Change hair color

[Godmother]

KR1156 Really nice work!

[Kraellin]

hehehe, i always love these and this once again shows there's always more than one way to skin a cat.

i used to usually mask and then apply something like hue/sat, but more and more i find i can get a more natural look with an airbrush on a blank layer and more finely tune the look i want as well. some folks also like to set the blank layer to 'color' blend.

the way i was originally taught was from a photo editor at maxim magazine. it involved a duped layer, a complete mask and a colorizing layer. you then simply erased the parts of the mask you wanted to get the colorizing. well, something like that. it's been a while since i've used that method though.

there are also plugins that can do a fairly good job of this, but again, usually with a mask. i have a filter forge filter that will do it quite nicely.

craig

edit: oops, i forgot one vital step in my airbrushing. after you get the color applied you simply gausian blur the airbrush layer to suit and then erase any bits where the color blurred outside where you wanted it.

edit: boy, i'm getting old...keep forgetting things. the airbrushing has an added advantage in that you now have a layer with color in the shape of the hair. you can now change the hair color VERY easily to anything you want since it's isolated on its own layer. use blend modes and hue/sat and you can change from anything to anything.

[KR1156]

Thanks alot Godmother.

[RJD]

Another quick go. Note did not mask properly as I was not spening a good amount of time on this.

[leuallen]

Why stop with the hair. Go all the way.

Seriously, one thing I picked up was correcting the fringy hair against the background. Used Hue/Sat with masks. Same mask, Selective color above.

Use Selective color to adjust main colors and densities. For the fringy hair, use the white channel and adjust to taste. All using same mask.

Larry

[stopa]

Thank you again for all of yours sugestions.
When I finish working on this picture, I will send Before-After link.

[rsphoto]

Originally Posted by NancyJ

Natural and realistic are not the same thing, most of the posts in this thread I would class as realistic (aside from quick and sloppy masking) though few look 'natural'.

Tried to strike a balance between natural and realistic.

Cleaned up the noisy skin. Added contrast to the hair and image overall. Reshaped the right shoulder for balance. Changed the hair color with a layer set to color blend mode and then painted with the sampled color. Changed the lip color with a Hue/Saturation layer to match to the new hair color. Added shadow/highlight contouring on a 50% gray layer set to overlay blend mode.

[Littlecoo]

Converted to cmyk mode, quick mask of hair applied to curves adjustment layer, played with curves till I got close to your chip colour.
I used to have my hair that colour afew months ago... hmmm, I think I might go dye purple for a change...

[KR1156]

Littlecoo.......nice job....i especially like the way you made sure not to colorize her scalp where her par is.....many ppl just paint right over it.

[Littlecoo]

Thx KR1156, I am a stickler for detail especially if it is something so simple as to soft brush a part line on the mask, and not to mention recent experience colourizing a photo of a woman with cornrow braids hehe.