Retro_Link Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 How do you go about recolouring your photo's/images so that you can directly blend them with your background colour, as shown in this graphic?... Do you basically change the image to black & white, then manually recolour the black and white occordingly, or is there a better way? Some sort of colour screen or something?
Wesley Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 Agh, the thread got cut in half when I was posting. Anyways... in short, create a selection, fiddle with a mask if you want, then use a hue/saturation adjustment layer, check colourise and away you go.
Retro_Link Posted February 22, 2009 Author Posted February 22, 2009 OK I can't seem to do it, does someone mind taking me as a novice and walking me through the process? alternatively are there online guides for this sort of thing?
Wesley Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 Okay so here you have a simple image that is all one colour (also imagine that it is one single layer like the other pictures). You make a selection (based on the image of course, but for this it will be a simple circle). Then you can press Q to enter quick mask, where you can use black and white paint to soften edges and change your selection (you can even use a filter like blur to soften). Then press Q again to get out of mask mode and you have a nice selection. Then press the black and white circle button at the bottom of the layers panel to open up adjustment options. Click Hue/Saturation from the menu. Here you can check the colourise box and play with the sliders to change the colour. Happy holidays. So here is an example (a quick, shoddy example) with your picture:
Retro_Link Posted February 22, 2009 Author Posted February 22, 2009 OK I think I explained it wrong, because I now see what you mean but it's not what I meant. It's not my graphic, I'm trying to achieve it. You see the photo in the top right of the above graphic. They have altered its colouring so it is almost two tone; the dark areas of the photo have gone dark greenish and they have somehow made the light colours transparent [or whatever they have done], so that they are the same as the colour of the overall background. I'm basically trying to create the effect that they have with their photo's and images!
Emasher Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 You're going to want to do what was mentioned above, and then use blending on the layer.
Wesley Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 Ah now I see. I just jumped the gun thinking you meant something else.
Retro_Link Posted February 22, 2009 Author Posted February 22, 2009 I'm not sure that does it, but maybe I'm doing something wrong!... So say this photo... and this background... and I want to create an effect like...
Eddage Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 I just wrote out a long explanation but accidentally deleted it... Take first image (cranes) > ctrl+shift+u to desaturate (make black and white) > ctrl+m to adjust curves then play around until the grey mid tones have gone (you can either have lots of black and little white or other way round) Copy image and paste onto background > set layer to "multiply" (drop down box in top left of layer window, default is "normal"), this will get rid of the white so you have background colour and black. If you want to change the black to a different colour... Click "create new fill or adjustment layer button (fourth from right at bottom of layers window) and select hue/saturation > You need to link the hue/sat layer to the crane image (or else bg colour changes as well) to do this hold alt and click the line in between the two layers in the layer window (cursor changes to two overlapping circles and an arrow pointing left). Now you can select "colourize" box and mess around with the colour as well as light/darkness... That took me about a minute. Typing the explanation up took a hell of a lot longer!
Retro_Link Posted February 22, 2009 Author Posted February 22, 2009 You legend! Thanks so much, I owe you man! I just couldn't get the right combination of steps to create it; though I did manage quite a cool blueprint style one!... EDIT: OK I still can't do this! Once you've desaturated the image, you can't change it's colour away from it being within the grayscale confines. This is as far as I've got... Desaturated, Curves, Copy and Paste on, Multiple... ... but even so, it's not as if the image is just in black and white, it's in grayscale.
Eddage Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 You need to play around with the curves more... When the lines vertical like that then it will get rid of the greys in the middle and depending on how far to the right/left it is will change the black/white ratio.
Retro_Link Posted February 22, 2009 Author Posted February 22, 2009 Ah OK cheers, haven't had to use curves before! You see in this image how there are still some colour variation within the green, so it gives it a slightly more 3D effect [as opposed to more of a stamp effect], is there a way of doing this?...
Eddage Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 I suppose if you do leave some grey in the picture then when you change the black that grey should change as well, but will be a lighter shade... If you want it a different colour though then I'm not sure what to suggest.
Shorty Posted February 22, 2009 Posted February 22, 2009 Hm. I would've just made the layer black and white, then added a blue layer and set the blend to 'color'. The reason yours came out darker was just because there was too much prominent black in the original, compared to the example you're trying to achieve. Lowering the transparency of the photo layer or upping the levels of white would solve that. (I'm saying all this on a system without PS so I can't check any of this....)
Retro_Link Posted February 22, 2009 Author Posted February 22, 2009 OK, so I got this one to work... Had a go at Shorty's and yeah it seems a combination of both approaches start to get the effect. Setting the photo layer to black and white, and layer type multiple. Creating a colour layer the same as the background over the top, and setting layer type to colour. Then playing around with the curves and it's kinda getting there [not the same colour scheme mind]... Yeah think it's because it's a dark image aswell, will have to try lightening it somehow. Anyways, I'm getting there!... THANKS GUYS!!
EEVILMURRAY Posted February 24, 2009 Posted February 24, 2009 I tried copying the image onto the background but it just made it a new layer, plus it doesn't actually seem to copy the actual image, just the colour one I copied from here :s EDIT Scratch that. But I'm having trouble afterwards: If you want to change the black to a different colour... Click "create new fill or adjustment layer button (fourth from right at bottom of layers window) and select hue/saturation > You need to link the hue/sat layer to the crane image (or else bg colour changes as well) to do this hold alt and click the line in between the two layers in the layer window (cursor changes to two overlapping circles and an arrow pointing left). Now you can select "colourize" box and mess around with the colour as well as light/darkness... How do I change the black to a different colour? I can get on the hue/saturation, but I'm not sure how I go about linking the layer to the crane image, moving the things back and forth make it brighter, but the other two do practically bugger all. And trying to click between the two layers seems impossible.
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