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Changing the color of objects in Photoshop. How and where to choose a brush color to use in Photoshop? How to replace one color with another in Photoshop if the original color is black or white

The ingenious developers of Adobe's pearl probably had no idea that the Color Replacement tool in Photoshop would become, among other functions, one of the leaders in frequency of use.

Recolor brush

You will find a brush called “Color Replacement” in the “Brush” tool group (in Photoshop CS3 and earlier). This tool is good for its simplicity (you can do without time-consuming selection to recolor objects), but at the same time it is not entirely predictable.

Essentially, this color replacer, with its circle-and-X cursor, works like a regular brush, painting an area first while preserving the textural and structural features of the image, but with some caveats.

Firstly, unlike a normal brush, in its settings, in addition to size and hardness, you can set intervals (when moving), tilt angle and shape of the print, and also adjust pen pressure (when using graphics tablets).

During the painting process, the program continuously analyzes the paint within the brush mark, replacing it with the specified primary color in accordance with the selected mode.

The default mode is "Chroma", which changes the color and saturation, but the brightness remains the same, and the new hue, of course, will not exactly match the selected color.

In Brightness mode, the original tone is maintained, but the brightness changes.

In the "Color Tone" mode, the color will change tonally to the declared paint, but the original brightness and saturation will be preserved.

By selecting the "Color" option, we will also change the saturation, maintaining the brightness of the original paint.

Saturation mode maintains brightness but changes the hue and saturation of the original color.

To the right of the mode window in the settings panel at the top there are three sample selection options.

By selecting the first one ("Continuously"), we instruct the program to continuously scan the color in the area of ​​​​the brush mark while we hold down the button, painting the object.

If we specify "One time", the color sample selected on the first click will be used as a sample. This option is suitable for uniformly colored areas.

In the third option (“Background Sample”), only areas related to the background color will be repainted.

The Constraints setting determines the extension of the substituted color as stated in the hover tooltip.

The “All pixels” option provides for the replacement of all pixels in the “cursor-sight” area of ​​the brush. By selecting Adjacent Pixels (the default), we will paint only those within the brush mark that are adjacent to the color pixels directly below the cross. Edge Enhance mode will recolor all pixels in the sample, but with an emphasis on the edges.

In principle, by choosing the appropriate brush size, you can confidently repaint in the boundary zones of the object, even accidentally getting into a different color, if only the “Tolerance” parameter is selected correctly, which determines the error in choosing relative colors, as the hint says. As the tolerance increases, the range of tones to be replaced expands, and vice versa.

Thus, we can conclude that the “Color Replacement” brush in Photoshop is a fairly flexible tool, and, despite its “straightforwardness,” it can do a lot of “mischief” in the right hands.

All commands that can radically change the color without destructive consequences for the image are in the "Correction" list in the "Image" menu. These functions include Color Balance, Hue/Saturation, Selective Color Correction, and Replace Color.

In the "Color tone" mode - the "chameleon" object

Another unfairly rarely mentioned and infrequently used method of color transformation lies in the modest “Color Tone” blend mode. Selecting the “Color” adjustment layer and specifying the desired paint, then change the blending mode on this layer to “Hue”. The object, of course, will not be repainted exactly the given color, but the hue will change. If you then double-click on the adjustment layer's fill thumbnail, a color palette will open, and you can cycle through the options, observing the chameleon effect on the canvas.

The excess is erased with a soft black brush on the adjustment layer mask, which is good for it.

With variegated objects, of course, there will be more fuss, so it is better to repaint objects that are more or less uniform in color this way.

Instead of an adjustment layer, you can create a new layer, change its blending mode to “Color Tone” and, having selected the desired color, paint over the object with a brush, then correcting the flaws with an eraser.

A little about color balance

By selecting "Color Balance", we can pre-color the selected object using the sliders color pairs"Cyan - Red", "Magenta - Green" and "Yellow - Blue". Tonal balance is adjusted in shadows, highlights and midtones.

Hue and saturation

The hue correction and saturation adjustment functions are very often used for tasks such as color replacement in Photoshop.

