Car Color Change

First set up your document according to the Technical Elements required.

Next, import your image and drop it into the document you’ve set up.

Size your image to fit into the window of your document the way you want it. You can arrange it so some of the background is not a part of the final image if you wish.

DO NOT forget to make a duplicate layer of your original image and name it Color Change, then you are ready for the Quick Mask.

We are going to use a Quick Mask to restrict our Replace Color command to only the red parts of the car. I could use one of the Lasso tools to select the red parts, but if you’re not good with the Lasso tool or just don’t have the time, an easier way would to be to use a Quick Mask.

Click on the Quick Mask icon to switch from Standard Mode to Quick Mask.

When you use a Quick Mask, you select an area by painting an overlay onto the image. You can adjust the color and opacity of the overlay by double clicking on the Quick Mask icon (you might do this depending on the color of your image). Later, when you switch back to Standard Mode, the area that was covered with the overlay will be selected as if you’d used the Lasso tool.

Time to click on the Brush icon and then use the Brush Preset Picker to choose a brush shape and size. Be sure to set the brush hardness to 100%.

Be sure that you have your two color swatches set to the default black and white to be used with the Quick Mask. Quick Mask won’t work unless you have black and white selected. You can paint in your mask with black selected as the main swatch, and then reverse the black with white to erase areas of your mask you want to clean up….

Time to paint in the areas of the car you want to select and then replace the color.

I’ve got all the areas of the car that I want to change painted over with my Quick Mask. I’m now ready to switch back to Standard Mode.

Click back to Standard Mode Click back to Standard Mode. ** If your selection is of the whole screen except what you painted in the Quick Mask, you will have to go to Select > Inverse to then select the areas of the car you wish to change. If when you switch to Standard Mode and only the areas of the car are selected, then you do not need to do this step. **

Once you switch back to Standard Mode, you see the trail of “marching ants” around the area that you painted in the Quick Mask. If you see the “ants” around the entire edge of the image and not around the area you painted, then you must do Select > Inverse to select the area you wish to change instead of the whole screen. If there are areas not selected by your Quick Mask, you can always click back onto Quick Mask and continue painting in those areas that have been left out.

Before you go any further,….STOP!!!!! You have the selection you want to use,…what should you do now????? Yes! Save that selection!!!! Save it under <save selection and name it so that you don’t have to re-paint your selection later if you mess things up. If you try to save when in Quick Mask mode, it will not work. You must save your selection in Standard Mode.

Now go to Image > Adjustments > Replace Color… and you will have the Replace Color window pop up. (you have used this function in previous lessons in the text book)

Go ahead and play around with the sliders to change colors, saturation and lightness until you get something you like that looks good.

As you adjust the Replace Color sliders, you may notice areas that are not changing. To remedy this, use the Eyedropper + tool to click and select those areas that are not changing. When you do this, you will notice an immediate color replacement.

Once you’ve got the color changed to what you like, Deselect Once you’ve got the color changed to what you like, Deselect. I have now changed my car color from red to yellow. 

Or turquoise. 

Or green. 