Changing background color....

This is probably the easiest thing todo but I can not figure it out. I have a picture with a computer on it. The background of the picture is white. What I want todo is change the color to blue or any other color. I tried to do it with the paintbucket and the color blue covered the whole intire picture. How would I just change the background of the picture to blue? Oh and I'm using Adobe Photoshop 6.0. Thanks for the help....

I'm a noobie, but I'll try and give a shot on this one...

Create a new duplicate layer, then try and use your magic wand to isolate the computer so you can cut out the background. If there isn't enough contrast in colors between the background and the computer, the wand may not do it so you'll have to go in with the lasso and manually select just the computer, then use the inverse function to select everything *but* the computer and then hit delete. This will leave just the computer by itself on that layer. Then on the original layer beneath, you can color it whatever color you want and it will fill in the background behind the computer. When using the lasso and the invert function, you may want to use the feather function as well with just a few pixels of blend so it looks smoother. Just experiment.

There is probably an easier way to do this, but maybe doing it the hard way will make you appreciate the easy way more!

Hopefully someone else with more experience will chime in and offer better advice. Until then, give this a shot and increase your level of experience and expertise!

Also, you might try using the *replace color* function and change the white to whatever color you want. As long as the computer isn't white as well! Without trying this effect, I don't know how well it will work, but you can always try it and see!

Noobie advice... use with caution!

Dave Fore

Originally posted by MrCyberPunk
...I tried to do it with the paintbucket and the color blue covered the whole entire picture...

are you sure you're using the paintbucket in the same layer as the computer pic?

I saved the picture off a website. Theres only one layer thats with the white background and the computer on it. I want to just changed the white background to another color and leave the computer the way it is. That's as much as i can explain what i want to do. Thanks. L8r

The tolerance of the paintbucket might be too high. Default is 32. Try with a lower setting.

If the colours in the picture are very similar with very little contrast, the paint flows over all the colours in your picture. The pain only stops when meeting contrast in a picture. A lower tolerance means that a lower contrast is needed to stop the paint flowing.