Invert color in complex graphic for dark background

[SadieP]

I have a very complex graphic that only exists as a png. The graphic has a lot of dot gradients and tones set in black. The graphic currently only works against a white background. I need it to work on a black background. If I try to do it the cheap way by inverting the colors, all I get is a negative that does not look good and it's indecipherable to what the graphic is.

Is there a way in PS to essentially "knock out" the inside shapes to create the inverse of the image? This would have been easier if it where a simplified vector, but it is not. Client only has a flat image.

 

[Conrad_C]

Are you looking for something like the result at the right in the picture below?

(From left to right they’re the original, a simple invert, and a crazy solution I worked out)

If it’s what you want, this is what was done to the one on the right:

1. A Curves adjustment layer is added, clipped to the original image, and in the Properties panel the Curves end points are adjusted to change the originally black regions to middle gray. This sets up those regions to be recolored by the Color Overlay layer style. 

2. The Color Overlay layer style is applied to the original image, and in that layer style, the red color is applied using the Color blending mode. The color doesn’t have to be red, it can be changed in the layer style at any time.

3. The Layer Style dialog box is opened for the original layer by double-clicking the layer. In it, the BlendIf values for the Current Layer are adjusted to drop out the existing white background (the white sliders were dragged to the right and split), so the parts that were originally white become go transparent. 

4. A black Solid Color fill layer is added to the bottom of the Layers panel to be the new black background. That black background shows through the areas of the original layer that were made transparent in step 3.

[LAMY2017]

In addition to dots and blobs, the white area has a grainy noise. In my playing with the file, I couldn't use Select>Color Range, selecting white.

Now, if you invert the colors, then one can select just black; control-J to promote the dots 'n blobs to a new layer; insert a colored layer under the new layer.

(I'm going on the premise that the black areas are the art, not the grainy white areas)

This is what I got. I apologize if I totally misunderstood. I hear you asking to have the black areas on a black background.

P.S. Trevor, you are fast!

[Stephen Marsh]

@SadieP 

I'm a little lost to be honest. It's possible to make either the white or black transparent, if that's what you're looking for.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/photoshop-ecosystem-discussions/photoshop-needs-quot-color-to-alpha-q...