Question about recoloring part of an image

[Reima]

Hello all,

 

So... I am not new to recoloring parts of an image. I like to create custom textures for games that I play, I will sometimes change the hair and eye color of a character, or change things about backgrounds and such.

 

This is a first for me, but I am having a really hard time with selecting the appropriate area because the whole image is so similar in color, I guess? Rather pastel-ey. 

The lasso effect was not super accurate. I missed tiny bits and pieces that made it look obvious once I changed the color of my selected area. I've tried downloading a pluggin with some other color effects, but nothing has worked so far. It always just bleeds together, everything does. 

 

I have also tried simply creating a transparent layer and hand painting the parts I wanted to change, but the problem is I need to darken those parts before I recolor them or it won't look the way I want it to, meaning the whole image is changed when I only want parts of it to be. Otherwise, just laying color over something already having a lot of color in it just makes it look off.

 

I hope I was able to describe the issue, I feel like I am talking nonsense lol. 

 

Any tips?

[MJW]

I don't know if this will help, but one method I've used is to duplicate the image into another layer, and in the upper layer, erase everything except what you wish to recolor. Then you can use various Adjustments, Effects, and hand coloring to recolor the part of image in the upper layer. I find it a lot easier to accurately erase around a region than to try to get an accurate Lasso tool selection. (You also don't have to deal with that distracting crawling-ants border when recoloring -- wish it could be temporarily turned off.) It often helps to feather the edge of the upper-layer region, so it blends more smoothly with the original image. Feathering can also be achieved by using an Eraser with a soft edge.

 

If you're doing eye color, you can always use the Ellipse select to select the iris.

 

I also find BoltBait's Hue/Saturation+ very useful for recoloring. You can isolate the general area with a selection, then apply Hue/Saturation+ with a color range to limit it to certain colors.

[Reima]

Thank you, I'll give it a shot!

 

Your suggestion about erasing what I don't need on a dupe layer is already making this a lot easier, I'll play around with the effects too.  Thanks soo much

[MJW]

Another advantage to putting the area to recolor in a separate layer is that if after recoloring you realize you initially had too much, you can erase the part you don't want; and if you initially had too little, you can put the missing region in a layer between the two original layers, and recolor it, also.

 

In some cases it's probably better to put slightly more than you need in the new layer, recolor, then erase around the edges to get the best look. Undo can be used for fix any over-erasures, so you get plenty of chances to get it right.

[MJW]

If you have the area to recolor in an upper layer, you can also try using different Opacity and different Blending Modes to combine the recolored section with the original image.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

I generally reach for the Recolor Tool  . If you upload an example image* we can probably give you more specific solutions.

 

* so long as it is family friendly