mask problem - ugly artefacts

[trommlertom]

Hi there,

I do have a problem with masking. Samples see attached:

What is the problem?

I have a pic. (original.jpg) and I've done a selection with the selection brush.

After this is I did "refine edges" to fine tune the selection.
After this I safed it as a new layer with mask.

The result was ok (see: with mask.jpg).

BUT
Once I disable the mask or I edit the mask I get horrible artefacts (see: mask disabled.jpg)...

 

What is the problem? What is my thinking mistake?

 

Thanks for your input and help....
Best

Thomas

 

[firstdefence]

Take a look at this video: masking with a complex photo

Masking is a patience game, especially with hair. For fine hair its better to remove it and add in fly away hair with a fine brush because in most cases the hair is just too fine to retain a realistic look. learning the tools needed to move about and zoom will help and if you have a scroll button on your mouse you can set it to be used as zoom in Preferences (Ctrl+,) in the Tools Pane.

Editing the mask layer by painting either black or white is also a useful tool in getting a clean mask, switching between black and white is as easy as pressing X Make sure the colours are set to black and white first, black removes, white reveals. To get straight lines click in one place then move the cursor and click again while holding down the shift key.

[trommlertom]

27 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Take a look at this video: masking with a complex photo

Masking is a patience game, especially with hair. For fine hair its better to remove it and add in fly away hair with a fine brush because in most cases the hair is just too fine to retain a realistic look. learning the tools needed to move about and zoom will help and if you have a scroll button on your mouse you can set it to be used as zoom in Preferences (Ctrl+,) in the Tools Pane.

Editing the mask layer by painting either black or white is also a useful tool in getting a clean mask, switching between black and white is as easy as pressing X Make sure the colours are set to black and white first, black removes, white reveals. To get straight lines click in one place then move the cursor and click again while holding down the shift key.

 

Hi...

Thanks for your feedback. Actually this was not my question.
I did the masking exactly like it is described in the Video.
 

My problem is something different:

first picture:

-          Mask is done – everything is ok!

 

Second picture (PROBLEM):

-          Once I disable the mask or try to edit the mask (with brushes Black or white), affinity phote creates ugly artefacts. Something like a echo on the colors (see picture close to the heads)

 

From my point of view:

If I disable the mask I would have to see the original picture without any changes (third picture).

But this is not the case.

I hope this will clarify the problem.

Thanks!

Thomas

[MEB]

Hi trommlertom,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

Don't select New layer with mask in the Refine Selection dialog. Duplicate the original layer instead and for the Refine Selection output select Mask only.

The dev team is already aware of it. This issue is logged to be looked at.

[trommlertom]

17 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi trommlertom,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

Don't select New layer with mask in the Refine Selection dialog. Duplicate the original layer instead and for the Refine Selection output select Mask only.

The dev team is already aware of it. This issue is logged to be looked at.

 

HI MEB,
Ok, it is a software problem - I understand.
So I will use your suggested workaround instead.

Thanks for your feedback.
Merry Christmas!
Thomas

[Francoyy]

Digging in this very old thread due to experiencing exactly the same.

I thought it was only because I was using the smart brush, but I also tried using polygonal free-hand selection, and make sure that what I selected is extremely straight / exactly as I would do on photoshop.

After refining selection and outputing as mask, it will still create a mask totally different from what I selected, with artifacts going beyond what I originally selected.

I would image that as when you have ink touching a tissue, the ink will diffuse through the tissue in this artifacty way.

Any suggestions, thank you... I was planning to edit my thumbnails on ipad instead of computer's photoshop, but this is a big bummer for me so far

[Francoyy]

Attaching 2 files in a simple example.

You can see the way I'm cutting is using free hand selection tool with polygonal type, so it's only doing perfectly straight lines.

When I go on refine selection, there is nothing perfectly straight, and it has a lot of artifacts. 

It's somehow even worse when the photo I'm cutting has more noise.

Any suggestions? 

[carl123]

4 minutes ago, Francoyy said:

Any suggestions? 

Can you upload the original image, in your screenshot?

[Francoyy]

Hello,

Here it is

Really my point is the fact that I'm using the freehand polygonal tool, so I'm only doing straight lines, but the resulting selection adds a lot of artifacts / fringing to it.

I have done thumbnails that way for 3 years on Photoshop, always doing polygonal selections to avoid all the "smart pen" issues. It works perfectly on Photoshop, but here it does not create a selection that matches what I selected...

Thanks in advance~

[GarryP]

Francoyy: If you are making your selection with the Polygon Tool which gives you straight edges, and you want to have a selection with straight edges, why are you using the Refine functionality?
Can you explain what you are trying to achieve?

Note: This section of the forum is for Desktop, rather than iPad, so you might get some answers which may not work for you.

[carl123]

In the desktop version there is an option to Matte Edges, switching that off gives a cleaner "mask"

I have no idea where to find that setting on an iPad

 

[Francoyy]

Thanks all, and sorry for using the wrong part of the forum - it described exactly my issue, so I think there is something common about it in all apps.

So I have used a very simple example as demo. In real life, I'm using polygons made of hundreds of points, so the "refine tool" is very useful with the "preview" mode which can use black&white or black matte, white matte and overlay.

This preview allows me to make sure I didn't forget anything in the selection.

But from what I understand, at the moment you click on "refine tool", it will already process your selection and add artifacts around the edges.

That's too bad because the "refine tool" is very useful apart from that.

 

My workaround will be that I won't use the "refine tool" anymore, instead I will just "mask selection", and do another mask later on if I missed a detail.

[GarryP]

Using the ‘wrong’ section of the forum is fine but you may have to put up with getting answers that may not apply to your specific needs/situation.

If you are only using the Refine function to get a preview of your selection, have you tried using the Quick Mask instead?
You can set the mask to be different things – overlay, black, white, transparent – to more-easily see what has been selected, and you can modify the selection in there too – see attached video for a quick/crude idea of some of the possibilities.