Photoshop Tutorial II - Changing Colours/Tones

[rch-13z]

Hi All,

Following on from levymetal's post about lowering and changing rim's I thought I'd do one about changing colours and tone's...

1. Start off with the image in photoshop, then as pictured below create a duplicate layer to cut up.



2. Then using the polygonal lasso tool select the outside of the body of the car, in this sort of scenario patience and a steady hand ends up giving you a much better result.



3. Hide the original background layer.

4. Once you've gone around the whole car click Select/Inverse which will highlight the background of the image instead of the car itself. Then use the eraser tool to get rid of the background, this will leave you with the body only on that layer. Because you've created a 2nd layer you'll still have the original background on your hidden layer.



5. Now you can go about using the polygonal lasso tool to select headlights, handles, windows, grills etc etc...... Once you've selected all those things use the eraser tool to wipe it all away.



6. Now un-hide the original background layer and your image should look as it was when you started. As pictured click on Image / Adjustments / Black & White. This will mean you start off with a fresh batch of colours instead start with an odd colour (I find it helps to get the actual colour you want)



7. The car should not be Black & White but the wheels & background should still be the original colour. Now to get colour click Image / Adjustments / Hue/Saturation.



8. Now the Hue / Saturation should be up, in the bottom ride hand side of the box is should say "colourize" select that option then shift the 3 different options which will change the colour and tones.....



9. Now if you would like to brighten/darken the colour click Image / Adjustments / Brightness & Contrast & then play with the 2 options which can change the darkeness or the colour and contrast.



10. Now you should have the colour you want & your done!



And the tyre walls changed from red to white...



Two-toning etc etc would be as simple as creating extra layers & placing them as you want!



Photoshoppers - Let me know if this makes no sense or if I've missed some essential pieces?

Regards
Richard

[rch-13z]

Additional helpful info
- It's very hard (almost impossible depending on the image quality) to make something completely black or white without loosing all detail.
- If you are making a white car a darker colour try using the brightness/contrast tool before changing the colour as white will always be white or a light tinge of the colour you want unless you darken the body of the car.
- When creating several colours always make a new layer because sometimes it can be very hard to replicate the same colour twice....
- Always "SAVE" as you go along.....

[levymetal]

awesome tutorial! sometimes i also use the replace colour tool (image > adjustments > replace colour) but that only really works for cars which have bright colours on a plain background.

[matt_06]

wheres the select inverse button?

[rch-13z]

[sik_VR]

u forgot to minus the badge from the selection but really nice tut

[rch-13z]

yeah that and the aerial but you get the idea... normally just smudge away the badges, aerials and anything else that gets in the way....

[Rolla_Rolla']

Another great write up dude

Its not the way i learnt to do it, i learnt from quick masking

But your way is soooo much easyer

[noelberg12]

I like the colour mix car. You have really very maintained the color such as contrast and also brightness. All the car still indicate shining over it. I hope that I get best tips for make the shining over the color.

[aero135]

Thanks heaps for an awesome tute keep it up

[rch-13z]

I've figured out another way to change colours which actually comes out a tad more realistic at times.. I'll post up details later on.

[NVMYVT]

have you thought of painting your car blue yet rich, lol, must admit it looked good

great to see you guys are helping others by taking the time to write these how to threads, just a shame i don't have photoshop

[rch-13z]

I love my grenada mica.... Want to re-spray it in the same colour

[Ando227]

Hey man, good tut, with one quick look at only the screen shots I was able to see how you did it, Very fast and effective way to change the colour of my baby. Well done

[bigpaulyb25]

thats for the help this is great