Why isn't Replace Color working?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
April 28, 2019
2 replies
54945 views

I have a background that is beige, and I want it to be white. I've tried Replace Color, but it's not working. At first it looked like it worked, but the change didn't save, and now I can't even get it to change. I unlocked the background so it says Layer 0. I have Photoshop CC.

replace color

Correct answer Chuck Uebele

The closer to white or black that a color is, the less well replace color works. I would try another method, like color range and curves or targeted Hue/saturation.

E

E L I A S

Participant

color replac doesn't works with smart object, so U need to make sure that your image (layer) not a smart object.

1-click on your layer in layers menue.

2-mouse right click

3-select (convert to layer)

L

Lise Voute

Known Participant

Thanks to this thread I know now how it works. Usually, I just need it for simple small jobs, and then I click on the replacer tool (not the dialog box), alt-click the color I need and paint over the color I want to change - taking care that the crosshairs (the little +) stays IN that color.

Daniel E Lane

Inspiring

Which Photoshop CC version are you running?

Is the background a separate layer or just a background in an image that you are trying to change?

A

Angelique & FriendsAuthor

Inspiring

Version 20.0.3. It's the just background in an image.

YouCannotBendit

Participant

Johan Elzenga - thanks! You were right, I did it wrong because I didn't understand HOW it worked, and then of course I got no result at all.
I can make it work now, more or less. It is quite complicated and only gets me in the direction of what I want, not the exact result I need. In the past, I worked with Jasc (which is now Corel) and that had an extremely simple way to do it. I make many photos of works of art and have to make the surrounding background pure white. Jasc did that perfectly, within a half minute. No sliders or anything, and exactly the color I needed. I have to decide if I go back to Jasc/Corel, but Photoshop has other things I love, so I will probably end up using them alternately.

The "replace colour" function on photoshop DID work exactly as well and efficeiently as that on jasc and corel but was changed, deliberately, to work much less well or much less efficiently or not at all, for unknown reasons. The current 'solution' being offered is far more difficult, convoluted and inefficent than it need be. Just selecting one colour to change and selecting another which you want to change it to, ought to be the bare minimum which photoshop is capable of. Why they now want to make you jump through 20 hoops to achieve the square root of jumping through a single hoop is anyone's guess.

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