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Participating Frequently
August 13, 2020
Question

Painting Red Brick White

  • August 13, 2020
  • 8 replies
  • 13780 views

How can I paint this red brick house but keep all the shadowing and details in the brick? I have tried creating a mask, adding my color, then changing to color mode but it ends up looking black and white.  

8 replies

Norman Sanders
Legend
August 14, 2020

You may consider doing the work entirely in Lab Color mode where color adjustment is discrete from tone and texture. No sliders, mninum brush work, editable mask and color and texture. 

 

Step 1. Create the Mask 

1. Change Mode to Lab Color and choose the Channels panel.

2. Duplicate the  a  channel and choose it (a copy)

3. Choose Curves and increase the contrast as shown

4. Touch up with hard-edged brush to complete the mask

5. Choose layers, add a duplicate layer and add the mask to the top layer

 

Step 2. Change the brick color

6. Choose Curves and the  a  channel.

7. Change the curve to bisect the grid in the center, horizontally, as shown. 

8.  Repeat with the  b  channel 

The brick color is now neutral gray and maintains the texture of the brick. (The gray value is now similar in lightness to the red brick.

 

Step 3. Change the gray value to white while maintaining texture. 

9. Bend the curve using its Lightness channel to produce your preference of whiteness, contrast and texture. Color will not change.

10. The mask and Lightness curve are available for tweaking. 

11. Return to RGB Mode

 

 

 

davescm
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 14, 2020

Hi Norman - great to see you back here - I hope you are keeping well 🙂

davescm
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 13, 2020

(Duplicate - ignore)

davescm
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 13, 2020

OK I found your colour on line

Do this :

Make sure your image is in sRGB colour space (if not Edit > Convert to Profile sRGB)

Add a colour fill layer RGB value 237,234, 229

Set the blending mode of that fill layer to colour

Add a curve - set the blending mode of the curve to Luminosity

Select the Color fill layer and the curve and group them (right click in layers panel then group from layers)

Add a layer mask to the group based on the selected brickwork

Adjust the curve to get the lightness without losing the brickwork

 

 

Dave

 

Nancy OShea
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 13, 2020

Watch this in depth colorizing video by Jesus Ramirez.   I really like his tutorials because I always learn something new from them. 

 

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
davescm
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 13, 2020

Make a selection of the brickwork then add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer set to "Colorize"

 

Dave

Participating Frequently
August 13, 2020

Thank you Dave!! This is helpful but what if I need the color to be a specific color of Sherwin Williams paint (i have alrady uploaded those colors.)  So I need to be able to put a white paint color on the house AND see the brick detail....is this possible?  Here is a screenshot of what happens when I am trying.  What am I doing wrong?

davescm
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 13, 2020

you have been so helpful...i know its just user error and I want to cry out of frustration. I can not get this to work right and it is imperative i figure this out!!

steps i used

  1. duplicate image
  2. create mask
  3. add specific white color to mask 
  4. played with curve tool

 

still looks like this.  - - flat color


What "specific white colour" are you using and I will set it up here?

Dave

marliton
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 13, 2020

Hi. Try using the brush tool with the color or hue blend mode. Also, you can create a new layer with color or hue blend mode and paint with any tool.

 

Marlon Ceballos
c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 13, 2020

Frequency Separation might also be employed. 

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Community Expert
January 28, 2023

Woah!  c.p.  I'm impressed!  

Luke Jennings3
Community Expert
Community Expert
August 13, 2020

I would start with Image> adjustments> channel mixer, through the brick mask. You want to put the channel with the best texture and detail on the black channel and adjust the CMY to be a neutral cream color. Adjust the levels to fine tune.