Changing Hair Color In An Image With Photoshop

In this photo retouching tutorial, we're going to look at how simple and easy it is to change hair color in Photoshop by tinting and colorizing someone's hair in a photo. The technique we'll be learning here gives us complete control over what we're doing, with several different ways of fine-tuning the results, plus we can also go back any time we want and change the hair color without having to redo all the work! You can use this technique on photos of other people (friends, family, clients), or you can even use it on a photo of yourself to see how different hair colors would look on you!

Here's the image I'll be using for this tutorial:

 The original image.

We're going to be giving her hair a brighter, slightly more reddish color to it in this tutorial, but you have complete control over the color you use with your image, as well as the intensity of the color. Here's how she'll look when we're done:

 The final result. 

At the end of the tutorial, we'll see how easy it is to go back and change the color to something completely different. Let's get started!

Step 1: Add A "Hue/Saturation" Adjustment Layer

With our image open in Photoshop, click on the New Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (the circle split diagonally between black and white):

Click on the "New Adjustment Layer" icon. 

Then select Hue/Saturation from the list of adjustment layers that appears:

Select a "Hue/Saturation" adjustment layer.

 

Step 2: Select The "Colorize" Option

When the Hue/Saturation dialog box opens, select the Colorize option in the bottom right corner by clicking inside its checkbox:

Select the "Colorize" option.

As soon as you select the Colorize option, you'll see your entire image become colorized with a shade of red.

Step 3: Select A New Color For The Hair

Drag the Hue slider left or right to select the color you want to use for the person's hair. For the moment, you'll be colorizing the entire image, but we'll fix that in the next couple of steps. Just ignore the rest of the image for now and focus only on the hair. Once you've found a color you like, adjust the intensity of the color by dragging the Saturation slider left or right. Dragging it to the right gives you a more saturated color, while dragging it to the left reduces the saturation.
Don't worry about getting the color and saturation perfect because you can always go back and change it quite easily later. I'm going to set my Hue amount to about 9 and increase the Saturation to around 45 for now:

Use the Hue slider to select a new color for the hair and adjust the intensity of the color with the Saturation slider.

 

Click OK when you're done to exit out of the dialog box. The woman's hair now appears colorized in red, but so is the rest of her:

The entire image is now colorized in red. 

 

Step 4: Fill The Hue/Saturation Layer's Mask With Black

One of the great things about adjustment layers in Photoshop is that each one automatically comes with its own layer mask, and we're going to use it to fix the problem we currently have with our entire image being colorized when all we really want is for the hair to be colorized.
To start with, let's completely hide the effects of the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer by filling its layer mask with black. Since black is our current Background color and the layer mask is already selected (Photoshop automatically selected the layer mask for us when we added the adjustment layer and set our Foreground and Background colors to white and black, respectively), all we need to do is use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Backspace (Win) / Command+Delete (Mac) to fill the layer mask with black.
As soon as we do, the colorizing effect disappears from our image and if we look in the Layers palette, we can see that the adjustment layer's thumbnail, which gives us a preview of what the layer mask looks like, is now filled with black:

The Layers palette showing the layer mask thumbnail for the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer now filled with black.
 

Step 5: Select The Brush Tool

To bring back the colorizing effect and have it applied only to the hair, all we need to do is paint with white on our layer mask over the hair. Anywhere we paint with white on the layer mask will reveal the effects of the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer, and anywhere we leave black will keep the effects hidden. First, we need the Brush Tool, so either select it from the Tools palette or press the letter B on your keyboard to select it with the shortcut:

Select Photoshop's Brush Tool. 

We need to paint with white on the layer mask to reveal the colorizing effect on the hair, and Photoshop has already set our Foreground color to white for us, as we can see in the Foreground and Background color swatches near the bottom of the Tools palette (the swatch on the left is the Foreground color and the swatch on the right is the Background color):

Photoshop's Tools palette showing white as our Foreground color and black as our Background color. 

We also already have our layer mask selected, and we can tell that because the layer mask thumbnail in the Layers palette has a white highlight border around it, as shown in the image for Step 4 above, which tells us that the mask is selected.

