affinity photo Kid Flash

[koskow]

I'm having some troubles with the Define option under the wand tool... still having a photoshop --> photo learning curve.  Anyways, this is my first Affinity Photo manipulation.  Starting to get the hang of it.  If anyone is willing to walk me through some advanced methods for defining masks, please let me know.  

 

 

 

[jetstorm]

This pic is not a good sample, sorry. (I made this pic several years ago to explain how to make fantasy-like-natural-taste pic with average filter of Photoshop. This girl is Krystal, K-POP singer. I got her pic from internet, maybe. Background was  Graphicriver, I think...)

If you want to make good pic, practice, practice and practice, especially practice of Mask !

After you used any tools, you need to (very precisely and carefully) remove unnecessary pixels from pic, No Magik of Mask. Only you need is Patience !

First, remove unnnecessary parts(wall, etc...) from pic and get boy-layer. Adjust white balance, gamma, sharpness, etc... Sharp eyes and skin color are very important.

Do not apply any effects at this step. Do not use blur, bokeh, etc... You need to get very clear image of boy. Because Boy is a hero of this pic, isn't it ?

Prepare background(night scene), arrange color balance and very little blur.

Prepare particle layer. If you use Photoshop, you can use many actions or layers(Graphicriver, Creativemarket, n'importe quoi).

Now, you have three layers; top layer is particle, middle is boy and background layer.

Then copy background onto a new layer and put this layer most top. If you use Photoshop, apply Average filter(opacity less than 10%). This step is very important to get natural taste. It's very popular technique for comibned-layer-pic.

Finally, arrange opacity, color balance, etc of each layer, and merge them into a layer.

Skin and Eyes are the Points !!!

Bokeh or Blur is not a good solution for your pic, I think.

[koskow]

Thank you for the excellent feedback!  I appreciate it!