The algorithm for changing color in the dialog box called up by the "Hue/Saturation" command is based on adjusting the hue, saturation and brightness parameters. Here we can shift the overall color scheme of a picture or a selected fragment (object) and adjust colors individually in different parts of the color range by selecting the desired tone with an eyedropper.

In the list of ranges below (under "Style"), where the default is "All", there are six more color ranges that can be processed simultaneously, but with separate parameters.

Given the power of the tool in terms of color correction, recoloring the selected object here will not be difficult.

Selective color correction

This feature allows you to change colors using a CMYK model rather than an HSB (hue, saturation, brightness) model, controlling the amount of cyan, magenta, yellow and black in the selected color. Having selected the object to be repainted in the image, select the required color group in the “Colors” window and use the sliders to adjust its composition.

Sometimes, instead of the Selective Color command in the Image > Adjustments menu, it is better to use an adjustment layer of the same name (Layers > New Adjustment Layer or the button in the Layers panel at the bottom). In this case, it becomes possible to correct the effect on the adjustment layer mask by removing all excess with a black brush.

Replacing white and black

When changing the color using the correction functions, you may have noticed that white does not lend itself to recoloring in this way. Replacing the white color in Photoshop is very simple: if you first select this area, and then, after removing it, repaint it.

However, this drastic decision is destructive. It is justified only when it is not the original drawing itself that is important, but its color. And if you just want to give the white color a different shade, try converting the image to CMYK mode and using the Selective Color Correction function, and then returning to the RGB color space.

Depending on the uniformity of the color, you can use any tool from the extensive arsenal of Photoshop tools to select "Quick Selection", "Background Eraser", "Magic Eraser", etc.), but the best option most often turns out to be "Color Range" in the "Color Range" menu. Selection". And how the new color takes root in place of the removed white directly depends on the quality of the selection.

By the way, if a replacement is needed in Photoshop, all the arguments regarding repainting white are also valid for this case.

Replace color

This command from the Adjustments list in the Image menu (or its corresponding adjustment layer) is easier to use than Hue/Saturation, and its results are more predictable.

In the dialog box, use pipettes to select the colors to be changed. Using the Hue, Saturation and Brightness sliders we achieve the desired effect. To control the selection, it is better to select the “Selected area” checkbox (the image will be shown as a mask). The Scatter slider is used to correct scattering outside the border of the selected area.

This color replacement method is most effective for contrasting and not very variegated images.

Recoloring in Lab mode

One of the most efficient and relatively simple ways recoloring objects is changing colors in Photoshop using the Lab color mode, although to use this method effectively it is advisable to have at least some understanding of the Lab color space.

Thus, the L coordinate specifies the brightness (lightness) value, defined in the range from 0 (the darkest) to 100 (the lightest), and the color parameters are given by the coordinates A (color in the range from green to red) and B (color in the range from blue to yellow).

Thus, in Lab, the brightness value is separated from the chromatic color parameters, making it possible to influence the brightness, contrast and color of the image separately. It is this circumstance that sometimes makes it possible to speed up image processing, for example, if it is necessary to replace colors.

True, this option is not suitable for repainting motley multi-colored objects and objects with complex contours (hair, fur). Let's say you need to change the color of a passenger car. In Lab, replacing color in Photoshop involves, first of all, transferring the image to this mode.

We switch the image to Lab mode (Image > Mode > Lab), then select the desired color from the libraries by going to them by double-clicking on the main color in the toolbar, and remember the values ​​of the L, A and B channels.

In the “Pipette” tool group, select “Color Reference” and place a mark (control point) in a representative area of ​​the car color to be replaced, thereby calling up the “Info” panel.

Now add a “Curves” adjustment layer and for each channel we find the position of the curve in accordance with the fixed values, checking the “Info” palette.

The curves of channels A and B must necessarily intersect the center of the graph, and the curve of the brightness channel L must certainly maintain the angle of inclination.

