Photoshop Tutorial: Select Part of an Object and change the Color

The ability to select and modify parts of an image is a fundamental skill in Photoshop. It allows you to make precise changes to your photographs without affecting the rest of the image. In this tutorial, we will learn how to select part of an object and change its color using the Quick Selection Tool and the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer.

1. Open the image and select the object

To begin, open the image that you want to edit in Photoshop. Once the image is open, select the Quick Selection Tool from the Tools panel. The Quick Selection Tool is a powerful tool that can be used to select objects quickly and easily. To use the Quick Selection Tool, simply click and drag around the object that you want to select. The tool will automatically select the areas of the image that it thinks are part of the object, and it will deselect the areas that it doesn’t think are part of the object.

As you select the object, you can use the tool’s options bar to adjust its settings. For example, you can increase or decrease the brush size, or you can use the Add To Sample and Subtract From Sample Eyedroppers to add or remove areas from the selection.

2. Create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer

Once you have selected the object, you can create a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer to change its color. To do this, go to the Layer menu and select New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation. The Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer will be added to your document, and it will create a mask that will selectively apply the Hue/Saturation adjustments to the selected object.

3. Change the color of the object

Now that you have the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer selected, you can use its properties panel to change the color of the object. To change the hue of the object, simply move the Hue slider. To change the saturation of the object, move the Saturation slider. To change the lightness of the object, move the Lightness slider.

4. Fine-tune the selection

After you have applied the Hue/Saturation adjustments, you may need to fine-tune the selection to make sure that the color change is applied only to the object that you want to change. To do this, you can use the Layer Mask that is associated with the Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer.

The Layer Mask is a grayscale image that represents the mask that is applied to the adjustment layer. The white areas of the mask correspond to the areas where the adjustment layer is applied, and the black areas of the mask correspond to the areas where the adjustment layer is not applied.

To fine-tune the selection, you can use the Brush Tool to paint on the Layer Mask. The areas that you paint with white will be added to the selection, and the areas that you paint with black will be removed from the selection.

5. Save the image

Once you are satisfied with the color of the object, you can save the image. To do this, go to the File menu and select Save. You can also save the image as a JPEG or TIFF file to maintain its quality.

By following these steps, you can learn how to select part of an object and change its color in Photoshop. This is a valuable skill that you can use to make changes to your photographs and create more creative images.