How to Apply Filters and Adjustments in Affinity Designer

Posted on 17th June 2023

Affinity Designer is a vector drawing and illustration software that is available on Windows, Mac, and iOS. It is similar to Adobe Illustrator but is a one-time payment software as opposed to a subscription.

Affinity Designer has a wide variety of filters and adjustments that can be applied to your project to give it a unique look. In this tutorial, we will go over how to apply filters and adjustments in Affinity Designer.

Applying Filters

To apply a filter, select the layer you want to apply the filter to and go to Layer > Filter > Filter Name.

There are a wide variety of filters available in Affinity Designer. Some of the more popular ones are the Blur filter, the Sharpen filter, and the Lighting filter.

Adjustments

Adjustments are similar to filters but are non-destructive and can be adjusted after they have been applied. To apply an adjustment, select the layer you want to apply the adjustment to and go to Layer > Adjustment > Adjustment Name.

There are a wide variety of adjustments available in Affinity Designer. Some of the more popular ones are the Brightness/Contrast adjustment, the Levels adjustment, and the Hue/Saturation adjustment.

Conclusion

Filters and adjustments are a great way to add a unique look to your project in Affinity Designer. Experiment with different combinations of filters and adjustments to see what looks best for your project.

In the previous article, we saw how to use the Adjustments panel in Affinity Designer to apply a range of different filters and adjustments to our image. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at how to apply filters and adjustments to specific areas of our image using masks.

Masking allows us to selectively apply filters and adjustments to parts of our image, without affecting the rest of the image. This gives us a lot more control over how our filters and adjustments look, and allows us to create more subtle and realistic effects.

To create a mask, we first need to select the layer that we want to mask. We can then click on the “Add Mask” button in the Layers panel.

This will create a new layer mask on the selected layer. By default, the layer mask will be white, which means that the entire layer is visible.

We can paint on the layer mask with black or white to selectively reveal or hide parts of the layer. Black will hide the layer entirely, while white will reveal the layer completely.

Gray will partially reveal or hide the layer, depending on how light or dark the gray is. For example, a light gray will partially reveal the layer, while a dark gray will partially hide the layer.

We can also use the “Gradient” tool to create a gradient on the layer mask. A gradient on a layer mask will gradually reveal or hide the layer, depending on the direction of the gradient.

We can use the layer mask to selectively apply filters and adjustments to our image. To do this, we need to make sure that the layer mask is selected in the Layers panel.

We can then go to the Adjustments panel and choose the filter or adjustment that we want to apply. The filter or adjustment will only be applied to the area of the image that is visible on the layer mask.

In the example below, we’ve applied a “Gaussian Blur” filter to the area of the image that is visible on the layer mask. This has created a soft, blurred effect on the image.

If we want to invert the layer mask, so that the area of the image that is hidden is revealed and the area of the image that is revealed is hidden, we can click on the “Invert Mask” button in the Layers panel.

We can also load an existing image as a layer mask. To do this, we need to first select the layer that we want to mask. We can then click on the “Add Mask” button in the Layers panel and choose “Load Mask from File”.

This will open up a file browser where we can select the image that we want to use as a layer mask. The layer mask will be applied to the selected layer.

We can also save the layer mask to a file so that we can use it again later. To do this, we need to make sure that the layer mask is selected in the Layers panel. We can then click on the “Save Mask to File” button in the Layers panel.

This will open up a file browser where we can choose where to save the layer mask. The layer mask will be saved as a separate image file.

Layer masks are a powerful tool that we can use to selectively apply filters and adjustments to our image. In the next article, we’ll take a look at how to use clipping masks in Affinity Designer.

In addition to the adjustment layer functionality, Affinity Photo also has some powerful filter tools. These can be accessed via the ‘Filter’ menu at the top of the screen.

One of the most useful filters is the ‘Adaptive Contrast’ filter. This can be used to quickly increase the contrast of an image without blowing out the highlights or shadows.

To use the filter, simply select the layer you want to adjust and then go to ‘Filter > Adjustments > Adaptive Contrast’.

You can then use the ‘Amount’ slider to increase or decrease the contrast of the image.

Another useful filter is the ‘Unsharp Mask’. This can be used to Sharpen an image without creating the ‘halo’ effect that is often seen with the ‘Sharpen’ filter.

To use the ‘Unsharp Mask’ filter, simply select the layer you want to adjust and then go to ‘Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask’.

You can then use the ‘Amount’, ‘Radius’ and ‘Threshold’ sliders to fine-tune the sharpening effect.

There are also a number of ‘Artistic’ filters which can be used to create interesting effects.

To access these filters, simply go to ‘Filter > Artistic’.

Some of the more popular filters in this menu include the ‘ Oil Paint ’ filter, which can be used to create a painting effect, and the ‘ Watercolor ’ filter, which can be used to create a watercolor painting effect.

There are also a number of ‘Distort’ filters which can be used to distort an image in a variety of ways.

To access these filters, simply go to ‘Filter > Distort’.

Some of the more popular filters in this menu include the ‘ Twirl ’ filter, which can be used to create a spiral effect, and the ‘ Ripple ’ filter, which can be used to create a rippling effect.

That’s just a quick overview of some of the more popular filters and adjustments that are available in Affinity Photo. Experiment with these tools to see what effects you can create.