Perspective Editing with Affinity Photo

How to Square Windows with this Simple Tutorial

By Martin KP in Articles and Tips on Nov 24, 2019

When taking pictures of buildings it is usually desired that all lines are nicely squared up. However, the standard lens can be quite unforgiving, especially when taking pictures of squared objects at heights, such as windows looking lop-sided and out of shape. Fortunately, modern post-processing software often has tools to correct perspective errors.  

In this mini-tutorial, we'll be taking a look at how to correct the perspective using Affinity Photo. It is simple to use and gives satisfying results.

Something's off with this photograph. However, it's easy to make it better. Unfortunately, my 40mm DA Limited has put the lines out of shape. The windows should be square but in this photograph clearly they are not.

To correct this image I took the following steps in Affinity Photo:

• From the Tools panel, select the Perspective tool.
• In the Perspective menu select the mode to ‘source’.
• Move the four corners of the grid to the four corners of the window, as shown below.
• Change the mode to Destination and switch on the Snapping tool in the upper panel. This will snap the warped window to set it rectangular.

Once the window is warped you can double check if everything is square by drawing a box over the window. If everything is squared up properly, take a look at the rest of the image to make sure that there were no issues caused by using the tool.

You will notice that there will be an alteration to the whole image. We do this to keep all proportions the same throughout the image or else certain components may look especially odd, such as the bikes wheels.

In the final step crop out or paint in the areas in the lower left corner.

And the final image is finished:

As you can see, the final image looks much better. Not only are both the windows perfectly square, but the wheels on the bike are much more circular as well. The tool is easy to use and it can be fun trying out different looks on a building. Many people find these sort of perpective errors distracting, which takes away from your main focus. Taking care to correct the distortion will greatly enhance your images.

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Gradient Overlays for Great Looking Photographs (with Affinity)

Highlight mood and artistic creativity with simple gradients overlays

By Martin KP in Articles and Tips on Jul 11, 2019

In this tutorial I will show you how to enhance black and white photographs using gradient overlays.  I will demonstrate this technique to enhance a portrait using Affinity Photo, but of course the technique can be applied in other mainstream photo editing programs.

Digital post processing offers the photographer a selection of tools to help with creating a pictorial mood. Subtle tonal changes can elevate, heighten or lessen photographic elements to help the viewers eye toward an artistic expression whilst remaining hidden within the photographic structure. Indeed, a graduating tonal shift using a vignette tool when used properly is a good way to enhance your post processing creativity, yet, over use of this tool can lead to mundane predictability across the tonal space in a series of pictures and the tool itself negates your own artistic expression. There is another way to create the same mood effect of a vignette whilst remaining creative to a mood within the frame. This can be done by employing the gradient fill tool.

Original image

All good photo editing programs will have a gradient tool. Tones, colors or tints can be altered to serve the intended mood of a photograph. The easiest scale to use is a gray scale but this technique also works well for color scale. Sometimes a color photograph only needs a hint of gray scale but I find I employ gradients to black and white images. Sometimes the same gradient can be used across a picture series. Bare in mind, gradients suffer from the same transgressions as vignettes, their over use can muddy a picture instead of providing a subtle mood change and artistic expression. When carefully considered and combined with selective curves the creative elements fuse to an interesting result. The key here is to experiment and I will show you how to do just that.