Smart color display across multiple layers

Question

I am using CS2. I have a series of a dozen layers, all with scattered red dots. Shades of red vary from light pink to dark red. Upper layers have preference over higher layers, making some pink dots cloud out lower red dots. Layer order will not help, because the redder dots are regionally random across the dozen layers.

In Example 1 lots of pink is seen clouding out red

In Example 2 I have manipulated layers, decreasing the clouding in some area but at the cost of other areas

Question: Is there a way in CS2 to give color preference globally, so that the redder colors will bleed through, enhanced, instead of clouded?

The dots were created using the magic wand, pulling from maps like those shown, and thus don't have the desired opacity differences that would have made this occur natively. I have to deal with the fact that they are red and pink, and not the preferred more and less opaque red.

Answer 1

Perhaps you could try setting the layer modes of the dot layers to Multiply. Also you could create the dots all the same colour, and simply reduce the opacity of each layer for lighter reds. The order of the layers doesn't matter.

If the colours of the dots are already chosen, then Multiply mode should still work, and you won't need to adjust the opacity.

For example:

Answer 2

The best answer I could come up with for now was to select the dots off of each map image using the magic wand, then paste them in a new drawing, with a new layer for each set, all placed over a blank map. I then painted the dots of each layer a solid red, finally giving all of my dot layers a nice percent opacity.

Edges are not beautiful, but I am being able to stack the layers as needed, with colors working good enough. What I am not getting is increased darkness where there are lots of overlapping dots in the original images, because this was lost in the paint. Oh, well.