How to change color of clothing to a specific HEX code?

[AeonGaiden]

I have an image where I need to change the color of the jacket from purple to a much lighter color: #eee7d9
I tried using solid color and then blend to color but not really getting what i am looking for. If I use Hue/Saturation I could maybe reach that color shade but it needs to be the exact one. I feel like im missing a step here, as I dont really do this on a regulr basis so I am a bit like a fish out of water. Thanks in advance!

[D Fosse]

This is much more complicated than it sounds! For diagrams and pie charts this would work, for a photograph that is supposed to look natural there simply is no such thing. There's complex optics at play.

I'm not saying it can't be done, or that you can't get very close to how it would look in reality - but I am saying there's no one-button trick. This is a difficult job for an experienced operator!

The term "color" in Photoshop has a narrower meaning than it does in everyday speech: In Photoshop the color component is entirely separate from the luminance component. A numerical definition of a color will only apply to a flat patch of color.

So if you define a flat color, what about the highlights and shadows? They will obviously be a "different color" in the sense that the numbers will be very different. You can't just say "lighter" or "darker" either, because a given color will naturally decrease in saturation as you go towards white and black (both at 0 saturation). A garment will also pick up surrounding colors and reflected light, different in shadows and highlights. Neglecting this will make the result look fake and unnatural.

And then another thing: Every color has its own inherent brightness. This has to do with the eye's sensitivity to different wavelengths. A bright yellow is much lighter than a deep blue or purple! This isn't just a difference in brightness overall - it changes the whole contrast curve. So again - simply changing the color component will make the result look fake and unnatural.

Bottom line - you have to do this by eye. You will need to select the area and remap the whole tonal range with a gradient map. You have to pick an exact spot that you define as the reference for the new color.

In any case, the first thing you need to define is your ambition level: is quick-and-dirty good enough, or do you want it to look natural? If the latter, this is a lot of work and a pair of good experienced eyes.

[Signfeld]

For an example...
Nemanja Sekulic  |  Change ANY color to ANY other PRECISELY in PS using Gradient Map (2020)

http://youtu.be/O7nCI5t5xiI

[D Fosse]

Come to think of it, this might be a good job for AI.

The problem with that of course, is that you gain no further understanding of the basic underlying problem. The next time you're just as ignorant as you were to begin with.

And that, I think, is a precise description of the whole problem with AI. 

BTW, would this be considered to mundane a job for generative fill? Would it instead replace the jacket with a 17th century regalia army uniform? 😉 😄

I haven't installed the beta, so I can't try...

[Trevor.Dennis]

I went as far as loading the image and made a pallet with the #eee7d9 code, and immediately thought this is not doable without a ton of time and work, and that even then, the results might not be great.  What I usually do is add a bunch of color sample points, and move the Info panel into a convenient position, and then select with color range, which hopefully means using a Hue/Saturation layer.  Then make the adjustments watching the sample values, which will update in real time as you try to match all points to sample #1.  

It's not there yet, but I think Dag might be right saying this could one day be done with Ai.  I made a selection ever so slightly larger than the jacket, and used Pale beige jacket as the prompt, and look how close it got the colour with only a vague text description.  OK, it's not the same jacket, but it seems to me that if Gen Fill can work the magic we are seeing in a beta version, then swapping to a designated color can't be too far away.

Do you remember the Extraxt Shading Sneak Peek from MAX in 2015?  I was so exited about that asit would be game changing for composite building, but it was apparently too hard and it fizzled out.  Well how hard would that be with the power of Ai now?  There must be a ton of funtions that are going to work so much better using this tech.

[jane-e]

I remember that Sneak, @Trevor.Dennis , and how it did not change the wallpaper above and below the window where it was partially covered by the sheer curtain. See 5m46s. It would be great if AI can do that now!

Jane

[Signfeld]

This method (for clothes, etc.) should in most cases come (much) closer or be more pleasing than a Hue/Sat layer. I don't have the mentioned action, but I think there is enough info in it to build it if you are action savvy.
https://insider.kelbyone.com/smart-object-color-change-by-kevin-ames

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Addionally, I would take out all color casts on the skin (or at least the ones from the clothing, if any).

[AeonGaiden]

Thank you all for the replies. Ok well this might be a dumb question but if a client requests a specific color code, does it mean it has to EXACTLY that when they use the color picker or do I have the option to actually now adjust brightness etc to match it as close as possible. Like here is a super quick masking just to show that the HEX purple and that same applied on the dress are different colors (obviously lighting, material etc all take effect). So do I send it as this OR i start adjusting to visually make it look more like the purple in the color picker?

[Signfeld]

I'm just as ashamed to not know 😉

But this may be a good step in the right direction...

I set the Solid Color layer to the same HEX value as the bg, but in Color mode.

I then tested at which gray value the folder looks exactly the same as the bg.

This turns out to be #626262, so I guess a spot with that "Luminosity" on your model/clothing should look exactly the part.  Just a guess, as this stuff can get confusing easily...

If you're lucky, it's the gray of a gray card or it's part of its intention...?

Not sure yet just how lucky that would be... I'm getting all confused myself — told you! 😜

So what you need might be a Gradient Map for that color that does it right for every value. Maybe the tut explains that.

[davescm]

Hi

The issue you have is that you have been given a single value #eee7d9 which just means Red 238, Green 231 and Blue 217. Usually that refers to those RGB numbers in the sRGB color space.

However if you were to make all the purple colours in the jacket that exact value , it would look flat and painted - like a cartoon. So what you have to simulate is light falling on a material that is that colour. Where shadows fall it will be darker and where highlights fall lighter. There will actually be very few pixels that have that exact RGB value.

Look at the two images you attached (the purple jacket and the pink dress). The materials those garments are made of will have been a single colour, but the image pixels in those photographs are far from a single colour - in fact you probably won't find any that match the material colour exactly.

So whilst you can use a curve layer to lighten the jacket and a color fill layer set to hue blending mode to color it, a lot of the adjustment has to be done by eye.

Dave

[jane-e]

I have an image where I need to change the color of the jacket from purple to a much lighter color: #eee7d9

...

So do I send it as this OR i start adjusting to visually make it look more like the purple in the color picker?

By @AeonGaiden

Hex is simply another way of writing RGB values and changes according to the color space. It was introduced in Photoshop when folks needed them to handcode html before the days of color management and is often misunderstood.

There are a number threads that address this — here is one. Read the replies from Adobe Community Experts @D Fosse and @davescm that explain it very well:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/hex-codes-in-photoshop/td-p/9040860

Jane