Now double-click on the image layer to open the “Layer Style, Blending Options” window. Let's move our attention to its lower part ("Overlay if"). Here, by manipulating the sliders for each parameter (L, A and B), we separate the car from the background or other objects.

We repaint everything

Having mastered the above color replacement methods, you can repaint almost any object. Depending on its complexity, one method or another may be preferable. For example, changing hair color in Photoshop is easily done using the “Hue/Saturation” and “Color Balance” adjustment functions, but here the main task is to qualitatively highlight an object with such a complex (usually) contour.

Most often, a quick mask is used for selection (the button with a dotted ring at the very bottom). Then the selection is completed using the special capabilities of the “Refine Edge” command in the “Selection” menu.

The selected area is usually copied to a new layer (Ctrl+J), then the above-mentioned painting tools are applied to it.

And such simple tasks as changing eye color in Photoshop, which uses standard tools allocations are generally resolved in no time. The eye can be selected by selecting the "Lasso" or "Oval Area" (for the pupils), then, as in the previous case, replace the color by applying the Hue/Saturation correction.

The Color Replacement brush also works well for this task.

Everything is the same with color

Most user requests related to recoloring objects in Photoshop, as a rule, do not specify the specific version of the editor, and if they do, then changing colors in Photoshop CS6 is of interest much more often than others.

Perhaps this is due to a more significant update of the program in relation to previous version than it happened before. Changes have been made to the background save and autosave functions, selection tools, cropping tools, Magic Wand and Eyedropper, brush options, some filters, fill functions, layer editing, interface colors and much more.

There are new possibilities for working with RAW files in new version Camera RAW7, gradient fill, artistic image stylization, video editing, finding the desired layer in multi-layer documents, as well as the new Color Lookup color correction, etc.

However, the corrective functions in the "Correction" list in the "Image" menu have not undergone any significant changes in the process of modernizing the program, so recoloring objects, for example, in CS2, and replacing colors in Photoshop CS6 are practically no different in essence. for those owners earlier versions, who believe that in the new modifications there are more opportunities for replacing colors.

One way to focus the viewer's attention on this particular balloon is to reduce the saturation of the other balloons below it. I don't want to change the actual color of the balls, just the intensity. To do this with the Color Replacement Tool, I'll change the Blend Mode in the Options Bar to Saturation:

If I wanted to completely desaturate the balloons, removing their color completely, I would set the Foreground color to black, white, or any of the shades of gray, but since I want a more subtle effect, I'll just use one of the subdued colors from images. To do this, I'll hold down the key to temporarily switch to Eyedropper Tool mode and click on the desired color. I'll choose low saturated yellow. The color itself doesn't matter, since the Saturation blend mode doesn't change any of the original colors. It will only affect the intensity:

So, my foreground color is set to low-saturated yellow, the blending mode is “Saturation”. Now I'll just paint over the balloons by adjusting my brush size using the left and right keys square brackets and change the tolerance value in the Options Bar as needed. The picture below shows how I paint a bright orange balloon from top to bottom:

Disadvantages of the tool: problem with the brightness of modified objects

As I wrote at the very beginning, the Color Replacement Tool cannot be used for all cases. Now I will show you this with an example.

First I'll restore initial state my photo with balls by pressing the F12 key. Now let's say I want to change the color of the top individual orange ball to a dark purple color like some of the balls in the group:

To select a replacement color, I hold down Alt and click on the purple ball:

I set the Blend Mode in the Options Bar to Color and start painting over the orange ball to change it to dark purple. Here's the result:

Hm. The ball turned out to be purple, of course, but this color is quite similar to the colors of other purple balls, isn’t it? The problem is that this color is much brighter than the other purple balls, and this is because the original color of the ball was much brighter than the dark purple that I used as a replacement sample. Color blend mode in in this case does not have any effect on the brightness of the object.

Well, then let's try to apply the blending mode that affects the brightness. Of the four available blending modes, this is “Brightness” (Luminosity). I'll restore the photo to its original state by pressing F12, selecting this mode in the options bar, and again trying to paint the ball dark purple. Result:

Well, looking at the result, we can say with confidence that the result was complete nonsense. The Brightness blend mode definitely made the ball darker, but it's still orange, not purple, and besides, the texture detail is almost gone, the ball looks like a flat blob.

