How to Use the Inpainting Tool in Affinity Photo

Affinity Photo’s Inpainting brush is a highly intuitive tool allowing you to easily remove parts of an image. The tool works by gathering information from the surrounding area and replacing it with similar content. It is a great way to quickly remove or repair areas of an image in no time.

During this tutorial we will be using this Brooklyn bridge photo from the Plus Hub. If you're not a Plus Member yet, you can sign up for free month of the Gold Plus Membership today!

Step 1 - Locate the Inpainting Brush Tool

Once you have opened your image in Affinity Photo, locate the Inpainting Brush tool on the left side toolbar. It can be found with the Healing tools. To access it, click on the small white arrow to open the menu options. Then select the Inpainting Brush.

Step 2 - Use the Inpainting Brush Tool

You can paint directly on the image but this is a destructive way of working. Instead, let’s create a new Pixel layer.

Create Pixel Layer

At the bottom of the Layers Panel, click on Add Pixel Layer. This will be placed above the Background image.

Change the Brush Settings

Next, go to the top toolbar and adjust the Brush settings. The size of the brush will depend on the size of the area you want to remove. We will be adjusting the size as we work in the image.

The Opacity, Flow and Hardness were all left at 100%. The setting that is important and needs to be changed can be found further to the right. Since we are working on a new layer and not on the image, the setting needs to be changed to Current Layer & Below.

If this is not changed, nothing will happen as you will be painting on a blank layer.

Start Painting on Unwanted Areas

Zoom into the image then adjust the brush size until it just covers the area you want to remove. You can change the brush size by inputting the value in the top toolbar or using the bracket keys [ and ].

Now paint just over the unwanted area. If the brush barely covers the area, simply click once on that area.

Depending on the size of the area, it may take a few seconds for the Inpainting tool to be applied.

Try not to paint over a large area at once as this can give unwanted results. If needed, decrease the brush size and paint over bit by bit.

Fix Inpainting Issues

While the Inpainting brush is quite intuitive, it can also give unwanted results. In the example below, we painted over an area and it duplicated too much information.

To fix this, make the brush size smaller. If need be, paint over the area a few times.

You may also notice that some areas have a “shadow”. Simply paint over the areas again to remove these “shadows”.

If you are still not getting the results you want, undo the brush stroke and change the direction that you paint. Changing the direction can change how the information is gathered.

We have completely removed the unwanted areas from the bottom of our image.

As quick as that, unsightly areas have been removed with a desired result. That is how easy it is to use Affinity Photo’s Inpainting Brush tool. You no longer have to struggle for hours to get a clean application, just use the Inpainting Brush!