Replace Colors in Photoshop
Just as the Golden Horn of Constantinople was the world's only secure commercial gateway where east could trade with west between the fall of the west Roman empire in 475 A.D. until the Venetians ransacked the city in 1204, Photoshop remains the gateway to completeness for media whether 3D, web or print graphics. Photoshop is the Golden Horn of Media production. A program that can solve just about any graphics task in a number of different ways. One of the more typical tasks is the selective replacement of color. This how-to shows step-by-step color replacement using the color replacement tool (in the brushes icon group) which is just one of several methods for accomplishing this. The Color Replacement tool has three eyedropper sub-tools, each with its own unique function. Here's how the color replacement tool is used.
Steps
- First, briefly acquaint yourself with the tool. Press and hold down your mouse button over the brushes icon in the tools palette until the drop-down appears and select the color replacement brush (moving your mouse over any of the eyedroppers will activate a small info field revealing that tool's name).
- At the foot of the normal menu bar group you'll notice an automatic change when you click on any tool in the tool bar. This is the tool options bar. This bar automatically changes its functions with respect to the current tool in use. It allows you to adjust the way your current tool performs it's job.
- With the Replacement brush tool selected, View the options bar from left to right. If you click on the first option you'll notice that you can choose the mode (color characteristic) whether Hue, Saturation, Color or Luminosity of the area you wish to change. Choose color for this "how-to".
- The next option to choose from are the 3 eyedropper sub-tools. These have nothing to do with the Pipette ( the main eye dropper tool) found in the tool bar, they are, as stated, merely sub-tools of the Color Replacement tool. The sub-tool eyedropper to the left allows you to sample and replace as you go. The middle eyedropper samples the first color you click on and replaces that particular color only. The third uses the current background color as the replacement color.
- The second to last option of the Color Replacement tool allows you to set the limits more accurately. For this how-to, "find edges" was chosen. For certain tasks "contiguous" or "neighboring" or even a combination of the eyedropper types may need to be used. The last option is Anti-aliasing, this option was activated (checked) for better results for this particular task.
- In the options panel you can also increase the tolerance of your brush (in this case, greater varieties in color tone will be included or recorded in the area in which the color will be replaced) or you can decrease the tolerance (thereby a more specific color range will be recorded).
- Method: Double click foreground color at the bottom of the tools panel to open the color selection dialog and mix the color that you want to use for the replacement. If you don't want to mix a color yourself you can click on the "Color Library" button while the color selection dialog is still open and choose a color from there.
- Click on the letter "i" to activate the Pipette tool. Be sure to check the options palette to see how many pixels are being selected. Photoshop makes an average of these selected pixels so be careful not to have too many pixels in there because if you choose an area close to the edge of your subject unwanted pixels may be included outside of the target area, resulting in a less exact replacement area. A one pixel range was used for the profile pic of Dave's raves used here, but a 3 by 3 range gives good results as well. With the (still active) Pipette, click on the area whose color you would like to replace ( this clears the palette of any default color).
- The color of the area you selected should appear below in the tools palette.
- Click on the Color Replacement brush icon in the tools palette
- Select the middle eyedropper sub-tool in the options palette. Before you brush anywhere, adjust the size of the brush if it's not the size you want it to be and then select the color you would like to use as a replacement color.
- Once your color is selected begin painting (click down and hold while dragging your mouse) over your target area, if you paint beyond that area don't worry because Photoshop sees only the target area.
- As previously mentioned, the profile picture for Dave's raves was used for this how-to. Since this pic was originally created in Adobe Illustrator CS4 as a vector illustration it has very sharp edges, even the shading. This makes finding the right tolerance levels pretty easy. The Color Replacement tool options panel settings used were; a 77 sized brush with 100% hardness and a 25% percent distance, angle=0, roundness=100. The sub-tool eyedropper settings; middle brush (with the target symbol at it's left bottom corner, Limits=find edges, Tolerance=21%, Anti-aliasing=checked).
- Once all of your settings are made you can paint the target area.
Tips
- If you make a mistake you can go back to a healthier version by opening up the protocol palette (main menu>window>protocol) then choose the point in time you wish to return to.
- If the objects in your image have soft edges you'll have to change the tolerance so that enough or not too much is recorded in the replacement area.
- As a default the original layer is locked, but to be safe, duplicate it and work only on the duplicate layer.
- When one area has been colored it's a good idea to exit the Color Replacement tool completely by clicking on the Pipette (the main eyedropper tool). Then click on the next area to be worked with the main Pipette eyedropper (not one of the sub-tools). Once you've done that, activate the color replacement tool, select your replacement color and continue painting.
- Be sure to save the file as a Photoshop file to preserve the layers. Also you should save after each completed step. Saves after completed steps are life savers because crashes are always possible.
