Increase a layer opacity when it's already at 100%

[Nova-Odos]

Hello

I have a brush which has a built in opacity functionality (behaves like a marker).
Sometimes I need to to have a little bit more of saturation (so to speak), and what I normally do is to repeat the desired layer a small number of times until I'm happy with the final result.
Is there a more efficient way of doing this with a filter or something?
(Just in case, messing with the brush is not an option because in general I need it in that opacity level).


Thanks

[NotMyFault]

There are two options from my side:

1. use a less transparent brush. It is easy to make your own brush.
2. you can boost opacity of pixel layers with either curves, levels, channel mixer, or PT, by multiplying alpha values with a factor larger than 1.
   1. e.g. Levels adjustment 
   2. choose alpha channel
   3. set white level to a lower value
   4. merge down when happy

 

[Nova-Odos]

Thanks!
Channel Mixer is the only one that works to some extent.
I do not understand "PT" and how do you multiply alpha values?

 

[NotMyFault]

4 hours ago, Nova-Odos said:

Thanks!
Channel Mixer is the only one that works to some extent.
I do not understand "PT" and how do you multiply alpha values?

 

Procedural texture filter.

https://affinity.help/photo2/en-US.lproj/pages/Filters/filter_proceduraltexture.html

[Pšenda]

20 hours ago, Nova-Odos said:

Sometimes I need to to have a little bit more of saturation (so to speak), and what I normally do is to repeat the desired layer a small number of times until I'm happy with the final result.

You can try to increase the intensity of the brush using the Color overlay and selecting the appropriate Blend mode+colors.

Against multiple use of the brush, it preserves its texture.

[thomaso]

2 hours ago, Pšenda said:

increase the intensity of the brush using the Color overlay and selecting the appropriate Blend mode+colors.

Doesn't a colour overlay 'simply' result in different colour values – but leaving the 'ink density' / opacity as untouched?

[Pšenda]

14 hours ago, thomaso said:

Doesn't a colour overlay 'simply' result in different colour values – but leaving the 'ink density' / opacity as untouched?

Yes, but I consider that an advantage and a desirable feature. The OP writes that the brush uses "like a marker" where it is necessary, that what is underneath remains visible. So I understand the request to mean that the OP needs to increase the intensity of the marking, but while maintaining the legibility of what is marked. If he were to use it as a text obfuscation tool, then, of course, other functionality is needed.

[thomaso]

16 hours ago, Pšenda said:

The OP writes that the brush uses "like a marker" where it is necessary, that what is underneath remains visible.

True, on the other hand the OP sounds as if the wanted result gets achieved with multiple copies of the stroke and they now ask for a shorter way than using copied layers.

It appears a bit ambigouos what the OP means by "more of saturation (so to speak)". This might also get achieved with a different colour value or a more saturated colour definition for all strokes + a reduced tint value for the general strokes, using the full tint & saturation for certain strokes only.

Nevertheless, to increase the colour 'intensity' beyond a certain starting level (which is limited by brush opacity definition), there may be no other way than to decrease the transparency, either with stroke duplicates or with adjusted alpha or a modified brush setting, as mentioned by @NotMyFault.

A colour overlay with the same colour seems not to have any influence if the brush colour is already defined with 100% saturation … but it would rather need a different colour value and thus cause a shift of the resulting colour towards a different hue (which may be unwanted).

[PaulEC]

On 11/23/2023 at 7:18 PM, Nova-Odos said:

messing with the brush is not an option because in general I need it in that opacity level

You could always copy it and mess with the copy!

[Pšenda]

35 minutes ago, thomaso said:

It appears a bit ambigouos what the OP means by "more of saturation (so to speak)".

I think if the OP needed to increase the coverage of the brush, he wouldn't write "a little bit more of saturation", but maybe "a little bit more of opacity".

P.S. Even though the title of the thread talks about Opacity, so who knows what the goal is actually 🙂

Edited November 25, 2023 by Pšenda

[thomaso]

21 hours ago, Pšenda said:

I think if the OP needed to increase the coverage of the brush, he wouldn't write "a little bit more of saturation", but maybe "a little bit more of opacity".

We only can guess & speculate unless @Nova-Odos specifies the wanted result more clearly, regarding some apparently conflicting conditions or judgements:

… Increase a layer opacity when it's already at 100% (thread title)
… saturation (so to speak)
… repeat the desired layer (…) until I'm happy with the final result.
… I need it in that opacity level
… Channel Mixer is the only one that works
… to some extent.

… while "is the only that works" might indicate that the OP got already a satisfying answer and solution in the first response and neither needs nor wants further hints,  considerations or suggestions or modifications to other colour properties (like hue for instance). 😉

[Pšenda]

9 hours ago, thomaso said:

that the OP got already a satisfying answer and solution in the first response

Yes, maybe - that's why I'm writing "You can try" so that the OP has an alternative to the suggested procedure, because using the fx, including the ability to copy and easily apply it to already used markers, is quite easy.

 

9 hours ago, thomaso said:

and neither needs nor wants further hints

As you may know, this forum does not serve a single user/OP, so the suggestions given may well serve other users with the same or similar problem.

[Nova-Odos]

Thanks for everyone who took interest on this post.
After messing around a little bit more,  I finally found that curves did the work for me.
Sometimes I mess up with all the channels and sometimes only with the alpha channel.

But yes, what I wanted to avoid was to duplicate layers...

BTW also yes, the image is only one layer and the opacity is "baked" inside the brush presets.