PSE11 - recoloring an element

6 posts / 0 new
Last post
PSE11 - recoloring an element

I need to take a poser-type picture of a brown squirrel and through the magic of photoshop turn him black. The only problem is I have absolutely no idea how to do it, and all the tutorials I can find are either for photoshop proper (I have elements) and have like a zillion steps, or don't preserve all of the subtle shading (pretty much creating a solid black blob in the shape of a squirrel). Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

You could try lightening the photo through the light adjustment before changing it to black.What ever way you do it you will have to select the little fellow to use him if he is on a background .... if you use the black and white converter under enhance there are different choices there where you can slide them until you get what you want and experiment. If that doesn't get quite what you want then go back to enhance with the black and white image and choose light adjustment and try the output levels on the bottom and move the slider or reset and try the input levels ... you have to be willing to experiment a bit ... that's the fun part of photoshop.

I can't believe it never occurred to me to make the clip black & white - d'oh! Thanks! smiley

You could also create a layer overtop of him. Cover it in black. Then clip it to the squirrel. Now the magic: go to the layer panel. Where it says normal, change it to color.

This doesn't work perfectly on everything, but it does a great job on the majority of things. And much easier than adjustment layers. Oh, and you can recolor the clipped layer if it's too dark, or whatever.

That is wonderful! I never even noticed I could change that setting! Can't talk now, have to play...

In case of converting something to black and white/grayscale, you can go to image>adjustments>desaturate - ta da smiley