Principles of selection

We will begin the discussion with the principles of selection, as principles never change and are universal. Too many people dig directly into techniques and so they end up working on a tool-by-tool basis; in reality, they would have been far better served learning about the principle and then selecting the tools that did the job. That being said, let’s dive into the principles around the selection technique in Affinity Photo.

What is Affinity Photo doing when it selects?

As we covered earlier in the book, raster-based art is composed of pixels, and pixels are nothing but small squares placed next to one another that contain color and size information. We as humans make associations in our brains about what these things mean; this is an important distinction. Take a look at the following figure and note the things you observe:

Figure 5.1 – A sample image showing the principles of selection in application

In the...