changing colour of a motif

[jerseyboy]

I have a single colour pendant (blue) and would like to make a red, green and silver version. What is the best tool to do this with?

Any help very welcome. Thanks in advance.

 

[Lumpsack]

Should just be a case of changing the colour - I found this tutorial which may help.

 

[cringer8]

It would really help to see the pendant :/

Sometimes, just playing with the Hue can achieve good enough results, but that depends on what else is in the image. When you create a Hue adjustment layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer> Hue/Saturation), change the dropdown at the top of the dialog box from "Master" to "Blues." A little eyedropper will activate at the bottom of the dialog box that you can use to isolate the color you want to adjust. Use the eyedropper with the minus sign to select a color range in the image you want to preserve. Once you have the color range you want changed isolated and refined (using the lower slider), use the upper slider to change the hue. After you're done with that, you can use the resulting layer mask and a low opacity soft brush to reduce any unwanted effects.

 

[jerseyboy]

Should just be a case of changing the colour - I found this tutorial which may help.

Thanks. Due to a very poor internet connection this takes forever to load. I prefer written instructions. But thanks anyway.

 

[jerseyboy]

It would really help to see the pendant :/

Sometimes, just playing with the Hue can achieve good enough results, but that depends on what else is in the image. When you create a Hue adjustment layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer> Hue/Saturation), change the dropdown at the top of the dialog box from "Master" to "Blues."...

Many thanks for this info which I am going to experiment with.

 

[jerseyboy]

It would really help to see the pendant :/

Sometimes, just playing with the Hue can achieve good enough results, but that depends on what else is in the image. When you create a Hue adjustment layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer> Hue/Saturation), ....

Yes this works very well. Is there a way to "dial-in" a Pantone colour as the replacement colour?

 

[cringer8]

This may sound silly, but create a new new layer above your adjustment layer and paint a fat stroke of your desired Pantone color over the pendant. Adjust the hue of the pendant until they match, lol. The only way to truly nail a Pantone color in Photoshop is to create with it from scratch. Even then, there's no guarantee a four color color printer will output it perfectly, so don't sweat it too much

When emulating spot colors, "close" is as good as it gets...

 

[jerseyboy]

This may sound silly, but create a new new layer above your adjustment layer and paint a fat stroke of your desired Pantone color over the pendant. Adjust the hue of the pendant until they match, lol. ...
When emulating spot colors, "close" is as good as it gets...

To me it doesn't sound "silly" more like "genius tips". This works but I would like to fill my shape with this colour automatically. I can select it easily enough I just need the Pantone colour to replace the existing one.

 

[Lumpsack]

I've not tried it, but could you do as cringer8 says but instead of using one layer have as many as you need with the base colour filled to the shape and mask to keep the area clean, then just copy and recolour.

If its any help I found this which may help with the pantone problem.

 

[jerseyboy]

Thanks to all the input on this thread and with my personal experimentation I have now a much clearer idea of what I need to do.

If someone could walk me through the steps in a Photoshop manner I would be grateful.

With my initial image open (a dove shape pendant on a unified background) I would like to select the shape, make 5 layers, and change each of the layers so that my pendant is 5 different Panatone colours - light blue 279C, dark blue 2745C... etc. (I would also like to make a silver one but cannot find out how within Photoshop - it looks as if I may have to resort to Alien Skin's Eye Candy, or is there another way?)

I would then like to save the PSD and be able to tweek the colours and saving them as Jpegs as necessary.

Thanks again for your input which is much appreciated.

 

[cringer8]

Could you upload the image of the dove pendant? A lot of factors will affect the proper solution...

Here's something I did just now:

Original Image:


I made a selection of the blue area I wanted changed (I used the red channel and the selection brush)
Then, I created a new photo filter adjustment layer (Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Photo Filter)
The mask should automatically apply to the new layer so that the Filter only applies to the blue section and leaves the silver untouched.
Next, I went back to the original layer and used a Hue/Saturation adjustment and reduced the saturation to zero (grayscale)
After that, I went to the option on my photo filter adjustment layer and checked the "Preserve Luminosity" box and kicked the slider up to 100%.
Then, you can choose the "Color" option, change to Pantones, and select the Pantone color you want.
I duplicated that filter adjustment layer and chose different Pantone colors for each. Then you can leave only the color you want turned on (using the eyball next to the layer) and save it as a JPG.

Here's how it ended up:


This was a quick, five minute solution, but I'm not sure if it would work in your case. At least this way you get to pick your Pantone colors and feel good about that

 

[jerseyboy]

Could you upload the image of the dove pendant? A lot of factors will affect the proper solution...

Here's something I did just now:

That solution looks pretty good. Here is the pendant in question. I need to make it dark blue, red green, black and silver and have the Panatone references for the shades that I need - except the black and silver.