Step 6: Paint With White Over The Hair

With our Brush Tool selected, the layer mask for the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer selected, and white as our Foreground color, all we need to do now is paint over the hair. To quickly change your brush size as you paint, use the left and right bracket keys on your keyboard. The left bracket key makes the brush smaller and the right one makes it larger. You'll want to use a soft-edged brush, so hold down your Shift key and press the left bracket key a few times to soften its edges (holding Shift and pressing the right bracket key a few times makes the brush edges harder). Then simply paint over the hair to bring back the colorizing effect:

Paint with white over the hair to reveal the colorizing effect from the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. 

For trickier areas where there's only loose strands of hair, go up to the Options Bar at the top of the screen and lower the Opacity of the brush down to about 25% or so:

Lowering the opacity of the brush in the Options Bar.

Then lower the size of your brush so it's no bigger than the area you're colorizing and paint over it a couple of times. This way, the color won't be so intense in those areas. You may find it helps to zoom in on those areas as well, and the easiest way to do that is to hold down the Ctrl (Win) / Command (Mac) key and the Spacebar and drag a selection around the area. Photoshop will then zoom into the area you selected:

Zoom into the areas of loose strands if needed and paint over them a couple of times with a lower opacity brush. 

Press Ctrl+Alt+0 (Win) / Command+Option+0 (Mac) when you're done to zoom back out to 100%.
If you make a mistake as you're painting and accidentally paint over an area you didn't mean to (happens all the time), simply press X to swap your Foreground and Background colors, making black your Foreground color, and paint over the mistake to undo it. Then press X again to set your Foreground color back to white and continue painting until you have all the hair colorized:

The woman's hair is now colorized while the rest of the image is not. 

We'll look at how to fine-tune the effect next!

Step 7: Change The Blend Mode To Either "Color" Or "Soft Light"

The hard part is done! We've colorized the hair while leaving the rest of the image untouched thanks to the layer mask that came with the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Now we can fine-tune the effect, and the first way to do that is by changing the blend mode of the adjustment layer. By default, the blend mode is set to "Normal", and it works fairly well, but let's change it to something better. Go up to the blend mode options in the top left corner of the Layers palette, click on the down-pointing arrow to the right of the word "Normal", and select either Color or Soft Light from the list:

Change the blend mode of the adjustment layer to either "Color" or "Soft Light". 

The "Color" blend mode gives us even more of a colorizing effect, since it changes only the color of an image (when we had the blend mode set to "Normal", it was affecting not only the color but also the lightness values of the hair). Here's my image with the blend mode of the adjustment layer set to "Color":

The image with the blend mode of the adjustment layer set to "Color". Only the color of the hair is being affected. The lightness values in the hair are not being affected). 

The "Soft Light" blend mode gives us a more dramatic colorizing effect because it not only changes the color of the hair but also boosts the contrast, which I think works even better than the "Color" blend mode in this case. Here's my image with the blend mode set to "Soft Light":

The image with the blend mode of the adjustment layer set to "Soft Light", giving us a more dramatic effect.

Choose the blend mode that works best with your image.

Step 8: Lower The Opacity Of The Adjustment Layer If Needed

Another way to fine-tune the colorizing effect is by lowering the opacity of the adjustment layer. If you find the color is too intense, simply go up to the Opacity option in the top right corner of the Layers palette (across from the blend mode option) and lower it until you're happy with the results. Here, I've lowered the opacity of the adjustment layer to 50%:

Lower the opacity of the adjustment layer for a more subtle colorizing effect.

This gives me a more subtle colorizing effect:

The image after lowering the opacity of the adjustment layer.

Step 9: Edit The Hue/Saturation Settings To Change The Hair Color As Needed

At this point we're done, but if you need to go back and change the hair color to something different, simply double-click on the Hue/Saturation adjustment layer's thumbnail in the Layers palette (the thumbnail on the left, not the layer mask thumbnail on the right):

Double-click on the adjustment layer's thumbnail to edit the Hue/Saturation settings and change the hair color. 

This brings the Hue/Saturation dialog box back up and we can change the hair color simply by dragging the Hue slider to something different. We can also re-adjust the saturation of the color with the Saturation color. Since this is an adjustment layer, we're free to make as many changes as we want without worrying about damaging our image. Just for fun, I'll set my Hue slider to 304 to give her hair more of a pink/purple look:

Adjust the Hue slider to change the hair color again. 

I'm also going to set the blend mode of the adjustment layer back to "Color" and increase the opacity to around 75%:

Setting the blend mode back to Color and raising the opacity to 75%. 

And here's my new result:

The image afterChanging the hair color and saturation, blend mode and opacity value. 

