Level 3

Lesson 20

Learning how to replace specific colors with new color values using the Replace Color command

Introduction

The Replace Color command lets you create a mask based on specific colors in an image. Select the areas exposed by the mask and then change the color of these areas.

The following lesson will teach you how to replace specific colors with new color values using the Replace Color command.

·   Open a file containing areas of related color.

·   Go to the “Menu bar”.

·   Choose Image > Adjustments > Replace Color.

The black rectangle is the preview area (if the rectangle is not totally black, drag the Fuzziness slider to 0).

·   Check the [ Preview ] box so that we can see the effect of changes in the image.

·   Click the [ Selection ] button below the black rectangle. This allows you to see the mask that will be generated.

Notice: If we click the “Image” button below the black rectangle, we will see a reduced version of the image.

·   Select the [ Eyedropper ] tool.

·   Using the [ Eyedropper ] tool, click on the color we want to replace.

·   Select the [ Add To Sample Eyedropper ] tool.

·   Using the [ Add To Sample Eyedropper ] tool, click other areas in the tree leaves to add related colors to the selection.

Every time we click a different area in the image:

The “Preview” area updates to show the resulting mask.

Notice: The masked areas are black; the unmasked areas are white, and partially masked areas are gray.

The masked areas are protected from editing; the unmasked areas are the targets for change.

·   Drag the [ Fuzziness ] slider toward the right side to expand the target areas for change.

·   As we drag the slider, watch the change in the “Preview” area. Stop when the unmasked area is as we want it.

·   Drag the “Hue” slider while watching the tree leaves change color in the document window. Stop when the leaves show the color we want. (The Result swatch will also change as we move the sliders).

·   Drag the “Saturation” slider a short distance toward the right side to increase the saturation of color slightly.

·   Click [ OK ] to apply the change.

Conclusion

In this lesson, we learned that Replace Color command lets us select areas of related colors and then adjust the hue, saturation and lightness of those areas.