Simple PhotoShop question

[dmammana]

It's Monday morning and I've apparently got a mental block made of cement!  

I'm trying to use the brush tool combined with the saturation blending mode to brush on a bit more saturation to a small area of a photo.  I've done this before so I know it works... but everything I do this morning REMOVES saturation instead of adds it.  

What am I missing here?  

Thanks for your help!   --Dennis

[Ilya Razmanov]

I'm trying to use the brush tool combined with the saturation blending mode to brush on a bit more saturation to a small area of a photo.  I've done this before so I know it works... but everything I do this morning REMOVES saturation instead of adds it. 

What am I missing here? 
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=72241\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Maybe you just changed brush color? ;-)

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Maybe you just changed brush color? ;-)
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=72299\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I've done that a few times. I've accidentally clicked on the little gizmo that switches foreground and background colors and got just the effect you describe. It's maddening. I hope that fixes it.

Eric

[dmammana]

Oh it's maddening alright!  I've discovered that, when I've got the foreground color set to a color other than white or black--ANY color--I get the saturation capability I'm looking for.  Why that should work I have no idea, but it seems to.

Dennis

[Ilya Razmanov]

I've discovered that, when I've got the foreground color set to a color other than white or black--ANY color--I get the saturation capability I'm looking for.  Why that should work I have no idea, but it seems to.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=72314\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Actually, not ANY color - greys will work just the same as white or black. The reason is simple: white, black or greys have zero saturation. That's why painting with them in "Saturation" mode changes saturation toward zero. If you want to increase the saturation, you should paint with some very saturated color - saturated red, or green, or blue, or something else - hue doesn't matter, only the saturating does. If the saturation of your brush color is smaller than that of source image, it will desaturate. If it's bigger - it will increase saturation. No magic, just some easy math.

[dmammana]

Makes perfect sense.   So why aren't YOU the one writing the PhotoShop help section?!?!