And there we have it! That's how easy it is to change someone's hair color in Photoshop!

Make Up Artists vs Photoshop: Take and Make Great Photography

Photoshop users can do almost anything to an image but when it comes to extreme make-up can post processing beat a make-up artist? That’s what photographer sets out to discover in this video by adding fake cuts and bruises to a boxer with the help of both Photoshop and Make-Up.

WATCH VIDEO TUTORIAL HERE.. 

 

 

Create a Film Strip Photo Collage Portrait effect in Photoshop

In this Tutorial you will learn how to create a film strip collage photo or portrait in photoshop

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How to make a 3d photo cube in photoshop

Here is a fun tutorial. I’m going to show you how to wrap your photographs onto a 3D cube. Don’t worry if you have never done 3D before, this is really easy.

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Best Way to Colorize Black and White Photos in Photoshop

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Age Progression - Photoshop Tutorial

We are going to show how aging occurs in a woman’s face via Photoshop. For this tutorial we are going to use celebrity star Katie Holmes picture.

Step 1: Choosing an Appropriate Photo

Choose some close up candid photos which doesn’t have much make up and shows all detailing of the face. In Katie’s picture, we can see some slight horizontal lines on her forehead, eyes and near her mouth.

In Katie’s case, we can see very faint horizontal lines on her forehead, fairly obvious lines under her eyes and lines bracketing her mouth. 

Step 2: Collect reference material as it’s the key to the method of aging. 

 

Keeping Katie’s face in mind, I scoured the Web, looking for faces of old women who either resemble Katie and/or share the same facial expression. Here, Katie is smiling with her face positioned at a 3/4 angle so I tried to gather as many pictures of old women who are smiling in the same manner or close to that. I then opened up the picture of Katie in Photoshop and pasted the found images around her face on a separate layer, spread out to provide easy visual access.

Another kind of reference I like to use but is usually hard to find, is pictures of the subject’s parents. I managed to find a couple of reference pictures of Katie’s mother online and they really helped me to decide whether or not to give Katie a double chin. Since her mom has quite a bit of mass under her chin, I decided I would apply that to Katie too.

Step 3: Thinning Brows Now the fun begins!

 

The first thing I like to do is to thin out the subject’s eyebrows and eyelashes. The older people get, the thinner their hair gets - either because hair falls out and/or because it dries out as it greys.

So to achieve this, I like to use the Clone Stamp tool at 100% with a relatively small brush size depending on the size and resolution of the image. I sampled the surrounding skin to thin and reduce the number of hairs.

 

Step 4: Mold the Face Next, I like to add the basic sags to the skin.

 

I do this in the Liquify mode. I tried to create sagging effects to the cheeks, jowls and the cliff just above the eyes by using the Push tool. For the eyes, I tried to be subtle; otherwise she may end up looking somewhat ghoulish.

From what I’ve learned about the aging process, I know that while bones cease to grow, and in fact shrink, cartilage does continue to grow. As a result, the end of a nose may appear larger as a person grows older. So while I was still in the Liquify mode, I used the Push tool to extend the length of the nose slightly. Then I used the Bloat tool to also enlarge it slightly, being careful not lose the essential quality or character of the nose. Go too far and it may not look like Katie anymore.

Step 5: The Aforementioned Double Chin

 

 

Based on her mother’s pictures, I then added a fairly massive double chin. I initially used the Airbrush tool with some fairly broad strokes, sampling the colors that were already in the area of her neck. I then worked in the details with a finer brush size. Also, keep in mind that I was also using the other reference photos of older women to guide me.

Step 6: Wrinkle Up the Eyes 

 

For me, the most important parts to get right are the eyes. They can make or break the project. Done wrong and the picture may no longer be identifiable as one of Katie Holmes anymore. I sought out the fine lines around the eyes and I tried to imagine how they would progress into wrinkles. I then extended them in length and width accordingly. Referencing the pictures of old women helped a lot with this step.

I used a combination of the Stamp tool and Brush tool. I wish I could explain my technique at this point in a more clinical manner but mostly I relied on my artistic instincts. I emphasized the wrinkles around the eyes by widening and deepening the lines slightly and increasing the contrast by darkening the recesses and lightening the edges. Also, I extended wrinkles to the cheekbone areas. I then applied the same technique to the wrinkles around the mouth and to the forehead. 

Step 6: Reducing the Lips In this step, I work on the lips.

