Today, YouTheDesigner is going to show you how to change hair color in Photoshop. This is a pretty basic technique that uses some basic digital painting elements and uses some masking techniques. It’s fairly simple and easy to follow for even just beginners!
What we’re trying to do is to turn the top image into the bottom image.
Let’s get started!
STEP 01: OPEN YOUR DOCUMENT
We took a fashion stock photo courtesy of Shutterstock and opened it up in Adobe Photoshop. Make sure you use a photo with good lighting and and decent resolution so you can build up better quality results.
STEP 02: Get the colors!
We basically create a new adjustment layer by going to IMAGE > LAYER > NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER and select HUE/SATURATION. Play around with the sliders for Hue and Saturation (leaving lightness mostly alone) until you have it set at a color you like. The picture will look weird at this stage – but that’s okay! What’s important is that you manage to get a decent tone for the hair.
STEP 03: Clean up
We basically create a new adjustment layer by going to IMAGE > LAYER > NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER and select HUE/SATURATION. Play around with the sliders for Hue and Saturation (leaving lightness mostly alone) until you have it set at a color you like. The picture will look weird at this stage – but that’s okay! What’s important is that you manage to get a decent tone for the hair. There should be a little box next to the new adjustment layer, for masking. Select it. In order to isolate just the hair area, you have to use the Brush Tool (B) and paint in the areas you want remove with black. You can also select areas with the Lasso Tool (L) and the Paint Bucket Tool (G) too fill in the areas you don’t want with black. However, I prefer the brush tool because it gives me a better sense of control.
STEP 04: Fix the tones!
I set the HUE/SATURATION layer’s blend mode to DARKEN. I also created a new layer on top of that and painted on the shadows with black, and a brush tool. Setting that layer to overlay. Do what looks right and what works with your composition.Create highlights by using white. Edit the opacity of your brush so you can adjust the blending of the image. Look at where your light is hitting in the image.
If you feel like it, you can also change the color of the hair by going back down to the HUE/SATURATION layer and playing around with the settings.
Here’s what it looks like in pink!
STEP 5: Final Touches
Using the same technique, I edited the eye color and her make up by painting in a new layer and setting that layer to “Color”. Blending it in using the brush tool. I also edited the lighting and the curves with more adjustment filters. I also messed around with curves until it looked like one strong piece. Here’s my end result!
If you want more tutorials – you can also check out these 10 Illustrator Tutorials for Beginners. Please feel free to show us your work! Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.You can also hit us up on our Facebook, Twitter and Google+ profiles. Lastly, our RSS Feeds is open for subscription so that you can stay creative!