Photoshopping Cars Tips & Tricks

[VforVIBE]

How to Change a Vehicle’s Paint ColorStep 1: Select an image; if you have a choice it is better to get a large image or one with a higher dpi (dots per inch)Step 2: Select the body of the vehicle; using any of the three lasso tools, trace around the body of the vehicle, taking care to only select the part of the body that is painted, watch out of the small stuff like emblems, key holes, reflectors, none painted pieces. There are a few ways of doing this; select the entire car then subtract the windows and lights and so on or select just the paint.Note: it is VERY important to do this carefully, or you will be able to see bits of the original paint color.Lasso Tool- This is a freehand selection tool. Click and hold your left mouse button on the image and draw your selection. Note: this requires a very steady hand.Polygonal Lasso Tool- Similar to the lasso tool, except that instead of holding your mouse button down to draw, left-click on various points to create a selection with a series of straight edges.You can also hold down the Alt key (Windows) or Option key (Mac OS) to draw freehand sections.Magnetic Lasso Tool- This is a very handy tool for selecting areas which have reasonably well-defined edges. Left-click at the starting point of your selection and simply move the mouse along the edge."Fastening points" are automatically made at various points along the edges. Left-click at any time to add a fastening point manually.To make any of these steps easier, you can use the Add to Selection and Subtract for Selection options just below the menu bar.Step 3: Prepare/Separate the body of the Image; in your layers window, click and drag the image of the vehicle over the Create New Layer button, just to the left of the trash can, this will copy your layer. Then go to Select > Inverse. making sure you have selected the top layer hit delete, leaving only the body of the vehicle in one layer, that layer should look like this… Note: it is a good idea to make several copies of this layer so if you make a mistake it is easy to start fresh. Step 4: Changing the Color; once you have the body in it’s own layer you can deselect the lasso around the vehicle. Then go to Image > Adjust > Color Balance… here, you can easily change the color of the car by dragging the little arrows to colors listed.Note: Tone Balance at the bottom of the Color Balance window will allow you to give the paint a deep rich look, or give it a two tone look, for instance, Wave Blue is a mix of blue and cyan. When you’ve found the color you like, hit OK.Step 5: Changing the color again; if for some reason you are not happy with the color, there a few ways to change it:Go to Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation… Click and drag the little arrow under Hue, this allows you to change the color to any color in the rainbow. Hit OK.For small changes in light or dark, go to Image > Adjust > Levels there you can click and drag three arrows that coincide with Shadows, Midtones, and Highlights. The graph will tell you if your image has a lot of highs, mids, or lows. Next How to, Black and White...

[GrayFox]

If I may interupt...You can also use Image > Adjust > Variations to change the colorand IMO masking is alot easier than using the lasso tools Good Tutorials V

[VforVIBE]

Quote, originally posted by ANO_Vibe »If I may interupt...You can also use Image > Adjust > Variations to change the colorand IMO masking is alot easier than using the lasso tools Good Tutorials V As a matter of fact, you reminded me to do some thing* *Disclaimer: In PhotoShop, there are like a million ways to do the same thing, so don't be surprised if there is an easier way.

[VforVIBE]

How to Change a Vehicle’s Paint Color Black or WhiteStep 1: Losing the Color; With the above steps 1-3 done, and with the top layer selected, go to Image > Adjust > Hue/Saturation… this time you will be working with the Saturation arrow. Simply click and drag it all the way over to the left, discarding and color information of the paint, then hit OK.Step 2: Darkening; Go to Image > Adjust > Levels you’re going want to drag the little arrows over toward the rightside, watch how it changes each of your townes. You’re going to want to move the white arrow a little to the left so that you keep that nice shine the paint has, a flat black will give it away that you image has been photoshopped. The other Step 2: lightening; Just like with darkening, go to Image > Adjust > Levels here, you’ll end up wanting more of those little arrows over on the left side, just as you wanted to move the white in the first step 2, you’ll want to move the black arrow over a bit.Easy stuff!

[zionzr2]

WOW!!! Nice guide!! Esp. for those of us who dont know much about the many functions of photochop. Thanks