 

As people grow older, the outline of the lips tends to recede. Using the Stamp tool, I sampled the skin surrounding the lips and thinned them out.

While I was at it, I also added a few vertical wrinkles above the lips to give her a bit of a "prune" effect. We just want a hint of that, so don’t carve out deep lines; deep lines would only be necessary if she was puckering her lips.

Step 7: Planning Out More Wrinkles 

 

Here, on a separate layer, I faintly outlined or sketched, with a relatively thin brush size, areas that I may or may not add more lines and wrinkles to. It’s easy to get carried away with the addition of wrinkles. So, I stopped, took a step back and assessed where to take to image. For me, it's essential and a great test to see what best works.

Step 8: Touching Up the Wrinkles Based on the previous step, I added wrinkles where I thought they were needed most. 

 

Overall, I found that the wrinkles and lines seemed a little flat in comparison to the rest of Katie’s features. They needed more definition so that they could pop out more. So, I highlighted the raised edges of the individual lines with the Brush tool and with a lighter skin tone.

 

Step 9: Hairy Lips Facial hair becomes an issue with most women as they age. 

 

For some strange reason they lose it in the brow area and grow it back around the mouth area. I didn’t want Katie to be the exception so with a very fine brush size and the Brush tool, I added hairs to her upper lip.

I tried to make it as subtle as possible. Hairs too thick or dark would draw the viewer’s attention straight to her mustache and I didn’t want that. I also added more wrinkles to the area below the corners of her mouth.

Step 10: Refining the Neck

 

I decided that the neck was too smooth for a woman of 75 years of age. So I added finer wrinkles to that area. Also, I added more mass and weight to her jowls with the airbrush by increasing the value of the tones in those areas thus creating more contrast between surface planes. 

 

Step 11: Adding Age Spots A key component to effective aging of a face is the addition of age spots.

 

So at this point, I sampled one of the darker skin tones on her face, and on a separate layer that was set to Multiply and 30% opacity, I brushed them in and tried to create irregular shapes (there IS no perfect age spot). You can add as many as you like; the amount varies from person to person. I decided to be conservative with Katie.

 

Step 12: More Refinements

 

I took a little break from it and came back to it later to possibly get a better perspective on it. When I looked at it, at this point, I decided that certain areas needed refining and added detail. This is the beauty of working with a high-resolution file; I can zoom in real close and deal with a wrinkle up-close and personal.

Unless their teeth were subjected to regular whitening, most people’s teeth yellow with age. Gums also recede, showing less gum and more bone. And so with that in mind, I sampled a yellowish-brown color and on a new layer that was set to Multiply and 30% opacity and painted that color to the teeth with the Brush tool. Her gums didn’t show to begin with, so receding the gums here wasn’t necessary.

 

Step 13: Preparing the Hair

 

The finishing touch here is greying the hair. I began by creating a mask defining the area of the hair. I used the brush for this and tried my best to define as many loose strands of hair that I could.

With this mask as a selection, I then created a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and reduced the saturation to –63.

 I then created a new adjustment layer based on the same mask and adjusted the Brightness/Contrast to brightness +9 and contrast –36. As a result, I found that the darker areas were too pale and caused a loss of depth and so to adjust that, I then selected the mask and scratched out the darker areas with a 5px brush size at 50% opacity so that they could show through from the original image.

Step 14: Hair Raising 

 

The next step was to raise the hairline and thin out the hair. Hair loss is common with both sexes.

I sampled the area at the top of the forehead and extended the skin area above the original hairline.

Step 15: Greying the Hair 

 

A lot of details of the hair were lost in the previous step so with a thin brush size at 80 percent opacity I drew in fine grey hairs, sparsely laid out.

 Patiently, slowly, stroke by stroke I added more and more hairs until I was happy with the amount of grey I had added.

Step 16: Finishing Touches 

 

Finally, I took a step back, refined a few wrinkles here and there ET VOILA!

Create a 3D Text Scene Using Photoshop

In this tutorial we’ll create a realistic 3D text scene using Photoshop with a little help from Illustrator for the 3D text.

You need to have medium to advanced knowledge of Photoshop in order to complete this tutorial.

To get started, go ahead and download all the images used from the Sxh.hu website. All images are free to download and here are the links: 1, 2, 3, 4

Let’s get started and create a truly awesome 3D effect in just a few short steps. Try it out and feel free to post links to your own variations, we’d love to see what you come up with.

