Add/change color to a piece of grayscale clipart

M
Posted By
Mike
Oct 18, 2007
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1097
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2
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Closed
I hope someone can help. I’m not a "graphics guy" by any stretch of the imagination, and am just trying to help my daughter do this.

She has a piece of clipart (a violin) that apparently is just grayscale. She has inverted the image so that the lines of the violin are white, on an all-black background. She wants to change the white lines of the violin to yellow. Seems simple enough, but I tried for over an hour to do it and couldn’t. Can anyone help? Thank you!

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C
Charley
Oct 19, 2007
You first need to change the mode of the photo from B/W to color. You can’t apply color to a B/W photo unless you change it’s mode. Then create a new blank layer on top of the photo and change it’s mode to color. Using a small brush, select the color that you want, and carefully paint the strings. Changing the layer mode to color will allow the photo’s details of the string to show through the color and it won’t look painted (have a solid color appearance). Doing this on a separate layer will allow you to change the tint and level of the color (or erase mistakes) without altering the original photo underneath in any way. When finished you can flatten the layers if you want or just save the photo with the layer(s) in PSD format so you can edit it some more at another time. It will print out with the color added in either case.

Adding a layer is much like adding clear plastic sheet over top of your photo onto which you can add or make modifications without permanently altering the photo underneath. I have added as many as 170 layers on a photo that I’ve worked on to add parts of other images and to alter the colors or create colored photos from B/W photos. I keep each operation on it’s own layer so that I can go back and adjust it again at a later time. This eliminates the need to start over if a mistake is made or if I want to try other alternatives.

Charley

"Mike" wrote in message
I hope someone can help. I’m not a "graphics guy" by any stretch of the imagination, and am just trying to help my daughter do this.
She has a piece of clipart (a violin) that apparently is just grayscale. She has inverted the image so that the lines of the violin are white, on an all-black background. She wants to change the white lines of the violin to yellow. Seems simple enough, but I tried for over an hour to do it and couldn’t. Can anyone help? Thank you!
M
Mike
Oct 19, 2007
On Oct 19, 11:59 am, "Charley" wrote:
You first need to change the mode…

Thank you Charley!

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