This is the drawback of the Color Replacement tool. It is perfect for performing simple tasks, where you only need to change the hue and/or saturation of the color, but if there are too many differences in the brightness values ​​between the original and the new color, this tool will most likely not be suitable.

Sampling for replacement

In the Options Bar, directly to the right of the blending mode option, there are three small icons. Each of these icons represents a different selection of pixels to replace with the Color Replacement Tool, and they work in exactly the same way as the Background Eraser Tool. From left to right: Continuous, this option is enabled by default, the next is Once, and the last is Background Swatch. To switch between selection modes, simply click on the desired icon:

These settings control how Photoshop selects pixels to replace colors in an image. If the first option, Continuous, is selected, Photoshop continually determines new colors to replace. The sample is located under the moving cursor, exactly under the crosshairs. If, when moving the cursor, another color falls under the crosshairs, it becomes the target color for replacement. All pixels of that color within the cursor circle are replaced. This sampling option is used most often and works best when there is a lot of color variation within a site.

The "Once" option takes as a sample the color that you initially selected and the sample does not change depending on how many colors you further drag the cursor crosshair through. This option is best if you need to replace a large area of ​​solid color. You can also try this option if you find that with the Continuous option, the color being replaced bleeds into nearby areas and the Tolerance option does not help.

The last option, Background Pattern, is used very rarely, if at all. This option replaces any color in the image that matches the background color in the color palette. This option may only be useful if neither of the first two options works.

Limits

This setting determines the location of the pixels to be replaced and works in exactly the same way as the Background Eraser. The option has three options: “All pixels” (Contiguous), “Adjacent pixels” (Discontiguous) and “Find Edges”. Of these three, you will really only use the first two:

The "Adjacent pixels" option (set by default) means that only those pixels that are directly adjacent to the cursor crosshair will be replaced. Pixels separated from pixels under the crosshairs by some other color will not be replaced, even if they are within the cursor circle and exactly match the color.

An alternative is "All Pixels". With this option, all pixels matching in color and located within the cursor boundaries will be replaced.

Anti-Alias
This option is enabled by default and serves to smooth the edge around replacement areas. I recommend keeping it turned on at all times.

Adobe developers could not even imagine that the Color Replacement tool, which they invented in Photoshop, would be a leader among other functions in terms of frequency of use.


A brush called Color Replactment is available in the Brush tools section. This tool is distinguished by its simplicity. To recolor an object, you won't need time-consuming selections. However, at the same time, such a tool is not entirely predictable. This color substitute, which has a cursor with a cross in the shape of a circle, works like a regular brush. Paint the area with the primary color and preserve the structural and textural features of the image.

Although there are some caveats. If we compare it with a normal brush, then in addition to hardness and size, in the settings it is possible to set intervals, the shape of the print, and the angle of inclination when moving. Among other things, you can adjust the pen if you use graphics tablets. When painting, the program constantly, within the brush, analyzes the paint and replaces it with the main color in the specified mode. The Color mode is the default. Here the saturation and color change. As for brightness, it remains the same. But the new shade purchased will not exactly match the color that the user chose.

By selecting the “Brightness” mode, you will maintain the original tone, but the brightness will change. To preserve the saturation and original brightness, you should use the “Color Tone”, where only the color will change tonally for the declared paint. In the “Color” option, you can change the saturation and maintain the brightness of the paint in the original. The “Saturation” mode will preserve the brightness, but at the same time, the saturation and original tone will change.

At the top right of the settings panel from the mode window there are three sample options. The first one is called "Continuous". That is, the user goes to a program where, in the brush area, the color is constantly scanned as long as the button is held down while painting the object. By selecting the "One time" option, you will get the color that you selected the first time you clicked. This method is more suitable when areas are uniformly colored. The third option, Background Pattern, only recolors areas that are similar to the background color.

