Master Clipping Path Affinity Designer in 4 Minutes!

Becoming a master of clipping paths in Affinity Designer is a hard track to follow. However, with time and dedication, you can learn this skill. The trick allows you to remove an image background, blend multiple images, make color corrections, and so on. Affinity is a great alternative photo editing tool to Adobe Photoshop, which is comparably more challenging for beginners.  So, if you’ve decided to learn advanced photo editing techniques like clipping path masking, this software is a good way to start. The fun fact is that many people don’t know this software allows you to do complex edits. In this post, you’ll learn how to make a clipping path mask in the Affinity Designer photo editor.

How Do You Make a Clipping Mask in Affinity in 6 Steps

You can get the below double exposure look using a clipping mask and a few other little tricks on the Affinity Photo editor. To learn how to do this, follow the step-by-step guide.

Step 1 − File Upload

To start with, creating a clipping path masking in the Affinity Photo editor, run the software. Then load the images that you’ll be using. You can do so by clicking on the “File” tab and then “Open“. When the file selection window appears, browse the images, and hit “Upload“. I’m using a model photo and a tower photo to blend them together and guide the instruction following the photo type.

Step 2 − Make the Selection

After uploading, the first thing you need to do is select the model. So, go to the left toolbar option on the screen. You can find the ‘Selection Brush‘ tool there. Click on it to select the tool. If the default size of the brush isn’t suitable for your design, decrease the size via the ‘[‘ and increase it via the’]’ buttons on your keyboard. Then, hover on the image part that you want to select and make an image layer. However, you may find some areas in the image where you need to get really close. Therefore, you have to make your brush a lot smaller again and just retouch those areas as best you can. If you want to add or subtract a selection, press the “Alt” button on your keyboard.  Adjusting the selection during the whole process is likely to make your clipping more accurate.

Step 3 − Refine the Object

When the selection is done, you may want to check and improve the work, especially when it’s a commercial project. So, this time, go to the upper middle section of the interface. You can find the “Refine” tool option here. It’s going to put a red color around the selection and allow us to check if there’s any area you redefine, just like the image below. If there’s any area you need to change, simply take another pass with your mouse. Once you’re happy with the work, adjust a bit on the ‘Refine Selection’ pop-up window. Next, go down the window and find the “Output” section. Click the dropdown menu and select the “New layer with mask” option. When you hit the ‘Apply‘, it does a bit of magic, giving you a new and separated layer, including a mask. Sometimes, you may find an error in the Affinity Photo editor even though you did everything right, such as leaving some background spots that should be removed completely. However, you can remove them using the ‘Erase‘ tool. Select the tool from the left toolbar and hover on the spots.

Step 4 − Fill and Adjust the Layers

The next thing you need to do is fill the blank background area that’s being cut out with solid white color. Go to the Layers panel again and click on the ‘Pixel Layer‘.  It’ll add a new pixel layer that’s now being shown under the window. Change the positioning and keep it under the main mask. Next, go to the toolbar options again and click on the “Fill” tool. Again, make sure you keep it white through the color panel. Then come back to your model layer. Make some adjustments from the “Curve” toolset under the same section. For example, if you want the model layer to look darker, you can simply press and hold the round button and drag it a little downward.

Step 5 − Blending the Layers

Upon the above step, you need to edit the next layer, which is, in my case, the tower layer. So, go to the image tab (I’ve already opened it). Copy the layer using ‘Ctrl + C‘ and then go to the model layer and paste (Ctrl + V) it there. After pasting it there, you may need to resize it to fit the existing layer window. Press the “Ctrl” button on the keyboard and the “−” button to reduce it. Also, you can adjust the photo directly using the anchors around the layer. Decrease the opacity of the tower layer a little so that you can see through the first image. Now you have to create a clipping layer of the tower layer. Drag the background and move it down onto the existing mask layer.  You’re supposed to see that it’s created the clipping masking. The next thing you’re going to do is keep on that background layer and add a mask to this. This is where you can bring features of the model back through. So, click on the mask and go through the “Paint” brush tool. Make sure to paint it black in the color window. In my case, the flow is less than 16%, and the opacity is 85%. You can check out these on the upper interface. Keep the hardness to 0%. Use the left and right arrow keys to resize the brush tool again. Go over and paint those features without losing the tower photo’s background. If you think you’ve gone too far with the editing, you can always use the X key on your keyboard to paint it back to white, then go over it again.

Final Step − Adjustments of the Layers

Lastly, make the model black and white while keeping the tower layer colorful. So, while selecting the model layer, go to the “Adjustment” layer settings and hit “Black and White“. Then, drag the layer under the background layer. And you’re done with creating the clipping path mask on the Affinity. You can also skip the black/white part and have the color of the model photo as well.

Conclusion

That’s the wrap-up of the whole clipping path Affinity Designer guide. You don’t need to create separate anchor points like Photoshop to create clipping paths on Affinity. It has an accurate selection tool that works like a charm. Following the above instruction, you can edit this yourself. However, if you don’t have the spare time to learn photo editing from scratch, you can get our help. We’ve got a team of killer editors and experts in both Affinity and Photoshop. Get your first clipping mask free.