How to Create Fog and Smoke in Affinity Photo

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to create fog and smoke in Affinity Photo. These steps and techniques are useful when creating composites that require fog or smoke.

Before you start, go to the following links to download the images used in the tutorial.

People on motorcycles

Girl in van

Step 1

First, go to File > Open and select the image of the people on motorcycles. Or you can select another image you want to add fog or smoke to.

Step 2

Next, click the Add Pixel Layer icon in the Layers Panel.

Step 3

Now, grab the Paintbrush Tool from the Tools Panel. Go to the Swatches Panel. Press Shift + X to switch the stroke color to the fill color which should now be white.

Step 4

After that, go to the Brushes Panel, and go to the Basic brushes, select one of the Round Light brushes.

Step 5

In the Context Toolbar, set the Opacity to 20%, Flow to 30%, and Hardness to 0%. Next, set the Blend Mode to Darken.

Step 6

Click more in the Context Toolbar. Go to the General tab. Set the Spacing to 15% and the Rotation to 20%. Next, go to the Dynamics tab. Set the Size Jitter to 5%. Set the Flow Jitter to 12%. Now, set the Rotation to 6%.

Step 7

Make sure the pixel layer we added is selected in the Layers Panel. Take the brush and paint on the image to add fog to it.

Step 8

Grab the Paintbrush Tool from the Tools Panel.

Step 9

Go to the Swatches Panel, double click on the fill color to bring up the Color Chooser. Set the fill color to the following hex code #6B6F6B.

Step 10

Next, go to the Layers Panel and click the Add Pixel Layer icon.

Step 11

In the Context Toolbar, click More and go to Dynamics. Set the Scatter X to 50% and the Scatter Y to 30%.

Step 12

Now, go back to the Context Toolbar and check the Wet Edges box.

Step 13

Take the brush and paint on the image.

To change the color of the smoke:

Step 1

In the Layers Panel, turn off the original smoke layer. Then, click the Add Pixel Layer to add a new layer.

Step 2

After that, go to the Swatches Panel. Double click on the fill color to bring up the Color Chooser. Set the color to the color you want. The hex code for the color I chose is #483F92.

Step 3

Take the brush and paint on the image to add the smoke.

Congratulations, this tutorial is complete. You now know how to create fog and smoke in Affinity Photo. For more Affinity Photo tutorials, check out this article on how to create dust.