Using Replace Colour for Black and Grey colours

I have a grey and black diagram and want to change the grey and black colours to lighter colours. When I use Image>Adjustments>Replace Colour and then click to 'select result colour' and pick red, say. The shade of grey changes - but the colour does not actually change to red. Any any help with this photoshop conundrum would be greatly appreciated. With a good handshake, FM.

"Fridge Magnate" wrote in message

I have a grey and black diagram and want to change the grey and black colours to lighter colours. When I use Image>Adjustments>Replace Colour and then click to 'select result colour' and pick red, say. The shade of grey changes - but the colour does not actually change to red. Any any help with this photoshop conundrum would be greatly appreciated. With a good handshake, FM.

FM,
You are working in RGB aren't you?
Replace Colour needs a colour to replace, it needs a difference or saturation to work on. Black, White and Greys do not have a variation in the RGB channels. All the values are the same, black=255,255,255 white=0,0,0 greys are anything in between but equal in value.

HTH
MH

Mike

Many thanks for taking the time and having the patience to answer such a basic question. Yes, now you say it, it of course all makes perfect sense.

The reason I asked was that the 'replace colour' option seemed to make a much better selection (smoother edges) than the magic wand tool or 'select colour range' tool.

I'm off to continue my steep ascent of the Photoshop learning curve!

Kindest regards

Callum

Callum,

Thanks for your reply, have a look at the following tutorial, http://www.13dots.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=6228
This colours one element in an image, to colour others is simply a matter of duplicating the layers. You could also use the Hue/Saturation set to colorize to colour your layers, but this would need a layer mask to "remove" to parts you didn't want coloured. If you are not familiar with these, go to http://www.pixel2life.com and search for them in the Photoshop section.

Regards
Mike H