TrevorOutlaw

I have produced a video tutorial on how you can use remove.bg and Paint.Net here: You could also use G'Mic and a tool within the software to extract your object from the background. G'Mic is a plug-in that you can use. I have used the tool myself with varying success. https://postimg.cc/7bxWRNPx Finally, you can use Paint 3D - which are installed for free on Windows - and watch this video by Kevin Stratvert to see how you can use Paint 3D with Paint.NET. I have used his method with varying success. With that being said, my preferred technique is the first method described in the video tutorial of using remove.bg and Paint.NET.

An easy tip or trick that will help with Apply Alpha Mask: White "keeps", black "erases".

How close is Paint.NET to implementing custom brush solutions?

Another option is to change from antialiasing to aliased line on the toolbar. https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/Toolbar.html

What I would do is duplicate the original photograph layer and run the default Unfocus blur (assuming you are using Paint.NET 5.0.2). Then using the default gradient tool, change it to transparent mode and change to radial and see the photograph change with the gradient tool.

Was surprised when I got the prompt that 5.0.2 was available. Installed it and then came over here to see what the buzz was. Much appreciated.

@Nimral As I have said, you can also use Paint 3D which comes for free on your PC, and watch this YouTube video on how to use it. There will always be a workaround until someone smarter than me can program a plug-in that automate the process of extracting foreground object from the background. There is also a feature inside G'Mic that also has this ability, but I personally use it as I find it incredibly finicky to use.

Edit: You can also use Paint 3D application to extract the tomato from the background too. G'Mic also has a foreground extract method. I need to get around to making a new video for it.

As someone that dabbles with photography, you shouldn’t be relying on auto exposure in your camera as it does it best to guess the lighting, and I would suggest investing in a gray card. That being said, what @Ego Eram Reputo has suggested will work, but I will go one step further. In your image, change the canvas by 100 pixels wide and tall. For example, if your photograph is 1980x1920, increase the canvas to 2080x2020. It will create a white border around the photograph. Backfill the white border with gray (experiment with shades of gray) and be mindful that the gray color may “bleed” over to the photograph. Luckily you can control how much fill to use on the toolbar. Finally, tweak the photograph with Levels or Curves, and once you are satisfied, change the dimensions back to the original photograph by removing the extra 100 pixels. These tips came from a tutorial on this site that has been removed or I didn’t look hard enough. Edit: I just remembered that a common complaint with color in PDN comes from the metadata being stripped, and fortunately, Rick added the ability to apply color profile in v5.0. Try that and see if the color profiles gets corrected before attempting what I suggested earlier.

I am not certain if this what you are looking for, @dpy's AA Assistant. His website describes how it works. http://paintnet.web.fc2.com/plugin/dpy/aaassistant.htm It is part of his plug-in pack. I personally recommend the AA assistant as part of my toolbox.

It looks like the planet is all alone in the nights, bathed in light since there are strong light streaks from the upper right corner down to the planet, but what do I see in the shadows? Is it possible the planet is dying?

Never noticed it what I meant was that the dock now "snap" to the grid and the behavior is far more obvious with v5.0, never seen that before.

One hidden feature that I really like with v5.0 is the docks (layers or history) snapping in place on the screen. I don't think I have ever observed that behavior before v5.0.

Just did it this way and confirms using Trail works better (can untick the Fade Out or leave it ticked for different effect). Only issue I saw was that the edges would be jagged, and using @BoltBait feather plug-in works. I haven't tried using @dpy AA Assistant plug-in yet. Better to run feather before merging the layers, though.

TIL that it is possible to enter decimal in brush. All righty, then, good to know!