If hope you enjoy creating digital color pallets because I am thrilled to share a revolutionary method I devised for obtaining great colors. It involves smoothing an image by blurring it. From that blurred image it is possible to harvest a coordinated “family” of hues.
The first sea shell has a lot of color variation. The contrasts between the dark veins, the medium blues and the light colors is well delineated. But there is too much difference in “key” or contrast of light and dark. This makes it difficult to obtain colors with a creamy look as shown in the color pallet below.
The second thumbnail image has been treated with a “Gaussian” blur in Photoshop. Blurring the image blends the underlying gray scales just enough to lessen the severity of the original photo. The colors run together and even out the key, softening the differences. Colors “puddle” into areas as shown in the second image – the image I obtained my pallet from. Once you find the smoothness you like, start taking samples of color. With practice you will learn how to map out areas which work well together.
If you don’t use Photoshop try FotoFlexer. It’s a free membership. The Style FX tab and “soften” option will blur your images.
To create pallets like the one shown above you must purchase the ICP color picker for around $20.00. It can store far more than 5 colors as shown. The link is in my right sidebar under “Tools”.
For a free color picker try color cop. The link is also in my side bar. The shell photo is courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net.
Update: I forgot to mention there are two 100% free open source image editors that will do a variety of tasks for you, including Gaussian blurs. If you don’t mind loading another piece of software, look into Paint.net. The link is in my “Tools” category on the right side of the screen. Paint.net is the name of the software. Not the site address. And it is by far the easiest software for this kind of work.
Then there is Inkscape. It is also a free tool, but more for vector drawing. I am a newbie to Inkscape, but I look forward to seeing what it can do. Check out some screen shots here from the Inkscape website. Thanks! 
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