How To Replace Colors In Photoshop: Step-By-Step Guide

Do you want to replace colors in Photoshop? Want an object in your image to stand out or pop? Welcome to this guide.

Changing and replacing color in Photoshop offers more editing capabilities and allows you to create mock-ups and creative images. And one way to replace a color is to use the Replacement Color tool.

The Color Replacement tool in Photoshop can come in handy in a lot of creative situations. For example, you may want to bring out your subject with a pop of color. Or maybe you want to create contrasting colors, or you like one color better than another.

Whatever your reason, Adobe Photoshop makes it easy to replace one color with another.

Easy Ways To Replace Colors in Photoshop

Use the Color Replacement tool

You can use the Color Replacement tool to replace a targeted color with a different option. Although this tool is suitable to achieve quick edits, it may not give the desired results when working with black or dark colors.

The Color Replacement tool doesn’t work in Bitmap, Indexed, or Multichannel color mode.

1. Select the Color Replacement tool (). (If the tool isn’t visible, access it by holding down the Brush tool.)
2. In the options bar in the workspace, choose a brush tip and set the other options. Generally, you should keep the blending mode set to Color. For the Sampling option, choose one of the following:
   • Continuous: Samples colors continuously as you drag.
   • Once: Replaces the targeted color only in areas containing the color that you first select.
   • Background Swatch: Replaces only areas containing the current background color.
    From the Limits menu, select one of the following:
   • Discontiguous: Replaces the sampled color wherever it occurs under the pointer.
   • Contiguous: Replaces colors that are contiguous with the color immediately under the pointer.
   • Find Edges: Replaces connected areas containing the sampled color while better preserving the sharpness of shape edges.
   For Tolerance, choose a low percentage to replace colors very similar to the pixel you select, or raise the percentage to replace a broader range of colors. If the range of replaced colors is too small, increase the Tolerance setting in the options bar.
   To produce a smooth edge in the corrected areas, select Anti-alias.
3. Choose a foreground color to replace the unwanted color. (See Choose colors in the toolbox.)
4. Select the color you want to replace in the image.
5. Drag in the image to replace the targeted color.

Use the Replace Color dialog

The Replace Color dialog combines tools for selecting a color range with Hue, Saturation, and Lightness sliders for replacing that color. You can also choose the replacement color in the Color Picker.

1. Navigate to Image > Adjustments > Replace Color.
2. Select Replace Color in Photoshop
3. In the Replace Color dialog that opens, select a preview option —
   • Selection: This option displays the mask in the preview box. Areas marked as black are masked, and areas marked as white are unmasked. Partially masked areas (areas covered with a semitransparent mask) appear as varying levels of gray according to their opacity.
   • Image: This option displays the image in the preview box. This option is recommended when working with a magnified image or limited screen space.
4. To select the colors that you want to replace, use the Eyedropper tool () to select an area in the image or in the preview box to select the areas exposed by the mask. If you’re selecting similar, contiguous colors in the image, check the Localized Color Clusters box to build a more accurate mask.
5. To further refine the selection, do any of the following:
   • Shift-click or use the Add To Sample Eyedropper tool () to add areas.
   • Alt-click (Windows), Option-click (macOS), or use the Subtract From Sample Eyedropper tool () to remove areas.
   • Select the Selection Color swatch to open the Color Picker. Use the Color Picker to target the color you want to replace. As you select a color in the Color Picker, the mask in the preview box is updated.
6. Drag the Fuzziness slider or enter a Fuzziness value to control the degree to which related colors are included in the selection.
7. Specify a replacement color by doing either of the following:
   • Drag the Hue, Saturation, and Lightness sliders (or enter values in the text boxes). Double-click the Result swatch and use the Color Picker to select the replacement color.

Select OK to apply changes to your image. Also, you can use the Save option to store these settings and use them later with other images of your choice.

Apply a Hue/Saturation adjustment to selected objects

Applying the Hue/Saturation adjustments is often the best approach to replacing color in objects. Because masks and adjustment layers are non-destructive, you can adjust the results whenever you want.

1. Select your preferred object. Use the Quick Selection tool () to get good results.
2. In the Adjustments panel, select the Hue/Saturation icon. Your selection will become a mask on the adjustment layer.
3. In the Properties panel, move the Hue and Saturation sliders to replace the object’s color. If the original color tints the new color, check the Colorize box and readjust the settings.
   Note: Keep the Lightness slider at 0 to maintain contrast. To maintain both contrast and saturation, select the Hue blending mode for the adjustment layer.
   

