[Nanls]

Thanks all! I had the same problem, and couldn't quite get the gray out, without blowing it out! It can be soooo frustrating... cuz I know it can be done.
~Nancy~

[edgework]

The problem with a color change like this is that for the three different areas of the shirt you have three different highlight/shadow ranges.

I first selected the entire shirt (collar too: it's not white, it's red), applied a hue/saturation adjustment layer, pulling the saturation all the way to the left. That eliminated any color issues.

Two other channel masks allowed me to target the red and grey areas of the shirt with curves that lightened both highlights and shadows to an acceptable range for white and that brought them both into a common range.

Anti-aliased masks being what they are, a seam remained between the two areas. Merge visible to a new layer allowed me to deal with that seam using the healing brush, and also to extend the shape of the material folds upward in a more natural manner.

A final curve, using the original shirt mask boosted contrast slightly, bringing out detail over the entire shirt.

[realaqu]

I think it is really hard to change dark colors into white, but this case I d like to do it in LAB mode, so I can handle lightness and color seperately, make selections, use levels to match the lightness. and desatured the colors. use stamp and patch tool to remove the unnatual areas.

realaqu

[Cameraken]

Hi Nancy

Thanks for your comments.
Quote
“Couldn’t quite get the grey out, without blowing it out!”

I think the only way to leave the detail in is to leave some grey in. Removing the grey is, in effect, removing the detail that makes it look blown out

I had another go at this using the channel mixer. Please let me know what you think. I learn far more from comments like yours. It is very easy when concentrating on one problem to miss another.


Ken

[Cassidy]

Now that looks like a white top

[Nanls]

Ken, exactly the outcome I was looking to accomplish. realaqu did a nice job, also. Could you guys list the steps you took in your copious spare time, for future reference. Thanks in advance!
~Nancy~

[Cameraken]

Hi Nancy

Thanks for your comments.
I used the channel mixer to do my second picture.

Duplicate the Background

New adjustment Layer > Channel mixer. Check the Monochrome Box and move the Red Slider to 106. This changes the Red Shirt to White

Select the Grey area. Then
New adjustment Layer > Channel mixer. Check the Monochrome Box and move the Red Slider to 80 and Green slider to 40. This changes the Grey Shirt to White.

New layer and Clone out the join between the Red and Grey areas

Select the Original white areas (Collar) and reduced the levels to match the shirt.

That’s the Shirt done. But the whole picture is now Black and White.

Duplicate the background again and drag it to the top of the stack, add a layer mask and paint back the White Shirt.

Hope this helps.

Ken

[Nanls]

Hi Ken,
Thanks for taking the time to list the steps you took; it is appreciated. I followed your steps but then had two adjustment layers, that were monochrome, (including his face) on top and the duped original underneth (refer to pix)... I started again but this time selected just the shirt before I did the adjustment layer, and followed your steps from there (had to change some of the values on the channel mixer). This is the end results (which works!)... If I had followed your steps exactly, how would I merge the adjustment layers and the duped original and keep the color in the boys face? Thanks again,
~Nancy~

[Cameraken]

Hi Nancy

I’ve just amended the instructions. Sorry if they were not very clear.
Your way works just as well.

Ken

[Nanls]

I just figures another way.... to the same outcome. From your instructions where there are two adjustment layers, the original and the duped original. I turned off the original layer and "merged visible" the the other layers. With the history brush set to the original (after adjusting curves) I used the history brush to paint the boys face back in.
Thanks again for your help Ken! It's great being able to find new and easier ways to work...
~Nancy~