Tip#54: Find colors with the same brightness but different temperature

It’s easily possible with MagicPicker! In the Color Temperature Wheel mode switch on Tone Lock and start shifting the slider on the wheel. This option lets you quickly find corresponding colors having the same brightness for lights and shadows or for foreground and background. Or keep the same brightness level across the surface when editing textures.

Change color temperature while keeping color's brightness
Change color temperature while keeping color’s brightness

MagicPicker is the advanced color picking plugin and color wheel for Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator

Tip#50: MixColors 2 and new swatch groups

New MixColors 2.0 is the fastest way to organize swatches in groups in Photoshop.

  • Click on the folder icon to create new group
  • Click on the group name to activate it
  • Click on arrow next to group name to hide/show colors in the group.
MixColors panel with swatch color groups in Photoshop
MixColors panel with swatch color groups in Photoshop

You can move colors between groups and inside one group using drag’n’drop! The feature works across all modern versions of Photoshop from CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS6 up to CC 2015.

MixColors, the color mixer and swatch group manager for Adobe Photoshop

Update – MagicPicker 4.3 – increased performance with realtime 64 fps refresh rate in CC 2014

MagicPicker 4.3 features increased performance with realtime 64 fps refresh rate in CC 2014*, when picking colors and dragging sliders. (Speed is much higher on high end GPUs). New update also features bug fixes and improvements across all platforms: CS3, CS4, CS5, CS6, CC and CC 2014 in Photoshop and Illustrator.

MagicPicker 4.3 - performance update, 64 fps refresh rate
MagicPicker 4.3 - performance update, 64 fps refresh rate

* as it was benchmarked on Intel Core i5 CPU and Intel Iris 5100 Integrated Graphics card in Photoshop CC 2014.2.2.

Upgrade MagicPicker color wheel/advanced color picker to v4.3

Tip#35: SHIFT temporarily locks colors’ brightness

MagicPicker - shift for Tone Lock
MagicPicker - shift for Tone Lock

Press SHIFT while dragging the pointer on the color wheel (or the stripe in the color pane mode) to bring the colors you pick to the same tone. SHIFT activates temporary Tone Lock mode (usually switched on with the button). While moving your mouse MagicPicker will bring all the colors you choose to the same gamma.