Here is a test i did.

I was thinking on changing the color of the boot's to black, and i have a hard time keeping it real.

I have included the before and after of where i'm at the moment. (Sorry i had to erase her face, but i still need a model release from this shoot)

I still need to work on the legs, the shadow of the boot's, some liquify and the color of those boot's!!!

I realy don't like the color, any idea's ?

Here's a quick effort from me, using a gradient map AL on a duped layer and masking out whats not needed.
Masking here not perfect, hope it helps.

Peter

Here is a quick try using a mixture of hue/sat, channel mixer, brightness/contrast and solid black on a soft light layer. Masking is a bit iffy though, sorry.

You can also just duplicate the layer and invert it, do a levels adj to adjust the level of black that you want, add a layer mask(Hide All - black) and paint over the boot with a white brush.
Regards, Murray

filter>artistic>Plastic wrap.. faded with hard light selected.. then curves some

So far i think Macmonkey as the better result.

Good sugestion for the soft light layer, here is my new take on it.

It still look's off!

are they supposed to match the skirt?...they now have a suede look instead of looking like leather...

Ok here's a bit more in the H/L's. if we are to make them look leather, then this is going to take a little more work.

No there not supposed to match the skirt. any ideas to keep it more real....like leather!

To make these look leather we need to enhance the H/L's but at the same time maintain some kind of softness to them. Here is my rough example, as you can see you will have to spend a bit more time than I did .

50% grey layer set on soft light, manually brushed in H/L's

i like where OLBaldy was going with his version, although maybe a little less contrast, and a little less plastic looking.

Interesting mac monkey,

When you say H/L's i'm gessing it's hard light for the brush mode? What softness and opacity do you use for your brush? White for the color?

Morning Zogdart,

H/L's = Highlights.

I used a brush opacity of 20, but as you can see I brushed them in very quickly. I would recommend a lower opacity though (maybe around 5) so you can shape them to be a little more realistic.

I found I had better luck by sneaking up on it in increments, rather than trying to get everything done with one adjustment layer. Used two gradient maps, a shadow/hilight layer, a curve layer, another shadow/highlight layer, some minimal dodging and a final curve. Not perfect, but the shape and the highlight/shadow relationship is maintained.

http://edgework.tripod.com/samples/blackboots.jpg

All the effects look interesting, but none look "real"...they appear artsy and, to me, don't fit the realness of the photo. Appears to be a nice retouch challenge. I tried as well, and did no better. I have black boots, but they don't look like "real" black boots that the model would wear.

This isn't perfect.... did it quickly, but duplicate layer, inverse, mask everything out and paint in the inversed boots and add some contrast, dodge & burn, and high pass.

Image 1_2: Dark gray layer in Multiply mode.
Image 2_2: Curves adjustment layer added.

Sorry for the really bad tracing, I only had a few minutes.

Here is my attempt. Don't black boots still have a hint of blue?

Hi Zogdart.
Challenging retouch, here is my attempt. If you like it I can send you the adjustment layers.

Heres what I did:
- Levels to darken, set to hard light
- Curves layer, some more contrast
- Hue/Sat layer to remove some color artifacts, slight blue tint
- Curves to fix clipped highlights
- Curves to bring back larger highlights, with a layer mask

The edges could use some blending though and the masking was pretty quickly done...

that came out nice, i'd be curious to see your adjustment layers...

Thanks pixelzombie. Here is the .psd file: http://www.kvarfordtphotography.net/temp/boots-black.psd

I made the mask with the pen tool now so its more accurate.

To: Kvarfordt

Super nice i think you are the closest at the moment! Good work.
Thank's for sharing you PSD file. Very nice of you! =;+)

I will take the the time to have a proper look at it and probably come back with a few question!!! Cheers!

Kvarfort....very nice....

Isolate boots and fill with black. Isolate highs and fill with white. Highlights are flexible, can be brighter if desired.

I don't think my rendition is any better than anyone else's but figured I'd make a show. I flashed a negative and then burned the rest to color.

http://home.comcast.net/~warlockpw/rendition.jpg

Isolate boots and fill with black. Isolate highs and fill with white. Highlights are flexible, can be brighter if desired.

what blending mode did you use for the fills?

what blending mode did you use for the fills?

Both layers set to Normal. Good isolation of the boots filled with default black on a layer. Turned that layer off to see original image and isolated of highlights by making a 3 color alpha channel with a curve push. Turned that into a selection and filled with white on a layer clipped to the boots filled with default black. I adhere to the KISS principle when ever possible.

To: Kvarfordt

Super nice i think you are the closest at the moment! Good work.
Thank's for sharing you PSD file. Very nice of you! =;+)

I will take the the time to have a proper look at it and probably come back with a few question!!! Cheers!

Your welcome. :)
Im not professional or anything, still learning, so Im happy with the result. Would it be possible that I can use it in my portfolio? (just the boots, not the rest of the model)

Selected boots with the pen tool , found another pair of boots using google images and used photoshops match color adjustment layer with the luminance turned down. Moved the boots to their own multiply layer. then did a couple of levels adjustments to even out the colour. The edge around the boots looks a little jagged..

Well, seeing as everyone's had a go.
To me the boots look like they
should be more leather than 'plastic'.
I'm not overly pleased but whatever.
I like the left boot more than the right.
Shoddy masking too. Hah.