Weird color display in layer

[PamT]

Hello all... I have been sorta lurking till now. I love this website and appreciate all of you and your work.

I am colorizing the attached portrait. I went to add more skin colorization, and noticed that the display of the skin color layer is showing as very dark... but as you can see (I moved the layer so you can see the effect) it shows properly on the portrait.) What is up with that???? Usually when I colorize, the color shows as it's proper color.

Very confusing!!

Thanks,

Pam

[roger_ele]

Pam,

Welcome to Retouch Pro!

I will jump in here with a guess, you are using a very dark color, or painting with your brush im multiply mode or another mode that darkens. Try changing the blending mode of the layer from color to normal to see what it really is. Color blending mode is the color (hue & saturation) minus brightness information (luminosity). A dark skin color layer above a light toned black & white would show light and dark against transparency ... would not show at all over pure black or white.

I just took another look at your image, I think that is probably your curves adjustment layer adding density and contrast to your color layer...

Hope this helps, Roger

[PamT]

Roger,

Thank you for replying!

I took another screen shot... this time with the curves level turned off, and the skin color layer switched to normal. When I painted, I painted w/ normal mode in the color you see on the palette. I am not gonna put too much more worry into this.. its just a weird thing!! I suppose there is an answer, but it sure hasnt happened before!

I hope to join you all more in the future.. thank you for the nice welcome!

Pam

[jeaniesa]

Wow Pam. I've never seen anything like this before! If it continues to happen and it bothers you, you might try trashing your PS preferences file. It's possible it was corrupted in some way. Whenever something wierd is happening in PS, that's usually the first thing to try. I don't remember off the top of my head how to do this, but perhaps some other kind soul can chime in and tell you how.

Jeanie

[CJ Swartz]

You can, (but may not want to) replace the Preferences file by pressing down Command-Option-Shift (Mac) or Control-Alt-Shift (Windows) immediately AFTER you start launching Photoshop 7 and keep pressing down until a dialog box pops up. It will ask if you want to delete the "Adobe Photoshop Settings File." If you say Yes, this deletes NOT ONLY the Photoshop Prefs file, but also the entire Settings folder which includes your Color Settings, Actions, ToolPresets, and others.

OR

You can manually replace ONLY the Prefs file:

Quit Photoshop.
Locate the Adobe Photoshop Prefs file.
Delete the file.
Restart Photoshop.
Reset your Preferences.
Reload any custom palettes.

Find your Preferences file in Photoshop 7

Windows XP and Windows 2000: Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop\7.0\Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Settings (see figure 3)

Windows 98: Windows\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop\7.0\Adobe Photoshop 7 Settings

Mac OS X: Users> [username]> Library> Preferences> Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Settings

Mac OS 9: System Folder> Preferences> Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Settings

This info came from

CreativePro.com - trashing preferences file

[PamT]

Thank you for replying everyone! I agree... its something weird. I will do exactly as you say and replace my preference file if it happens again. This time I just decided to save the selection of that skin layer as a channel, go back to my other copy of this project, drag the channel in, and then fill the skin/color layer with the skin color again. This time it is the proper color both on the layer palette and on the image. Weirder than weird huh

The thing that amazed me about it is how it showed up dark on both the layer palette and the image, but colorized the face correctly! When I switched that skin layer to "normal" and tested the color with the eyedropper, it tested to be that very dark color. So how did it know to be skin colored on the face? haha. Guess I will never know the answer to this one... but thank you guys for being curious with me!!!

Gratefully,

Pam

[jeaniesa]

Thanks CJ! I knew someone would come to my rescue. I'm saving your post so that next time I'll have it!

Jeanie