OOTB Workflow: Color Blends

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Kerry, Denise,

Greetings. Wasn't sure how the sticky was to work... seems like techniques, responses, questions, etc. might get all mixed up in a single thread.

How about a special prefix, such as "OOTB Workflow:" or something like that. A list of thread pointers could be added to the Sticky as an index to the techniques.

In general I really like the idea of sharing workflow, techniques... So here is one that I explained a little in Morning Blues...

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Color fill layers and blending modes were used to add color to this one.
Next frame shows the first step Add Fill Layer for this simple technique.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Add Fill Layer

In Photoshop (CS3 here) under Layer->New Fill Layer->Solid Color (Name layer if you want in the pop-up and click okay).

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The color picker window will show up. Choose a pretty saturated color as it will be adjusted with the blends. This will be an adjustment layer so the color can be changed later.

You will end up seeing just the solid color of the top Color Fill layer with your input image below.

Next frame describes blending.

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Blending

As always with PS there are a couple of ways to do things. You can either bring up the blending options panel (right click on layer choose Blending Options) or use the drop down menu and Opacity typein on the Layers panel as illustrated below:

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A number of the various choices for blend mode work well. Here I've used Color Dodge, but many of the others will work for a variety of effects. Opacity is used to temper the effect.

Next step. Quick mask

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Quick Masking

Again, lots of ways to do this... I use the vector mask button to create the mask at the bottom of the Layers panel (Circled below). Fill with White to get the top layer, then paint with the brush tool (usually 0% hardness for maximum feathering), zoom in and small brushes for detail, paint with white to fix errors, etc.

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Next step, go ahead and add another color layer...

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

More layers

The more layers the merrier. Added a contrasting orange layer on top the blue layer and used Darken blend mode instead of the initial Color Dodge... Again adjust opacity to taste.

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You can also copy the mask from one layer and add it to the next. So here. for instance the effect is masked out for the tern for both the blue and orange layers.

That's about it. Go back to the first pane for the finished image....

This can be used for subtle effects as well... such as warming up or cooling down part of an image.

Thanks for looking...

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Kerry Perkins]

Thank you Michael! I like the idea of the prefix, I will get that added. What I had in mind was posting links to threads like this but somehow I forgot to mention that! I will make another sticky inside the sticky that has links to posts here. Thanks for reminding me to finish the job! :cool: I will add those thoughts to the original post.

[Indranil Sircar]

Michael, I like the effect and thanks for sharing the workflow.

[denise ippolito]

Michael, Great idea and thank you for sharing. Your tutorial is very well put together and much appreciated.:)

[Hilary Hann]

Very well explained and generous of you to share. Not sure whether I have the organised mind to put my workflows down so that it will work for others. :confused:

[Judy Howle]

Thanks for the tutorial Michael. I can see that color fill layers could be very useful and I have never tried them.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Judy,

Greetings. Color fill layers are great! Besides the more OOTB use they are great for color toning monochrome images, (sepia, cyanotype, selenium, etc.) or for use as a digital filter as one would use a color filter on a lens.

When I first got into digital photography, I was interested in applying my background in computer graphics image processing to photographs (instead of synthetic images). Along with some other toning, I used color fill layers (and some gradient masking) to transform late morning to the golden hour ;)

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Thanks for looking...

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Myer Bornstein]

Thanks for the info. My only comment is that it would be nice to have the techniques, tips etc that are given for a particular workflow be all together in one frame rather than multiple one would be easier to copy as a reference to use when you try the process.