If you use your mouse to hover over the “Constraints” parameter, you can expand the replaced color. By clicking the "All Pixels" button, the user will have the opportunity to replace all the pixels where the brush's "sight cursor" is located. The “adjacent pixels” option is suitable for painting only the colors under the cross that are adjacent to the pixels. If the user selects Edge Enhancement mode, all pixels will be recolored.

With the appropriate selection of the brush size, it is possible to repaint the object in the boundary zones, even accidentally getting into a different color. But in this case, it is necessary to correctly select the “Tolerance” mode, which determines the error when choosing relative colors. If you increase the tolerance, you can expand or subtract the range of tones. From all this it becomes clear that in Photoshop such an element as a brush, designed to replace color, despite its “straightforward” nature, is a fairly flexible tool and can do anything in the right hands.

All commands that can radically change color without consequences are saved in the “Image” menu in the “Correction” list. These include functions such as Saturation/Hue, Color Balance, Color Replacement, and Selective Color Adjustment.

Another undeservedly mentioned and rarely used transformation option is the blending mode, which is called “Color Tone”. For correction, select the “Color” layer and indicate the required paint, changing the blending mode on this layer to “Color Tone”. Of course, an object cannot be repainted with a given color with precision, but the shade will change.

If you then double-click on the fill thumbnail for this layer, a color palette will appear, with which you can use different options and observe the chameleon effect on the canvas. Anything that is superfluous will be erased with a soft black brush. If the objects are colorfully colored, there will be more fuss with them. Therefore, this method is best used for repainting uniformly colored objects. Instead of an adjustment layer, you can make a new layer and change its mode to “Hue.” To do this, select the desired color, paint over the object with a brush, and correct any errors with an eraser.

What about color balance?

When you select it, you can first change the color of the selected object using the sliders of the color pairs “Magenta-Green”, “Cyan-Red”, “Yellow-Blue”. Here the tone balance is adjusted in the highlights, shadows, and midtones.

Saturation and color tone.

To replace colors in Photoshop, they often use the “Saturation Adjustment and Tone Correction Functions.” For such purposes, the “Saturation/Hue” function is installed. With its help, you can adjust the parameters of color tone, brightness and saturation. The user here can shift the selection or the overall color tone of the picture and individually adjust the colors in different areas of the color range if he selects the desired tone with the eyedropper.

At the bottom of the list of ranges, you can see the word “All”, which appears under the “Style” item. There are several more color ranges that can be processed simultaneously, but the parameters should be separate. Repainting the desired object in the required color will not be difficult, since the color correction tool has great power.

Function selective correction Colors helps you change colors, control the amount of magenta, cyan, black and yellow in the selected color. In the image, select the object that needs to be repainted. In the “Colors” window, select the desired color group. Then, using the sliders, adjust the composition. It happens that in the “Adjustment” / “Image” menu, instead of defining Selective Color, it is better to use an adjustment layer of the same name (Adjustment Layer / Layers or the button located at the bottom of the layers panel). Then you can adjust the effect on the layer mask and remove all excess with a black brush.

How to replace white and black?

Using the corrective functions and changing the color, the user noticed that, therefore, the white color cannot be repainted. However, replacing the white color in Photoshop is a very simple task. It is enough to first select this area, then remove it and repaint it. But this drastic decision will be justified only when the color is important, and not the design itself. If you want to make a white color with a tint, convert the image to CMYK and use the selective color correction function.

Then return to RGB. Of the many Photoshop tools, you can use any tool: Quick Selection, Magic Wand, Magic Eraser, Background Eraser, and so on. Everything will depend on the uniformity of color. However, the most commonly used option is “Color Range,” which is found in the “Selection” menu. The quality of the selection will determine how the new color will take root in place of the white one that was removed. If you need to replace the black color in Photoshop, then the same steps will do as when repainting the white color.

Changing colors.

