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Muted Colors (adapted from PS support group)
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So, I've been perusing the PS support group a bit lately and found an interesting post by one of their admins, Tennessee_Gator on a muted color process that I thought was interesting. I had a look at the steps, and went ahead and adapted them for GIMP, but I have a couple of questions...
(I'm in the process of writing another tutorial for muted colors, and will have a post up soon. I just wanted to verify something with you guys first)
The steps are:
1. Copy base layer and desaturate using luminosity.
2. Make a copy of the desaturated layer (Ctrl-C or Edit→Copy).
3. Create a new layer filled with white.
4. Add a layer mask to white layer (make sure the mask is active).
5. Paste copied desaturated layer (it will be a Floating Selection (Pasted Layer) )
6. Anchor the Floating Selection (Pasted Layer) — It will now become your white layer mask.
7. Create a new layer above the white fill layer. Fill it with black.
8. Add a layer mask to black layer (make sure the mask is active).
9. Paste copied desaturated layer, and anchor it. It will now be the layer mask for the black fill layer.
10. Activate the black fill layer mask, and Colors → Invert
— Optional —
11. Right-click black fill layer and New from Visible
12. On the new Visible layer, do Colors → Hue-Saturation... and bump the saturation to taste.
Now, in my fiddling around I have another method that seems to produce identical results, but wanted the opinion of others first if I am correct in assuming it is:
1. Copy base layer and desaturate using luminosity.
2. Copy the desaturated layer once more (you should have 2 desaturated layers).
3. On the first (lowest desaturated layer in layer list) set the blending mode to Screen.
4. On the second set the blending mode to Multiply.
Visually, the two are identical, and a difference layer mode check shows that they are really, really close.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Posted at 6:43AM, 9 June 2011 PDT
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Could you show an example of this process?
Posted 12 months ago.
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Well, I was going to go ahead and just post some images showing the technique I am referring to...
But it was just faster for me to learn script-fu real quick and make a script for it.
So...
registry.gimp.org/node/25357
This script gives you options for 3 types of image color muting:
1. A simple copied layer desaturated (luminosity), and with opacity set.
2. Using 2 luminosity layers over the color image with different blending modes (multiply & screen).
3. using 2 solid color fill layers (black and white) over the color image, with layer masks created from the luminosity of the image.
Try them out and let me know what you guys think!
(oh, and it is my first script-fu script - so let me know if there are any weird things going on)
Originally posted 12 months ago.
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avhell edited this topic 12 months ago.
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I just tried the section option and really like the results. Will post the picture in my stream at some stage soon.
Posted 12 months ago.
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intersting, downloading the script now
In general i don't like much use script for this type of processes because scripts have no preview, so i miss the visual control on the final result
If for you was so easy learn script fu you may consider have a look to GMIC
Both the 2 routines you described may be ported as gmic filter,
well you can't create " layermask" in gmic but you may create and apply mask, that is equivalent
The advantage is not only a good preview and more flexible Input/output options :
the gmic plugin and the gmic command line use the same language so
the same script may be used also from the command line, as example for batch
( here i simplified a bit , scripts for the plugin and for command line are slightly different:
scripts for the plugin must include "default values" and a command for the preview
Both should be removed to use the same script for the command line )
Posted 12 months ago.
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You need to alter the script to specify which image modes are acceptable (RGB, Grayscale, Indexed ??) - at present it is possible to run it without an image open - which errors and it errors for Grayscale and Indexed images.
It would also be helpful if you told your "customers" where it gets put in the menus to save them having to rummage around in the code.
Otherwise it works fine and you might like to introduce it to the folks over on the Meet the Gimp forum ( forum.meetthegimp.org ) where we are always interested in photo processing.
Originally posted 12 months ago.
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Kevin (paynekj) edited this topic 12 months ago.
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they do indeed appear to be identical, aside from rounding errors and saturation
Posted 12 months ago.
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PhotoComiX - I have looked quickly at GMIC before for programming, but didn't follow through (though the noise reduction is absolutely TOP quality, and GMIC is an absolute must have for me on any GIMP install). I'll have another look at the language constructs and see about porting the code into GMIC.
