Help With Solid Color Layering

[tmarley2003]

I am in the process of turning the Gettysburg address into the American Flag, but I cannot figure out how to put in a blue field in the upper left hand corner.

Each time I put in a solid color layer:

* I cannot select just the area I want to change.

* When I select the blue color, the white text changes to blue, but the red text goes to black.

I would change the color manually to blue, but it would not be a sharp line in the middle of the image.

Can someone please help me with this?

[Bojan Živković]

Do you want to place a blue solid color layer in the top left corner, beneath the text? Your layer should be below the text but above the layer with solid black color. Please post a screenshot with the layers panel expanded and visible.

[tmarley2003]

I want to the background to remain black and have the text in the upper left hand corner be blue.

[Conrad_C]

I think a major part of the problem with this image so far is that, as far as Photoshop see it, “it’s a trap!” You’ve been looking for a single blending mode that will change both the black and white text to blue, but the problem is that blending modes often use tonal values to determine how much to change something. Because the text is at opposite ends of the tonal scale, it may be difficult to put both the black and the white text on the same side of a single blending mode result.

The approach I did in the demo below was to treat the white stripes separately from the red stripes. (This is not the only correct answer.):

1. Make all text 50% gray. I like to do this because it makes it easier to change color by area, using other layers and blending modes.

2. Draw a shape layer with a rectangle, apply a fill color of blue, and the Color blending mode.

3. Draw a shape layer with multiple flag stripes as rectangles, apply a fill color of red, and the Color blending mode. 

4. Draw a shape layer with the alternate stripes as rectangles, apply a fill color of white, and the Color Dodge blending mode. (There are other blending modes that work just as well.)

[Trevor.Dennis]

Conrad, some really nice frame animations in your answers recently.  They must help the OP to follow the steps, and they are kind of cool just to look at.  Do we need to pay you a royalty fee if we borrow the idea? 😉

[Conrad_C]

Thanks, Trevor. Software is so complicated today, sometimes it seems like still images and words aren’t enough. Over time, I’ve been working out how to show steps clearly in a GIF animation screen recording without sound, at a readable size, and keep the file size down (the demo above is 1.6MB, close to the file size of a good still image).

This didn’t start with me. Adobe is doing more and more of this type of brief GIF animation loops on their help file web pages now, and they’re turning up on more help pages from other software companies, so I probably can’t claim any royalties… 🙂 …anyone can do it!

[AlanGilbertson]

It's a great example of "You can't get there from here," but "It's a trap!" works, too. 😊 Love the animated GIF. We've come a long way since Compuserve!

[tmarley2003]

Thank you Conrad!!! I was able to follow your instructions and was able to get what I was looking for! I just need to fine tune the colors, but that is something I can take care of later.

The only issue I couldn't overcome was having all the rectangles on one layer. I ended up copying the first layer and pasting it over the next set of sentences. A bit messy, but the end result is the same.

Thank you again!