Magic Wand functionality for Brush on Affinity Photo

[Foxy Sam]

Up until now I have been a PaintShop Pro (PSP) and Photoshop (PS) user and was expecting Affinity Photo to support the Magic Wand function. Instead, Photo uses 'Brushes' to do the same thing, but I haven't encountered any tutorials that show me how to use your function with the same level of accuracy and precision that PS and PSP do. For instance, whilst selecting parts of an image for applying effects/actions to, I am finding that even when the colours are dramatically different, it overlaps the boundary even when the mouse isn't close to these areas. Maybe I am just not used to Photo, or I haven't found the controls that will enable me to 'pin down' how critically I want your alternative function to work. If you know PS or PSP, you will know by using it, just what I mean, so can you enlighten me on how I get your function to work as precisely as the Magic Wand does when using PS and PSP? I am currently trialling Photo, so a prompt reply would be appreciated, as in other sespects it seems to be pretty good. 

[MEB]

Hi Foxy Sam,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
The equivalent tool in Affinity Photo is the Flood Select Tool (the icon looks like a magic wand). To use it make sure you are working with a pixel layer first (look at the label between parenthesis after the layer's name in the Layers panel) - if it says Image, right click the layer in the Layers panel and select Rasterise to convert it to a Pixel layer type. Then click over the colour you want to select on canvas and use the Tolerance control in the context toolbar to increase/decrease the range of colours selected (you can also drag the tool over the image on canvas to change the Tolerance).

Image layers are a special layer type that retains all the original image data - you can think of them as embedded images -. They are created when you use the Place Image Tool, the File ▸ Place command or when you simply drag them from the Finder (Mac) or File Explorer (Windows) to the canvas of an opened document. They can be transformed globally (rotated, skewed etc) without losing quality but they cannot be edited/manipulated at a pixel level. For that they must be rasterised first as I described above.

[toltec]

38 minutes ago, MEB said:

Hi Foxy Sam,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
The equivalent tool in Affinity Photo is the Flood Fill Tool (the icon looks like a magic wand).

Perhaps you meant to say the Flood Select Tool ? 

[MEB]

Thanks toltec. Yes, that's what i meant. Post corrected.

[toltec]

2 hours ago, Foxy Sam said:

Up until now I have been a PaintShop Pro (PSP) and Photoshop (PS) user and was expecting Affinity Photo to support the Magic Wand function.

Hi Foxy Sam

The Affinity Flood Select tool works very well.

If you click and then drag the mouse slightly away from the point you clicked, it sets the tolerance of the selection.

Here at 5%

If you drag the mouse a bit further the tolerance increases, and more is selected. 

Here at 17%

It is also possible to set a value in the box, like 20% and just click, although you have to be careful not to drag the mouse.

Contiguous means the pixels have to join, if unticked it selects all pixels of a similar colour. All pretty much the same as what you are used to..

If you select Add on the Context toolbar (as opposed to New), it is possible to keep adding to the selection. This is more precise because you can build up the selection in small pieces at low tolerances so you only get the bits you really want. You can switch to another tool to paint in a new bit or paint out a bit you don't want if the wand doesn't work, then back to the wand. Photo is very flexible the way you can use the selection tools.

You can also move to Quick Mask, and make more edits, then back to the Wand.

 

[JimmyJack]

2 hours ago, toltec said:

The Affinity Flood Select tool works very well....

I like all that....

Just sorely (and oddly I might add) missing an antialiasing tick box .

[littlewing53]

The flood select tool is not visible in the left hand tool bar.  My image is a pixel image.  Shouldn't the tool be visible?  thanks.