DIY Photography

Your one stop shop for everything photo-video

  • News
  • Inspiration
  • Reviews
  • Tutorials
  • DIY
  • Gear
Search

Submit A Story

How to turn white into any color in Photoshop

Jan 21, 2019 by Dunja Djudjic Add Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

There are a few ways for changing colors in Photoshop, and it’s not hard to do it. But when you want to change white into another color, it won’t always look realistic. In this video, Unmesh Dinda of PiXimperfect teaches you how to turn white into any color and make it look natural. And what’s more, you can even use this method to turn white into black.

Turning white into bright colors

Turning white into any bright color is a bit simpler process than making it dark, so let’s start from here.

Step one: open your image in Photoshop and make a selection of the white area. You can use any method you like, and you can always refine the layer mask later.

Step two: once you’re done making the selection, create a Solid Color adjustment layer and choose any bright color you like. The result will look horribly unnatural, but worry not! When you change the blending mode to Multiply, you’re gonna get a pretty decent result. Sometimes, this may be the only thing you need to do, and other times you’ll need some more adjustments to get a natural-looking result.

Step three: from here on, you can also add a Curves adjustment layer and adjust the contrast. Keep in mind that you need to only apply Curves to the selection. The easiest way to do it is to group the Solid Color and the Curves adjustment layer together and apply the mask to the entire group. This way, any changes you make will only be applied to the white area.

I tried out this technique just for fun. I wasn’t making too much effort to make a selection, but the color is what’s important here. This is what I got when I turned a white shirt into blue:

Turning white into dark colors or into black

If you want to apply a dark color, you will also need to apply some highlights to it to get a realistic result. Keep in mind that nothing is completely black in the real world. So, don’t choose pitch black for the Solid Color adjustment layer, but rather go with gray.

The first three steps will be the same, but the final result may look a bit flat when you work with dark colors. So, it’s time to add some highlights.

Step four: create one more Curves adjustment layer on top of the one you previously created. Click in the middle and drag the point up to make the image brighter.

Step five: open the Layer Style box of the new Curves adjustment layer you’ve just created. Under the Blend If, go to the Underlying layer slider and drag the black point to the right. This limits the highlights but gives very harsh transitions. Hold the Alt/Option key and split the slider for smoother transitions. This makes the black area a bit “shiny” and adds depth to the image. You can repeat this once more if your image requires it.

Here’s what I got (once again, without being too meticulous about making and refining the selection):

Make sure to check out the entire video for more examples and a few more great tricks. Keep in mind that my results need some additional tweaks, but in general, this method seems to work pretty well.

[Turn White into Any Color in Photoshop (Even Black!) | PiXimperfect]

FIND THIS INTERESTING? SHARE IT WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Flipboard
  • WhatsApp

Related posts:

Use Color Burn and Color Dodge to quickly add color and contrast to your photos How to color grade in Photoshop using only Solid Color Adjustment Layers This Color Wheels add on for Photoshop lets you color correct and grade photos as easily as video How to change the color of anything in Photoshop without making selections

Filed Under: Tutorials Tagged With: Adobe Photoshop, color change, Photoshop, PiXimperfect, Unmesh Dinda

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.net

About Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

« How to read video scopes for perfect colour and exposure
Computer generated fashion models will take over the industry – Is it happening already? »

Submit A Story

Get our FREE Lighting Book

DIYP lighting book cover

* download requires newsletter signup
DIYPhotography

Recent Comments

Free Resources

Advanced lighting book

Recent Posts

  • Here’s a bullet time video booth you can build yourself
  • Ricoh has discontinued the HD PENTAX-DA 21mm F3.2AL Limited silver lens
  • This “stellar flower” unravels the twilight’s evolution in 360 degrees
  • Strobes vs Continuous LEDs – Which is right for you?
  • Wave goodbye to Apple’s My Photo Stream next month

Udi Tirosh: from diyphotography.netUdi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.

Alex Baker: from diyphotography.netAlex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe

David Williams: from diyphotography.netDave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.

John Aldred: from diyphotography.netJohn Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

Dunja Djudjic: from diyphotography.netDunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

Copyright © DIYPhotography 2006 - 2023 | About | Contact | Advertise | Write for DIYP | Full Disclosure | Privacy Policy