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We can create all kinds of stylish glow effects in Affinity Photo with the Outer Glow and Inner Glow layer effects command. We’ve chosen to use the Affinity Photo logo as a shape, but you can use the same skills to make any glowing shape. With simple layer and masking skills, we can combine our shots with a portrait or other image of our choice. It works best if the image is dark, to allow the glowing lines to show through.
We begin with the Pen tool, which allows us to trace a simple outline around the logo. Once done, we can copy the shapes over to our portrait, add our glow effects and experiment with masks so that the shapes intertwine with our subject. Finally, we can tint our subject so that the colours match the glow of the shape. Along the way we’ll encounter a host of fundamental Affinity Photo skills, from transforming and masking to adjustments and colour controls.
If you want to shoot your own image for this stunning effect, then think about matching the lighting on the subject with the intended position of your glowing shapes. Backlighting like this can be ideal, as it matches with the shapes that appear ‘behind’ the subject.
If you want to take your Affinity Photo skills further, you can use colour gels on your lights to match the glowing colours. When your shooting and editing workflows come together in perfect harmony like this, the results are invariably more satisfying than if we were to simply drop an effect onto a random image.
Download the project file(s) to your Downloads folder
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