Alison Johnston

This is a very simple effect, it won’t change darks to lights and it won’t work on any black, grey or white pixels. It won’t add colour to a greyscale image either. It will simply change the Hue, whilst leaving the Lightness and Colour Intensity as is and it can all be done with the paint brush and a blend mode change – doesn’t get much easier than that.

I can’t remember the photographers info, but I got the image from www.sxc.hu.

Create a new blank layer above the background layer and change the blend mode to Hue. Select a soft edged brush and change the f/ground to something that you want. I chose 153 – 0 – 0. Paint over the bonnet of the car. Adjust the Fill and/or the opacity of the layer to suit. I adjusted the Opacity to 75%. That’s it really …. short and sweet. If you are going to do multiply colour changes, use a new layer for each one. But you can do more :)

Add a layer mask to the layer and then go to Filter>Render>Clouds I chose the default, you can mess with it a bit if you want.

Create a new layer and change the blend mode to Hue choose R102 – G153 – B153 for the foreground and paint over the front side panel. Add a layer mask and with the layer mask active choose Filter>Render>Fibres. I took the opacity and the fill opacity down to 75%. Fiddle around with the Fibres setting till you like the effect.

Create a new blank layer and change the blend mode to Hue. I chose R51 – G0 – B153 for the next colour and then painted over the rear panels and roof part of the image. Take the opacity and fill opacity down to 75% and then add a layer mask and go to Filter>Render>Clouds again.

Create a new layer and change the blend mode to Hue. Make white the foreground colour and on the right of the bonnet just brush over the image and the colour will disappear. Add a layer mask and do a Filter>Render>Fibres.

You can use a shape layer or type layer to do interesting things as well. Create a new blank layer, then choose the custom shape tool – choose Registration Target 1 from the top menu and make sure that it is set to paths. Draw out the shape on the side of the car door, and then convert the path to a selection. Choose the f/ground colour (I used the one I used for the front panel 102, 153, 153, paint over the shape, then change the layer blend mode to Hue and adjust the opacity and fill opacity to suit. I added a lyer mask and did a Filter>Render>Fibres.

Create a new blank layer and then select the type tool. Type a number on the side door and then Ctrl + Click on the Type thumbnail to select the transparency, create a new layer and then paint in the number with your chosen colour. Delete the type layer. Change the blend mode of the layer with the number on it to Hue and then you could take down the opacity or fill opacity and add a layer mask if you wanted. I left the opacity and fill opacity alone but added a Render>Fibres to the layer mask.

So that’s it really, a simple method to change colour or even boost the colour of part of an image as we did with the bonnet. Below the final image and then a comparison image of the start and final image. Have Fun!