Like all print designers, you rely on images to add visual interest to your layouts, and color plays a big part in that. That’s why it’s so important to “take control” of your color. Photoshop puts you in the driver’s seat by allowing you to select, replace, and enhance the colors of your images. Photoshop also provides several ways to add color to grayscale images, or—if your design calls for it—there are also several ways you can remove colors from your images and work exclusively in black-and-white.
Replacing Colors
Replacing colors is one of the most common tasks print designers and production artists are faced with. And as you might have guessed, Photoshop provides us with more than one way to complete this task. In this section, we’ll take a close look at the various tools and methods for replacing colors, and I’ll offer up some guidelines along the way.
Hue/Saturation Adjustments
Photoshop’s Hue/Saturation controls are the easiest to work with when recoloring selected areas of a photo. When making this type of adjustment, you have two options: to access the Hue/Saturation dialog box and apply the change by using the Image --> Adjustment command, or to use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Choosing the menu command applies a permanent change to your image that can be undone only by using the Undo command (F/Ctrl+Z) or by selecting a previous state in the History palette. Edits cannot be made to the adjustment unless the command is undone first. If you take one too many steps past your history limit, you’re stuck with a permanent change that cannot be undone. Adjustment layers, on the other hand, allow you to edit or undo the adjustment any time—without any limitations.
Adjustments vs. Adjustment Layers
The smartest way to apply adjustments to an image is to use adjustment layers. Using adjustment layers instead of the adjustment commands offers more flexibility and control, because it allows you to make changes to the adjustment at any time after it is applied. The easiest way to add an adjustment layer is to click the Create New Adjustment Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose the type of adjustment you’d like to apply from the pop-up menu, or if you prefer, you can choose one from the Layer menu (Layer -->New Adjustment Layer --> Hue/Saturation).
Before you can replace specific isolated colors in an image by using Hue/Saturation, you first need to select them. This can be done by using any of the selection tools. But a better way to select specific colors in an image is to use the Select --> Color Range command. In most instances, this is a much easier and more accurate way to select colors that you intend to replace.
The Hue/Saturation Dialog Box With your selection already made, apply a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer as described earlier. The selection area is automatically applied to an adjustment layer mask. This allows you to shift colors in the selected areas only, while all other areas are masked from the Hue/Saturation adjustment. The controls in the Hue/Saturation dialog box allow you to rotate the color wheel and shift the colors in your image. Adjust the Hue slider to cycle through the full spectrum of colors. After you’ve chosen a replacement color, use the Saturation slider to control how vivid the color is, and the Lightness slider to control how dark it appears. Notice that after the color was shifted in Figure 4.2, the shadow areas around the center of the flower contained a yellow cast rather than a red one. This was repaired by painting in the adjustment layer mask with a soft white brush set at a low opacity setting.
Hue/Saturation Colorize Option By enabling the Colorize option in the Hue/Saturation dialog box, you can ensure that all of the affected colors in the original image are changed to the chosen replacement color, which is displayed in the bottom color bar. This usually dulls the highlight and shadow areas of the adjusted color area. You can use the Saturation and Lightness sliders to correct this, but depending on the image you are working with, the recolorization may not look as natural.
With the Colorize option disabled, all of the affected colors simply shift around the color wheel. Depending on your image, this can sometimes make the recoloring appear more natural. This is because not all of the affected colors are replaced in the same way, as they would be with the Colorize option turned on. However, it can also have a negative affect on any shadow and highlight areas that contain their own color cast, by applying the wrong color in relation to the new replacement color and to the rest of the image.
Replace Color Command
The Image --> Adjustments --> Replace Color dialog box combines the Select --> Color Range options with the Hue/Saturation sliders. This is a great tool for replacing color without having to open more than one dialog box. The only problem with Replace Color is that you can apply it as a command only and not as an adjustment layer. You can use the top half of the dialog to select a color range by using the same methods as with Select --> Color Range. After your selection is complete, use the Hue/Saturation sliders at the bottom of the dialog to replace the color. With the Preview option enabled, you can see the color applied to the image before clicking OK.
The Color Wheel
At the heart of Photoshop’s color controls is the classic color wheel. It helps to have a firm understanding of basic color wheel concepts when making color adjustments in Photoshop. If you take a close look at the color wheel, you’ll see that it is made up of six basic colors: red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta. Every color is based on one of these six primary colors, or the transitions between them. The primary color that any color is based on is referred to as its hue. The Hue values in Photoshop’s color controls (such as Hue/Saturation) are based on the color wheel. Photoshop can determine the distance between primary colors on the color wheel, starting with red and moving clockwise around. Therefore, by applying a Hue adjustment in the Hue/Saturation dialog box, you are essentially spinning the color wheel in order to adjust the color in your image.
Color adjustments can also be made by shifting the colors in your image toward one of the six primary colors. Red, green, and blue are the exact opposites of cyan, magenta, and yellow, respectively. Therefore, adding red takes away cyan, adding green takes away magenta, adding yellow takes away blue, and vice versa all the way around. When you push the colors in an image toward one of the primary colors, all of the image’s colors become more alike. Also notice that as the colors move toward the center of the wheel, they become less colorful and eventually lead to white. The colors on the outer edge of the wheel are the most vibrant, while the center of the wheel contains no color at all (this represents neutral gray). Photoshop describes how vibrant a color is by using percentages, which are referred to as saturation values. A 100% saturation value refers to the colors on the outer edge of the wheel, whereas 0% refers to the center of the wheel, or gray (no color at all). All other saturation values are located between the outer edge and the center. The one other thing that Photoshop’s color controls refer to, but the color wheel does not reflect, is the brightness levels of all the colors. Photoshop uses three terms to describe brightness in a color: brightness, lightness, and luminosity, and they all mean the same thing—how light or dark a color appears.
