Is it possible to get an average color of an image?

[Alejandro]

Not that I need it much, but I would like to know if there is a way or a workaround with PaintShop so as to get an average color of an area one would have selected from an image (or from the image itself). This is, one color being the average of the colors from an image.

I mean something that would deliver a result similar to what can be get with some other programs through “blur” > “Avarage colour ” or “blur” > “average” (depending on which program we might be talking about, different from PaintShop) and that is different than what PaintShop does through its “Adjust” > “Blur” > “Average” command / tool.

[Joelle]

I am not sure I understand what you are after.

Have you investigated the tools under Adjust?
Palette or Count Image Colors might be useful perhaps?.


Joëlle

[LindaSue]

How large is the area you want to sample? The eyedropper tool can give you the average of an area up to 11x11 pixels. I use this feature all the time to choose text colors to match the pictures on my greeting cards.

[Alejandro]

I am not sure I understand what you are after.

Have you investigated the tools under Adjust?
Palette or Count Image Colors might be useful perhaps?.


Joëlle

Count image colors just counts. I was meaning an action, tool or whatever is called, that would deliver a layer filled with a color that would be an average of all the colors present. Something as can be done through “blur” > “Average colour” in PhotoPlus or “Filter” > “blur” >”Average” in PhotoShop (I was trying to avoid mentioning any other programs different from PaintShop).

How large is the area you want to sample? The eyedropper tool can give you the average of an area up to 11x11 pixels. I use this feature all the time to choose text colors to match the pictures on my greeting cards.

The area could be the whole image or as big as a selection within the image of whatever pixels per pixels size it would involve.

As I said, nothing I would need much. The thing is that I am now reading a book written by Scott Kelby where he uses this action / tool as part of a procedure which he explains and with which he kind of makes the colors (that help giving the atmosphere) of one image (though it could be the ones from part of an image), to somehow match the color tone of the selected area of a different one to be used to superpose over the first one, for a composite. He explains how this can be done with PhotoShop (as most do), but whenever I read this kind of procedures being explained for PhotoShop, I try to extrapolate everything to PaintShop (I try to find how to get the same or an equivalent result with PaintShop) , which I most usually succeed on doing.

[Joelle]

PSP can get close to a lot of things that can be achieved in the Mudhut product, but of course not everything.
Considering the huge price difference, it is to be expected that it won't match PS for everything.

As you said, it isn't something a user would use every day

Joëlle

[photodrawken]

I would like to know if there is a way or a workaround with PaintShop so as to get an average color of an area one would have selected from an image (or from the image itself).

No. PSP cannot do that.

That feature is very useful, and is another one of the reasons why I use PhotoLine as my primary image editing application.

In addition to the uses you mention, calculating the average colour of an image is the main step in an old Photoshop trick to remove colour casts from images:
1. Duplicate the image layer.
2. Apply a Blur...Calculate Average to the duplicated image layer.
3. Add a Curves adjustment layer above that averaged, duplicated image layer.
4. Use the Gray Point eyedropper in the Curves layer to set the averaged image to a medium gray.
5. Hide (or delete) that averaged, duplicated layer so the Curves adjustment layer now is applied to the original image layer.

That "trick" is so useful, in fact, that I've created an action in PhotoLine to quickly apply it to an image.

[hartpaul]

I have used a procedure similar to what you are requesting.
I had pictures taken of a model against a strong coloured backdrop (purple) and on an earlier camera and used auto white balance. When I took full length pictures with lots of the backdrop (more than 50%) I had one color cast on the model and when I zoomed in (camera) so that the backdrop color was less than about 20 % I had a different color cast.
To try and match the colors I would make a selection of a section of the backdrop 200 + pixels square/ rectangle and then apply a strong gaussian blur to get an overall singular color. I would then use the eyedropper tool at its largest (11 x 11 pixels) setting to sample the even color and note down the settings.

I would then repeat this with the other image . Then I would use Adjust > Color > Red Green Blue (shift U was the shortcut from memory) to change the cast of the worst image to make it as close to the best image. eg if the bad image had more red and yellow than the good image, I would reduce the red and increase the blue by the same proportions. This made a close match, but never exact.

[Forriner]

I was wondering if the histogram can't help: for each channel (RGB) it gives mean and median values that you could use. You might need to select part of an image and paste as a new image.
Of course, I have no idea what you're doing so I could be way off base

[Forriner]

Delete: server thing.

[Forriner]

Delete: the server and hiccups.

[LeviFiction]

Oooh, good one. Thanks Forriner that's an excellent idea

As Forriner said, use the histogram palette. If you're working with multiple layers but only need the average for the current one, make sure "Use all layers" is turned off. Also for selections make sure "Selection Only" is turned on.

In the drop down box on the right you can select each channel (Red, Green, and Blue) individually. Then move your mouse over the histogram and it'll fill in the values. Or at least that's what I needed to do, it didn't fill them automatically the first time. Then just select each channel and read the mean.

Enter those values into the materials palette to get the color you need, then just make a new layer and fill it in with the bucket fill.

There are small rounding differences between Photoshop and PSP on the averages but for the most part the colors all came out the same in my tests.

[photodrawken]

I was wondering if the histogram can't help: for each channel (RGB) it gives mean and median values that you could use.

Yes, good catch! I stand corrected: In PSP, you can manually calculate the average values for the RGB channels individually and manually use those individual values to obtain an averaged colour layer.

Nowhere near being convenient, but do-able, for sure.

[Alejandro]

Yes!!!!!, it worked. Thank you all for your inputs and special thanks to you, Forriner and LeviFiction. There was a workaround after all and it is quite simple to implement.

This is something I will not be doing much, so I don`t mind not having a direct automatized way of doing it. It can be done easily enough in PaintShop.