Photoshop Color Tutorial

June 29, 2008 · Print This Article

This Photoshop Color Tutorial will show you another way of adding a different colour to your image.

In this tutorial I use very little layer adjustment tools and rely on solid colour fills - adjusting them to an image and selecting the right colours or the right image can sometimes be easy and other times hard. In this tutorial I’m simply going to supply you with a bunch of layers that I use a lot. This effect works on many images, although I originally made it to suit the image below I’ve tested it out on a lot of other images.

The beautiful thing about colour layers is that you can just double click on one and move the slider to suit your unique image - they do dramatically change the colour and look of your image very simply.

Feel free to request something similar to this Photoshop Color Tutorial.

Before

Before Effects

After

After Effects

Photoshop Color Tutorial - The Steps

First of all, open a image in Photoshop - I personally would use the image I’ve used above, it will make it easier for you. Just right click on the image and "save image" to your desktop.

Assuming you have the image you want open in Photoshop, go -> Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color… when the first box appears change the Opacity to 43% and change the "Normal" drop down menu to "Overlay" - then press OK, another box will appear, the colour box - at the bottom you’ll see 6 digits, change them to e79090 - then press OK

Again go -> Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color… when the first box appears change the Opacity to 19% and change the "Normal" drop down menu to "Overlay" - then press OK, another box will appear, the colour box - at the bottom you’ll see 6 digits, change them to ae7d12 - then press OK

Once again go -> Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color… when the first box appears change the Opacity to 19% and change the "Normal" drop down menu to "Overlay" - then press OK, another box will appear, the colour box - at the bottom you’ll see 6 digits, change them to 8a47fa - then press OK

Again go -> Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color… when the first box appears change the Opacity to 19% and change the "Normal" drop down menu to "Overlay" - then press OK, another box will appear, the colour box - at the bottom you’ll see 6 digits, change them to 8ffa47 - then press OK

…again go -> Layer -> New Fill Layer -> Solid Color… when the first box appears change the Opacity to 19% and change the "Normal" drop down menu to "Soft Light" - then press OK, another box will appear, the colour box - at the bottom you’ll see 6 digits, change them to cd96b5 - then press OK

Now go -> Layer -> New Adjustment Layer -> Levels - when the box appears, at the top you’ll see input levels - change the first to 0 then the second to 1.00 and then the third to 255 - then just below the black and white graph you should see Output levels make sure the first is set to 0 and the second to 255 - don’t close the box yet.

At the very top of the box you’ll see a drop down menu displaying "RGB", change it to "Red", and then at the top you’ll see input levels - change the first to 19 then the second to 0.78 and then the third to 236 - then just below the black and white graph you should see Output levels make sure the first is set to 0 and the second to 255 - don’t close the box yet.

Now, change the drop down menu from "Red" to "Green", and then at the top you’ll see input levels - change the first to 34 then the second to 0.93 and then the third to 198 - then just below the black and white graph you should see Output levels make sure the first is set to 0 and the second to 255 - don’t close the box yet.

This time change the drop down menu from "Green" to "Blue", and then at the top you’ll see input levels - change the first to 0 then the second to 1.10 and then the third to 219 - then just below the black and white graph you should see Output levels make sure the first is set to 0 and the second to 255 - NOW CLOSE THE BOX!
Go to your layers palette, locate the newly finished levels layer, change the mode from "Normal" to "Overlay" and then locate the opacity and change that to 50%

This step is optional as it may be nicer on some images and then the opposite on others.

Go to your original layer in your layers palette (to locate it press F7 on your keyboard) - select the original layer and then use this short cut: CTRL (win)/Command (mac) + J

Now click and drag the newly duplicated layer to the top of all your layers - then just above it, change the "mode" to Soft Light - then change the Opacity to 50% - if you’re not comfortable with your layers palette then please read this layers palette tutorial ->>>

Phew. That’s it - if you have any questions regarding this Photoshop Color Tutorial then just drop me a line in the below comment box. I’ll happily reply.