In this case, the “Correction” button (or this adjustment layer) is applied in the “Image” menu. It's easier to use than Saturation/Hue. In addition, its result is more predictable. Using the eyedroppers in the dialog box, select objects that need to be painted. The desired effect is achieved using the Saturation, Hue, and Brightness sliders. To show the image as a mask, select the “Selected area” checkbox for control.

The Scatter slider is used when scatter correction is needed outside a certain selected area. This color replacement option can be effectively used for both contrasting images, and not very colorful.

Lab mode and recoloring in it. This method of repainting is relatively simple, but very efficient. To use effectively this method, you need to have some idea of ​​the Lab space. The letter L stands for brightness, which is defined in the range from 0 to 100. The letter A stands for color parameters in the range from red to green. B – color range – from yellow to blue. It turns out that in Lab you can separately influence the brightness, color of the image and contrast.

Thanks to this circumstance, images can be processed in an accelerated form. For example. If there is a need to change the color. However, this option is not suitable for repainting objects with complex contours (fur, hair), colorful objects. For example, it is necessary to change the color of a passenger car. In order to implement your plan in Photoshop in Lab mode, you should switch the picture to Lab mode, select the desired color from the libraries and double-click on the main color in the toolbar.

Next you should know the meanings of the letters in the word Lad. Go to the “Pipette” tool group and stop at “Color Standard”. Here, in the color of the car to be replaced, we put a control point (mark). To do this, call the “Info” panel. Next we need a “Curves” adjustment layer. Consulting “Info”, we find for each channel.

The position of the curve that corresponds to the recorded values. The center of the graph must be crossed by the curves of the channels of two designations A and B. At the same time, the L curve must adhere to the angle of inclination. Next, double-click on the image layer and open the “Style” window. Next, pay attention to the “Overlay if”, which is located in its lower part. For each parameter there are sliders, by manipulating which we separate cars from any objects or from the background.

How to repaint everything?

Having mastered the listed methods for replacing colors, which were outlined above, you can practically recolor any object in any way. The method should be selected depending on the complexity of the work. For example, you can easily replace hair in Photoshop using the Saturation/Hue or Color Balance correction functions. The main task here will be to qualitatively highlight the required pattern with a complex contour. As a rule, it is better to use a quick mask here (the key with a dotted ring, which is located at the bottom of the panel). After that, the selection is completed using the main capabilities of the group.

Not many people went to the Selection menu to Refine Edge. Why and how is this done? Typically, the selected area is copied to Ctrl+J (new layer) and used to apply the coloring tools that are checked. You can also change eye color in Photoshop. To do this, use the usual selection tools. With the eye selected, choose Oval Marquee or Lasso. Then, replace the color using the Saturation/Hue adjustment. This problem can be easily solved with the Color Replacement brush.

Many users who recolor objects in Photoshop are not interested in a specific version of the editor, and if they specify it, they are much more often interested in how to replace the color in Photoshop CS6. Maybe this was due to a significant program update. Changes have been made to the functions of the selection tools, autosave, background save, Eyedropper, Magic Wand, cropping, some filters, brush options, fill functions, interface color, layer editing and so on.

New opportunities have opened up when working with text in Camera Raw7 (in the new version), editing files - RAW, gradient fill, video editing, new color correction, searching for the required layer in multilayer documents, etc.

If we talk about no less corrective functions in the “Image” menu in the “Correction” list, then there have been no special changes in the modernization process. Therefore, repainting objects, for example, replacing color, CS2 in Photoshop CS2, is essentially no different. This note is addressed to those owners of earlier versions who believe that the new modifications have greater color replacement capabilities.

Beginners often think that Photoshop’s “smart” tools are designed to make their life easier by eliminating tedious manual work. This is partly true, but only partly.

Most of these tools ( "Wand", "Quick Selection", various correction tools, for example, tool "Replace color") require a professional approach and are absolutely not suitable for beginners. It is necessary to understand in what situation such a tool can be used and how to configure it correctly, and this comes with experience.

Today we'll talk about the tool "Replace color" from the menu "Image - Correction".

This tool allows you to manually replace a certain shade of an image with any other. Its effect is similar to that of an adjustment layer "Hue/Saturation".

