PE2: Color burn mode?

RH
Posted By
Richard Hirschman
Aug 1, 2003
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207
Replies
6
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Closed
I am a relative newbie with PE2. I tried using the color burn mode to tint a scene. I did it as follows: Using the color burn mode on a new layer, I tinted the scene with the paint brush. In creating the new color burn mode layer, I could have chosen to have the layer covered with the color burn neutral color white or leave that new layer transparent. I tried tinting with the paint brush on the color burn mode layer, with and without using the color burn neutral color white and the results of tinting with the paint brush seemed to be the same. That is, in one case the color burn layer was filled with white and in the other case it was transparent before I started tinting. In both cases tinting with the paint brush appeared to have the same results.
Why would one use the neutral color white in a color burn layer (or black in a color dodge layer) rather than leaving the layer transparent?
Thanks.
Richard Hirschman
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RH
Richard Hirschman
Aug 2, 2003
Hi Chuck,
Thanks for the gray color tip.
Richard
CS
Chuck Snyder
Aug 2, 2003
Richard, you’re getting deeper into blending modes than I’ve ever gone, but you’ve certainly piqued my curiosity. Will look into it a bit later after I return from my normal Saturday morning routine.

One other method you may want to consider for tinting: use a Color Fill layer, which can be set for any blending mode. Advantage of the color fill layer is that you can keep reopening the Color Picker and tweak the color choice to whatever you want. Same can be done with a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer, another alternative.

But I want to understand those blending modes, so I’ll be trying to figure it out from the library here, and hopefully some more folks will chime in!

Chuck
P
Phosphor
Aug 2, 2003
BTW, Richard, recoloring dark hair is very, very difficult. I know from sad experience. Another poster here (Rick? apologies to whoever, can’t remember right now) gave me this suggestion, which comes the closest to giving a good result of anything I’ve tried, although it’s not perfect:

1. Finish overall color correction
2. Duplicate layer
3. Desaturate layer ( if you have Hidden Power,just click " add luminosity"

4. Insert blank layer between original layer and luminosity layer
5. Paint over hair with color of your choice on that layer
6. experiment with modes like color burn, overlay, but not color mode. Try opacity 25-50%
CS
Chuck Snyder
Aug 2, 2003
Richard, I tried your experiment and got the same result. Here are some thoughts about what you experienced.

Color Dodge is a ‘lightening mode’ , which means that painting on the layer with any color brighter than black has the potential to brighten the underlying image. In the case of Color Dodge, it will also tend to make the colors more saturated. When you start with a Color Dodge layer full of black and then paint (in normal blending mode for the brush) with white at a low opacity, you’re in effect removing black, but only some of it (you can see that on the thumbnail for the layer) – you have some gray left behind. On the other hand, when you paint with white on a Color Dodge layer that has no black fill, it’s really very much like just painting over the layer below with white – no black to absorb it and do the dodging. If you paint on that ’empty’ (unfilled) Color Dodge layer with a dark gray instead of white, I think you’ll get the same effect as painting on the filled layer with white.

I hope you’ll keep experimenting with the blending modes; it’s certainly stimulated me to read further (again, thanks to Ben Willmore and Adobe Photoshop 7 Studio Techniques). Thanks!

Chuck
RH
Richard Hirschman
Aug 2, 2003
Hi Chuck,
Thanks for spending the time with this and for your very helpful answer. I thought that the black in a layer with the color dodge mode was supposed to be neutral and not affect or mix with any painted colors but I guess that is not true. It’s very deceiving the way it is written in the manual. It sounds like you made the test yourself (thanks) but in case you or others who read this thread want to see my test, I put it in a gallery. I overdid it on the hair for the sake of clarity. Please see the photos at:
<http://www.pbase.com/doowopper/colordodge>
I used two photos. I probably won’t leave them in the gallery too long because my daughter in law might not be pleased. 🙂
The first three photos are a black hair test. The second three photos are a blond hair test. In each case I used a new layer in the color dodge mode set at 100% opacity. The paint brush was set at 10% opacity. The first photo in each of the two groups is the starting photo before I did anything. The second photo in each of the two groups shows the results from using a color dodge layer without checking the "color dodge neutral black" box and then painting with white on the new layer. The third photo in each of the two groups shows the results from using a color dodge layer with the "color dodge neutral black" box checked and then painting with white on the new layer. If you compare photos two and three from each of the two groups you will see that the results are quite different for each. The third photos in each group have a shiny look while the second photos in each group have a white look. It sure seems that checking or not checking the "color dodge neutral black" box when making the color dodge layer leads to very different results when you then paint that layer with white.
Thanks again.
Richard
CS
Chuck Snyder
Aug 2, 2003
Richard, the black is neutral in that it’s the only color that can fill the Color Dodge layer that doesn’t affect the view of the image below (because everything except black lightens). And when you paint on it with white at 10% opacity, you’re mixing white with black and getting a dark gray. Try painting on the one without the color dodge neutral black box checked, but instead of white, try dark gray; I think it looks a lot like the one with the box checked and white paint. Thanks for posting the comparisons in your gallery!

Chuck

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