I was recently approached by one of my newsletter subscribers asking for help this photographer had
been trying to recreate an abstract art effect for his photographey using Affinity Photo so in this
video I'll show you how to produce this image step by step the effect is created by blending multiple
exposures to produce an abstract artistic photo although we could create these in the camera we
can also reproduce the effect here using Affinity Photo the first thing that you'll need to do is
select a photo to use I've found the best results come from images like this with lots of detail
the tangle of branches and leaves means that we can produce interesting patterns for the brain
to latch onto I'm starting with the image open in Affinity Photos Photo Persona to create the effect
we need different exposures to blend into one the alternative to using different images is to blend
a second copy of the current image which is what I'll do in this tutorial duplicate the image layer
by right-clicking on it in the layer Studio panel and selecting the duplicate option I now have two
identical images in the Layers Studio Panel if you were going to do this with different photos
you would have the two images on separate layers in the same document let's change the size of the
new layer to make it much larger than the original image I'll use the Move Tool for this which you
can select in the Affinity Photo tools palette to make it easier to work reduce the image size
in the Navigator panel now I can click the corner of the image and drag it using the move tool to
resize it resizing it means that the two images look different I can also use the move tool to
reposition the visible area of the larger layer if I now reduce the opacity of the top layer it
allows the original image to show through and we start to see the abstract effect a useful tip is
that I can double click now on the background layer to return the image to fill the screen
to improve the look of the image I want to show more of the original tree trunk through the leaves
using the layer mask I can add the layer mask by clicking The Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers
Studio panel depending on your Affinity setup this is either attached to a layer or as a separate
layer you can easily remove or attach a layer mask to a layer by clicking and dragging it in the
layer Studio panel next I'll select the paintbrush tool and set the opacity to about 50 percent I'll
also ensure that I paint with the brush hardness of zero percent this creates a soft edge to the
brush blending the effect into the image I'll then paint black onto the layer mask where I want to
hide the top layer this will allow the tree trunk to show through at the moment I can't see where
the tree trunk is so I need to set the layer's opacity to zero now I can see the tree trunk I
can paint over it before starting to paint I'll be sure to select the layer mask to ensure sure I'm
painting onto that after applying a first Passover the tree trunks and branches I can hold down my
option key and click on the mask if you're using a Windows PC that's your ALT key this displays the
black and white mask which I can then paint over a second time I can then click on the duplicate
layer thumbnail to return to the image now I can return the layers opacity to around 50 or a level
that's suitable for your image you can also paint over the mask again to show the tree trunks more
clearly let's now duplicate the layer a second time as before right click on the layer and select
the duplicate option this will duplicate both the layer and the layer mask this time let's click and
drag the mask dropping it onto the Dustbin icon you don't have to delete the mask but
if you don't you'll need to reposition it if you move the layer I find that it's better to delete
the mask and then add a second copy later we will now change the layer's opacity mode from normal
to Overlay then using the move tool click and drag the duplicate layer to reposition it on the image
I found that moving it a small distance from its original position produces a nice multiple
exposure effect and it helps to give the image an abstract look we will then duplicate the layer
again as before right click on the layer and choose the duplicate option we can then move
this a small amount from its current position to produce a blurring effect at this stage we already
have a nice abstract artistic photo looking at the image I want the tree trunks to be more evident in
the scene I'll therefore duplicate my original layer mask by right-clicking and selecting the
duplicate option I'm aware that I deleted the layer mask previously had I not done that it
would still be attached to the image but in the wrong position if you reposition an image layer
with a layer mask attached you must also move the mask I'm also going to change the blending mode
of the top layer this is currently overlay but the color burn blend mode also produces a nice
effect with strong color as a final step in the editing I'll add a new curves adjustment layer
to the top of the image I can do this by clicking the top layer and then choosing the adjustments
icon at the bottom of the layer Studio panel in the pop-up list pick the curves adjustment
layer I can then adjust the curve to refine the effect I'm now going to place all the layers into
a group with the top layer selected hold down the shift key and click on the bottom duplicate layer
this selects all the adjustment layers in the image I can then click the group layer icon at
the bottom of the layer Studio panel now with the layers in a single group I can reduce the
opacity to control the effect or I can turn off the layers to compare it to the original
the multiple exposure layers in this image have created an impressive abstract artistic effect
but did you know you can create the same effect using the Nik Collection this video explains
how and is a good one to watch next I hope you've enjoyed today's video please share it with others
and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already I'll see you soon for another video