I do agree that image previews are really, really important, and in fact was thinking about how to do that yesterday. But for this method I leave the images in a state where someone can modify opacities and the layer masks to produce a different result in their workflow (I almost never leave things as-is with a script like this, and normally tweak further. Because the two functions produce identical results, it's really just a matter of which state a user prefers to be left with after the script is run (with/without layer masks to blend).
Kevin (paynekj) - Thank you, I knew about the image modes being specified, but didn't include them for some reason (once again - likely laziness).
Oh - and where would one normally specify where in the menus the command is located? I put it under Colors only because it seemed to make sense. I will update the registry.gimp.org site to tell people where it's located, but is there another means I am not aware of for telling people this? Should the command go in the Filters menu instead? I was going to see if I could include this in the fx-foundry package - so I guess I would need to specify it in the context of that if possible (assuming I can get it included).
imadoofus123 - Oh thank god, something I can read! :)
Thank you for doing that, seriously. I guess I could have done the same thing looking up the blending modes reference page on gimp.org (but I'm apparently way more lazy than you!)
Thank you very much for the feedback all! This is incredibly helpful - and I am going to get these things ironed out right now! :)
Posted 12 months ago.
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So I've gone ahead and finally published the blog post that details some of these muted colors effects and how to achieve them - would certainly appreciate any feedback! :)
blog.patdavid.net/2011/06/getting-around-in-gimp-muted-co...
Posted 12 months ago.
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Interesting blog post , very informative! Thanks for the script too, I've used it to process this shot.
What I seem to be missing is a little bit of info on how the various methods try to differ from a conventional desaturation. Perhaps it's a trivial thing to a seasoned post-processor, but maybe you could still spend a couple of words on it for a newbe like me?
In any case thank you so much for sharing your expertise!
Posted 11 months ago.
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Alexander van den Bosch - Thanks! I am glad it was helpful or informative to at least some people! :)
The luminosity masks and solid layers methods should produce identical results. The primary difference between the two is what you have available to tweak and modify the final results.
The luminosity layers I feel have the most options left for tweaking. The mute is achieved through layer blend modes, and a desaturated version of your image. This still allows you to add a layer mask to make fine adjustments and mask out various portions of the effect to apply separately.
The solid fills with masks will automatically add a desaturated mask for you (and in fact is the subject of something else I am working on at the moment that I will write up over the weekend maybe). This gives you a layer mask to immediately begin modifying.
The desaturated overlay in my mind feels like it's a bit "washed out" compared to the other methods. It's certainly still useful, but compared to the other methods it falls a little short in my mind (your mileage may vary, of course), especially in contrast.
Did that thoroughly confuse anyone?
Posted 11 months ago.
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Thanks for the explanation , it makes complete sense to me. :-)
Posted 11 months ago.
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John Elkins already wrote a script for mute colors in 2008; I still use it, but the download link I quoted in another thread seems to have disappeared. I thought that opens source helped not having to reinvent the wheel, but it has its limits too.
The script by avhell seems to be more configurable. I'll try it.
[Edit] Interesting techniques. But I'll have to point out one thing I already reported several times: in most Gimp plug-ins and scripts, settings are described with technical terms which will be frightening or puzzling for mere artists who can use Gimp too. It is not a problem for me, as my approach is also technical, but I think an effort should be done to provide more intuitive settings like in PS or PSE.
Originally posted 11 months ago.
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François Collard (a group admin) edited this topic 11 months ago.
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your last remark touches upon a broader question that's perhaps worth a separate thread: what does GIMP want to be and whom for?
Not sure what the answer is, but to me it presents itself as a free and powerful toolbox for everybody who feels up to using it. As opposed to, for instance, a self-explaining application for the mere artist. Or an intuitive, workflow-oriented one. Sure it has a GUI, and a very neat one at that, especially for an open-source product. But if you don't understand layers, masks, and blending modes, GIMP is not the application to still enable you to use that functionality effectively. Should it be? Don't know. Could it be? Perhaps. On the other hand, I'm not under the impression that PS is doing much better in this respect. Also, given the technical nature of the output of 's script, I doubt if presenting the options differently will really help the artist to understand what he gets after clicking OK. A comprehensive explanation behind the Help button is perhaps a better way to tackle this issue.
Edit: s&g.
Originally posted 11 months ago.
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Alexander van den Bosch edited this topic 11 months ago.
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