viewing the image in Faststone Image Viewer shows no outline so not sure why it shows in the persona image.

 

Will work on the next part of the project later on. This one is not critical as I have, long ago, created the image I have for my own purposes but was just one of many knives that I have images for that could have been chosen to create and learn more of how to use Affinity Photo.

 

TIA for any assistance and ideas.

3rdmovelinewalrusfolderN5383.afphoto

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