Photoshop CS5: The Missing Manual

Changing Color

Photoshop is the ultimate recolorizing tool because it gives you the power to put a fresh coat of paint on anything. You can repaint your car, change the color of your cabinets, and even recolor your hair. You can also create cartoonish pop art (Posterizing: Your Ticket to Cartoon Art) or reverse the color in your image (Variations). The next few pages describe all that and more.

Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layers

If you're experimenting with color, start by creating a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer, which offers you a friendly set of sliders that lets you change either the overall color of your image or a specific range of colors (see Targeting a specific range of colors). Because you're working with an Adjustment layer, any color changes take place on a separate layer, leaving your original image unharmed. And since a layer mask automatically tags along with the Adjustment layer, you can use it to hide the color change from certain parts of your image.

If you select an object or specific area of your image before creating a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer, you can change the color in just that one spot. Here's how:

1. Open an image and create a selection using one of the techniques discussed in Chapter 4.

   For example, if you want to change the color of your car, you could use the Quick Selection tool to select just the car. Once it's surrounded by marching ants, you're ready for the next step.

2. Create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer.

   To do so, open the Adjustments panel and ...