Help with Painting wood cabinets white.

[blatney]

I need some help. Running Photoshop CC2018 trying to turn cabinets white without losing detail. Making hue/saturation mask works GREAT and I've got that down to a science, but having a hard time getting them white. Even more difficult time getting them to paint to a Sherwin Williams Swatch color.....

 

[IamSam]

Hello and welcome to PSG.

If you don't mind, can you post the image you have been trying to change?

 

[IamSam]

In the meantime, here's a great tutorial that shows you how to match a color swatch:

 

[blatney]

Hello and welcome to PSG.

If you don't mind, can you post the image you have been trying to change?

Here you go and thank you for the help!

 

[blatney]

In the meantime, here's a great tutorial that shows you how to match a color swatch:

Thanks Sam! I actually watched this already and it is a great tutorial. When I first watched, I followed along and changed the wall color only. It worked, but I had the problem of the final wall color not matching the swatch - I know it won't be perfect because of variations as mentioned in video, but it wasn't really even that close. I feel like the desaturated (grayish) color blends into the swatch color distorting it significantly. Also, I tried to setup (as shown at the end) to be able to toggle through multiple swatches to quickly show 'this vs that' and it didn't seem to be working.... I'm fairly novice at PS and new to 2018 version. It's fully possible that my suboptimal results I was seeing were a result of my own human error. I will post another pic showing my attempt.

 

[IamSam]

Thanks for the image. It's very small, do you have a larger version? I also would like to see your attempt at turning the cabinets white.

Sometimes the exact color of the swatch will not translate and will need to be adjusted. We can look at using the Eyedropper Tool and the info panel to adjust colors. But let's address the changing of the cabinets doors to white first.

 

[blatney]

Thanks for the image. It's very small, do you have a larger version? I also would like to see your attempt at turning the cabinets white.

Sometimes the exact color of the swatch will not translate and will need to be adjusted. We can look at using the Eyedropper Tool and the info panel to adjust colors. But let's address the changing of the cabinets doors to white first.

Unfortunately I only have small, low quality photos to work with at the moment. Going to be going there this weekend. All previous owner's furniture will be gone and will take better photos which will help greatly with this effort. Working with what I have now in an attempt to get the process figured out so that I can hit the ground running once I have the better quality photos. I have attached the actual photo file, not sure if that will help provide better resolution/size or not. Also attached is my attempt at making white one section of cabinets via layer mask>decolorize>adjust levels. I also have a hue/saturation layer (not visible in screen shot) but it does not seem to be an ideal way to make them white.

Ultimately my goal here is to be able to make layers for both walls and cabinets so that I can test different color combinations on both. Have Paint Manufacturer color swatches downloaded to PS and want to be able to test real paint colors to find optimal finished product. Leaning towards making cabinets white or slightly off white and painting walls more of a gray. Other option is for possibly white-ish walls with grayish-green cabinets.

One challenge with cabinets is the wood grain. Every method I have tried still shows wood grain. In real life, after painting (with whatever color) wood grain will be invisible. I had tried using a solid color layer mask, but you lose the definition of the cabinets (result: one big solid white shape). The wood grain isn't a huge deal, could look past that, but thought I would throw that out here as another challenge I am facing.

Again, your help is much appreciated!

 

[IamSam]

OK......your image is a bit too small.

Let's see what you do with this image. Take one of the doors and use your technique to turn it white. Let me add that your exactly right, the wood grain will always be present. I don't think there's much we can do about that.



Let me remind all PSG members, this thread is requested help by blatney! Please jump in if you have something to add.

 

[chrisdesign]

To make it white and reduce the wood grain I applied the following procedure:

1. I made a duplicate of the image.
2. I made selection of the wooden parts and copy/pasted it on a new layer.
3. I copied the red chanel (very little wood grain) into to green chanel, and also into the blue chanel. Now you have neutral grey color with very little wood grain.
4. With curves I toned it down to white.
5. I made a duplicate of this layer and set the blend mode to 'soft light'. With curves I increased the mid tones to make the shadows stronger.

 

[Eggy]

Another way to do this this would be

- make a copy of the original and desaturate it.
- add a new layer on top and fill it with white (you can change the tint later if needed)
- use the blend if sliders on the white layer to make the wood grain appear at will (

)



mask away the parts that do not need to be white.
Resulting in:

 

[IamSam]

Chris, I used almost the same technique! I got the idea from a tutorial I watched created by Eric Doggett (on a different subject matter).

What attracted me to the channel technique was that it maintained some of the contrast of the door while muting the wood grain.

I only did one door but my steps were identical to yours with the exception that I added a Brightness and Contrast adjustment layer trying to make the door whiter and look more like it was painted.

 

[chrisdesign]

Sam, your version is clean white, some areas without pixel. though looking great on a monitor.
But if you are going to print it, you'll lose a few more pixels.
Just a thought...a white object on a white background is only printable with with 245 in each chanel. 255 is white.

 

[IamSam]

Sam, your version is clean white, some areas without pixel. though looking great on a monitor.
But if you are going to print it, you'll lose a few more pixels.
Just a thought...a white object on a white background is only printable with with 245 in each chanel. 255 is white.

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. As I stated earlier, I don't know that it will be an easy process to actually make them look painted. I was just experimenting. Another thing I was not happy with in going so white was the shadowing. Thanks!