Add a colour overlay to a photo

Every other stage waits for you to add something. A colour overlay has nothing to wait for, so this one puts the most-asked-for one on the photo as it opens — black at 35% on Normal, enough to make white words readable over a busy picture — with the other presets and the colour shelf beside it.

A colour layer is a layer like any other, so its Mask tab works: a linear fade or a rectangle mask puts the dark wash only behind a caption in the lower third.

1. 1Open the photo. It is read in this tab and goes nowhere.
2. 2Start from a preset. Darken for text is already on. Brand tint, Duotone-ish and Fade to white are on the Output tab; each lands as its own layer.
3. 3Pick the colour. Colour, second colour and direction are on the Blend tab beside the sixteen modes.
4. 4Limit it if you want. On the Mask tab, a fade or a shape keeps the colour to part of the frame.
5. 5Add the words and save. Add a text layer on top, then save at full size.

Opens

Black at 35%, Normal, covering the frame.

Presets

Darken for text; Brand tint (Colour mode, 60%); Duotone-ish (Multiply shadows plus Screen highlights); Fade to white.

Generators

Solid, linear gradient, radial, fade to nothing.

Modes

Normal for a wash, Multiply to darken, Colour to tint, Screen to lift, and twelve more.

Saving

PNG, JPG or WebP; the colour is drawn again at the saved size.

• “Duotone-ish” is two colour layers, not a true duotone conversion — the photo's own colour still shows through.
• A wash darkens everything under it. Masked to a band behind the words, the rest of the photo keeps its light.
• The colour inputs take one colour each; a gradient has two stops.

Dark overlay for text — how dark?

Start at black, 35%, Normal, and add white words. If the words still fight the photo, go to 45–55%, or mask the wash to a band behind the words so the rest of the photo stays bright. The text layer's contrast readout tells you when you have reached 4.5 : 1.

Tint versus overlay?

A tint changes the photo's hue and keeps its light — that is the Colour mode, which Brand tint uses. An overlay in the usual sense lays a colour over the photo on Normal or Multiply, which darkens as well as colours.

Which way does the gradient go?

Direction 0° runs from the bottom edge to the top; 90° from left to right. Fade to white rises from the bottom and is gone by the middle — room for dark words along the bottom of a bright photo.

Is anything downloaded or uploaded?

No. Colours are drawn by code in this tab, and the photo never leaves it.

• Put text on a photoA text layer is on the photo when it opens: words, face, size and a backing that keeps them readable.
• Add a texture overlayOpens the drawn-texture shelf first: light leaks and film grain, with hue, strength and blend beside the stage.
• What the blend modes doMultiply, screen, overlay and soft light, with the arithmetic said in words.
• Place something on a photoThe stage and a deck of layers: logos, stickers, textures or a second photo, each moved until it looks right.