How to change color of sash on grad photo

Hi there,

I had someone pose a question to me this week on how to change the color of the sash in this photo from red to blue. I would like to help them but this is out of my field of expertise. However, I know there are some very talented people here on the forum that might be able to help or at least point me to the proper resource.
The biggest problem is how to change the color the sash is partially covered with the girl's hair.
Thank you in advance for your help.
--
Regards,
Phillip

They didn't give you an easy job did they? Mostly due to the hair. If I were doing this in Xara only, I would copy the image, zoom in and draw polylines to select the red color of the sash (including the slivers of color between the hair, especially on the left side). Once done, I would change the color to the blue that you want, placed on the copy of the photo. Next, I would copy the polylines shape, place onto original photo image and Arrange/Combine/Intersect, with the object selected, I would select black from the color bar so image becomes black and white. I would place that intersected b/w photo on top of the new photo with the blue color sash, then select the Transparency tool, and select Stain-Glass from the transparency filter dropdown. (This would capture the wrinkles and details applied onto the new color of sash.)

That's how I'd do it in Xara.

You could possible select the color and alter it in Photoshop or similar - probably faster than the method described, but the method described would work fine.

You can create a shape that matches the red stripe, apply a blue fill, and apply a Flat, Hue transparency which will change the hue of every color underneath to the blue. You might be able to create the blue stripes covering the hair, create a bitmap copy and use the clone tool to clone some hair over the blue stripe.

Be sure to post whatever you come up with for us to see.

if you have photoshop 'replace color' will do that very easily and very quickly - 4 sample clicks and a couple of slider adjustments, less than a minute...

xara is the long way round here ... if you want details need to be the PS forum though, let me know

Hi Gary
yes you can - but creating the shapes will take quite a while - probably the best way in xara though...

Yes, I agree. And if the flower is first cut and put to a new layer, the banner itself can be selected. This took about two minutes.

Attachment 88891

And while it isn't perfect, shows the result of the concept.

Mike

What program Mike? And how did you to it?

Hi Gary, I used PhotoShop.

First cut around the flower to put it on its own layer. This way I could use the select color range and not affect the flower.
Next, on the layer for the sash, I selected that color range.
I added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.
Altered the selection color with the sliders in the adjustment layer.

Lastly, I saved the selection to a channel should I need to select it again.

Take care, Mike

To do this in Xara you can also use the mask layer and the shape tool to draw masking shapes and then change the colour by changing the contones of the masked areas but this still requires the time intensive task of drawing the shapes between the hair.

(Dear moderator: Forgive me for posting in the wrong area of the site. I realize now that I should have posted this question in the Photoshop forum. I don't know if you can move this over for us or not)

Dear Handrawn and Mike,
Sorry, I was able to get back to you sooner. Your comments have been invaluable to this Photoshop plebe. Thank you.

Now the only issue I am having is that after selecting the sash using the methods you described, Photoshop is altering the colour of some areas that I don't wish edited.

Questions:
1. I pick the colour out with the eye dropper Photoshop shows the areas of the photograph that are selected. Is it possible to easily copy these "selected" areas to a separate layer? If possible, I am thinking that I could then erase the areas on that layer that I don't wish to change.

2. Then (and this shows you what a plebe I am)... what is the difference between a channel and a layer. As a die-hard CAD person, the terminology does not compute.

I feel close to getting the result I want. Thank you again for your kindness in helping get through this exercise.

Have a great weekend.
--
Phillip

For me interesting the topic on this place, showing the alternatives to solve the same. Gary especially thanks for the Hue transparency version

Hello Phillip,

(1) Yes, once it is selected, you can Cut, then Paste and the selection will be on a new layer.

(2) Layers are pretty much the same in CAD, Xara and PhotoShop. However, in a bitmap application such as PS (et al), one also has access to channels. Which might be a fancy way of describing layers that pertain to, among other things, the color that makes up an image. So in an RGB image, there are separate channels for R, G, B and one that is technically the composite channel--which is the channel one normally "sees" when viewing an image on-screen.

Additionally, selections themselves can be saved to a channel for later reselection, alteration, etc. I suspect a more accurate definition and additional uses of channels can be found on the Adobe web site and broadly through the Internet.

OK. In PS, you can add to and subtract from your selection by using the modifier key of CTRL or ALT in conjunction with any of the selection tools. If there is enough space between the selection area you want to keep and the extra selected areas, this method can be faster than Ctrl-D to remove the selection, or even modifying the Select by Color dialog values.

On your sample image, I was able to simply cut the flower and place it on its own layer and then ad hoc select the entire sash using the Select by Color dialog.

Take care, Mike

Thank you all for your assistance and special thanks to Mike. I am grateful for your help.
Gary; following Mike's (mwenz) instructions in Photoshop I was able to achieve the results I wanted.
Have a great week.