The tool window looks like this:

This window consists of two blocks: "Selection" And "Replacement".

Selection

1. Tools for taking a shade sample. They look like buttons with eyedroppers and have the following purposes (from left to right): main test, adding a shade to the set for replacement, excluding a shade from the set.

2. Slider "Scatter" determines how many levels (adjacent shades) are to be replaced.

Replacement

IN this block sliders included Hue, Saturation, and Brightness. Actually, the purpose of each slider is determined by its name.

Practice

Let's replace one of the gradient fill shades with this circle:

1. Activate the tool and click with the eyedropper on any part of the circle. A white area will immediately appear in the preview window. It is the white areas that need to be replaced. At the top of the window we will see the selected shade.

2. Let's go to the block "Replacement", click on the color box and set the color with which you want to replace the sample.

3. Slider "Scatter" adjust the range of shades to replace.

4. Sliders from the block "Replacement" finely adjust the shade.

This completes the manipulation of the tool.

Nuances

As already mentioned at the beginning of the article, the tool does not always work correctly. As part of preparing materials for the lesson, several experiments were carried out on replacing colors in various images - from complex (clothing, cars, flowers) to simple (one-color logos, etc.).

The results turned out to be very contradictory. On complex objects (as well as on simple ones), you can fine-tune the shade and area of ​​application of the tool, but after selection and replacement you have to manually modify the image (eliminating halos of the original shade, removing the effect on unwanted areas). This moment negates all the advantages that a “smart” tool provides, such as speed and simplicity. In this case, it is easier to do all the work manually than to redo it using a program.

WITH simple objects things are getting better. Halos and unwanted areas, of course, remain, but are eliminated more easily and quickly.

The ideal use of the tool is to replace the color of an area surrounded by a different shade.

Based on all of the above, we can draw one conclusion: it’s up to you to decide whether to use this tool or not. It worked well on some flowers...


Consider the dialog box

At the top " Selection" (Select) is a tab from " Color range».

Using an eyedropper, a sample of the color that needs to be changed is marked on the picture sample.

The plus pipette adds an area, the minus pipette subtracts.

Setting the Fuzziness Setting

Using the slider, you determine the boundaries within which the color shades will change. With maximum variation, the replacement will include almost all shades of the selected color present in the image. With minimal scatter, only those pixels that exactly match the sample will be replaced.


Since version Photoshop CS4 appeared additional option « Localized Color Clusters» (Localized Color Sets), designed to identify areas of the same color. Its use allows you to more accurately highlight the color in the image.


At the bottom " Replacement" (Replacement) dialog box " Replace color"(Replace color) is the tab from " Hue/Saturation» (Hue/Saturation), which, based on its name, selects the color and shade to replace.

Let's look at color replacement using a specific example

Step 1

Open the image in Photoshop. Immediately create a duplicate of the main layer (Ctrl+J).


Step 2

Go through the menu " Image - Adjustments - Replace Color» ().

Let's say I want to change the color of my T-shirt.

Step 3

If you have a version from Photoshop CS4 and above, then immediately put a tick in front of “ Localized Color Clusters» (Localized color sets).

Increasing " Fuzziness» (Spread) to the maximum value.

Using an eyedropper, mark an area on the image. Next, choose the color you want to change to. Click on the colored square labeled “ Result"(Result) and select the desired shade.

It can be seen that in the shadow area the color is not highlighted enough. Choose pipette « + "and click on the image in the area of ​​the folds on the T-shirt.


The T-shirt was completely dyed, but at the same time, unnecessary areas, for example, the face, were dyed. Choose pipette « - ” and click on it in the face area.


As you can see in the image itself, the lips and ears remain painted; this defect can be corrected using eraser.

This color changing method works most successfully on contrasting images.

Also in images where there are few related shades changeable color.

And finally, one more piece of advice. If the image still contains several areas of the same color, and only one of them needs to be changed, for example, then before using the command “ Replace color» (Replace color), you should select the area that requires color replacement. Any selection tool can help you with this.




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