Photoshop Elements Tips: Recoloring Elements

[1gr8muggle]

There are many approaches to recoloring elements, but here are a couple of simple ways.

Using the Fill Shortcut (for solid colored elements):

1. Place your image on its own layer.
2. Click the foreground color square on your tool palette to choose a new color.
3. Ctrl-Click (PC) or Cmd-Click (Mac) the thumbnail of the layer to make the element an active selection (marching ants around it).
4. Type Ctrl+Delete (PC) or Cmd+Delete (Mac) to fill the selection with your foreground color. (Use Alt or Option + Delete to fill with the background color.)
5. Type Ctrl+D (PC) or Cmd+D (Mac) to deselect.

Using the Paint Bucket Tool (for solid colored elements):

(This method is handy for recoloring just a word or letter in a quote element, for example, rather than recoloring an entire element.)

1. Place your image on its own layer.
2. Click the foreground color square on your tool palette to choose a new color.
3. Choose the Paint Bucket tool.
4. Click the part of your element you wish to recolor. This will only recolor any adjacent pixels of the same color.

Using the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Method (for textured elements):

1. Place your image on its own layer.
2. Click the foreground color square on your tool palette to choose a new color.
3. Go to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation.
4. Put a check in the "Colorize" box in the Hue/Saturation dialog box.
5. Adjust the saturation slider to achieve your desired color. Try to avoid adjusting the Lightness slider, as it will cause you to lose any shading details in your element. Also, don't adjust the Hue slider, or it will no longer be adjusting things according to your foreground color.

Tips:

If using the Hue/Saturation method, you may choose to make a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer so that you don't alter the original element. To do this, click on your element layer then, in the layers palette, choose the b&w circle icon>Hue/Saturation. At this point follow the same steps as above. When you are finished, select the adjustment layer and go to Layer>Group with Previous (Ctrl-G on PC, Cmd-G on a Mac). This will allow you to change the hue at any point, without altering your original or affecting any layers beneath your element layer.

Note: if the element you wish to recolor is available in abr format (a brush), the simplest way to get the preferred color is to load it as a brush, and set your foreground color before stamping/brushing the image.

You can also check out this tutorial for recoloring tips:

[mommisgirls]

Thank you so much! I'm new to digi scrapping and read other tutorials and couldn't figure it out. Your directions were so easy and best of all...I got it to work!

[1gr8muggle]

Glad to help! Welcome to DD . . . where all your questions are answered . . . eventually

[mikethedog]

Thanks from me too. I have books and the help section in the program and still couldn't figure it out. This is a big help.

[mikethedog]

Thanks, I'm struggling to learn Photoshop Elements and use Corel more often. I love the elements and was disappointed to see they came in black and white. I want those jazzy colors. This will be a big help. I'm learning elements while I take chemo, takes my mind off it and allows me to do something productive with the three hours.

[1gr8muggle]

Originally Posted by eboyd72

Thanks, I'm struggling to learn Photoshop Elements and use Corel more often. I love the elements and was disappointed to see they came in black and white. I want those jazzy colors. This will be a big help. I'm learning elements while I take chemo, takes my mind off it and allows me to do something productive with the three hours.

It sounds like you might be using brushes if your elements are black and white. Is there a file in the folder that has a .abr extension? If so, check out this thread on using brushes. You can choose a color before you "stamp" the image and make your elements vibrant colors in a snap.

[mikethedog]

thanks for this. I am finding learning this a lot of work and time. I'm sticking with it but choosing colors I'm finding difficult or just finding where to find some of the actions.

[stitch50]

Thanks for the directions. I've been away from computer for a while. Can't wait to try this method! Stitch