How to boost Brown color?

[michaelvs]

Hi there!

I am working on a scan of a painting that has a lot of brown. My scanner eats out brown and turns it into grey.


I am trying to fix it by increasing yellow color using Hue and Saturation or Color balance. The result is the illustration becomes yellow but not brown. When I increase red, it becomes too reddish but not brown.


Does anyone know how to return natural brown color without making it yellow or red?


Thank you

 

[Dezigns Unlimited]

You might try going to Image> Adjustments> Replace Color > then select the color you are trying to fix.. It works about 60% of the time, you can adjust the spread..

 

[michaelvs]

You might try going to Image> Adjustments> Replace Color > then select the color you are trying to fix.. It works about 60% of the time, you can adjust the spread..

I hoped I could correct it using Hue/Saturation or Color balance dialog. Brown should be yellow plus another color according to the Color Theory, right?

 

[Dezigns Unlimited]

Just post the picture so i can see what you are working with, mix green and yellow for brown, you can add a little blue and red also depending on where you want it to go.

 

[ibclare]

Good idea Dezigns. Without seeing it, it's hard to know. If you could make a selection of the piece you want brown, you could clip a color to it, use multiply, duplicate the color layer or play with the darkness and intensity. Fool around with blend modes, etc. Sometimes I use two layers of different colors to get a custom blend without fooling around with trying to get the one color correct.

But yes, it would help to see what you have to work with!

 

[Tom Mann]

The previous posters are right -- you absolutely must post a copy of the item you need to color correct. It doesn't have to be very high resolution (if you are worried about image theft), but we need to know whether or not all colors need to be shifted, only very weak gray-brown colors need to be made more saturated, whether only the darker or only the lighter tones need to be made more brown, whether the correction is mostly in the hue or the saturation of the area, etc., etc.

In PS, there are an astonishingly large number of ways to do something like this, each with somewhat different effects, and each with different unintended side effects.

Without seeing what you are dealing with, any advice is just a guess.

Tom M

 

[michaelvs]

here is the sample. The building must be more brown but not yellow. I am trying to make it with Hue/Saturation but it becomes ugly yellow. If to increase green too - it doesn't change anything.

 

[Tom Mann]

I hate to be obtuse, but *which* building are u referring to? There are quite a few bldgs in that image. Some have what i would call small areas of grayish browns. Some currently have peach or other colors, some have multiple colors. Could u just put a red dot or something on each area that u want to make more brown.

Tnx,

Tom

 

[michaelvs]

I hate to be obtuse, but *which* building are u referring to? There are quite a few bldgs in that image. Some have what i would call small areas of grayish browns. Some currently have peach or other colors, some have multiple colors. Could u just put a red dot or something on each area that u want to make more brown.

Tnx,

Tom

Here is what happens when I increase yellow. You see, some parts of the building, marked in green, become ugly yellow. While what I want to be intense Brown is still the same, see marked in red.

Thank you

 

[iDad]

Why not just select that area make a copy of it a separate layer and color overlay it? Within the color overlay mode tweak the opacity levels Or layer mode to where you want to

 

[Tom Mann]

Thank you for your response, but I'm still not sure exactly what you want. In post #7 in this thread, you say that you want "the building (singular) should be more brown". However, in your most recent post, you put colored dots on buildings #1, #2, and #3, as well as on a point on the street.

Am I to infer that you want all buildings (and possibly, even everything in the image) more brown?

For convenience, I've attached a version of you image where I've numbered the buildings.

Also, I've attached another version where I applied a very strong brown tint to the entire image. Is this the sort of color you are looking for in specific areas?

Tom

 

[Tom Mann]

Heh, heh - if the OP doesn't reappear soon, we'll perpetrate all sorts of unnatural acts upon his image...

 

[michaelvs]

Heh, heh - if the OP doesn't reappear soon, we'll perpetrate all sorts of unnatural acts upon his image...

Sorry, I am here... Thank you for torturing my image This last version that you did is very similar to what I wanted. How did you do this?

I was hoping to boost brown color only with hue/saturation dialog without working with particular parts of the image separately.

But the problem is when I boost yellow, some part of the image become too yellow, e.g. the doors that I marked in green become yellow too, while they should stay grey.

 

[hawkeye]

There are many methods to change colors in Photoshop, this is a Selective Color adjustment layer targeting yellow.

 

[IamSam]

As both iDad and Hawkeye suggested, making a selection of a particular area then adding a adjustment to the isolated area seems to be what your needing. TUTORIAL

I prefer iDads method making a selection, duplicating, and then adding an adjustment layer so you can always come back and re-adjust later.

A one click adjustment will not suffice if your intent is to maintain the original colors of some areas and not others.

 

[hawkeye]

As both iDad and Hawkeye suggested, making a selection of a particular area then adding a adjustment to the isolated area seems to be what your needing. TUTORIAL

I prefer iDads method making a selection, duplicating, and then adding an adjustment layer so you can always come back and re-adjust later.

A one click adjustment will not suffice if your intent is to maintain the original colors of some areas and not others.

In this case I didn't make a selection, I just added the adjustment layer. But certainly it could be masked to isolate the effect to a specific area.

 

[IamSam]

But certainly it could be masked to isolate the effect to a specific area.

Yes! I always mask everything, I don't know why I keep forgetting to mention it! Thanks hawkeye!

I now understand that your were targeting yellows only, not sure about the technique, but I will research it, thanks again!

 

[IamSam]

hawkeye, what settings did you use?

 

[hawkeye]

Check Absolute and set all the slider to 100%.

 

[IamSam]

I used....



Seemed to look pretty good to me! But the OP can adjust using this Layer Adjustment to their taste.

See, I learn something almost every time I visit PSG! Thanks hawk!