Recoloring made easy

Have you ever purchased a digital kit, started to create a layout, and wished that one of the elements were a different color?  Some elements can be recolored very easily, while others might take more work.  Today, let’s look at a simple method of recoloring using the Colorize option in a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. (Today I am using Photoshop CC.)

Here is a paper and blue bow from By Design, a collaboration between SnickerdoodleDesigns and Vero – the French Touch.

Let’s recolor that bow green. Here’s how:

1. Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer above the bow by clicking on the appropriate icon in the Adjustments panel. Alternatively, you may go to the top menu bar and go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation.

2. Clip your adjustment layer to the bow by holding down ALT and hovering your mouse between the 2 layers, then clicking when you see the down-pointing arrow. You will know that the 2 layers have been clipped together when you see the Hue/Saturation layer indented and with a down-pointing arrow indicator to the left of the layer. Having them clipped together will keep your Hue/Saturation adjustment from affecting all of the layers in your document, and restrict it to the bow only.

3. Click on the background paper (vero-by-design-pp7) to make it the active layer.

4. Click on the Foreground Color to bring up the Color Picker.

5. When the Color Picker opens, Photoshop will activate the Eye Dropper Tool.  Click anywhere on the background paper to select the color you would like to recolor the bow.  Click OK. I chose green. (Alternatively, you may type in the Hex Code, if you know it.)

6. Click on the Hue-Saturation Layer to make active.

7. Go to the Hue/Saturation Properties Panel, and tick the Colorize box.

8. And now you have a lovely green bow.

This method doesn’t always work perfectly on all colors and all elements. Sometimes you have to adjust the color a little by moving the Saturation slider a little to the right or left, or by tweaking other color or levels adjustments.  This is, however,  one of the most simple recoloring methods, and is always the first one I will try when I need to recolor something.

That’s how easy it is!  Try it next time you wish you had a different color element to go on a layout!

Toiny has created a new Tutorial Gallery for us!  When you experiment with this technique, or any technique you learn through our tutorials, we encourage you to upload your results to the new gallery! Show off your hard work!  Please include the name of the tutorial and provide a link to it, in case some of our readers missed it!

Vero created a beautiful By Design Cluster gift for you, and when I was packaging it for you, I included the green bow that we created here in this tutorial.  You just might need a green bow sometime – and even though you can now make you own, here’s one already done for you.

Click the image to download.

If you would like to keep this tutorial on your computer for easy reference, you may download a PDF here.

Thank you for visiting!  I hope to see you next week!