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Dave's Mono Maps

Disciplines > Photography > Affinity Photo > Resources > Dave's Mono Maps

Download | Discussion | See also

Download

Click here to download the latest 'Dave's Mono Maps' macro set.

To insert this into your library, simply click on the 3-line 'hamburger' on the top right of the library panel, click on 'Import Macros...' and point it at the downloaded file. Then click on the layer for which you want a model and click once on the appropriate macro in the 'Dave's Mono Maps' library group category.

Discussion

This is a set of monochrome maps that have three primary purposes: inspection, blending and masking.

• For inspection, they simply let you look at different aspects of the image with chosen elements more white than others.
• For blending, you can use the various blend modes, with the attendant effects due to the style of the mono map.
• For masking, they let you select these areas for local adjustment. Of course you can also change the mask in all the usual ways.

The mono map macros all take the visible image and create a new layer at the top of the stack that is shown in greyscale monochrome. You can easily create look through the effects of each macro by clicking on the macro in the library, then either deleting the layer created (just press 'Delete') or hiding the layer for later potential use.

It can help to understand how each macro works, though this is not fully necessary as you can just click and see if the result works for you.

In the descriptions below, some effects are created with basic adjustment layers (which are merged for simplicity into the final layer). Other macros use Procedural Texture, in which case the formulae used are shown below.

HSL Desaturation

Just HSL adjustment with Saturation turned down. Saturated colours will all go to mid-grey. Monochrome values will be retained.

HSV Desaturation

HSL adjustment with Saturation turned down, and the HSV checkbox set. HSV saturation is not the same as HSL, giving a lighter result as saturated colours now all go to white (vs mid-grey for HSL). Monochrome values are unchanged.

Vibrance Desaturation

The Saturation control in Vibrance is turned down here. This takes account of perceptual lightness/darkness of colours. From darkest to lightest, this is Blue, Red, Magenta, Green, Cyan, Yellow.

Black and White Basic

This is the result of the Black and White adjustment, with no change to the controls. The result is the same as HSV desaturation, with saturated colours going to white and monochromes unchanged.

Black and White: Minimum

This is the result of the Black and White adjustment with all controls turned right down. Unsurprisingly, the result is pretty dark. Saturated colours go to black. Monochromes get darker, though white is retained.

Black and White: Maximum

This is the result of the Black and White adjustment with all controls turned right up. Unsurprisingly, the result is pretty light. Saturated colours go to white. Monochromes get lighter, though black is retained.

RGB Average

This is simply the average of red, green and blue, per pixel. Saturated primary colours go darker than secondary colours. White and black are retained. This gives you another option for monochrome image conversion.

Procedural Texture formula: (R+G+B)/3

HSL: Saturation (Greys)

This is the result of the standard algorithm for HSL Saturation, which includes different formulae for luminosity values under and over 50%. Saturated colours go white, as do whites and blacks. Greys are retained. This gives you a good way of selecting colours.

Procedural Texture formula: var mx=max(R,G,B);var mn=min(R,G,B);var mr=mx-mn;var ifmo=roundup(mr-.001);var ms=mx+mn;var iflo=roundup(.5-ms/2);var ss=(iflo*mr/(ms+.001)+(1-iflo)*mr/(2-ms+.001))*ifmo;ss

HSL: Saturation (All Mono)

This is the result of an adjusted HSL saturation formula, such that saturated colours go white and monochrome (white, greys and black) go black. This is another good way to separate monochrome and colour, with more gradients than the Greys method.

Procedural Texture formula: var mx=max(R,G,B);var mn=min(R,G,B);var mr=mx-mn;var ifmo=roundup(mr-.001);var ms=mx+mn;var iflo=1-roundup(.5-ms/2);var ss=(iflo*mr/(ms+.001)+(1-iflo)*mr/(2-ms+.001))*ifmo;ss

HSL Luminosity

This is the result of the standard algorithm for HSL Luminosity (or Brightness), which is simply the average of the maximum and minimum values.

Procedural Texture formula: (max(R,G,B)+min(R,G,B))/2

3M: Minimum (Whites)

This plots just the minimum colour values of red, green or blue. It reflects the whiteness, as a higher value means all of RGB have high values, which happens when the colour gets closer to white. Saturated colours go black. Monochromes get lighter with only lighter tones retained. The overall image often appears darker.

