Colorizing with the Color Replacement Tool

The new Color Replacement tool allows you to replace the original color of an image with the foreground color. You can use this tool in a variety of ways. Create the look of a handpainted photo by colorizing a grayscale image. Or maybe you just want to change the color of an object or two, such as a couple of flowers in a bouquet. A practical use of the Color Replacement tool is to easily paint away red eye. See Book IV, Chapter 1, for more on getting rid of red eye. The great thing about this new tool is that it completely preserves the tonality of the image. The color that you apply doesn’t obliterate the midtones, shadows, and highlights as it would if you were using the regular Brush tool. The Color Replacement tool works by first sampling the original colors in the image and then replacing those colors with the foreground color. By specifying different sampling methods, limits, and tolerance settings, you can control the range of colors that Photoshop replaces.

Replacing Color with the Color Replacement Tool
The third weapon in this arsenal of retouching tools is a cinch to use. Here are the short steps to replacing color:
1. Open your image and select the Color Replacement tool.
It looks like a brush with an eye next to it. Use the J (or Shift+J) key to select it from the keyboard.
2. In the Options bar click the Brush Preset picker.
In the drop-down palette, select your desired diameter and hardness for your brush tip.
3. Select your desired blend mode.
Color is the default mode and works well for most colorizing jobs. Use this mode if you’re trying to get rid of red eye.
Hue is similar to color, but is less intense and provides a lighter effect. Set your foreground color to Black in the Tools palette and set the mode to Saturation to convert a color image to
a grayscale image.
Luminosity is the exact opposite of the Color mode and while it can create a beautiful effect between two image layers, it doesn’t provide that great of an effect with this tool.
4. Select your sampling method.
The default of Continuous allows you to sample and replace color continuously as you drag your mouse. Choose Once to replace colors only in areas containing the color that you first sample by clicking. And finally, select Background Swatch to replace colors only in areas containing your current Background color.
5. Select your sampling limits mode.
The default of Contiguous lets you replace the color of pixels containing the sampled color that are adjacent to each other only. Discontiguous lets you replace the color of the pixels containing the sampled color wherever it occurs in your image. And Find Edges allows you to replace the color of pixels containing the sampled color while preserving the sharpness of the edges of the objects.
6. Specify your tolerance percentage.
Tolerance refers to a range of color. A higher tolerance lets you replace a broader range of color. A lower tolerance limits the replacement of color only to areas that are similar to the
sampled color.
7. Choose whether you want anti-aliasing.
Remember anti-aliasing slightly softens and smoothes the edge of the selected or sampled areas.
8. After you establish your settings, click or drag on your image.
Notice how the foreground color replaces the original colors of the sampled areas. Of course, the exact effect you get depends on your settings.