How to turn black or dark coloured clothing/items white?!?!

[ldn2]

Hi, I have been using Photoshop for a while now but have recently been invited to help design some sportswear. I want to initially take existing clothing and change the colours and add designs. As an example, how would I get this soccer kit to be either all white or white on everything apart from the shorts?



I have managed to get yellow to go white using the hue/saturation tool but dark colours seem like its impossible. I do also want to know how to go from white to a darker colour but maybe I should save that for my next thread.

 

[ldn2]

Appreciate any help etc!

ldn2

 

[schavez]

It's going to take a lot of production time and you will need to pay attention to the little details. I've done this before and it's a pain.
I'm sure theres many ways of doing this. Here is mine:

Clip out the garment ( obviously do not include any of the designs, you dont want that changing colors)
Make a new layer and fill it with a grey color.
Go to filter and set it over Color layer.
You can repeat this a few times without it looking fake or losing details ( pay attention to details or else it will look horrible)
I go back and forth from Color to Overlay while also changing the % on the tab until I get the correct 'white' color I'm looking for. I'll try find a sample of one of the ones I have worked on and post it on here when I get the chance.

Good luck on your project.

 

[ldn2]

It's going to take a lot of production time and you will need to pay attention to the little details. I've done this before and it's a pain.
I'm sure theres many ways of doing this. Here is mine:

Clip out the garment ( obviously do not include any of the designs, you dont want that changing colors)
Make a new layer and fill it with a grey color.
Go to filter and set it over Color layer.
You can repeat this a few times without it looking fake or losing details ( pay attention to details or else it will look horrible)
I go back and forth from Color to Overlay while also changing the % on the tab until I get the correct 'white' color I'm looking for. I'll try find a sample of one of the ones I have worked on and post it on here when I get the chance.

Good luck on your project.

Thanks for the help, however, I have a few questions which may expose me as a photoshop novice. Firstly, when you say clip the part out I want do you mean lasso/marquee/magic wand tool? When I have lasso'd the area I want and right clicked to make new layer the only way I can change the color is to photo filter it. However, as you know that only gives it a slight tint. I know you are probably busy but if you could do a quick detailed step by step guide it would be a MAJOR help.

Appreciate any help,

 

[peta62]

By clip he means select and mask out by layer mask. Selecting can be done by techniques you have described or pen, Colour range and others.

It can do a major change, but your problem is you want to apply it on black, that will be a huge problem, that is the reason why I did not answer your first post, since I am not sure how to do that. I have done it today from almost white, it is a piece of cake there, you can check http://www.photoshopgurus.com/forum...19-photoshop-edit-request.html#post1533601972

 

[ibclare]

If you're careful with your selection, you can use image>adjustment>invert on your selection. Then you can duplicate that, set it to screen and adjust the opacity.

 

[peta62]

If you're careful with your selection, you can use image>adjustment>invert on your selection. Then you can duplicate that, set it to screen and adjust the opacity.

I know you are busy, but could you sometime show how would you do it ? I mean to show your Layers when you do it. I downloaded this picture and played with it. Either it was too dark so the colour had no chance, or the plasticity reverted too. I am afraid I miss something.

 

[peta62]

BTW ldn2, why do you start with white shirt, why don't you just pick another picture ? If you need the head it is much easier to switch head than to get rid of black.

 

[ldn2]

BTW ldn2, why do you start with white shirt, why don't you just pick another picture ? If you need the head it is much easier to switch head than to get rid of black.

Its not the model I am trying to use, it is the item of clothing. For instance if I was trying to use a football shirt with a specific collar it it would great to just use clone stamp to take out badges/logos etc and then change the colour scheme to match what I am looking for. It would be the same if I were designing tennis shoes, liked a specific Nike shoe but didnt want the Nike swoosh on it.

My main problem I am not familiar with using layers. The only work I have done using photoshop I have just altered the background image. I most likely have been doing everything the long way rather than quicker.

 

[ldn2]

BTW ldn2, why do you start with white shirt, why don't you just pick another picture ? If you need the head it is much easier to switch head than to get rid of black.

Its not the model I am trying to use it is the item of clothing. For instance, if I liked the look of a collar on a specific football shirt I would use the clone stamp tool to remove any logos/badges etc and then want to change the colour scheme to suit what I am after. It would be the same if I was designing tennis shoes and liked a Nike template but didnt want the Nike Swoosh on it.

Here is a better image for people to use to explain how it is done. If anyone thinks they could make this dark red Manchester City shirt white and can explain how, please do.



Thanks

 

[ibclare]

I just got home from work a couple hours ago so I'm just getting back to this. Here is a screen capture of the maroon shirt to white.



1) Made a selection of the shirt -- selected the white actually -- and put a mask on it.
2) Duplicated the layer (because I always do -- to keep the original available in the document).
3) Applied the mask; then went to image>adjustment>invert. This turned the shirt an aqua color.
4) Made a layer above, filled it with white, clipped it to the shirt, and set the blend mode to color

The white was harsh and grey so here is a screen capture of what I did to soften the color.



I simply moved the base layer to the top, set it to blend mode screen and reduced the opacity. Using wwarming photo filters also works. Depending on the result you want, you could use any of the photofilters, or experiment with different colored layers. Pretty much the same thing. That's Photoshop; if you can do anything, you can do it 2, if not 3 or 4, ways!

