Help: Change brown to white

[CodyRoche]

I am shooting product pictures of hats for a friend. I used Photoshop to create a ghost-mannequin style shot of the hat. They have four different colors of hats. I have managed to change the colors to match three hats. But I am having troubles changing the colors to a believable white. I have tried using hue/saturation and black/white adjustment layers. Neither of them get me anywhere close. The closest I have gotten, is by inverting the colors and then dropping the blue/cyan colors using hue/saturation. But this looks "off" because the shadows in the fabric become highlights and highlights, shadows.

This has been driving me crazy for weeks. I feel that it should be possible. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated! If need be, I can probably post a picture a little later on.

 

[IamSam]

If need be, I can probably post a picture a little later on.

Thanks, that will help.

 

[IamSam]

Here's one way.

Brown .....


To white....


Isolate hat (remove background)

View the channels panel and see which layer is the lightest. In this case it was red. Return channels back to RGB.

Create a new layer above the hat layer.
Go to IMAGE > APPLY IMAGE choose the red channel (See settings below)


Go to LAYER > NEW FILL LAYER > Solid Color > select white > set blending mode to "overlay".
Clip this layer to the applied image layer.

Go to LAYER > NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER > Hue/Saturation.
Clip this layer to the solid color layer.
Adjust the lightness higher to satisfaction (+51 in this case)

 

[CodyRoche]

I tried the method listed above and am still coming up with poor results. Maybe it is my execution. Here is a PNG of the hat I am trying to convert to white. I am new to the form so let me know if I need to change anything about upload.

Don't worry about masking out letters or stars. I am capable of masking those out appropriately once I have the white part down. The darker brown and the tan need to be white.

Thanks again for the help!

 

[IamSam]

Your hat was a bit more of a challenge! I had to use a different technique altogether. 10 layers total.



Same principle as above, I just removed the white color fill layer and substituted a black & white adjustment layer for the applied image layer. But I still used the H&S layer and a Curves adjustment layer to accentuate the highlights.

I had to separate the mesh area and the darker backside of the band. I used H&S layers to add the white.

Top half of layers panel...


Bottom half.

 

[CodyRoche]

Your hat was a bit more of a challenge! I had to use a different technique altogether. 10 layers total.

View attachment 99926

That looks awesome! I think I can duplicate that based on the layers you showed. But I may be back later for a little more information. Thanks again!!

 

[Redz166]

awesome guide!, there is also another method to do this, i will try to share a guide as soon as i get the chance.

 

[CodyRoche]

Your hat was a bit more of a challenge! I had to use a different technique altogether. 10 layers total.
Same principle as above, I just removed the white color fill layer and substituted a black & white adjustment layer for the applied image layer. But I still used the H&S layer and a Curves adjustment layer to accentuate the highlights.

Alright, you're going to have to give me a hint as to what you're doing in the top three adjustment layers. Apparently I don't grasp their functionality enough to reproduce your results without any context.

 

[IamSam]

Alright, you're going to have to give me a hint as to what you're doing in the top three adjustment layers. Apparently I don't grasp their functionality enough to reproduce your results without any context.

Sure.