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How To Use Overlays

This document provides instructions for using overlays in Affinity Photo, including adding, transforming, blending, adjusting colors and brightness of overlays, and masking overlay layers. Overlays can be dragged into Affinity Photo and transformed using tools like Move, Warp, and adjustment layers for HSL, Curves, and masks. The background photo may also be darkened slightly with Curves to improve blending of bright overlays. Additional video tutorials from the official Affinity Photo YouTube channel are recommended for beginners to learn basic techniques.

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Manuel Remus Stanca
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72 views

How To Use Overlays

This document provides instructions for using overlays in Affinity Photo, including adding, transforming, blending, adjusting colors and brightness of overlays, and masking overlay layers. Overlays can be dragged into Affinity Photo and transformed using tools like Move, Warp, and adjustment layers for HSL, Curves, and masks. The background photo may also be darkened slightly with Curves to improve blending of bright overlays. Additional video tutorials from the official Affinity Photo YouTube channel are recommended for beginners to learn basic techniques.

Uploaded by

Manuel Remus Stanca
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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HOW TO USE OVERLAYS

AFFINITY DESIGNER SUPPORT


You can also you overlays in this program. But having in mind more flexible settings
and transformations in Affinity Photo, we recommend you to set them up there and
after that use them in Affinity Designer.

ADDING OVERLAYS
1. Open your photo in Affinity Photo.
2. Drag and drop overlays from folder on your computer.

Or you can use 'Place' function in 'File' on the top menu.


BLENDING WITH YOUR PHOTO
1. Select layer with overlay
2. Change blend mode on 'Screen' or 'Add'

TRANSFORMATIONS
1. Select layer with overlay
2. Select ‘Move Tool’ and place overlay where necessary
3. Use base transformations
4. You can flip overlays horizontal and vertical, rotate overlays to left and right
5. You can use Mesh Warp Tool for additional transformation
MASK USAGE

1. Select layer with overlay and chose 'Paint Brush Tool'


2. Set suitable Width, Opacity 30-50 % and Hardness 0%
3. Set black & white colors in ‘Color’ tab and click 'Mask Layer'
4. Remove unnecessary overlay elements
- brush’s black color removes overlay’s parts
- brush’s white color restores removed overlay’s parts
COLORS ADJUSTMENT

1. Select layer with overlay


2. Create 'HSL' adjustment layer.
3. Place this layer in the overlay layer.
4. Use 'Hue Shift' and 'Saturation Shift' to change color
5. You can change the blending mode of the adjustment layer to 'Color ' for more
correct adjustment of the overlay color
BRIGHTNESS ADJUSTMENT

1. Select layer with overlay


2. Create 'Curve' adjustment layer.
3. Place this layer in the overlay layer.
4. Use this type of curve to reduce brightness of overlay

5. Use this type of curve to increase brightness of overlay


IMPROVE BACKGROUND’S PHOTO FOR BETTER OVERLAY BLENDING

Overlays are represented by bright flashes of light. If your photo is too bright,
overlays in ‘Screen’ or ‘ADD’ blend modes may not give you the necessary bright
effect. This is because the brightness of light background photo and the overlay are
approximately equal.

In order to solve this problem, we need to darken the background a little, removing
the excessive effects of darkening where it’s necessary.

1. Open your photo and create adjustment layer 'Curves'

2. Place ‘Curves’ in the layer


3. Set this type of the curve to darken the background. After that remove the
darkening in the necessary area using a layer’s mask and a black brush.

In this example I decided to place an overlay in the lower part of the photo.
Using a ‘Curves’ tool I lowered the brightness of the table and removed the excessive
darkening on other objects with a layer’s mask.

The contrast between the brightness of the table and the overlay became higher,
making it more visible. Usually this correction includes more than 1 action and
demands more time and practice.
BASIC FOUNDATION OF AFFINITY PHOTO

This guide contains of some basic methods of interaction with the program, but if
you’re a beginner and have some difficulties, I recommend watching these video
tutorials on official Affinity Photo channel on YouTube.

1 PLACING IMAGES link


2 MOVING, SCALING AND ROTATING: link
3 BLEND MODES link
4 MASK LAYERS link
5 CURVES link
6 MASKING ADJUSTMENT LAYERS link
7 BRUSH MODIFIER WITH KEYBOARD & MOUSE link
8 UNDO, REDO AND HISTORY link

You can text me to my email [email protected]


Or to my Instagram https://www.instagram.com/pro_addons/

on any possible question

I’m always happy to help and chat with interesting people!

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