Everyone loves a double exposure effect And it's one of the effects I recommend Most to beginners I mean they're easy They're fun and you can create countless Combos and since you can create an Nest Multiple masks onto a single layer Affinity photo is an even better option For double exposure effects compared to Photoshop if you don't know me I'm Abby Esparza and I've been doing a digital Art for over 10 years now and all the Resources featured today can be found Over on envato elements you get Unlimited downloads of photos and fonts All with a super simple commercial License a plus a no locking contract Means you can cancel anytime you can Subscribe now with a link down in the Description so this first step is all About prepping your subject and creating A few base masks I have a solid layer Already made here in a light gray color And I have my selection already done Just to save some time using the Selection brush tool here but once you Have that we can add our mask And then right click refine mask and we Just have to drag the refine brush over The subject's edges and let Affinity Photo do the rest Now we're going to duplicate our subject Using Ctrl J two times And we're going to set the first copy to Lighten
And the second to screen Now let's create a new empty mask and Nest that inside of the screen layer We'll be masking all of this back in Later Right now your image is going to look Like a typical extracted image even Though we have all these layers here But now we want to paste the Environmental photo in between the Normal and enlightened subject layers in This case we have this nice uh Forest We're going to duplicate the subjects Layer mask and Nest it into this Forest Layer I'm masking it to the shape of our Subject Now we want to make sure we have the Move tool active and then we want to Look up here and check lock children This will make it so we can move the Layer without moving the mask around So we're going to use that move tool to Position the forest in a way that looks Interesting try and look for clever Shapes and visual elements that kind of Match up you also want the areas of the Bright white Sky to be close to the edge Of the panda and that's how you're going To get those spots of negative space It won't look perfect so don't worry and We can always adjust this placement as We go as well In fact I think this is looking Perfectly fine we have our main elements
Next we need to do some image adjusting Using adjustment layers first let's Nest A curves adjustment layer into the Lighten layer here And we want to create what's called an S Curve which is where you bring up the Highlights and bring down the Shadows Creating an s-like shape in the curve Here We're going to copy this curves layer And Nest it into the hidden screen layer And then we'll create another S curve to Put in the forest again bringing up the Highlights and lowering the Shadows These settings will change image to Image but you do want your Sky to be a Very uh light almost white color And because I want this Forest to really Blend into our orange red panda here I'm Going to add an hsl adjustment layer to The forest image and do a plus 13 Hue Shift which will make that Force feel More orangey And we're already looking a little Better but now we have to add new masks To both the normal and lightened Subjects As well as the forest layer here And we're going to mask away different Areas from each mask to blend the Subject and its environmental image I Recommend starting with the forest layer Masking it away from the face and pause And removing the forests from parts of
The tail to create that ringed tail Effect This is of course a specific to a panda But the face and paws are always a good Start Then we can mask away from the normal Layer to remove any annoying edges or Hard weird splotchy spots like on the Pause edge here And if any areas are looking a little Too bright or solid we can mask away From this lighten layer we are ignoring The screen layer for now And you really want to take your time Here it's not hard but you can really Kind of have a good uh back and forth With it masking things in and bringing Them back using white masking them back Out using black there really isn't much A method to the madness here we're just Going back and forth from these three Layers until we like what we have And in fact I like what I have now uh so Let's move on uh but we don't have to Use just one Forest layer we can Actually duplicate our current Forest Here And then flip and transform it resize And remask it to create a tree line Right on the back of our subject again We're using the light gray Skyline to Really blend the image into the light Gray background that's how we're getting These edges here
And unless you get really lucky with the Shape of your forest or environment You're likely going to have to do this To really sell the effect that the Animal or pandas in this case a body is Really made of trees This is a looking good now remember that Screen layer we're going to use that to Highlight and bring even more fur detail Onto our Panda mask in the areas you Want to brighten or have some more of That red panda's detail if you find this Layer is too solid or bright I'll use The curves layer to deepen the Shadows Or even pop another S curve on top of The already existing one And the rest of this are all optional Details I'm going to add in some flying Birds using this layer with a light Light background so all I have to do is Set the layer to multiply And then lower the opacity to around 85 Percent or so And then of course use the move tool to Transform it and make maybe make a Couple duplicates This really helps sell that double Exposure effect it also makes the panda Seem giant which I love And then we can wrap this up with a Quick color grade by creating a curved Layer going into the red Channel Bringing Down the highlights and pulling Up the shadows and this is going to
Bring red into those shadows and blue Onto the highlights And to make it a bit more Punchy I'm Going to add a Vibrance adjustment layer Set to a 55 Vibrance and 12 saturation Just for you know an added a pinch of Color And that is all it takes if that wasn't Enough though you could check out some Of the other videos that in Battlefield Has to offer if you liked this video Thank you very much consider giving us a Like and even subscribing if you still Need to and remember to click the little Bell icon to be notified of all new Videos including tips tricks and of Course tutorials happy designing see you Next time
