Any place, any time

James Paterson teaches you how to drop subjects into any scene you like with simple compositing skills in Serif’s Affinity Photo

- James Paterson

THE MISSION

Place a figure on to a backdrop and add shadows to make a creative composite

Time needed 30 minutes

Skill level Intermediate

Kit needed Affinity Photo

Compositing is one of the tasks that Affinity Photo does best. With a few simple skills, we can cut out our subject and transport them anywhere we like. There are a few important factors to consider for a successful composite. The first is your initial subject selection… We begin by making a precise cut out using selection tools. The best place to start is usually Affinity Photo’s Selection Brush, which has a ‘Snap to Edges’ setting that lets us quickly isolate a person. It helps if the subject is photographed against a plain backdrop like a wall, sheet or any other surface that contrasts with them, as this makes it easier for the tool to snap onto the edges. After, we can enhance the selection using the Refine Selection command. This is a must for improving the tricky parts of the cutout, like hair.

When our initial cutout is complete, we move on to the task of fitting it with the backdrop. Not every backdrop will look right, as the perspectives need to (at least roughly) match up. Then we can adjust the backdrop to make the composite more realistic by adding a shadow. Little touches will help to ground the subject in the scenes, which helps to sell the effect.