Tone Identification

[Walt D]

Hello,

I'm new to Affinity Photo and am just learning how to use all the layer adjustment and selection tools.  Is there an easy way to pick a area on my background image and have it show on the Histogram?  I want to be able determine what tone a certain part of my image is.  Obviously I can tell Darks and Highlights, but mid-tones are tricky.  I think the Blend Range tool would be easier to use if I knew what tone I needed to adjust.

Thanks

[kaffeeundsalz]

The easiest way to do this is probably with the Info panel. Click the Color Model icon and choose "HSL". Then, click the "Sample From Cursor" button directly below. Then just hover over your image and rest the cursor on any point you'd like to examine. With these settings, the Info panel will always give you the L value (Lightness percentage) below your cursor, which you can then use to create a corresponding node in the Blend Options. Note that the sampled values of the Info panel always refer to the visible composition, so might need to change layer visibility to get the correct values for your purpose.

[smadell]

You can do this from inside the Histogram panel, itself. Note that there are two empty checkboxes – Layer and Marquee. These will limit the histogram to your selections. In my image, below, I have an image of a flower, and a second image (on a second layer) of a bold, blue oval. The area of the flower is selected, and the layer containing the flower is selected in the Layers panel. You can see the differences in the Histogram when the various checkboxes are on or off.

Note: I don't think that this will work with partially selected pixels (such as Luminosity selections).

[Walt D]

Excellent.  I had to turn on the info panel, it was not visible.  Also, seeing the selection and / or the layer in the histogram is most helpful.

Thanks!

Edited December 6, 2020 by Walt D