Changing Color/Finish

[M_Marin]

Hello Community,

I'm new to Ps, I've been watching some beginner videos but not sure if someone could point me to a specific video/tutorial about changing color/finishes to an image/object.

Work in the furniture industry and often I am asked to change the finishes to existing renderings/pictures of chairs or tables. From a light wood finish to a darker one or from some Chrome finish to a bronze one.

I really appreciate your feedback, thanks.

[edgrimley]

 I used to do a lot of the same kind of work for a furniture company, but there is no one single method that will apply for all situations. Here is an example. In this one the wood color change is primarily from a hue/saturation adjustment layer set to softlight blending mode.

[Unbeleeevable]

Hey there! I also work for a furniture company and I do stuff like this day in and day out! As edgrimley said, there's no * one * way to do every single color or finish change, but the biggest help to me personally was getting good at using gradient maps in conjunction with layer masks. They're especialy great for when you're just changing the color of a surface but keeping the texture the same.

Here's a basic example: Say you have an image of a chair with blonde wood legs and an olive cushion and you're being asked to change the wood to a darker finish but keep the olive cushion the same, a quick way to do that would be to create a gradient map, playing around with the stops until the wood section looks right. Once you have that gradient map in place, you can use the gradient map's layer mask to tell Photoshop where in the image you want that color change to appear, and where you want it "turned off." That's a very broad overview and it won't work for everything, but I use some variation of that basic function on like 90% of my mockups. 

I attached a more in-depth explanation, hope it explains a little better!

I don't have any specific tutorials to recommend, but anything that will teach the basics of gradient maps or layer masks. I usually go to PiXimperfect's YouTube channel for all my technical Photoshop questions. Good luck!