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Dave's Saturation Selection

Disciplines > Photography > Affinity Photo > Resources > Dave's Saturation Selection

Smart'n'Simple Saturation Selection | Smart Saturation Selection | Full Saturation Selection | Monochrome Selection

Download

Click here to download the latest 'Dave's Saturation Selection' 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 Saturation Selection' library group category.

Discussion

The macros in this category all provide means of selecting pixels, based on saturation, for which several different algorithms may be available.

Overall, they work by first duplicating the visible image and then adding a Procedural Texture control to these, which allows slider and numeric controls to be added.

To use the macros, it is a good idea to first turn off underlying layers so you can see the selection being made. Then add further controls to the selection layer or convert it to such as a selection or mask for continued usage. Just using the selection layer as is allows for dynamic, non-destructive adjustments, but does pay the price of an additional pixel layer.

The Procedural Texture code for these are fairly complex and hence is not discussed here.

Smart'n'Simple Saturation Selection

Description

This is based on the Smart Saturation Selection macro but offers fewer controls as is intended for less demanding use or where the further controls are not used. Being simpler, it also uses less code and so may run faster, especially on slower computers.

Controls

Saturation is calculated as a value between 0 and 1, and the controls offer ways to set which pixels are selected, including those which are fully selected and those which are partially selected. Partial selection give a way to feather the edges of the selection such that the selected area is less visible to the human eye.

• Middle: The central value of the selected area.

• Width: The width of area which is fully selected (opaque).

• Feathering: The width of the area outside the fully selected ('Width') area, in which pixels are increasingly transparent.

Discussion

This is still a 'smart' macro in the intuitive nature of the controls it offers. It may well be sufficient for many usages.

A simple way to use it is to first turn off the bottom (original) layer, turn Width and Feathering down low, then scan the Middle up and down to see what this shows. Then position the Middle control in the middle of the saturation zone you want to select. Then expand the Width to select the full desired area and Feathering to soften it overall.

Then turn on the underlying layers and add further adjustments to the selection layer.

Smart Saturation Selection

Description

This is based on the Full Saturation Selection macro, but instead of manual control of the a, b, c and d points, these values are calculated from a more intuitive set of controls as below.

Controls

• Middle: The central value of the selected area.

• Width: The width of area which is fully selected (opaque).

• Feathering: The width of the area outside the fully selected ('Width') area, in which pixels are increasingly transparent.

• Saturation calculation: Cal: 0=All; 1=Gy; 2=Wt; 3=Bk

  • 0=All: Selects most pixels based on simple 'max-min' algorithm.

  • 1=Gy (default): Selects more greys, based on HSL saturation algorithm, avoiding selection of whites/tints and blacks/shades.

  • 1=Wt: Selects greys and whites/tints, based on '(max-min)/max' algorithm.

  • 2=Bk: Selects greys and blacks/shades, based on '(max-min)/(1-min)' algorithm.

• Feathering calculation: Feather: 0=Lin; 1=Exp; 2=Cos

  • 0=Lin: Linear feathering, steadily fading from edge

  • 1=Exp: Exponential sigmoid feathering, s-shaped fade

  • 2=Cos: Cosine sigmoid feathering, different s-shaped fade

• Selection Invert: 0=No; 1=Yes

  • 0: Normal

  • 1: Invert (select everything that is not selected in Normal condition)

Discussion

In addition to notes from the Smart'n'Simple Saturation Selection...

The simplest way of using the controls is to try them out. Make a basic selection then try varying the switches to different values.

Note that switch values are clamped to their range, so for example a value of -1 will be taken as 0 and a value of 3 will be taken as 2 (if this is the maximum).

Full Saturation Selection

Description

Similar to Smart Saturation Selection, but with Middle, Width and Feather replaced with four points, sometimes simply described as a, b, c and d.

Controls

• Mono Zero (a): Below this saturation value, nothing is selected. Note that 'Mono' indicates this is the less saturated side of the selection.

• Mono Full (b): Between Mono Zero and Mono Full, selection fades from none to full selection.

• Colour Full (c): Pixels are fully selected for saturation values between Mono Full and Colour Full.

• Colour Zero (d): Pixels are increasingly more transparent between Colour Full and Colour Zero. Above Colour Zero, no pixels are selected.

• Saturation calculation: Cal: 0=All; 1=Gy; 2=Wt; 3=Bk

  • 0=All: Selects most pixels based on simple 'max-min' algorithm.

  • 1=Gy (default): Selects more greys, based on HSL saturation algorithm, avoiding selection of whites/tints and blacks/shades.

  • 1=Wt: Selects greys and whites/tints, based on '(max-min)/max' algorithm.

  • 2=Bk: Selects greys and blacks/shades, based on '(max-min)/(1-min)' algorithm.

• Feathering calculation: Feather: 0=Lin; 1=Exp; 2=Cos

  • 0=Lin: Linear feathering, steadily fading from edge

  • 1=Exp: Exponential sigmoid feathering, s-shaped fade

  • 2=Cos: Cosine sigmoid feathering, different s-shaped fade

• Selection Invert: 0=No; 1=Yes

  • 0: Normal

  • 1: Invert (select everything that is not selected in Normal condition)

Discussion

This control lets you set different fade gradients for the lower and upper parts of the selection. The price of this is that it is more work to set up (which is why the Smart Saturation Selection macro was written).

In making a selection, keep the a, b, c and d points in sequential order. In other words, keep a lower than b, which is lower than c and this lower than d.

The switch controls are the same as those in Smart Saturation Selection.

Monochrome Selection

Description

This provides a means of selecting just the monochrome, less saturated pixels in the image, starting from no colour and stretching simply upwards from this.

Controls

• Coarse Monochrome Selection: Selects pixels which are less saturated. As the control increases, selection reaches into more colourful pixels. The 'Coarse' name indicates that 90% of saturation is selected this way.

• Fine Monochrome Selection: Selects the last 10% of saturation.

• Feathering: The width of the area outside the fully selected ('Width') area, in which pixels are increasingly transparent.

• Saturation calculation: Cal: 0=All; 1=Gy; 2=Wt; 3=Bk

  • 0=All: Selects most pixels based on simple 'max-min' algorithm.

  • 1=Gy (default): Selects more greys, based on HSL saturation algorithm, avoiding selection of whites/tints and blacks/shades.

  • 1=Wt: Selects greys and whites/tints, based on '(max-min)/max' algorithm.

  • 2=Bk: Selects greys and blacks/shades, based on '(max-min)/(1-min)' algorithm.

• Feathering calculation: Feather: 0=Lin; 1=Exp; 2=Cos

  • 0=Lin: Linear feathering, steadily fading from edge

  • 1=Exp: Exponential sigmoid feathering, s-shaped fade

  • 2=Cos: Cosine sigmoid feathering, different s-shaped fade

• Selection Invert: 0=No; 1=Yes

  • 0: Normal selection

  • 1: Invert (select everything that is not selected in Normal condition)

Discussion

This allows you to separate colour from non-colour, in a different way to the other macros in this group.

A way to use it is to first disable the lower layers, then make your selection, then apply controls to the lower layers, hence applying colour control while protecting monochrome elements. Another alternative is to apply HSL to both layers, but changing values differently.

Note that if the difference between the two layers becomes visible, you may need to reduce the effect or adjust feathering.

Inverting, by the way, give a simple way of selecting colour, as opposed to monochrome.

See also

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

The Version 1 downloads are still available here or as zip file.

Dave's Hue Selection

Dave's Luminosity Selection

Dave's Zone System