Photoshop Bag O’ Tricks

Want to take that Recolor Skin

1 OPEN: witch.jpg and pumpkin.jpg   

1.      

First, let’s get the witch hat for my head. On pumpkin.jpg, use the  magnetic lasso to select the hat (set feather to 0 and width to 10—press backspace while drawing if you mess up; hold Shift if you need to move to a different part of the image without ruining the selection). Click Refine Edge and preview the selection (tweak if needed). Press OK. Then, drag the hat over to the witch.jpg photograph using the  Move tool (remember, if you try to move while still on the lasso tool, you’ll move the marching ants and not the actual picture).

2.       Rename the layers—hat and witch. Just double click the layer name, type it in, and press enter.

3.       Click on the witch layer. Use the magnetic lasso to select the face.

4.       Now, we’re going to add an adjustment layer to make the face green. Click the icon at the bottom of the layers palette and click Hue/Saturation.
 

5.       Apply the following settings:  (NOTE: If you need to modify the settings, no biggee…just double click the icon on the adjustment layer and this dialog box will come back up)
        

6.       This created a layer mask (notice the white face blob). If you need to refine the mask, just click it and use a white or black brush as needed to show/hide areas).

7.       Now, we want the color back in the eyes and the lips. Be sure you are on the adjustment layer mask thumbnail and use a black brush to hide these areas.

 

8.       Now, turn the visibility off the hat layer so you can see the hair. Then, click the witch layer and use the magnetic lasso to select the hair.

9.       Add an adjustment layer for the hair—Hue/Saturation (notice since it was selected, it pre-masked for you). You can recolor the hair. Variations:

10.   Now, you must touch up the layer so you don’t have any “face” peeking out. Again, be on the adjustment layer mask and use a black brush to hide and white brush to show. You may see that you need to touch up the face more. Either way, switch to the correct layer and touch up as needed—zoom in closely!

11.   There, that’s better! 


 

12.   Now, finishing touches on the hat.

13.   The hat layer, if you zoom in, may have some areas of orange left over from the pumpkin. If so, create a layer mask for the hat layer. Paint in black on the mask to remove those areas.
 

14.   Now, click the hat thumbnail and add a slight drop shadow layer style :

15.   Finally, a witch would not wear a pink shirt! Let’s make the shirt grayscale. Click the witch layer and add yet another adjustment layer—Hue/Saturation. Drop Saturation all the way down/left (-100).

16.   Oops, that took over the whole image. Let’s fill that mask with black so the image rules and then paint on the mask to bring in the desaturated parts. Click the mask thumbnail press D to reset, and press . Be sure you are set to black.
 

17.   Okay, now just use a white brush on the mask to paint in the grayscale parts.

18.   Do whatever else you see fit…all done!

19.   dev-beforeafter.jpg< SAVE AS: WitchEdited.psd

20.   + ON YOUR OWN:  Obtain a photograph and use the color retouching techniques!  Try the image called dev.jpg and give a hardcore makeover (see my dev-beforeafter.jpg to see what can be done using these recolor techniques and a tattoo brush!)