# Adjustment Brush Mask - Color & Darkening



## timb (Jul 5, 2013)

I don't know which is more aggravating, that I've probably caused this problem myself or that I can't find a solution to it.  This started some weeks back in Lightroom 4 and has followed me to Lightroom 5.  When I used to use the Adjustment Brush the area to be adjusted would be highlighted in Red, and dark enough that it was very easy to see where I was "brushing".  Then all of a sudden, and I mean like the next time I went to use it, the nice easy to see red had turned to a barely visible pale pinkish color.  I started looking for solutions and came across information about "h" and "o" and Shift "o", etc. that talked about turning the mask off and on, or changing the color, but I could never find anything about making the mask color darker or lighter.  In trying to solve the problem I think I've managed to change the mask color from Red to a Gray, but it's difficult to tell because I can still barely see it.  Can anyone please point me in the right direction?  Your help will be greatly appreciated!

Tim


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## Hal P Anderson (Jul 5, 2013)

Tim,

Welcome to the forum.

Make sure your Flow and Density sliders are set high enough:




If that doesn't resolve  your problem, we'll try some more.

Hal


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## timb (Jul 5, 2013)

You sir are a Godsend!  I could have sworn I played with those, but doing it again has me back in business.  Thank you SO much!


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## Hal P Anderson (Jul 5, 2013)

Glad to help.

Hal


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## msohio86 (Jul 8, 2013)

*Does not fix it for me*



Hal P Anderson said:


> Glad to help.
> 
> Hal



I use the color picker to Grab the color and it looks right on the color chart, but when I paint it is very thin. I have Flow and Density at 100%, feather at 50% but is just a very think mask of the color I want. I can make it darker with exposure but lose the proper tint.


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## RikkFlohr (Jul 8, 2013)

Make certain you set the Saturation of the color swatch high.  Failing that:

Try painting with White Balance instead of tinting with color.


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## msohio86 (Jul 8, 2013)

I have tried that but it still does not do what I expect. Now I am new to LightRoom, but I assumed one could paint with this brush like it was solid. 

My test case is I have a photo of a yellow decal that has black lettering. If I use the picker and center it on the yellow, it shows the right color in the color box. But no matter the saturation, when I brush it over the black lettering, it does not "paint" them yellow like the base color of the decal. I thought there was a way to do that other than using the spot removal tool and cloning the yellow over the black.


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## Hal P Anderson (Jul 8, 2013)

Welcome to the forum.

You don't understand how painting with colours works: When you choose a colour and paint, LR uses the hue and saturation that you pick, but it uses the luminance of the pixels that you are painting over. Since the luminance of the black areas is 0, the tinting does nothing over those areas.

The "Color" option is for tinting, not painting. You can use it to change the colour of objects in the image while keeping the details and texture of those objects intact. To do what you're trying to do, you'll need to go to a pixel editor like Photoshop or Elements.

Hal


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## msohio86 (Jul 8, 2013)

Thank you. I am sorry to ask such a dumb question and take up expert's time. On the other hand, than goodness for forums like this so there are no un-answered questions for folks starting out in the digital darkroom world. I look forward to asking more sophisticated questions in the future.

Because Attitude Is Everything....LiveSTRONG....Mike


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## Hal P Anderson (Jul 8, 2013)

Not a dumb question at all. We all didn't understand tinting at one time.  

Hal


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