How to do this while creating selections?

[lardbros]

Hey there,

 

I'm a brand new user of Affinity Photo, I was so ready for a change from Photoshop and Adobe... so far I really love what I'm seeing. Actual support for multi-layer EXR? Wow, this is great... anyway, onto the matter at hand.

 

In Photoshop, I'm very used to two things when creating a selection, and was wondering if Affinity had the same and was hiding from me.

 

When creating a selection in Photoshop using either the Marquee select or the ellipse select tools, you can either hold Ctrl to constrain, or Alt to draw the selection from the centre of the mouse, rather than the edge. 

Is there a way to do that in Affinity Photo?

 

Also, the next thing I can't find anything about is moving a selection whilst I'm still clicking and dragging. The same in photoshop as dragging a marquee select, and the whilst dragging, holding down the space bar to move your selection before you even commit to it. Does that make sense?

 

Anyway, are these things that exist already, if so my apologies!

 

Keep up the great work!

 

Thanks,

Tim

[MEB]

Hi lardbros,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

Neither of those actions/operations are currently available in Affinity Photo. They were already requested a few times and may be considered for inclusion in a future version but for now you will have to work around these limitations, sorry.

[lardbros]

Ah, cool... no problem at all, it won't stop me enjoying Affinity Photo

Thanks for letting me know!

[toltec]

You can work around it quite easily. I have had to make a few selections that require precision and this method works quite well, I actually prefer it to the marquees for many things because it doesn't obscure the edges like marching ants. The other bonus is that because it's a layer it can be copied and it doesn't go away.

 

Use any shape tool, like an ellipse or a rectangle, which you can constrain or move or resize as you like. Once you have finished, go Select > Selection from Layer. (shortcut is Ctrl + Shift + O or change it to anything you like).

 

The selection is actually on the shape layer, so after making the selection you must click on the image layer to move the selection focus to that. And bear in mind, you cant make a pixel selection on a placed "image" layer, it must be rasterised first.

 

The shape does need to have a fill colour, so use anything at about 5% - 10% opacity. That way you hardly notice it.

 

If you create a Style from the layer, (right click and Create Style) it appears in the Styles panel (Studio) for instant use at any time

 

It takes a couple of seconds longer but at least you get a very accurate selection without the ants.

 

About 10% white fill.

[DianeF]

Hi Toltec,

 

I just tried this method because it looked interesting, but it didn't work for me. I made a duplicate of my background layer. Then I selected the rectangle tool and filled a rectangle with light green over a selection of my background layer. I made the opacity about 10%. Then I went to "select, selection from layer". Then, to see if it actually copied my selection, I typed Cmd J. What I got was a copy of the light green rectangle, not the contents within that rectangle. When I made a style out of the selection, it was the same light green rectangle.

 

Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

 

Thanks.

[walt.farrell]

18 minutes ago, DianeF said:

I just tried this method because it looked interesting, but it didn't work for me. I made a duplicate of my background layer. Then I selected the rectangle tool and filled a rectangle with light green over a selection of my background layer. I made the opacity about 10%. Then I went to "select, selection from layer". Then, to see if it actually copied my selection, I typed Cmd J. What I got was a copy of the light green rectangle, not the contents within that rectangle. When I made a style out of the selection, it was the same light green rectangle.

Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

 

From the Affinity Photo Help:

Quote

To create a pixel selection from layer contents:

Do one of the following:

• On the Layers panel, select a layer. From the Select menu, select Selection From Layer.
• On the Layers panel, click the chosen layer's thumbnail while pressing the Ctrl key. [Which is probably Cmd on Mac.]

I've found that does not work on Affinity Photo 1.6.2.97 on Windows, but it does work on 1.6.3.98 beta on Windows. I've no way to check its behavior on Mac.

[toltec]

4 hours ago, DianeF said:

Hi Toltec,

 

I just tried this method because it looked interesting, but it didn't work for me. I made a duplicate of my background layer. Then I selected the rectangle tool and filled a rectangle with light green over a selection of my background layer. I made the opacity about 10%. Then I went to "select, selection from layer". Then, to see if it actually copied my selection, I typed Cmd J. What I got was a copy of the light green rectangle, not the contents within that rectangle. When I made a style out of the selection, it was the same light green rectangle.

 

Can you tell me what I'm doing wrong?

 

Thanks.

The "selection from layer" thing actually makes a pixel selection on the shape layer. After making the selection, you need to click on the image layer, so the selection focus moves to that layer.

 

Sorry, I missed that step out 

 

I have amended the first post.

[DianeF]

Thank you, Toltec. With your extra step, I was able to reproduce what you did, I think. When I chose "Select, Selection from Layer" and then clicked back on the image layer, I got marching ants around my rectangular selection. At that point, I was able to copy the selection using Cmd J. I was also able to copy it with CmdC and then put it to a new file with Cmd V.

 

I'm assuming that the marching ants were to be expected at this point in the process? You had earlier mentioned not getting them with this method, but I'm assuming you meant at the point you made your selection with the "Select, Selection from Layer" command rather than at a later stage in the process.. Is this correct?

[toltec]

Yes, The marching ants will appear when you turn the shape into a pixel selection but if you don't want them, you can hide them by going View > Show Pixel Selection.

 

I actually set a shortcut to hide/show the ants at will as they make it very hard to get a precise selection some times, especially around eyes, I find it much easier to draw three shapes (I never was any good at maths) and then turn them into a selection before editing.

 

Other selection things too, I am not a huge fan of brush selections, especially without a tablet. I just can't paint that accurately and Snap to Edges seems to have different "edges" in mind to what I do.

 

Be careful with hiding the ants though, because I have also spent ages wondering why I couldn't make pixel selections, only to find out I could, but didn't know it, and on at least one (maybe more ) occasion I could not paint because I had made an invisible selection and of course couldn't paint outside it.