Mission:Possible

        How Do I Colorize Thee?

        Paint Shop Pro X
        *works in most other PSP versions too!*

       

      Let Me Count the Ways!

      This is  a repost of a some information I posted to the ComputerScrappingElements3@yahoogroups.com email list.  If you're looking for a great list devoted to digital scrapbooking, with a large group of users with different applications and experience levels but common goals, this is a good list.  Members create and share their own scrapbooking elements, and the list permits NO ADS.

      The challenge was to colorize the elements in the kit found HERE, using any image editor, in any color, and then repost the elements with instructions how you did it.  Following is my post -

      <For those of you with Photoshop , Photoshop Elements or PhotoPaint, you have most of the same tools (and some different ones) to effect the same sort of changes, so you might want to read this anyway.>  

      I'll use the Infamous Yellow as my target color along with a more difficult image - the tack, which is highly textured. The objective is to change the color without affecting the text. All of this images start with the base image as a background layer. (All commands and tools refer to their menu placement, etcetera, in PSP X. Those same commands are all in PSP 8 and 9, t o, just moved around. In addition, due to development changes in the engineering of PSP 9 and much more in X, there may well be significant differences between the color you get in PSP 8, 9, or X, using the same darn values. Don't blame me and don't think you're doing anything wrong. It's company politics, oh joy. ;-))))  

      Use the image below to refer to, to see the effect produced using each method. In some cases, I modified things INTENTIONALLY so it would look different, but you'll see that. The gray tack image is the original in all cases. Why are they (mostly) all different? Because some of the processesare done on the RGB color space, and some in HSL. In addition, some of the HSL adjustments only affect H, or H and S, or H and S AND L. I highly encourage all of you to try this same exercise yourselves, to get a feel for what method you like best. Or maybe just knowing how all are done, will allow you to use different methods to achieve the end result.

      1. Adjust>Hue and Saturation>Colorize. Set the Hue and Saturation using the slider. (This method will not alter Lightness values - so if you try to colorize a dark image to a light color, or vice versa, this won't work very well.) Here I've used a Hue of 42, Saturation 128. That's about as yellow as this particular feature will get this image.

      2. Adjust>Hue and Saturation>H/S/L adjustment. Here I've checked the "colorize" box, set the hue to "52" (because 42 gave me a lovely peachy orange!) and boosted the saturation to 90. If you leave the Sat at 0, you'll only see gray. Lightness at -6 made up for a few highlights that would be blown otherwise.

      3. Adjust >Color>Channel Mixer - Uncheck Monochrome. Set the Output channel to Red. In the Source Channel slider, push the red to 200, leave G and B at 0. Set the Output Channel to Green. Set the Green slider to 200, R and B at 0. In the Blue Output channel, leave all three sliders at 0.

      4. Adjust>Color>Red/Green/Blue - set R at 100%, G at 100%, B at 0.

      5. Layers>New Adjustment Layer>Color Balance. For each Tone Balance radio button, set the Yellow/Blue slider all the way to the left. Check Preserve>Luminance.

      6. Layers>New Adjustment Layer>Channel Mixer. This dialog is just like the>Channel Mixer dialog in the Adjust menu, but it gives you the advantage of being able to modify the layer properties like opacity and blend modes. In addition, if you want to go back and tweak the color adjustment, you can do it directly to the Adjustment Layer by clicking on the the layer title in he Layers Palette, which will re-open the dialog, allowing you to tweak away. Just to show something different, I added a setting of 75% to the green slider IN THE RED CHANNEL, and about 25% Red IN THE GREEN CHANNEL, as well as the settings in step 3 above. I also set the Channel Mixer>Adjustment Layer blend mode to "Color."

      7. Layers>New Adjustment Layer>Hue/Saturation/Lightness. Dialog is exactly like the HSL adjustment in #2. I've used a Hue value of 58 here, even hough yellow should be closer to 42... call it "color anomalies in PSP." I've set the Layer blend mode to "Overlay" here, which I think yields a sorta old-roughed-up but still kinda shiny cheap kinda brass color.  Sortakindamaybe?

      8. Change to Target brush (found on the Retouch brush flyout of the main Toolbar, unless you've customized PSP to put it elsewhere.) Set your foreground or background color to R255 G255 B0. Use the brush to paint the new color right on the image. You can use this quite nicely to selectively spot-colorize.

      9. Layers>New Raster Layer. Activate this layer in the Layers Palette, and fill it using the Flood Fill tool with R255 G255 B0. Set the Layer Blend Mode to "Color." Alternately, set the Layer Blend Mode to "Color (Legacy)." There's a definite difference, but it's too complicated for this discussion. Just pick the one you like for the image you're working on.

      10.This last one is a bit more difficult, only because Corel hid the tool so you have to dig it out first. If you know how to customize your workspace in PSP X, go to Unused Commands, find the Manual Color Correction tool. Install it on a toolbar. Click on the icon to open the dialog. In the left preview pane, use your mouse cursor to drag out a little square sample for PSP to use as your "source" color. You should see this change in the Source chip - it will be black or gray for this image. Click the Manual Target Color radio button. Set the Hue to 42, Saturation to 255, and the lighntess to 9o (128 will be too light for this image, all the highlights will be blown.) Click OK to apply.

      Phew, ten count 'em ten ways to colorize, in Paint  Shop Pro.  Let's move on to another aspect of changing image colors!


      PART TWO

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