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Duplicate layer changes the image


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Hi,

I am a long time (25 years plus!) Photoshop user trying to migrate and am generally very happy but keep running into what I see as puzzling behaviour.  For instance  I created a new image and simply drew with a graphics tablet using brush set at 100% opacity.  I then duplicated  the layer.  So two layers - opacity is 100%, blending mode is normal.  Switching off the "top" layer makes the image darker.  Why should this be?

I attach another example I just sketched.

And also when doing multilayer montage  with a lot of cloning etc. sometimes for some reason a layer will suddenly not accept the clone brush tool. It seems rasterising sometimes helps but the behaviour seems fairly random and plays havoc with my workflow.  Any ideas?

Thanks in advance with any suggestions.

2 layers.afphoto

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11 hours ago, martifingers said:

Switching off the "top" layer makes the image darker

I'm not seeing that, switching off the top layer makes the image look lighter to me.

As I would expect as your brush strokes still have some transparency

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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2 hours ago, carl123 said:

switching off the top layer makes the image look lighter to me.

As does switching off the bottom layer.

I agree that it could be an effect of brush stroke transparency, or possibly hardness.

But I am also surprised at how much color remains if I set the blend mode of the top layer to Difference.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
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Thanks everyone for the responses.   In fact I mis-typed and my  image does indeed look lighter as Carl123 points out.  I still don't get though why the brush strokes have any transparency.  Or put another way, is it not possible to have a totally solid colour when drawing (even when opacity, flow and hardness are 100%)?  I get the feeling I may be missing something.

This is hardly  a serious issue but somehow when things don't behave as expected it is slightly disconcerting.  

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1 hour ago, martifingers said:

is it not possible to have a totally solid colour when drawing (even when opacity, flow and hardness are 100%)?  I get the feeling I may be missing something.

If you look closely at your brush strokes, zoomed in, you'll see something like this:

image.png.e53ed9adcdd42401ca00035ee09edf25.png

Note that there are different intensities of that color. So even though you may have the brush opacity, flow, and hardness set to 100%, there is some randomness of dot position and apparent opacity based on the various dynamics of that brush (jitter), and/or the subnozzles. And as those scattered dots are not 100% opacity their color values are additive when you duplicate the layer, just as they would be with a solid brush at less than 100% opacity.

(That's my best guess, anyway.)

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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10 hours ago, martifingers said:

I get the feeling I may be missing something.

You can have solid brushes and brushes that have varying levels of transparency, which even when opacity, flow, and hardness are set to 100% will still honour the transparency levels set when the brush was created.

Think of smoke brushes which are designed to overlay onto an image rather than obscure it.

Brushes with transparency can be further adjusted using the opacity, flow, and hardness sliders but not to the point where they become non-transparent

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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