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Need to see if changing the color is possible.


danman03

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Hello. I have a project that I have a little problem I have run into. In the image it's a 2 tone car and I need it to be all the same color. I've been trying to change the white areas to match the blue areas, but when I try to use the hue/saturation, it's not matching up. I'm wondering if making this car all one solid color is possible.

I'm not really a newbie when it comes to photoshop, but for some reason this is being difficult for me. Thanks for the help


.wagon_1.jpg
 

Rich54

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It was difficult for me, too. I think mine is just ok, not great, but I did it quickly just to see if this method works at all.
1. Make a selection of the white areas of the car and save it to use later. I used the Quick Selection tool here for ease and speed, but it made a fairly sloppy selection. I would do it more carefully with the Pen tool if this were my project.
2. Sample the light blue color at the front of the car and the dark blue at the back of the car. Apply a gradient over the entire length of the car using these colors.
3. Use your saved selection and delete the gradient everywhere but on the white areas. Change the layer blend mode to Multiply.
4. I added some white noise to try to simulate the dustiness of the blue portions of the car.

I think the body of the car came out reasonably ok, but I'm not in love with the roof. It might be better to do the roof separately with its own gradient colors.

wagon_1.jpg
 
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danman03

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That's a lot better than I could do. The only probably using the gradient is you lose the reflections and gloss effect. But, I can probably blend the image to where that wouldn't be noticeable.
 

danman03

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I've been messing around, but I still can't seem to get rid of the flat look.

wagon_1_test.jpg
 

Rich54

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I think the reason it looks flat is because there is no reflection or gloss on the original image (i.e., the white portions that we're trying to color). If you open the Info panel and move your cursor over the white areas, it is all blown-out... everything reads as pure white with almost no variation. So the flatness is already there and it just becomes more noticeable with the blue coloring.

One possible solution: if you go to Filter>Render>Lighting Effects there appears to be a way to simulate gloss and reflections. (I've never used it before. I just tried for 30 seconds and couldn't get it to do anything.) Possibly you can read-up on that filter, or maybe somebody here is knowledgeable about it.
 

danman03

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That was my concern at the beginning. I knew the white was so blown out that it would be hard to get a new color to look good. But, I'm going to check out those effects and see what I can do. I appreciate the help.
 

hawkeye

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A surface is defined by the way it reacts to light. Glossy surfaces reflect light.
 

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1. used parts of this car to fill the white areas of your car image.
2. Adjustments with curves, and selective color corrections.
3. Painting Highlights on the bonnet is the difficult part here.

IMG_0196.jpg
 

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