Some beginner questions

[SIndurkhya]

I've used Paint.NET before, but only just to see what it was, and I've never really done any heavy image editing. I do a lot of coding(C/C++, C#, Java) so I end up using "programmer art."

However now I need to do some image editing. I would like to know that if I have an image, how can I

- Make the image a lot lighter, so that if I were to write text over it, the text would be readable. I tried alpha blending, but either I'm not using the tool correctly, or this isn't the tool I need.

- Make the picture from shades of the same color. Like white, light blue, blue, dark blue, ... . Kind of like gray scale, but with a color.

Thanks, I really am a beginner at image editing, so any help would be appreciated.

[Crazy Man Dan]

- Make the image a lot lighter, so that if I were to write text over it, the text would be readable. I tried alpha blending, but either I'm not using the tool correctly, or this isn't the tool I need.

Under the Layers -> Adjustments menu, select "Brightness / Contrast..." Then, just bring up the brightness!

- Make the picture from shades of the same color. Like white, light blue, blue, dark blue, ... . Kind of like gray scale, but with a color.

Again, under the Layers -> Adjustments menu, this time select "Sepia." This will make the image brown-scale. Paint.NET doesn't have a Colorize function, so making it grey-scale first won't work. Once you've "Sepia'd" it, go again under the Layers -> Adjustments menu and select "Hue / Saturation..." Now, just play around with the sliders until you get it about to the color you want. The Hue slider changes the base color, the Saturation slider changes the color richness, and the Lightness slider changes the brightness.

I wouldn't recommend using the Lightness slider, however. Instead, after you've achieved the approximate color, select "OK" and go to "Brightness / Contrast..." There, you can adjust the brightness and then edit the contrast so you don't get a washed-out image. Unless, of course, you're going for a washed-out look. Then ignore me...

I hope that helps! If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Dan

[Rick Brewster]

To colorize, you may desaturate (Layers -> Black & White for v2.6, or Desaturate for v2.5), then create a new layer and fill it with whatever color you want colorize to and then set that layer's blend mode to "Multiply."

[SIndurkhya]

Sweet, this program is awesome. Thanks for the help! I know for Photoshop CS, there are books to teach you how to do this stuff, but are there any ebooks or books that use Paint.NET?

[Crazy Man Dan]

To colorize, you may desaturate (Layers -> Black & White for v2.6, or Desaturate for v2.5), then create a new layer and fill it with whatever color you want colorize to and then set that layer's blend mode to "Multiply."

Oh yeah, I forgot about the blending modes...

In addition to "Multiply," if you have an image with a white background, the "Overlay" blend mode works well to preserve the white background while coloring the grey-scale. You can get some rather interesting effects just by playing around with blend modes.

But as for the books on how to use it, I don't know of any. I know I have a few topic-specific tutorials, but nothing on general use of the program yet.