Corel PaintShop Pro Help | Recoloring image areas for a realistic effect

Recoloring image areas for a realistic effect

You can use the Color Changer tool to realistically recolor an object or a region in an image. What sets the Color Changer tool apart from other tools and commands (such as the Flood Fill tool, some of the retouching brushes, or the Colorize, Hue/Saturation/Lightness, or Hue Map commands) is that it takes into account the shading of the specified color. The Color Changer tool detects and analyzes variations in image brightness and applies the recoloring based on that illumination.

It lets you adjust Tool Options palette settings for Tolerance and Edge Softness, and it updates the current recoloring as you modify settings on the Tool Options palette or modify the color in the Materials palette.

The Color Changer tool works best on matte objects such as clothing, carpet, and painted objects that are a solid color. It may not work as well on shiny or reflective objects and is not designed to work with gradients or patterns.

One click can change the color of the girl’s dress.

To recolor by using the Color Changer tool

Edit workspace

On the Tools toolbar, choose the Color Changer tool

The Color Changer tool is grouped with the Flood Fill tool.

On the Materials palette, click the Color button

on the Style drop-list, and choose a solid color.

If the Materials palette is not displayed, choose View

Palettes

Materials.

For realistic-looking colors, set the Saturation value (in the Material Properties dialog box) closer to 100 than to 255 (full saturation).

Position the Color Changer pointer over the color you want to change in the image, and then click to recolor with the Foreground/Stroke color, or right-click to recolor with the current Background/Fill color.

Click Apply to set the color change on the object.

You can also

Use a color from the current image

Choose the Dropper tool

, click the color you want in the image, and then choose the Color Changer tool to reactivate it.

Instantly change the color you want to apply

Before clicking Apply, click a color on the Materials palette.

Adjust the color application

Before clicking Apply, adjust any of the following controls on the Tool Options palette:

Tolerance — determines how closely the current color needs to match similar colors for recoloring to be applied. Higher settings cause more pixels to be recolored.

Edge Softness — determines how pixels that border the recolored pixels are affected. Higher settings cause more "bleeding" of the recoloring.

While using the Color Changer tool, you can undo and redo actions such as adjusting colors or adjusting settings on the Tool Options palette.

To isolate the area you want to recolor, you can create a selection. For more information about creating selections, see Creating selections.

To prevent the Color Changer from affecting areas of the photo that you do not want to change, you can duplicate the layer on which the photo resides, apply the Color Changer to the new layer, and use the Eraser tool to erase the areas of changed color that you want to restore. You can then merge the layers.

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