How to Photoshop different colors

Since I've gotten a few requests on how to do it, I figured I'd do a write up for anyone who wants to change the colors on their cars. You can DL Adobe Elements for free for a limited time, and the controls should be the same or similar.
For the total novices, some of the program features you'll use are:
The toolbox.

These are the tools you use to actually make the graphics. There are tools for making ellipses, gradients, a paint bucket to fill in large areas, etc. If you leave the mouse on a tool, a little description pops up. Most tools have more than one version, which can be seen by holding down the button when choosing the tool. These multiple option tools have a little triangle to show there are more choices. The two tools I find to be the most important for me are; the Magic Wand tool, and the Lasso tool. When making shapes in Photoshop, the program works by making a ‘selection’ of the shape shown by a dotted line that moves (the marching ants line). In order to manipulate shapes you will be making a selection, often with the magic wand or lasso tools.

Next, the tool bar


We'll be using the Image menu most, and the edit menu.

Then the palettes.

If you go to the toolbar, under Windows, you can select which palettes will appear on the right. In mine, the middle third of the right hand side is the History palette, the bottom third is the Layers palette, and the top I have the navigator window. Other windows I open or close as needed.

The history palette is important. It is basically a multiple Undo. If you change something, then add a new color, then change layer opacity - and then decide you hate it, you can go back to where you started. There is a limit however to how far you can go back, so be careful.

The Layers palette is crucial because Photoshop is all about layers. If you want to create an object, make a new layer first and put it in there. That is the best way to resize or edit a particular object without altering anything else. Next to each layer name is an eyeball. Click the eyeball and the layer disappears from view (it’s still there though). Also, if you have two objects in separate layers but you want to move them together, you can link them. Next to the eyeball is a little empty square. Click it, and you’ll link whatever layer you are on to whatever layer you clicked. The layers can be rearranged by dragging them up or down, sending pieces to the front or back.

OK, now open the image. I'm going to use one from the photoshop thread for which the color wasn't specified. We'll go with blue.


First thing we have to do is get rid of the patch at the bottom of the door. To do that, go to the toolbox, choose the rectangle tool, and make a rectangle just above the patch, but only have white in it. Then, ctrl+c, ctrl+v. When you do that, look in the LAYERS palette and you'll find a new layer was created. That is your rectangle of white. Place it over the rust panel. You'll probably have to reshape it a bit to fit. In the EDIT menu, select TRANSFORM and you'll see options for means of transforming your rectangle. Rotate, scale, etc.. A box will appear around the rectangle with handles you can click and drag to change shape. When done, click over in the toolbox and a window pops open. Select apply.

Over in your layers menu, there's a little triangle on the upper right. Click it. This is where you can make new layers, merge layers, or flatten your image.

I've got make a new layer highlighted in the picture, but you want to flatten image. That will put your patch on the same layer as the car.

Next, we are going to use the magic wand and lasso tools to select the parts of the car we want to change. The magic wand selects groups of similar colors. The lasso tool draws around objects. There's the lasso, which is a free hand draw, the polygonal lasso, which draws straight lines in between clicks of the mouse for points, and the magnetic lasso, which draws around edges of similar colors. You'll use the magic wand, magnetic lasso, and some polygonal lasso. VERY IMPORTANT: When you click and draw or magic wand a section, you must hold down the shift key to add to it. Otherwise it'll go away. Hold down alt to subtract from it. You can switch tools and do this as well.
EX:



Where I've labeled 'A', there is a part of the car that needs to be included in the selection. I can select the magic wand tool and hold down shift and click in that little sliver, or I can hold down shift and draw a shape with the polygonal lasso tool that would include it. With 'B', I'd use the polygonal lasso tool since the color of the sky and car are so similar. I'd make the curve by clicking lots of points to curve the line. I often hold down alt and use the polygonal lasso to subtract door handles from the selecction. The magnetic lasso is good for wheel wells.

OK, the car is selected. Now go to the Image menu in the toolbar and select ADJUSTMENTS. Click DESATURATE. That turns the car to a grayscale.
Now we go to the layers palette and make a new layer. In your toolbox, you'll notice to squares of color. Dbl click the squares to choose your color. A window will pop up with color shading choices. To the right of that is a slider with red -> yellow -> green, etc..
Choose your color, then use the paint bucket tool in your toolbax and click inside the car selection.
You'll end up with a solid color like this:

I've enlarged the layer menu so you can see what is next. Where it says, 'normal', choose MULTIPLY. You'll see the color become translucent, showing the car underneath the block of color. You can change the strength of the color with the Opacity adjustment in the layers palette. Now, switch back to the background layer by clicking its name in the layers palette. Go to the Image menu in the toolbar and select ADJUSTMENTS. Click BRIGHTNESS/CONTRAST. Play with the sliders until you like the color. You can do this in the color layer too. Or you can keep paint bucketing in color. If you still don't like it, you can go to the Image menu > ADJUSTMENTS >HUE/SATURATION. The adjustments are pretty self explanatory.

Now we just have to flatten the image again so we can save it as a .jpg.
Voila, a quick and dirty color change.

 

you guys kill me~! btw...you forgot to email me!!!!

 

I knew I was forgetting something. D'oh!

 

Good tutorial, Artwelder. I'd like to expand on it a bit. Thanks for the tip for subtracting fom the selection with the alt key.

"Repairs" to the body can also be easily fixed using the rubber stamp tool. You just choose that tool and alt click onto a portion of the body that is the same color shade. This loads a sample of that color which you can brush over the bad spot using the proper size brush tool. This matches perfectly because it paints it in the same texture.

After I make the selection, I change the color by going to adjust>hue saturation. If the original color is light, just check the colorize square. This will give you a pastel shade. Slide the hue control to the desired color, here, blue. Then slide the lightness and saturation bars until you get the right color. I OK'd that step, then went to adjust>brightness contrast, which makes it a little less 'flat".

The main problem with starting with a light colored car is that it if you want to make it a darker color, it will always come out looking like a flat finish because there are no vivid reflections on a light-colored car.



Here's the same method, but starting with a dark enough color that there are reflections showing.

 

Thanks for using my car and sorry for not saying the color combo i thought i put it in there. I'm thinking a copper orange on the bottom with a pearl white roof and I'm using the chromies and whitewalls that are on the other pics. I'll try to put up some better ones soon.