Adding color to white

[thedarkhalf]

I'm working with a white car and trying to find the best, most realistic way to add color to it. I tried using a solid color and using Color Burn.. but it looks fake. Using Red, I get lots of noise (yellow/orange) in the pure white areas..

Any suggestions for color overlays? Thanks!

[Der_W]

The most simple approach would in my humble opinion be to just work in LAB-mode ("Image"-"Mode"-"Lab Color").
There color and luminosity is separated and you can therefore colorize anything without any problems :-)

Maybe even combined with Jacob's Ladder... but I'm a little dreaming now ;-)

[MacBurg]

There are many better ways to do it, but try a "Solid Fill" layer in the blending Mode "Pin Light"

[edgework]

Originally Posted by Der_W

The most simple approach would in my humble opinion be to just work in LAB-mode ("Image"-"Mode"-"Lab Color").
There color and luminosity is separated and you can therefore colorize anything without any problems :-)

The reason this works in LAB is that, in CMYK and RGB, the lighter the tone, the more desaturated it becomes, so that total lightness = white and total dark = black. Lab has no such restriction. It will happily allow you to spec a color that is maxed out on the lightness scale but which is also 100% Red. No monitor can display this color, of course, so Photoshop does the next best thing: it splits the difference and comes up with a compromise. That's why it allows you to add tone to whites and blacks in color mode whereas it has no effect in RGB.

But the best way to do a color transform is with a gradient map. Start with the base color you want, and position that in the middle of your gradient. Add a version of it that is both lighter and less saturated to the right and one that is darker and less saturated to the left. Then play around with the slider positions to maximize the profile of lights to darks in your original image. Add addition darks and lights as needed. Usually you can transpose the shadow/highlights into the new value range without a lot of pain.

[thedarkhalf]

Thanks so much! I have never done LAB before.. but I assume that I am to select either the a or b channel, select my layer, choose a shade of grey.. then start painting?

And if I cant find the correct color I need, I can simply go back to RBG and put a Hue/Sat layer on there and change it as needed. Does that sounds about right?

[edgework]

Colorizing in Lab won't make it darker. You'll add tone to white, but if you want to go from white to Red, or Green or something, use a Gradient map. They completely overwrite the color and value of the original, using the greyscale profile as categories to slot the new colors in the gradient. You get to keep the relationship between highlights and shadows but you can transfer it into an entirely different color/value range.

[0lBaldy]

I like gradient maps

[thedarkhalf]

Ahhh.. that gradient map works great!! Thanks all!!

[Dak Paule]

Originally Posted by 0lBaldy

I like gradient maps

I tried my hand at doing the gradient map. I am not sure when you use the Lab color though? When do you?

[chillin]

You could use the channel mixer.

[edgework]

Originally Posted by Dak Paule

I tried my hand at doing the gradient map. I am not sure when you use the Lab color though? When do you?

It's pretty good for putting tone into blown out skin highlights. The healing brush can then add some texture. I find it's cleaner than trying to multiply tones in RGB, or messing with channel blends and whatnot. And for color shifts that are close in value, it works great, but in those situations you might as well stay in RGB. There are some things that can only be accomplished in lab, but you don't always need to go there.

When you want a dark green shirt to go pink or a pale green car to go day-glow orange, gradient maps are the atomic bomb in your arsenal. They're also great for smoothing out skin tones, usually at lower opacities so they don't call attention to themselves. All kinds of nifty things to do with them.

[pixelzombie]

i am curious about using Gmaps for smoothing out skin, how is that done exactly?

[thedarkhalf]

This worked out great!! Spent 2 hours getting the car looking awesome. then the client came back to me and said "you know.. lets keep the car white" <sigh>

still, i learned something new.

And i'd also like to hear how to use gradient Maps for smoothing skin

[edgework]

Just keep in mind that the gradient is targeted to values that already exist in the luminosity profile of the image. You have 256 levels of grey so assume you have 256 steps in your gradient. Photoshop just slots the new color onto the old value for each step along the way. If the darkest value in the image is only 30 or 40, everything in the gradient that falls below that will be ignored. You can slide the colors in the gradient around to fit the darks and lights of the image.

That said, the possibilities are limitless. For example, if you wanted to lighten midtones, you could make a gradient with 50% grey at each end and white in the middle, set to Soft Light mode. You can tighten or widen the white band and slide it up and down the value range, to target the specific areas you want to adjust, often to get a more precise result than curves can give you.

For skin tones, you could either build a collection of skin gradients ahead of time, based on finished images with good tone, (always a good idea) or you could start with the image you're working on, sampling across the range from shadows to highlights, adjusting individual colors to make the transitions smooth, then layering it back into your image at, say, 40% opacity. You might try it in color mode, as opposed to normal, and see how they compare. Even in normal mode, if you position your steps to fit the image, you won't be destroying texture. It's not like painting a color, it's substituting one complete range of tones for another. Play around. Once you understand what it's doing, your options are endless.

[edgework]

Originally Posted by 0lBaldy

I like gradient maps

It looks like you just made a simple ramp from red to white for your gradient. You're passing up the ability to customize your color shift to the detail in the original. In your case, there's a lot more highlight detail to be pulled out. Usually you have to add a few more steps, and position them judiciously.


Gradient Map: http://edgework.tripod.com/redmap.jpg

Car: http://edgework.tripod.com/red_car.jpg

[0lBaldy]

Originally Posted by edgework

It looks like you just made a simple ramp from red to white for your gradient. You're passing up the ability to customize your color shift to the detail in the original. In your case, there's a lot more highlight detail to be pulled out. Usually you have to add a few more steps, and position them judiciously.


Gradient Map: http://edgework.tripod.com/redmap.jpg

Car: http://edgework.tripod.com/red_car.jpg

Absolutely beautiful rendition..

Introducing someone new to Gradient maps for the first time I wanted to make it as simple as possible so they could get their feet wet.. then get excited enough to explore further.. as I did.. Glad you showed what could be accomplished with a little more work! Thanks for the samples... As I am also a beginner using Gradient maps, It helped me for sure... I think the most points I've ever used is about 5...

still learning and trying to practice cubed daily