If necessary, enlarge or reduce the affected area by painting the mask with white or black.

Auto Color

Sometimes, you might not want to do too much manual work with adjusting the colors in your Photoshop images. And in other instances, you may feel like your pictures don’t require a huge amount of work. Either way, you can try using the Auto Color tab in Photoshop.

The Auto Color feature will automatically adjust how your photo looks based on what Photoshop thinks is right. Unlike Color Balance, it will adjust the colors in all areas of your picture at once. To use the tool, go to Image > Auto Color; your changes will take immediate effect.

Note, however, that Auto Color will sometimes not show the results you want. You can try using it with Auto Tone (Image > Auto Tone) as a starting point, but in other cases, you may need to make manual adjustments to fit your style.

Color Balance

Sometimes, you might notice that the colors don’t look quite right in your pictures. Maybe you didn’t set the white balance in your camera correctly, or perhaps your edits in Lightroom — before importing your image to Photoshop — didn’t change the parts of your picture that you really wanted to.

Thankfully, you can use the Color Balance tool in Photoshop to make further adjustments.

Color Balance lets you adjust the mid-tones, highlights, and shadows. You’ll get three identical sliders in each section:

• Cyan – Red
• Magenta – Green
• Yellow – Blue

Using the Color Balance tool is quite simple, and you can follow these steps to achieve your desired result:

1. Go to Image > Adjustments at the top of your screen.
2. Select Color Balance from the dropdown menu when it appears.
3. Move the sliders however you think is necessary. When you’ve finished, click on the OK button.

Presets

Another way to quickly edit colors in Photoshop is by using some of the presets already within the app. You can choose from Portrait, Landscape, and numerous other categories. Some presets, such as Color Pop, will increase the saturation of your pictures.

To use presets in Photoshop:

1. Go to Adjustments on the right-hand side.
2. Choose the preset you want to add under this section. If you need further options, click on More.

Calibration

Photoshop has an app called Camera Raw that offers several handy color-editing tools, and Calibration is one of the best. You can adjust the hue and saturation in your red, blue, and green primaries—and each will transform how your image looks. The feature is especially useful if you feel like your picture’s colors are somewhat flat.

Here’s how to use the Camera Raw Calibration tool:

1. In Photoshop, click on the Filter tab in the toolbar at the top.
2. Choose Camera Raw Filter when the dropdown menu appears.
3. Scroll down to Calibration.
4. Adjust your sliders however you feel is necessary.
5. Click on OK when you’re happy with how everything looks.

Replace an Object’s Color in Photoshop

First, open the photo with Adobe Photoshop. If you have multiple photos you want to edit at the same time, you can open several images in the same document.

In Photoshop, from the menu bar at the top, select Image > Adjustments > Replace Color.

A small “Replace Color” window will appear. Keep this window open and click the color that you want to change on your photo. On the “Replace Color” window, click the eyedropper icon with a plus (+) sign on it.

Then, at the bottom, click the “Result” color to select the target color for your object.

From the “Color Picker” that opens, choose the target color for your object. If you’re on Windows, you can use the Color Picker tool to grab a color from another image, and Mac has a built-in color value utility you can use as well. Then click “OK.”

Use your mouse or trackpad and select your object on the photo. You will see your object’s color changing in real-time. Back on the “Replace Color” window, drag the “Hue” slider to adjust the target color on your object.

When everything looks good, in the “Replace Color” window, click “OK.”

Easily Change the Color of an Image in Photoshop

Photoshop has plenty of useful tools to help you develop more of a unique style, and you can also use Photoshop to make any color corrections that you feel are necessary. The Color Replacement tool in Photoshop is incredibly useful. But it’s not the only way to replace a color.

You can also use the Replacement Color tool or the Hue/Saturation adjustment tool. However, the Hue/Saturation adjustment tool is the most flexible. All get the job done.

You can either use Photoshop as a standalone app for photo editing or — if you’d prefer — you can add solutions like Lightroom to your editing workflow. Regardless, it’s easy to change the color of an image in Photoshop — and both hobbyists and pro photographers can achieve superb results.

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References

• Adobe
• Makeuseof
• Howtogeek