Replacing Colors
Replacing colors is one of the most common tasks print designers and production artists are faced with. And as you might have guessed, Photoshop provides us with more than one way to complete this task. In this section, we’ll take a close look at the various tools and methods for replacing colors, and I’ll offer up some guidelines along the way.
Hue/Saturation Adjustments
Photoshop’s Hue/Saturation controls are the easiest to work with when recoloring selected areas of a photo. When making this type of adjustment, you have two options: to access the Hue/Saturation dialog box and apply the change by using the Image --> Adjustment command, or to use a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Choosing the menu command applies a permanent change to your image that can be undone only by using the Undo command (F/Ctrl+Z) or by selecting a previous state in the History palette. Edits cannot be made to the adjustment unless the command is undone first. If you take one too many steps past your history limit, you’re stuck with a permanent change that cannot be undone. Adjustment layers, on the other hand, allow you to edit or undo the adjustment any time—without any limitations.
Adjustments vs. Adjustment Layers
The smartest way to apply adjustments to an image is to use adjustment layers. Using adjustment layers instead of the adjustment commands offers more flexibility and control, because it allows you to make changes to the adjustment at any time after it is applied. The easiest way to add an adjustment layer is to click the Create New Adjustment Layer button at the bottom of the Layers palette and choose the type of adjustment you’d like to apply from the pop-up menu, or if you prefer, you can choose one from the Layer menu (Layer -->New Adjustment Layer --> Hue/Saturation).
Before you can replace specific isolated colors in an image by using Hue/Saturation, you first need to select them. This can be done by using any of the selection tools. But a better way to select specific colors in an image is to use the Select --> Color Range command. In most instances, this is a much easier and more accurate way to select colors that you intend to replace.
The Hue/Saturation Dialog Box With your selection already made, apply a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer as described earlier. The selection area is automatically applied to an adjustment layer mask. This allows you to shift colors in the selected areas only, while all other areas are masked from the Hue/Saturation adjustment. The controls in the Hue/Saturation dialog box allow you to rotate the color wheel and shift the colors in your image. Adjust the Hue slider to cycle through the full spectrum of colors. After you’ve chosen a replacement color, use the Saturation slider to control how vivid the color is, and the Lightness slider to control how dark it appears. Notice that after the color was shifted in Figure 4.2, the shadow areas around the center of the flower contained a yellow cast rather than a red one. This was repaired by painting in the adjustment layer mask with a soft white brush set at a low opacity setting.
Hue/Saturation Colorize Option By enabling the Colorize option in the Hue/Saturation dialog box, you can ensure that all of the affected colors in the original image are changed to the chosen replacement color, which is displayed in the bottom color bar. This usually dulls the highlight and shadow areas of the adjusted color area. You can use the Saturation and Lightness sliders to correct this, but depending on the image you are working with, the recolorization may not look as natural.
With the Colorize option disabled, all of the affected colors simply shift around the color wheel. Depending on your image, this can sometimes make the recoloring appear more natural. This is because not all of the affected colors are replaced in the same way, as they would be with the Colorize option turned on. However, it can also have a negative affect on any shadow and highlight areas that contain their own color cast, by applying the wrong color in relation to the new replacement color and to the rest of the image.
Replace Color Command
The Image --> Adjustments --> Replace Color dialog box combines the Select --> Color Range options with the Hue/Saturation sliders. This is a great tool for replacing color without having to open more than one dialog box. The only problem with Replace Color is that you can apply it as a command only and not as an adjustment layer. You can use the top half of the dialog to select a color range by using the same methods as with Select --> Color Range. After your selection is complete, use the Hue/Saturation sliders at the bottom of the dialog to replace the color. With the Preview option enabled, you can see the color applied to the image before clicking OK.
The Color Wheel
At the heart of Photoshop’s color controls is the classic color wheel. It helps to have a firm understanding of basic color wheel concepts when making color adjustments in Photoshop. If you take a close look at the color wheel, you’ll see that it is made up of six basic colors: red, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and magenta. Every color is based on one of these six primary colors, or the transitions between them. The primary color that any color is based on is referred to as its hue. The Hue values in Photoshop’s color controls (such as Hue/Saturation) are based on the color wheel. Photoshop can determine the distance between primary colors on the color wheel, starting with red and moving clockwise around. Therefore, by applying a Hue adjustment in the Hue/Saturation dialog box, you are essentially spinning the color wheel in order to adjust the color in your image.
Color adjustments can also be made by shifting the colors in your image toward one of the six primary colors. Red, green, and blue are the exact opposites of cyan, magenta, and yellow, respectively. Therefore, adding red takes away cyan, adding green takes away magenta, adding yellow takes away blue, and vice versa all the way around. When you push the colors in an image toward one of the primary colors, all of the image’s colors become more alike. Also notice that as the colors move toward the center of the wheel, they become less colorful and eventually lead to white. The colors on the outer edge of the wheel are the most vibrant, while the center of the wheel contains no color at all (this represents neutral gray). Photoshop describes how vibrant a color is by using percentages, which are referred to as saturation values. A 100% saturation value refers to the colors on the outer edge of the wheel, whereas 0% refers to the center of the wheel, or gray (no color at all). All other saturation values are located between the outer edge and the center. The one other thing that Photoshop’s color controls refer to, but the color wheel does not reflect, is the brightness levels of all the colors. Photoshop uses three terms to describe brightness in a color: brightness, lightness, and luminosity, and they all mean the same thing—how light or dark a color appears.
Working with Color
![Working with Color]()
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