Masks 101 for Affinity Photo

Masking is a crucial skill for non-destructively editing your photos and art. In this video, we’ll look at masking from the ground up in Affinity Photo.

Some other videos you should check out:

Selection Brush tutorial:

Introduction to Adjustment Layers:

ALL Blend Modes Explained:

🟢 GET AWESOME GRAPHIC DESIGN ASSETS!

🟢 PUT YOUR DESIGNS ON MERCH!

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro
00:24 Erasing: The WRONG Way
01:31 Mask Basics
04:49 Color Background
05:33 Inverting A Mask
05:55 Masks as Layers
06:18 Shapes as Masks
07:13 Gradients in a Mask
07:54 Adjustment Layer Masking
09:36 Blend Mode Masking

NOTE: Some resources in this description contain Affiliate Links that earn me a commission and help support this channel.

[gandolfred]

Thank you. Today I was just fiddling with masks. It's a little different than in Photoshop. We need to master it. For example, how to make a mask on a group of layers, how to insert an image into a mask layer and not so that a new layer appears. You can also make additional videos on working with layers.

[AllenReinecke]

Another great video tutorial. 👍

I usually create a mask to either subtly blur or desaturate a background and saturate a subject to emphasize the subject. I often take the particular effect to the max to highlight errors in the mask for cleanup and ensure the edges are corrected with the black or white brush. Then I readjust the effect back to what I want.
I never seem to be able to get the selection brush to do a good job on its own, even with Refine. So, the mask has to be manually trimmed. Just adds a little more time to the editing.

[greg]

Thanks for the video. When painting on masks with black/white I just use X to swap instead of shift-x to swap between the 2 defined colours. x and shift-x are by default defined slightly differently but in this case X effectively does the same thing.

[ekaetefujah]

Thank you. This is important enough for me to watch a few times and practice with what I am working on.

[ItsWillLee]

Hi Trent, thank you so much for your time and expert knowledge.

Your videos are helping me immensely, as I'm getting back into editing my photos after an extensive time away.
I've only used Afiinity and feel comfortable using it, but I still found you're videos very helpful, and easy to understand.
The explanation videos are very good, I have a much better understanding of how blend modes and such work, and how/when to use what adjustment/effect.

Looking forward to your videos as I continue to learn Affinity.

Thank you so much!

Cheers,

[huser]

Again, some great content. Thx a lot Trent.

[DarrinJackson]

Definitely the best video I've found on the subject. I subscribed and liked!

[pablogonstehin]

Excellent the gadu send to youtube for one reason, thanks

[chrisminchin]

IN PS they have a refine edge brush, does Affinity have a similar option?? I am new to Affinity.

[myplantadventures]

Hi Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and giving your time to making this video. I just would love it if you could maybe split this video into 2 parts and talk and explain slower! for a beginner it was too much info too fast. Thanx again!

[August_]

can you please upload a affinity photo tutorial ? thanks in advance

[adriansmith]

This may be a silly question, but can this be used in Affinity Design?

[doughgarcia]

How do you bring up the black mask when i try it automatically switch back to white, , , i am on the version 2.5.5 i dont know how to make it stay black... i press ALT + Mask and it just goes back to white...

[klarion]

Hard to follow if you don't have functional fundamentals already.

[Guitarisforgrins]

You look a lot like Trent Reznor! Must be a Trent thing?

[Cyber_Kriss]

04:30 "SHIFT - X" ?? Isn't that just "X" ?

[alexandervideo]

You are moving too fast for those who have limited knowledge. Start off by explaining what you wish to achieve. Next speak slowly and move through the steps one by one . I did not find this training video helpful . review your script and try not to include all the variables . Who are you targeting with your video, suggest you include that in your title.

[jsgeare]

Nice instruction but your own picture as an overlay is a distraction. Seeing you does not help me hear you.

[MOCT]

I like your videos, but this was just too rushed.
You said at the start you'd assume no knowledge of masks, then you raced through making it almost impossible to follow.
Remember, as a novice, there's a lot of information to take in here - what I'm seeing, what you're saying, what the cursor is doing, what you're doing with your left hand, the effect on the picture etc.
Appreciate your work, but chill out, man! 😬 😂