Affinity Photo has become the first choice of photography and creative professionals around the world who love its speed, power and precision. Whether you’re editing and retouching images. The only fully loaded photo editor integrated across Mac, Windows and iOS, Affinity Photo is the first choice of thousands of professionals around the world. In this video I walk through a simple background replacement and skin retouch. In this video I used quick selection, masks and mask refinement as well as working with frequency separation and face shape removing blemishes and smoothing the skin at a large scale.
- Smooth Skin Affinity Photo
- Affinity Photo Blur Tool
- Affinity Frequency Separation
- Affinity Photo Inpainting Tool
- Smooth Skin In Affinity Photo
In this video I walk through a simple background replacement and skin retouch. In this video I used quick selection, masks and mask refinement as well as working with frequency separation and face shape removing blemishes and smoothing the skin at a large scale while leaving the natural pores and other defects.
In Camera
On White head shots can be tough if you have to work on location. In this case, logistically, I didn’t want to have to haul a 4 light setup, backdrop and v-flats to the shoot location. I took advantage of the (nearly) white walls at the location and concentrated on lighting the subject the way I wanted. I used 2 lights, a large 3×4 soft-box on the subject and a 3×1.5 strip box on the background to light it.
It is easiest to replace a background when the new background is similar in color and tone to the original. By adding the light the the background I was able to get close enough to make life easier during the retouching.
Background Replacement
Because the original background was nearly white, the quick selection tool in Affinity Photo did a reasonably good job of picking out the background. Once I had a rough selection, I created a mask and inverted it (because I had selected the background but I wanted to mask IN the subject instead). A quick pass through the “refine mask” tool allowed me to clean up the edges and get the mask very close to perfect.
Once the subject was masked, all I had to do was create an empty pixel layer, move it below the subject and fill it with white.
Frequency Separation and Face Shape
Frequency separation is frequently (see what I did there) used to smooth skin blemishes, and remove pores, and other natural skin features. In this case, I used frequency separation to remove the bags under the subjects eyes and reduce the laugh lines around his eyes. I also used blended regions of the low frequency layer to smooth the shape of his face.
Smooth Skin Affinity Photo
Shadow is the main queue our brains use to turn 2D images into 3D ideas. By lightening and darkening areas I can control shape. In this case, the lighting setup highlighted some undulations in the subjects cheeks. Blending the light and dark areas to a uniform and consistent pattern causes those undulations to disappear. The same applies to things like wrinkles in a neck when it is turned.
Before and After
Affinity Photo Blur Tool
Andrew is a photography instructor teaching students of all skill levels in Austin, TX through Precision Camera and independently in San Diego, CA. He runs workshops around the United States.
Affinity Frequency Separation
Affinity Photo Inpainting Tool
He is a self taught experiential learner who is addicted to the possibilities that new (to him) gear open up. He loves to share the things he has worked out. Andrew started with a passion for landscape and night photography and quickly branched out to work in just about every form of photography. He is an ex-software developer with extensive experience in the IT realm.
Smooth Skin In Affinity Photo
Andrew is a full time wedding and commercial photographer in both Austin and San Diego. Andrew is a club founder and multi-time past president of North Austin Pfotographic Society.
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