Procedural Texture formula: min(R,G,B)

3M: Maximum (Blacks)

This plots the gap between the maximum value of red, green or blue. It reflects the blackness, as a higher value means all of RGB have a lower value. Saturated colours go white. Monochromes get lighter with only darker tones retained. The overall image often appears lighter, as this is an inverse calculation (if just max(R,G,B) was plotted, then it would appear as a negative image).

Procedural Texture formula: 1-max(R,G,B)

3M: Middle Colour

This plots the colour in each pixel which is neither the maximum nor the minimum. Saturated primary colours go black while saturated secondary colours go white, with feathered greys in between, which can make this useful for separating these. Tones are less noticeable. The overall image will likely look quite normal versus other maps.

Procedural Texture formula: R+G+B-min(R,G,B)-max(R,G,B)

3M: Max-Min (Saturation)

This plots the range of RGB values, being the difference between the highest and lowest value. This is a basic map of colourfulness/saturation, as higher values indicate more saturated values and lower values being less saturated. Zero (black) indicates desaturation which indicates monochrome (white, greys, black).

Procedural Texture formula: max(R,G,B)-min(R,G,B)

3M: Saturation (Blacks bias)

The basic map of saturation as the gap between maximum and minimum values of RGB can be increased in contrast by showing as a proportion of the maximum value. The result is a more 'black and white' image with the maximum value being shown as white. However, as the maximum is an indicator of blacks, the image has a bias towards black, as blacks become white and whites become black. The map can hence be used as a mask to address darker parts of the image.

Procedural Texture formula: (max(R,G,B)-min(R,G,B))/max(R,G,B)

3M: Saturation (Whites bias)

This is a kind of reversal of Saturation (Blacks bias) as it now shows the max-min saturation in relation to the minimum value of RGB, which is related to whites. It cannot show this as a proportion of the minimum as this would result in a values greater than 1, so it uses the logical inverse (1-min) as the proportional basis. Blacks are now black and whites are white. The map can hence be used as a mask to address lighter parts of the image.

Procedural Texture formula: (max(R,G,B)-min(R,G,B))/(1-min(R,G,B))

3M: Saturation (Black & Whites bias)

This combines both Saturation (Blacks bias) and Saturation (Whites bias). The effect of this is to fully select both gradients to black and to white from a saturated colour.

Tip: When using Blend Modes, this often work well when the layer is inverted and opacity reduced to about 50%. This tip applies also to other saturation macros.

Procedural Texture formula: max((max(R,G,B)-min(R,G,B))/max(R,G,B),(max(R,G,B)-min(R,G,B))/(1-min(R,G,B)))

3M: Saturation (Half Black & Whites bias)

This combines both Saturation (Blacks bias) and Saturation (Whites bias), but with less of an effect compared with the macro above. The effect of this is to select both gradients to black and to white from a saturated colour.

Procedural Texture formula: average((max(R,G,B)-min(R,G,B))/max(R,G,B),(max(R,G,B)-min(R,G,B))/(1-min(R,G,B)))

Saturated (White)

This checks for blown-out, fully saturated white pixels, showing these as white. In this, R, G and B are all one.

Procedural Texture formula: rounddown(R)*rounddown(G)*rounddown(B)

Saturated (Any)

This checks for saturated pixels (maximum value) in any of RGB. If the pixel has no saturated values, then it is black. If it has all three at full value, then it is white. If it has one, then it is dark grey. If it has two, then it is light grey.

Procedural Texture formula: average(rounddown(R),rounddown(G),rounddown(B))

Unsaturated (Black)

This checks for fully unsaturated black pixels, showing these as white. In this, R, G and B are all zero.

Procedural Texture formula: (1-roundup(R))*(1-roundup(G))*(1-roundup(B))

Unsaturated (Any)

This checks for unsaturated pixels (zero value) in any of RGB. If the pixel has no unsaturated values, then it is black. If it has all three at zero, then it is white. If it has one, then it is dark grey. If it has two, then it is light grey.

Procedural Texture formula: 1-average(roundup(R),roundup(G),roundup(B))

Convert Map to Mask and Selection

This takes the selected mono layer and does two things. First, it converts it to a mask and then moves this mask to the bottom of the layer stack. This is so it doesn’t confuse what you see, but is easy to drag into position. Secondly, it creates a selection based on this mask so you can, for example, add an adjustment layer and have the mask automatically created. Note that masks will select more that which is more white and select less that which is more black.

See also

If you are having problems downloading the macros, click here to download as zip file.

Affinity Photo Tutorials on Downloads

Affinity Photo Tutorials on Monochrome (Black and White)

Old files

Version 1 macro

Version 1 as zip file