Color Sines
The
Power of Black
A gradient with large areas of black provides the ultimate in clutter elimination and shaping. This feature can both create a very precise image and it can also clean up areas that would otherwise be hopelessly busy.
As a demonstration, of how precise the control can be with black look at
Color Sines
This is an image in three layers, and for ease of viewing when combined,
I made the color of each layer a bit different.
The individual layers look like this:
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The small areas of color you see on the gradients are nothing more than a shaper where there is more black than color. This is the opposite of the big shapers, previously discussed. Instead of defining large areas, they define smaller areas. Because of the way black combines in addition merge mode, the colors all come through as seen in the individual layers, a handy thing to remember.
Since the area of color is so small, an image will often look totally black when such a gradient is pasted in. Just rotate the gradient using the position arrows of the editor until the area of color starts to show up. Then you can make the area that is colored larger or smaller by moving the bottom control points back and forth. I find this easiest to do by using the arrows next to the index box. Also, since it is so easy to vary the color of this gradient, I just keep one made of black and white to quickly paste in and change the colors as needed by moving the top (middle) control point up and down.
To remove clutter, change a selected portion of your image to black
by pulling down all the control points for an area of color. Compare
this busy spiral with and without the teal. By changing the teal
to black, the pretty elements on the outside of the spiral are much easier
to see. Changing a gradient in this way takes a very few seconds.
And clutter elimination becomes even more significant as additional layers
are added, as we'll see in the merge mode section.
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Instead of making a gradient with just one small "tube" of color, you can make one like this
Apply it to the same spiral as above, then emphasize different areas
by rotating the gradient using the arrows next to the position box to get
these variations
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You can mix with black in several ways.
1. Add a pure black layer using overlay mode to darken pastels into mid or jewel tones . Make your black layer by re-setting the inside or outside tab transfer mode to "none" and the default black will appear in the layer.
2. Define areas of color using a predominantly black gradient and then layer them using the addition mode, as I did in the sine spiral, above. Study Sam Monnier's work for many wonderful examples. You can download parameters for many of his images from links at Janet's page.
3. Use a black and white layer in any of several modes to selectively tone and blend your colored image. In the merge mode section, there is a demo you can use to investigate how black and white work in various modes.
In addition to black as a mixer, keep in mind the possibilities of using a predominantly black background layer to simulate stars, moons, hot spots, or other shapes. A thin brown julia can be a "twig." A thin white julia can become "lightening."
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