If an object is created as grayscale, and I either change the color mode to RGB or copy and paste that object into an RGB file, the object itself, the layer, seems to remain grayscale. If I try to "replace color," for example, it will only allow a grayscale color replacement on that layer even though the rest of the layers in the same document are full of color.
It seems as though that particular layer remains grayscale even though the overall document it’s in is RGB.
How do I change the color mode of that particular layer so I can replace white with a slightly rosy off-white, for example, instead of just another shade of gray. All I’ve been able to figure out so far is to do a "tint overlay." That seems to work fairly well, but there has to be a way to use functions like "replace color" to do this.
I’m probably obviously relatively new to Photoshop (using CS4); please forgive me if this is way obvious. I did search help, the knowledge base, and this forum’s messages.
Give your photos a professional finish with sharpening in Photoshop. Learn to enhance details, create contrast, and prepare your images for print, web, and social media.
Well, you just confirmed what a beginner I am. 🙂 I tried using curves and levels, and sure enough I can get color in the layer. Apparently what I didn’t (and still don’t, honestly) understand is that I can’t select _white_ in "replace colors" and replace that with color, maybe because in a strict sense white isn’t a color?
I’ll fool around with this, and I’ll try the saturation/hue layer also, some more and try to understand it.
OK, if you folks are willing to try to educate me again, I’m still confused: I still can’t "replace color" from grayscale to color. Here are my test steps:
I create a document in grayscale. I draw a few things in various shades of gray with a brush. I change the color mode to RGB. I draw a few additional things with the brush, now in various colors. All of this is on one layer.
Now I go to adjustments>replace colors. If I click the eyedropper on any of the colored areas, I can change them to the various shades of whatever color I desire. BUT if I click on any of the shades of gray, it doesn’t matter what color I put in the replacement color part of the dialog, no color appears in the image, only changes in shades of gray.
I am only able to replace that gray with a different shade of gray!
Can you help me understand this? I can get around it, I guess, by simply using another way of getting color into those areas, but it’s driving me crazy as I’m trying to _understand_ Photoshop that I can’t seem to understand how this tool works.
In your rgb image, click on your grey layer, click on add adjustment layer button and add a hue/sat adjustment layer, click on colorize, slide hue and saturation controls….
If you are trying to change White to a color (or to change Black to a color for that matter!) you need to move the Lightness slider in both Replace Color or in Hue/Saturation.
MANY thanks for the kind and helpful guidance from all! I got the adjustment layer to work, but it colored the entire image. Then I studied up on clipping masks and got it to work only on the area I wanted; cool!
I still can’t get the Replace Color thing to work, though. I can get the effect I want the other way, but it’s driving me crazy that I can’t make Replace color work the way the instructions/tutorials suggest I should be able to:
I have an object that’s grayscale on a layer. I open Image/Adjustments/Replace Color. I click with the eyedropper on a white area, both squares in the dialog turn white. I drag the Lightness slider down, say, to -30; the white areas of the object turn gray as does the square in the Replacement part of the dialog. I click in that square to change the replacement color, up comes the Color Picker. Let’s say I select Red and hit OK. The square in the Replacement part of the Replace Color dialog turns red, but the object remains GRAY! Hitting OK in the Replace Colors dialog now indeed makes the object gray, NOT red!
"Replace Color does seem to work only when you do NOT have a PURE equi-colored gray object (128,128,128 for example) or a black or white object."
Ah… I’m SO relieved to read that! It’s bad luck, I guess, that the first time I tried to use "Replace Color" it was on a pure grayscale object, but I don’t feel like quite such an idiot that I couldn’t make it work, now that I read that the one thing I happened to have started with is something it won’t do!
Many thanks!
Thanks also for the links to the videos, and for all the kind and helpful posts!
Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!
Related Discussion Topics
Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections
