Exploring the Colour Replacement Tool on Photoshop.

The main reason why I have chosen to use green in so many of my images is because Anthony's favourite colour is green. When I asked him why his favourite colour is green the only reason he could think of was 'because it is' so I then asked him why he likes the camouflage print. Again his reply was simple 'because it’s green'. At that point I gave up asking him to justify the reasoning why he likes the things he does.


With these images i have used the same tool for all of the images but changed the colour and added different steps to make the images more interesting.

I used the colour replacement tool this allows me to choose any colour and paint a transparent layer of colour over the image. For this image I chose a fairly dark green. the reasoning behind choosing a darker colour is to do with the original image being a bright image allowing me to get away with adding a darker colour on top of the image without making the image look dirty. simple image has turned out rather well and i am pleased with the outcome however it is a very simple technique and i will use this image within other more complex pieces.

unlike the image above this started off as a much darker image therefore limiting me to the colours i could add to it. after some contemplation i decided to go with the brightest green i could make. this made the lighter areas on the image stand out more and making the darker sections stand out also. overall this image worked out but i could have chosen a different image as this image is too dark for the effect to work out with amazing results.

i really like this image mainly because the green used is bright yet it doesnt take away any of the detail or emotion within the image. this is the last simple monotone image i created from here on i started to be more creative with the colour replacement tool to create more interesting images with different moods. 

with this image i decided to use the rectangular marquee tool to select the small areas i then copied and pasted each section onto a different layer before adding the colour using the colour replacement tool to add the colour to the image. i repeated the process changing the colour each time to create the final image. once all the sections were complete i then flattened the image in order to save the image as a high quality jpeg.

For this image I decided to incorporate Anthony’s favourite pattern (camouflage) into the image. The first thing I did was run a quick Google search on images of the camouflage print to get an idea of the shapes and colours I would have to re-create. I then opened the original image into Photoshop I chose to use this same image because I was pleased with the way the colour replacement tool worked on the previous image. To create the camouflaged effect image I started by using the polygonal lasso tool. This tool allows me to select the precise area that I want to be selected. Once I had selected the area I wanted to, I then copied and pasted the section onto a new layer. I then selected an appropriate colour that is representative of the camouflage print. Then I used the colour replacement tool to paint over the section. I then repeated the process changing the colour each time. Having completed the image I have noticed that the blue colour doesn’t quite fit in with the camouflage effect if I was to re create the same effect I would take more care choosing the colours. Overall I think that this image had turned out well given that it was my first attempt at creating the camouflage effect on top of an image of Anthony. 

This image is one of the first images I edited in this way, looking back on it I can see how crude the cutting out of Anthony’s face is. The reason why it is so sharp is I simply didn’t feather the cutting tool this made the image look like this. Considering it was an early edit it wasn’t too I.

I started this edit off by cutting out the face and hair and duplicating it into a new layer. I then chose my favourite colour (purple) I then used the colour replacement tool to add the purple onto the face. However the purple I used was a darker purple which has ended up in detail being lost from his face. This section of the image didn’t work out quite the way I intended despite this I really like the background. To create the effect I made sure I was on the background layer. I then used the smudge tool and set the brush at a medium setting and dragged the image slowly in the same direction. Once I was happy with the smudge effect I then added the colour replacement tool on top. This time I chose a bright green this complements the purple really well also as I mentioned before it is also Anthony’s favourite colour. 

For my next image I decided to incorporate the logo of Anthony’s favourite band into the image.

 I started by selecting the image and adding the colour replacement tool onto the image. Again I chose green. I then added the logo onto the image in a different layer I just removed the background from the image. From there i copied and pasted the logo and moved the image around until I was happy with the position of the logos before flattening the image. I chose not to change the colour of the logos because I didn’t want to over complicate the image by adding too many different colours to the image which would result in an unprofessional looking image. 

With the following images I used a different method to achieve a similar result. Instead of using the replacement tool I decided to adjust the hue and saturation. Then I altered the colour balance. This created a similar effect.

I think this image is one of my weaker images. I don't think this effect works well on this image at all. I’m not quite exactly sure to why it doesn't work but I know it’s not as high quality as my other edits. If I’m being honest I made it purple because I love purple and it didn't work at all but at least I know not to go over the top with the colour. The image below has worked so much better than this one and i am really pleased with the result of it in comparison to this image. The image i used had more variant in colours to begin with which helped to make the edited image such a success. 

Adjusting the image my using this method allows me to easily control the areas of the image I want to be in a particular colour. However this method has its drawbacks, it won’t let me have the exact colours that I want. for example if I wanted a yellow face and a green jacket it wouldn’t let me cause when I change the jacket colour to green it automatically changed the face colour to purple. It has worked out on this image and made the image stand out almost like the pop art style images I started off by doing. I really like the way that this image as turned out i particularly like the fact it includes both mine and Anthony's Favorite colours. and I love the expression on his face.