 

[ibclare]

You'll probably still want to up the contrast. A brightness/contrast or curves layer adjustment is my suggestion. You can also do it by making multiple merge-copy layers of the shirt and playing with blend modes and opacities. For instance, I made a copy-merge of the shirt and duplicated it twice. The 2nd layer I set to multiply, the 3rd layer to overlay at 40%. Just for fun. I recommend trying the contrast adjustment, lol. Decrease the brightness and up the contrast, in this example, way up.

Incidentally, once you have your white shirt, you can use the photo filter adjustments to make a lot of colors. If they aren't deep enough, duplicate the layer and set to multiply. If you need deeper still, change the blend mode to linear burn and if the result is not too deep, lower the opacity of the layer. If you aren't getting rich enough color, use linear burn for both layers. You can mess around with color overlay layers as well. Experiment and find what works for you best.

Enjoy and let us know how it's going!

 

[peta62]

This looks great ibclare and thank you very much for sharing. Now for me to fully understand I have one more question. It is still a negative of original, so what was dark on original is light here. Since this shirts hangs flat it is hard to say how did the plasticity change. I needed similar operation some time ago, played with it in approximately the same fashion ( tried to show on the picture ) but the plasticity was inverted too ( concave to convex and vice versa ), so I wonder what does the human eye still take, where does it "create" the correct shape and where not, what decides about it. I know this is beyond Photoshop skills, I am just trying to understand.

 

[Fatboy73]

I was able to get this result by selecting the shirt. De-saturating it. Bring up the Levels box under image/adjustments/levels. Move the middle slider all the way to the left. Move the far right slider left until you reach the desired whiteness. This way you don't have to worry about the lighting being inverted either.

 

[ldn2]

1) Made a selection of the shirt -- selected the white actually -- and put a mask on it.
2) Duplicated the layer (because I always do -- to keep the original available in the document).
3) Applied the mask; then went to image>adjustment>invert. This turned the shirt an aqua color.
4) Made a layer above, filled it with white, clipped it to the shirt, and set the blend mode to color

The white was harsh and grey so here is a screen capture of what I did to soften the color.

View attachment 20719

I simply moved the base layer to the top, set it to blend mode screen and reduced the opacity. Using wwarming photo filters also works. Depending on the result you want, you could use any of the photofilters, or experiment with different colored layers. Pretty much the same thing. That's Photoshop; if you can do anything, you can do it 2, if not 3 or 4, ways!

Thanks again for the info but I am still having a few issues. Firstly I am not familiar with the use of masks. What is a mask and how do I know I have used it? I can get the top to the "aqua" inverted look but I dont know how to move the layers around. I only seem to be able to either see or unsee a layer. I know all of this may be really simple questions but I have only ever used Photoshop just for fun so havent learned from any tutorials. Are there any I should look at to help me with my understanding on youtube etc?

Also, what do you mean by "filled it with white, clipped it to the shirt"? Do you mean you filled one layer with a solid colour? and then make the layer more see-through? that cant be correct because that wouldnt make any difference with this surely?

Sorry for all the questions!

 

[peta62]

I was able to get this result by selecting the shirt. De-saturating it. Bring up the Levels box under image/adjustments/levels. Move the middle slider all the way to the left. Move the far right slider left until you reach the desired whiteness. This way you don't have to worry about the lighting being inverted either.

You are the man, that is exactly it !!! Thank you very much. I think it can be also achieved by curves, but this works perfectly. Thank you very much.

 

[peta62]

Thanks again for the info but I am still having a few issues. Firstly I am not familiar with the use of masks. What is a mask and how do I know I have used it? I can get the top to the "aqua" inverted look but I dont know how to move the layers around. I only seem to be able to either see or unsee a layer. I know all of this may be really simple questions but I have only ever used Photoshop just for fun so havent learned from any tutorials. Are there any I should look at to help me with my understanding on youtube etc?

Also, what do you mean by "filled it with white, clipped it to the shirt"? Do you mean you filled one layer with a solid colour? and then make the layer more see-through? that cant be correct because that wouldnt make any difference with this surely?

Sorry for all the questions!

Do not worry about the questions, you want to learn, you do not want us to do everything for you as majority of others.

Here is a bit of explanation how I have done it, check those three lines, one in each layer which show you what happens if it is masked out. Take mask like something that switches off effect of the layer where it is masked ( black ).

Plus try tutorials, for example youtube if you search for "Photoshop masks/masking" should give you enough.

 

[ldn2]

I was able to get this result by selecting the shirt. De-saturating it. Bring up the Levels box under image/adjustments/levels. Move the middle slider all the way to the left. Move the far right slider left until you reach the desired whiteness. This way you don't have to worry about the lighting being inverted either.View attachment 20724

I appreciate the help but I need as much detail on the item as possible. Although your process may be quicker, I feel ibclares is closer to what I am after......saying that, I cant manage to get either of your results!

 

[Fatboy73]

You are the man, that is exactly it !!! Thank you very much. I think it can be also achieved by curves, but this works perfectly. Thank you very much.

Thanks! Glad I stumbled on to a solution. I really had no clear idea how to do it, I just went in and played around till something worked.

 

[peta62]

Thanks! Glad I stumbled on to a solution. I really had no clear idea how to do it, I just went in and played around till something worked.

I did not even try this path, since I did not realise it could be possible to get from dark to such light colours, but the information is there, so all that needs to be done is to transpond it to lighter spectrum.