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I'm practicing selections and masking by colorizing an old B&W photo. The man in the photo is wearing a hat with a hat band. I need to select the section of the hat above the band and below the band as well as the band itself.

I selected the top of the hat and saved that selection, then did the same with the hat band and the bottom of the hat. This worked OK, but the selections do not 'meet' exactly so there is a small bit of space between the bottom of the top part of the hat and the top of the hat band. These are hard, non-feathered selections and I would like them to meet exactly.

Is there some way, other than by hand, to expand a selection until it runs into an adjoining selection?

 

Windows 11 Pro, XP-Pen Deco 03, AP, AD & APub

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On the Select menu there is a Grow/shrink option Select > Grow/Shrink.

You can also use the pen tool to make accurate selections, the curve created by the pen tool will need a fill before you can use the Layer > Selection From Layer option

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3 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

On the Select menu there is a Grow/shrink option Select > Grow/Shrink

Thanks, I've seen that but that seems to grow/shrink all selections and, when one touches the other they combine to form one selection.

I need to keep the selections separate.

Windows 11 Pro, XP-Pen Deco 03, AP, AD & APub

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1 minute ago, casterle said:

I need to keep the selections separate.

The best option is making selections with the pen tool

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You can also use the curves to subtract from each other, so the first selection can be accurate, the band can be accurate at the base of the band and at the sides but if you duplicate the top curve that can be used to subtract from the band curve, I'll make a doc Saved with history so you can jog back and forth in the history panel. 

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You might notice in the file that there is an overlap onto the red by the green top edge and similarly the blue top edge onto the green. Select the pen tool and click on the layers to see the node and where they are.

Screen-Shot-2019-02-20-at-22-14-06.png

The Hat.afphoto

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1 minute ago, firstdefence said:

The best option is making selections with the pen tool

Yes, I am using the pen tool. The process I am following is described in masking the sweater in this tutorial: https://tinyurl.com/y49daomf

Outline with pen, click on 'Selection', add a pixel layer, select a color and brush and paint in the new color in the new layer. I save the selection in case I need to re-apply the mask to change the color in that layer (I skip the feather step in the tutorial 'cause I want a hard edge on the mask).

I then repeat the above process for each masked area. The selections are close but don't meet up exactly. leaving a small gap.

Windows 11 Pro, XP-Pen Deco 03, AP, AD & APub

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12 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

You might notice in the file that there is an overlap onto the red by the green top edge and similarly the blue top edge onto the green. Select the pen tool and click on the layers to see the node and where they are.

Screen-Shot-2019-02-20-at-22-14-06.png

The Hat.afphoto

Thank you! 

This appears to be done differently than the tutorial. I like that you can still edit your path - I have to save the selection (I think) using the method in the tutorial.

I think I've got a lot to learn - can you point me to instruction on Curve layers? I know nothing about them and found nothing searching the help.

Windows 11 Pro, XP-Pen Deco 03, AP, AD & APub

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Hi, this might help a bit, its a bit indirect and more about the pen tool but using the pen tool creates a curve layer which can be edited with the node tool, you can select both the pen and node tool by pressing (P) or when using the pen tool you can temporarily edit node you draw by pressing the cmd key ctrl on windows I think.

Curve layers can be manipulated with the boolean operators, affinity calls them geometry and you can subtract, add, intersect etc.

https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/CurvesShapes/about_linesAndShapes.html

These are some of the tutorials Affinity have produced: 

 

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15 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Hi, this might help a bit, its a bit indirect and more about the pen tool but using the pen tool creates a curve layer which can be edited with the node tool, you can select both the pen and node tool by pressing (P) or when using the pen tool you can temporarily edit node you draw by pressing the cmd key ctrl on windows I think.

Curve layers can be manipulated with the boolean operators, affinity calls them geometry and you can subtract, add, intersect etc.

https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/CurvesShapes/about_linesAndShapes.html

These are some of the tutorials Affinity have produced: 

 

Thank you again. I think this will get me started.

Windows 11 Pro, XP-Pen Deco 03, AP, AD & APub

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firstdefence, thank you so much. 

It turns out that the Pen Tool/Curve Layer combo lets me do exactly what I want.

As you pointed out, when I have the Pen Tool selected, clicking on a Curve Layer displays the nodes and allows me to adjust the path. Cool. As it turns out, selecting both Curve Layers displays the nodes for both layers at the same time, independently adjustable. This way, I can nest the paths next to each other easily.

But it gets better! As you move the nodes, they snap to the edge of the other mask. Not automated, but easy to do and precise.

Windows 11 Pro, XP-Pen Deco 03, AP, AD & APub

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