 

[jerseyboy]

Here's something I did just now:

Original Image:


I made a selection of the blue area I wanted changed (I used the red channel and the selection brush)

Please can you elaborate the exact steps that you took to do this please? I would like to use this method with the selection brush but have never come across it - I have been selecting with the magic wand tool.

 

[cringer8]

Sorry, I didn't see you had posted again...

Step One: Make a selection of the pendant. Use whatever method you like. The Pen tool would probably work best with the image you provided, because it is such a low resolution, any automatic selection tool is going to grab unwanted pixels. Even the polygonal lasso would work just fine if you click enough (Make sure to also grab the reflection color in the bail of the pendant for realism)

Step Two: With that selection active, go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation. Just click "OK" on the dialog box that opens (you don't need to name this or create a clipping mask using the previous layer). Your selection will go away and become a layer mask for that adjustment layer. Now, slide the saturation all the way to 0%. Your image should look like this:


Step 3: While holding CTRL, click the layer mask that is on the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. This will reload your selection of the pendant. Now, go to Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Photo Filter. Again, just click "OK" to create the layer. Again, your selection will become a layer mask for that layer. In the Photo Filter options palette, choose the "Color" radio button and slide the strength all the way up. Make sure "Preserve Luminosity" is checked. You can then click on the color swatch to open the color picker. Change to color library and choose your Pantone catalog (I found Coated to work best)


Step 4: Because your original pendant image was so pale, you'll notice the new colors are also pale. Reload your selection (CTRL click any layer mask), create another adjustment layer, but this time a Levels adjustment layer. Make sure you place this adjustment layer ABOVE the hue/saturation layer and BELOW the photo filter layers. Slide the gray arrow (middle arrow) toward the whites (to the right) until you have the desired color intensity.

Last Step: Now just duplicate your photo filter adjustment layer as many times as you want. You can turn off all but one by using the little eyeball button next to the layer. Double click the photo filter icon in the layer (it looks like a camera with a circle in front of it), this will open the options. Change the color on each new photo filter layer to your desired Pantone value. Now you can turn them on and off individually and save as JPEGs.

Here's what my red one ended up looking like:

 

[jerseyboy]

Last Step: Now just duplicate your photo filter adjustment layer as many times as you want. You can turn off all but one by using the little eyeball button next to the layer. Double click the photo filter icon in the layer (it looks like a camera with a circle in front of it), this will open the options. Change the color on each new photo filter layer to your desired Pantone value. Now you can turn them on and off individually and save as JPEGs.

Many thanks. One strange is that when I duplicate the Photo Filter layer only certain Panatone colours seem to be accepted. My pendant just will not change into 281C (dark blue). I have narrowed it down to the question of checking or not the "preserve luminosity" box.

 

[cringer8]

Many thanks. One strange is that when I duplicate the Photo Filter layer only certain Panatone colours seem to be accepted. My pendant just will not change into 281C (dark blue). I have narrowed it down to the question of checking or not the "preserve luminosity" box.

Refer to step 4 and move the center slider further to the right. This will increase the darkness of the applied colors. Move it until your dark blue looks good. When you switch to one of the other colors, if it got too dark, just slide that middle slider to the left until it looks good again. You'll have to play with the levels for the different colors, but at least it's easy

 

[jerseyboy]

Refer to step 4 and move the center slider further to the right. This will increase the darkness of the applied colors. Move it until your dark blue looks good. When you switch to one of the other colors, if it got too dark, just slide that middle slider to the left until it looks good again. You'll have to play with the levels for the different colors, but at least it's easy

I am struggling a bit as I cannot get the nice royal blue colour (Pantone 072C). I have "played with the levels" but to no avail. I have also changed my base image to a green one.

 

[cringer8]

Hey, that looks pretty good Try adding a hue/saturation adjustment layer above your photo filter layer, but check the box that says "Use Previous Layer as Clipping Mask" and then bump up the saturation. See if that helps...

 

[jerseyboy]

Hey, that looks pretty good Try adding a hue/saturation adjustment layer above your photo filter layer, but check the box that says "Use Previous Layer as Clipping Mask" and then bump up the saturation. See if that helps...

Yes, that works fine and I can get the blue that I require but I was rather hoping that I could replace my original colour with a predefined Pantone one without the fiddling. Once I start adjusting the saturation sliders I no longer see my Pantone reference to compare with - a bit of a viscous circle...

 

[cringer8]

Lol, I hear ya. The thing with applying color, it will always be different depending on the surface to which you apply it. Even in printing, the same Pantone color will look drastically different printed on matte paper vs. glossy. That's why they have different formulas depending on the substrate

Sorry it couldn't work out the way you wanted :/