 Here’s a quick preview of the image that we will be creating:

Step 1

On a blank document type the text in Illustrator. I’m using the Impact typeface and this foreground color: #CCCCCC. Then go to Effect > 3D > Extrude & Bevel, and set the values as shown below. Then copy (Ctrl or Command + C) the 3D text.

Step 2

Let’s open Photoshop, create a new document (1280 x 1024 px) and put this image as a background. Then paste the 3D text (created on Step 1) as a Smart Object.

Step 3

Next, go to Filter > Render > Lighting Effects and set the values as shown below. This way the text will match the scene lightening.

Step 4

Select the Smart object layer, right click on the layer and select Duplicate Layer > Destination: New, and Name: Map. Then go to Layer > Rasterize > Smart object.  Save the document as Map.psd somewhere in your Desktop.

Step 5

Now, let’s save the previous document as “Displace texture”, delete the raster 3D text and paste this image on a new layer. This will be our first texture.
Go To Filter > Distort > Displace, search for “map.psd” and set both the Horizontal and Vertical values to 50. Then, Select all (Ctrl + A or Command + A) and copy the selection.

Step 6

Paste the “Rock Texture” into a new layer above the 3D smart object. Change the Blending mode to Overlay.
Ctrl (Command) + Click on Smart Object miniature to select the text shape, then Ctrl (Command) + Shift + I to invert the selection, then hit DEL to delete the extra texture (on the “Rock Texture” layer).
Then use the Magic Wand tool to select the front face of the 3D text on the Smart Object layer and delete the selection on the “Rock Texture” layer.

Step 7

Using the Burn Tool, burn some shadows on the “Rock Texture” layer.

Step 8

Select the “Sand dunes” layer, select the Clone Stamp tool and holding the Option (Alt) key, click somewhere on the sand. Then create a new layer above “Rock texture”, name it “More Sand” and clone the sand on that layer.

Step 9

To improve the texture effect, delete some areas of  the “Rock Texture” layer.

Step 10

Now we’re going to add some ‘dirt’. Open the “Displace texture” file one more time. Paste this image into a new layer. Go To Filter > Distort > Displace, search for “map.psd” and set both the horizontal and vertical values to 50. Then, select all (Ctrl + A or Command + A) and copy the selection.

Step 11

Paste the “Dirt texture” into a new layer. Ctrl (Command) + Click on the “3D text” layer miniature to select the text shape, then Ctrl (Command) + Shift + I to invert the selection, then hit DEL to delete the extra texture (on the “Dirt texture” layer).
Using a soft eraser, delete the bottom of the “Dirt texture” layer, then improve the result by using an irregular eraser.

Step 12

Change the “Dirt texture” blending mode to Multiply and add a small Drop Shadow.

Step 13

To add the grass, go to the “Displace texture” file and  paste this image. Apply a Displacement map, just like the other textures and finally copy the grass.

Step 14

Paste the grass on the main document, delete  the bottom part and using an irregular Eraser delete some areas on the borders.

Step 15

Burn some shadows on the “Grass texture” layer.

Step 16

Add a small drop shadow to  the “Grass texture” layer. Using the Sponge tool, desaturate some of the areas of the grass.

Step 17

Paste the grass texture into a new layer on a plane on Vanishing Point filter window (go to Filter > Vanishing Point) to match the perspective of the landscape.

Step 18

Erase some random areas of the “Grass” layer, and using an irregular brush delete some random areas here and there.

Step 19

Select a part of the grass, feather the selection and adjust the hue value to -30.

Step 20

Finally add a soft drop shadow to the “Grass” layer.

Step 21

Let’s add more details. Paste this image into a new layer and adjust the Hue/Saturation values to match the existing colors. You can call the new layer “Hanging plant” or something like that.

Step 22

Using an irregular eraser, delete everything with the exception of the hanging plant, and place them next to
3D text’s corners.

Step 23

Duplicate the “Hanging plant” layer and go to Edit > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Then distort the copy a little bit. Follow this with the use of the burn tool to make the copy darker according to the the scene lighting.

Step 24

Add as many details as you want. I added a few more hanging plants and a bush.

Step 25

Just to create a more dramatic effect apply these two adjustment layers to the entire design: a Photo Filter and a Gradient Map (Opacity 35%).

Final result

Now you’ve got a nice 3D text inside a photograph. Click on the image for a larger preview.  Try it on your own and come up with your own variations.