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As a long-time photobug, graphic arts fan and someone whose talents range between intermediate and (maybe) expert,  I find the color controls in MB a tad exasperating. In making color alterations after an image is set up for the final rendering (well, again, currently I'm just playing and experimenting, haven't got anything worth showing, yet  ), I find it difficult to update the colors and hues. I did manage to fix the "fog" hues on an early rendering to make a pink cast.  On another image I seemed to get layers of wild colors that were getting downright ugly, they were too intense. In opening the program just now, I tried updating the gradients on the Mandlebrot before doing anything else. That worked. This would be the correct 'rule of thumb,' right?--altering colors on the parameter images in the beginning before anything else is changed? But...what if you decide on a new color scheme at the last minute?

I almost always do Color/lighting after I have my spot all picked out and fine tuned ready to render full, I use the basic Grayscale preset with a single light and no fog  and minimal shadows for all navigating in Preview resolution settings for speed. Then render at Mid for setting Color/Light/shadow, save a lot of Color/light files to save time also, just pick one that works OK and adjust from there. I always do Fog last after Full resolution render because many times it will drastically change on full Res anyway.

I use (almost) the same approach as lenord, with the exception that I ususally start with the default colours, so you have a clue to how much they vary on your parameter set. I find that the colours will change if you change from "mid" to "production" rendering, so although I do choose the palette and a kind of "rough" colouring for the mid rendering, I need to fine tune them after rendering in full resolution