Changing background wall color to another solid color – easiest way ?

DZ
Posted By
David_Zeno
Dec 9, 2008
Views
1003
Replies
3
Status
Closed
Hello,

I took a picture of my kids against our kitchen wall, which is basically a solid color, but I would like to change the color behind them to a solid white.

What would be the easiest way to change the color from one color to another ?

Thank you for any tips.

Later on, I want to have them with a Christmas background instead of the kitchen wall, so that will be my next step, but I wanted to start off with something easy to learn.

P.S. – I don’t want to cut out the background using the magic eraser, etc. I’d rather just change the color.

Dave.
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F
Freeagent
Dec 9, 2008
You need to make a selection of the wall, otherwise you’ll likely pick up portions of the foreground as well.

If it’s a distinct color the Quick Selection tool will probably work well. Use Select > Refine Edge to smooth the edges, and save the selection. You’ll need it for the Christmas background.

This is NOT as easy as it sounds if you want a realistic effect! I don’t know your ambition level as to the final result, but properly separating a subject from the background can be painstaking work. Just thought I’d mention it…

For the Christmas background, duplicate the layer and load your selection. Hit delete. You now have the children without background on a floating layer, so you can put your new background in between the two layers.
F
Freeagent
Dec 9, 2008
When I wrote the above I thought the concept of "Layer Mask" would be a little too advanced, but on second thought maybe not…

Put your new background on a new layer above the original. Copy/paste will do that.

Then, go to Layer > Layer Mask > Hide all. Notice the black icon next to the thumbnail in the Layers palette? That’s the mask. Black hides, white reveals. Paint on the image with white – or erase – to reveal the contents of that layer.

The advantage of this is that you can "paint in" and see the result as you go. And the mask is easily refined over time, simply by painting with black or white..
DZ
David_Zeno
Dec 11, 2008
Hi Freeagent,

thank you very much for the help.

I’ve never used the "refine edge" option. Do you like this better than selecting an area and then using the "contract" feature, I have tried contracting by "1" which seems to take away a tiny bit of an image.

I will try your method, thank you.

I also was looking around with Google and came across something called "replace color" have anyone used this with great success ?

Thank you everyone,

Dave

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