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Changing the colours in a photo

Changing the colours in a photo

         

PumpkinHead

3:32 pm on Apr 7, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hi,

I've seen a site today which made me think 'wow'! You can view (clothing) products on the site and change the colour of certain products (E.g a shirt changes from blue to black). The clever part, is that it's the same image just the colour of the item changes.

Can anyone tell me how this works? I'm guessing you would have to have something like photoshop and changes all the rgb values within a certain area?

Very clever stuff!

[edited by: engine at 5:06 pm (utc) on April 12, 2005]
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Matt Probert

5:36 pm on Apr 7, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



They have different images that display when you select the different colours!

Okay, the images are all copies with a certain item changed in colour, but that's childs play with PhotoShop.

Matt

PumpkinHead

5:42 pm on Apr 7, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I realise each image is a different file. I'm trying to work out how you would make each individual photo with the different colours. I don't see how this could be childs play in PS as there are so many different shades of each colour within each image, it's not like its just 1 or 2 rgb values.

Could you or anyone explain how you would do this, even if it is as easy as you say.

lZakl

5:49 pm on Apr 7, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



There are several ways this can be done.

1) (my preference in most cases) is to use the "replace color" tool in Photoshop. Once you get the hang of the tool, it is very easy to manipulate colors based on hue with it. Go to Image --> Adjustments --> Replace Color and play around with the Eye Dropper and the fuzziness. There are several tutorials for this tool if you just google them.

2) Hue Saturation. This is a more difficult to use and can sometimes induce the occasional migrane if you can't get it right. Not recommended for the novice.

3) Color overlay. (The easiest if you start with a "white" image) You can go into Layer --> Layer Style --> Color Overlay. Now if you are starting out with a white image, this will work wonders. You just change your opacity and the tone of the color and voila, color is changed. For this option to work you will need to have your object in it's own layer and not as a "background image.

Hope this helps you out!

-- Zak

PumpkinHead

6:13 pm on Apr 7, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Thanks Zak, exacyly what I was after! :)

Couple of questions though...

1. What do you think they used to get those results?
2. I take it with PS you can select only a certain area of the image to change?

lZakl

6:42 pm on Apr 7, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



PumpkinHead,

If you notice that when you look at the shirt it changes color, but also the rest of the image changes in a VERY minute way. This causes me to believe that they used the "replace color" WITHOUT selecting just the shirt. You CAN select just the part of the image you want to change with the magic wand, or pologonal laso. Or you can forget selecting it if you think the rest of the image won't be affected by your change. Experiment with this, you'll see it really isn't that hard. :0)

-- Zak

PumpkinHead

10:12 am on Apr 9, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Thanks again Zak! I had a go with Fireworks and it works great!

Now to complicate things! I have a bunch of product images (10,000+). Does anyone know a program of some kind that will allow me to automate this process? Difficult I know, but maybe someone can help!

Thanks :)

PatrickKerby

1:47 am on Apr 14, 2005 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



You mentioned using Fireworks, which I have no experience with, however in Photoshop you can quite easily set up "batch automation" (File - Automate - Batch).
Here you would select your folder full of images, and run an Action (that you would have previously recoreded) onto the files in the folder you selected.

The way I would do it is ensure your Actions Pallette is open. Open up your first file, and then start "recording" with the actions palette. when you are finished and have saved the action, it should show up in your Batch Automation options. and then it will run the steps you previously took on your first file, across all files in your folder.

I'm not sure If i've explained this very clearly, but hopefully it can help in some way.

good luck

limbo

9:05 am on Apr 14, 2005 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I had a go with Fireworks....... to automate this process?

To add to what Patrick Said. You can also batch in Fireworks using the save command:

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