colour picker unresponsive

[*mark]

Sampled (or picked) colors from the Color Picker Tool are stored in the swatch next to the tool's icon on the Color or Swatches panel.

Would it be an idea to have the colour directly on the tool once its picked? I'm picking but still only getting black or white with the painting tool - (that's when its not defaulting to the colour replacement tool I've never used.)

I just simply need to select the layer and the colour (as in PS) or is it not as easy as this? I've tried with the eye-dropper, the colour chooser, and the colour palette and getting nothing but black and white and swapping out to differnt layers I'm not selecting-

So how do I get the colour to load on the tool?? And is there a shortcut/click to getting the colour picker to come up when using the brush tool (as PS does?) I really don't understand how a simple task like this can be made so difficult.

As a side note why does AP keep moving around my palettes? On separated mode it hides the transform palette and on normal mode reveals the transform palette but swaps around some of the other tabs beside it (paragraph, character, text styles etc) moving them to the layers palette where I don't want them, while closing others I want left open (text styles etc)! I thought the idea was to customise my own adjustments palette, not chase around looking for missing or closed palettes??!  

Thanks

[stokerg]

Hi @*mark,

Are you running Affinity on Windows or Mac?  With the Paintbrush tool selected if you then press and hold the ALT key or if on Mac the option key and drag the mouse, you should see you get the colour picker and when you select a colour it should be applied to the brush.

We also have a tutorial just for the Colour Picker tool here which would be worth watching  

[Noreen Thorn]

As a newbie to editing, I recently bought affinity photo and the workbook. I'm working my way through the book and am trying to follow "manipulating an adjustment layer mask" pg 118. After selecting the paint brush tool it show a Colour panel. Nothing comes up and I can't find it. I'm working on windows 10.

Thanks

[*mark]

Hi Noreen

Go to the 'View' menu > scroll down to studio > and you'll see the 'colour' option in the pop out menu > click on it to activate the colour palette

[walt.farrell]

11 minutes ago, *mark said:

I need to click on the colour with the eye-dropper tool, and then click on the eye dropper icon in the colour palette too (to activate the selection) ..

If you're talking about the Color Picker Tool (the Eyedropper in the Tools panel (), then the behavior depends on whether you've chosen the "Apply to Selection" option in the Context Toolbar.

If it's selected, the color is applied immediately if you have something selected, and if that object supports color assignment. If it's not selected, then the color only fills the well next to the eyedropper in the Color panel, and if you want to apply it (to an object that will accept it) you need to click on it.

On the other hand, if you're talking about the eyedropper next to the color well in the Color panel: You click on it and drag it to the place you want to sample from, and it only fills its color well. You then click on the well to apply the color to an object that will accept it.

[*mark]

Thanks Walt

I'm obviously not getting it... (and it's not like I'm doing anything complex)

I'm trying all these suggestions and getting nothing but a black or white brush. I have the pixel layer selected, using the eye dropper from the tools palette, the colour palette open (and the chooser), picking my colour, then as soon as I change back to the brush I'm on black and white again.

At no point do I even have the 'apply to selection' option, or the interface shown in the 'how-to' video recommended - all I want to do, is change the colour of the brush, but not take a week working out how to...! Isn't there a simpler way? (as PS: dropper, click, done?) Or maybe a simple step-by-step tutorial?

2 - As a test, I'm picking a more defined colour (Ultramarine Blue) and all that's showing on the picker is a very feint blue, so some setting is altering the colour pick to a hazy off white blue.. any ideas? Thanks

 

[walt.farrell]

5 minutes ago, *mark said:

I'm trying all these suggestions and getting nothing but a black or white brush. I have the pixel layer selected, using the eye dropper from the tools palette, the colour palette open (and the chooser), picking my colour, then as soon as I change back to the brush I'm on black and white again.

Thanks for the clarification.

As I see it, picking with the Color Picker Tool sets the foreground color. Then changing back to the Brush Tool switches to the background color, which was not changed by the Color Picker. I'm not sure of the rationale for that behavior.

If you stay with the Brush Tool, you can pick a color by pressing Alt (Opt on Mac, I think), and dragging on the document page. That will set the color you're painting with. Or you could pick your color using the eyedropper in the Color panel, and click on the color well there, which should also work (since you would have still remained in the Brush Tool).

[*mark]

I followed your advice on colour picking, and using stronger colours I can see the problem - I'm picking a crimson colour and the brush is painting pink, a dark blue and the brush is painting light blue - I have everything ramped up to 100% so I am guessing this is a program bug not my inexperience.

I've looked at all the settings and read pages of forums, watched videos and my original black white problem was an off white selected in the picker and the brush lightening that to paint white...

Does anyone have any idea what is going on here?? The attached screenshot shows the brush colour after selecting the deep red from the image

[carl123]

What happens if you switch off the Brightness/Contrast adjustment you have shown selected in your image above?

