How-To: Changing car colour...

[beeb]

Well i've been meaning to post up a "How-To" on how I do colour changes for a while now, so i finally sat down and plotted out the process...


Rightio, so i choose this image to start with (pretty sure the car belongs to a forum member from on here actually). I will doing the chop with Adobe Photoshop CS4, but most recent photoshops are fairly similar so should apply to most anyway, or at least give a good idea of the process used...





1. So, to start with I use the lasso tool to select the main body colour. I just worry about getting the main shape for now, anything picked up that's not needed can be cut away later (items like the headlights, signwriting, driver's side window, etc...).





2. I then copy and paste that selection onto another layer. (I have hidden the background to give a clear impression of what has been copied here...)





3. I then use the lasso tool to mark out things like the headlights, side window, mirror arm, and signwriting that i do not want to alter the colour of and hit delete. (Just a side note here - After you complete a loop with the lasso tool, you can hold the Shift key and use the lasso tool to add extra areas, or the Alt key to remove selected areas. You'll see a little plus or minus appear next to the lasso tool icon while you hold either key.)



Now i am left with just the base colour - The part i want to change...



4. I now desaturate the colour layer so i can begin to lay down a new colour. As you can see there is a large amount of red showing through from around the edges of the colour layer. We will now correct this.





5. Returning to the Background layer, select the areas where the red is showing around the desatured "Colour" layer (In this case Layer 1) like so...





6. Copy and paste this as another new layer - but underneath the colour layer. Then desaturate this layer as well.

What this does is to remove the colour "bleeding" from the original colour, but prevent those areas getting coloured with the rest of the colour layer when we add colour to it.

[beeb]

This is where we begin to create the colour we want to apply to the car, in this case i want a strong "mid" blue.

7. From experience I know that starting from the black & white "colour layer" as it currently is would make it very hard to achieve the colour i want. The layer needs to be darker, so using the Levels adjustment we can darken the image as required.



This is how the adjustments on the Levels box work.

The three sliders underneath the wavy graph ("Input Levels") change the contrast of the image. The one of the left alters the shadows, the one on the right alters the highlights, and the one in the middle adjusts the balance in between the two.

The two sliders underneath the "Output Levels" change the range of highlights and shadows. Here i have used the one on the left to limit how dark the shadows of the layer can become. This stops the darkest areas of the shadows "puddling" to create a large area of pure black. This is a very finicky setting, so miminal changes are required for large effect. Go too far and you'll wash the shadows out very quickly. The slider on the right works the same way, but on the highlights of the layer (the bright areas in other words).

Now we have our base image ready - Let's add some colour!





8. Using the Color Balance tool, you can begin to add colour to the colour layer.

When using the Color Balance, be aware that it has adjustments for Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights.

When setting the shadow setting of a colour it is like painting the base colour of a tinted paint, the shadow will set what base colour you build from.

Here i have added some Blue and Cyan to the shadow settings. The Blue is set higher as it will be the main colour, but in this instance i have added the Cyan as it gives the impression of reflecting the colour of the sky.





9. Here i have added more Blue and Cyan, but this time to the Midtones range.





10. Finally, adjust the Highlight settings to finish the colour change. In this case i have used a large amount of blue, and also some green to keep the colour realistic (too pure a colour will look odd as cars reflect the lighting around them, this image has quite warm tones so a pure blue would look out of place). Usually using the amount of adjustment used on the blue would cause the image to look like it is glowing in the bright areas, but in this case it worked fine.





11. I noticed that after the colour change some of the edges of the signwriting were still showing signs of the original red paint.

To fix this issue, simply return to the bottom layer and select the areas you want to change and paste them onto a new layer (Again underneath the main colour layer...).



Once this is done you can either use the same Desaturate > Color Balance method as before, or another method, where you use the Hue/Saturation tool and use the hue slider to change the red to a matching blue.

Here is the product to this point...





12. Because the new colour is darker than the original, it creates the impression that the undercarriage, grille, and inner guards look washed-out.

By copying and pasting these areas from the background layer, and using the Levels tool to adjust them, then moving back to the background layer and using the 'Burn' tool (with a adequately blurred 'Brush' selected) to shade the area under the car as required, you can deepen the shadows to make the image appear more convincing.

So here is the finished product of your colour change...



However, that's not where the fun ends...

[beeb]

13. From here, we will experiment with the Hue/Saturation tool again...

Working from the previous blue-coloured image, simply playing with with the Hue slider creates this brighter turquoise colour.



14. Then it's just a matter of some very minor adjustments with the levels tool again to add the right amount of shadow to the front end...



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Even if you want to start from scratch with the prepped desaturated colour layer there's a vast variety of ways you can use the Color Balance tool to create a plethora of different colour, and imatate different types of paints, such as metallics, pearls, candies, flats, etc...

Here's a couple of examples...

1. Using only the Levels tool it is possible to create a gloss black.



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This next one is a bit trickier...

2. Starting with a dull Blue base...



...Then creating a warm grape coloured purple by adding a large amount of Red to the midtones...



...Then finishing with another strong hit of colour (Blue) in the highlights range to create a bright warm purple car, with a hint of a blue pearl over the paint.



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3. Starting with the Midtones in this instance adding Magenta to the mix creates a nice mild purple...



...However adding more Magenta in the shadows range creates a bold Magenta/Purple.

[beeb]

Well there you have it... That's how i do colour-changes in Photoshop.

Just a few examples to finish off the "How-To"...

Original...


Blue...


Green...


Red...


Black...


Purple...


Magenta... (or as Epitath would say Mangenta... )

[TRIKHQ]

YOUR A LEGEND Thanks Beep


Hey Mark can you make this a sticky , thanks .

[beeb]

Haha, no worries mate. If there's anything else you want to know, let me know.

I'll add to this thread periodically too...

[XR8ED]

Great how-to, beeb.
Exact same method I use for colour changes.

[tonnergirl]

Nice work beeb. Now people out there will know how much bloody work goes into these photochops lol

[beeb]

Thanks for stickying this mark, 'tis appreciated...

[vsd]

Bloody awesome that is unreal how long would that take you to do the one colour change thanks beeb

[vsd]

I gave this photo to a printers to do my cards and asked them to remove some of the shadow so the mirror reflection wasnt as strong. $65 on top of the card price this is what i got back ? can you spot the difference??

[XR8ED]

Yeah, looks like they've just turned up the brightness on the whole image, reflection included. Hate half-arsed people that don't do what ya ask & pay them for.
I'll give it a chop for you tomorrow if you like.

[vsd]

That would be cool for any future printing that 2nd pic is the business card ive just got 1000 off them. Because they said they could do it and i was in a hurry i didnt check till i got home

[beeb]

Bloody awesome that is unreal how long would that take you to do the one colour change thanks beeb

Probably 30-45 minutes for something like this, can be an hour or two for a colour change, wheel change, add bonnet scoop/cowl, add stripes/graphics type chop. I'm pedantic about the details so it probably takes me longer than it should.

[vsd]

Wow thats unreal ive had CS4 for almost a year but havnt tried it yet im using Photoimpact 10. It took me 1/2 hour to get rid of the pine tree in the background of that first pic of mine when i did it for the printers. Ill have to start playing with the csa thanks heaps cheers joe