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Changing Color

Not happy with the color of your shirt? no worries, this tip will show you how to quickly change the color of your shirt or any items in a photo..

Changing Color
Description: Not happy with the color of your shirt? no worries, this tip will show you how to quickly change the color of your shirt or any items in a photo.

Open the document you want to change the color of. Remember to make a back up of the original.

Select the area of color that you wish to alter, in this case, the girl's T-Shirt. Use a combination of the Lasso and Extract tools.

To make an accurate selection, zoom in on the image, to about 800%, then select the polygonal lasso tool.

With the polygonal lasso tool, make your selection by clicking around the target's edges.

Continue clicking around the edges until you come back to the beginning to end the loop. If you have multiple area you want to select, then hold down SHIFT then start making another selection, this will add the next selection to your current one.

Dont worry too much if you accidently go outside or select unwanted area. We can fix this later.

Once you have your selection, zoom back to 100%.

Now click on the quick mask button, this is the right button located just below the colors.

Now you will see something similar to mine below, your selected area in normal colors, and the rest (un selected area) in transparent red. This is quick mask mode.

Now make sure your colors are set to black and white, select the "paint brush" tool and set the brush size to 13 hard edge.

Now if you "paint" over your image with BLACK, it adds to the selection, and if you paint in WHITE, it DELETE from the selection. with this in mind, zoom in on the image and find spots that you missed or are not accurate and paint accordingly.

if you look at my image below, my selection using the lasso tool was not perfect, so I use the brush tool now, and color in where I missed.

Tip: press "X" to change alternate the black and white colors.

If the brush size is too big, change it to smaller brush to get into tight areas. But remember to use hard edge brushes, as soft edge will give you inaccurate results.

This is how it look after I paint over the area with black.

Do this for your whole image to get accurate selection.

Once you think you're done, click on the NORMAL mode button (the LEFT button next to the quick mask mode).

This is how it should look now, a sharp accurate selection around my targetted area. If you see that you missed a spot, just go back to quick mask mode to fix it.

Now create a new Adjustment layer for Hue and Saturation.

Play around with the Hue and Saturation sliders to get the desired colors. You can also try turning on the colorize on and off to see the different effects.

The important thing to remember when changing tonal information is not to get too carried away - it's all too easy to lose shadow tones and the texture of the fabric. Subtle adjustments of the sliders will help retain the grain in the fabric as well as ensuring that shadows look realistic.

Another way to change color of the selection is using variations function Image » Adjustments » Variation.

This enables you to easily add shades of colour to highlights, midtones or shadows and is a useful means of creating new tones. Unfortunately, it lacks the subtlety of other methods.

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User Comments

vino Jan/25/2010 20:59its very nice
vino Jan/25/2010 20:59its very nice
vino Jan/25/2010 20:59its very nice
Ashish Dec/23/2009 23:26ok
lordsupercow Sep/16/2009 06:02X_x
Richard Aug/03/2009 21:53does this work if you want to change the color to black?
Richard Aug/03/2009 21:53does this work if you want to change the color to black?
IZ Jul/21/2009 11:38Very simple - Thank You
Matt Jul/1/09 01:33haha that was the best comment ever
mitch May/5/09 17:32i want to learn more about adobe photoshop...please giude me how to download this tutorial thanks
lema Mar/14/09 09:10how can i download those tetorials i wonna apply them on my pics do i have to download photosop first?
Alicia Feb/12/09 02:09I do agree that there is soo many tutorials out there but no one can explain it to me and I usually get fraustrated. Thank you so much! I have finally been able to accomplish this. The problem I was getting, I have Photoshop 6.0... This tutorial works with any version of Photoshop! Yes there might be better or easier methods with the newer Photoshops on the market, but this fantastic! I learned a new masking method too :D
pelos Dec/17/08 04:24out off dizz world
mohsin khan Sep/8/08 16:19dont u think replace color is a better option
MS Aug/20/08 23:32Thanks Sir Beautiful Color Change
Ritesh Jul/28/08 19:02very well done! simple n nice
amit Jul/15/08 20:51This is very nice effect Thanks for the tutorial
Azeez Jun/28/08 00:00good u done a very good job..
big Bella Jun/22/08 18:30I'm nervous about doing this. If I change something like the color of a dress - does the real persons dress change color too?
bichkhe Jun/10/08 12:57Quisk mask is good!
Umesh kr mehta (Shyam Kr.) May/28/08 00:28It is good to change any objects colour so it's fine.
Cavefish May/23/08 20:02Many other sites have tutorial on the same subject, but none can tell it better than the way you did! Thank you very much.
imba! May/13/08 21:36thats wicked!
Bharathi May/7/08 21:29how to change block and white photo to color
Sherwin Apr/13/08 15:55Dog Fuckers! Sucks! Damn! I've tried so many times this tutorial lesson but I didn't got it! Fucks!
See 26 - 50 of 87 comments

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