Do you get the right colour?

[*mark]

The same effect Carl - except that everything is darker (obviously) and the brush is still painting lighter than the chosen colour

[walt.farrell]

If you click on the chevron on the right side of the Context Toolbar () what is the Blend Mode of your brush?

[*mark]

That's on 'Normal'

[walt.farrell]

Suppose you turn off (hide) all the layers above the one you're painting in. Is the color correct then?

Can you provide your document (.afphoto format) for us to look at?

[*mark]

Thanks for your patience.. Ok... turned off every layer except the original background layer... picked the colour from my grainy untouched original - colour correct, switched on the adjustment layer and the brush still correct.

This means if the background and adjustment layer are both active, AP takes the pick from the adjustment layer, then by default also adds the brightness/contrast setting of that layer to the colour pick, so it's even brighter? (Instead of picking the already adjusted colour of the layer?) That doesn't seem an intuitive way to arrive at a colour pick, nor to have to return to the original each time a colour pick is required (?)

Does this mean to colour pick, it can't be picked from the current state? One has to hide all subsequent adjustment layers and return to the original layer each time to make the colour pick?  

[carl123]

You changed the original colour by adding a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer to it

The colour picker is correctly picking up this new change in colour

If you were to add a new pixel layer (with no Brightness/Contrast adjustment on it) and painted on that the colours would match

But if you repaint on the original layer, which has the Brightness/Contrast adjustment, then that same Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer is going to affect the new colour you are now using

[Pšenda]

33 minutes ago, *mark said:

One has to hide all subsequent adjustment layers and return to the original layer each time to make the colour pick? 

I may not understand you well, but would you expect the last image to capture what color?
   

Red because it's the base layer color, blue because it overlaps this layer, and is the layer selected in the Layers panel, or purple because it's the result of mixing the colors of the visible layers, and is this color also displayed?

[*mark]

@psenda I would expect the brush to capture the selected colour of the 'active' altered layer  (as it has in PS for the past 15 years..) not to deselect altered layers back to the original 'image' layer to take a 'colour pick' to apply 50 layers further on. After 15 yrs in PS, it's a learning curve like everyone else - in PS there is only 1 layer - and here there are many, each with different attributes, applications, working methodologies and functionalities.

[*mark]

@Carl Thanks... 

I guess I'm not getting the switching and swapping - if it's taking a colour pick from the brightness layer, it would be the same colour when I paint surely? But it seems to take the pick AT the brightness contrast resolution of that level, then adds that same brightness on top of its pick, which is why its always twice as bright every time. Why would it add brightness to the brightness? just asking.... 

and of course I understand now, I will have to go back to the image layer every time to pick the unedited colour from the unedited image...

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, *mark said:

I guess I'm not getting the switching and swapping - if it's taking a colour pick from the brightness layer, it would be the same colour when I paint surely? But it seems to take the pick AT the brightness contrast resolution of that level, then adds that same brightness on top of its pick, which is why its always twice as bright every time. Why would it add brightness to the brightness? just asking.... 

and of course I understand now, I will have to go back to the image layer every time to pick the unedited colour from the unedited image...

What is surprising to me is that you seem to be painting on a layer far down in the layer stack. If you were painting at the top of the stack I suspect it might work better, and you might be less surprised at the results.

[*mark]

Well Walt, I don't disagree with you but the 1st image layer inevitably becomes the bottom layer.. the others are cut and copies, and usually wouldn't have created such a dilemma 🙃 and once I'd done my changes, the image layer needed a clean up... the rest is history ...or more correctly 'layers'.

Thanks for your help - appreciated.

[Pšenda]

3 hours ago, *mark said:

I would expect the brush to capture the selected colour of the 'active' altered layer

And why not change the source to Current Layer?

If you have selected Global, it is perhaps expected that the result of mixing and adjusting all used layers will be captured.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Pšenda said:

And why not change the source to Current Layer?

If you have selected Global, it is perhaps expected that the result of mixing and adjusting all used layers will be captured.

If *mark is picking with the paint brush, rather than the Color Picker Tool, that option's not available. (But I'm not sure how the picking is being done.)

 

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, *mark said:

the others are cut and copies, and usually wouldn't have created such a dilemma

But since the others are on top, if you pick using the brush you're picking the visible result on the screen. And everything above the layer you paint in will affect what you've painted. As you saw by it being correct when you turned off those upper layers.

So, you either need to work in the upper layers you created, or get rid of them if they shouldn't be affecting the work. Or, as Pšenda suggested, use the Color Picker Tool and set the options to pick from the layer you're working in.

[*mark]

@walt.farrell & @Pšenda Thanks both for the  input - I've noted your helpful comments.

As former PS user, multiple history layers take a bit of getting used to. I prefer to work in the PS 'destructive' way on the image layer 😬 as that's what I've been used to, but adapting to Affinity gradually.. Found picking with the brush helpful and the right layer. Thanks