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Monochrome Isolation

Disciplines > Photography > Affinity Photo > Resources > Monochrome Isolation

Download

Click here to download the latest 'Monochrome Isolation' 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 'Monochrome Isolation' library group category.

About

Sometimes working with colour leads to areas that are currently monochrome being undesirably affected. 'Monochrome' here means black, grey or white, not luminosity or brightness (which can be an attribute of areas of colour).

These are seven macros that isolate monochrome and near-monochrome elements within the image.

In the first six macros, a layer is left above the originally-selected layer containing just the monochrome (or near-monochrome, as below) pixels. This means that non-monochrome pixels are transparent, so the layer below is visible. This now allows you to separately edit the monochrome and non-monochrome layers.

In the bottom 'Mask' macro, further processing is applied to the selected layer, such that the mask is left at the bottom of the layers stack from where it can be dragged to an appropriate place. A Spare Channel (at bottom of Channels Tab) is also created, so you can right-click this and 'Load To Pixel Selection' or 'Load To xxx Alpha', where xxx is typically an adjustment such as Curves, whereby the mask is loaded to the adjustment's built-in mask.

The basic 'Monochrome layer' macro (first in the list) isolates just monochrome pixels (where the values of Red, Green and Blue are all equal) in mask or layer formats. Sometimes, however, you may want to include near-monochrome colours, such as 'off white' or 'tinted grey'. For this, a set of further macros are offered which let you progressively include more and more non-mono in the selection, going from just 1% to a very significant 20%.

Macros

The macros in the list are:

• Monochrome layer: Adds a layer that keeps only monochrome (black-grey-white) pixels.

• Monochrome +1% layer: Adds a layer that keeps only monochrome pixels plus coloured pixels that are 1% different (ie. near-monochrome).

• Monochrome +2% layer: Adds a layer that keeps only monochrome pixels plus coloured pixels that are 2% different (ie. near-monochrome).

• Monochrome +5% layer: Adds a layer that keeps only monochrome pixels plus coloured pixels that are 5% different (ie. near-monochrome).

• Monochrome +10% layer: Adds a layer that keeps only monochrome pixels plus coloured pixels that are 10% different (ie. near-monochrome).

• Monochrome +20% layer: Adds a layer that keeps only monochrome pixels plus coloured pixels that are 20% different (ie. near-monochrome).

• + Mask + Spare Channel: Takes the layer created above (please ensure this is selected before clicking on the macro) and turns it into a mask, which is left at the bottom of the layer stack, plus a Spare Channel at the bottom of the Channels tab, which may be loaded to selections or existing masks.

See also

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