{"id":13627,"date":"2026-04-21T00:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T04:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/?p=13627"},"modified":"2026-04-21T07:54:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T11:54:27","slug":"recolor-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/recolor-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Recolor – Part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Over the last two weeks I\u2019ve shown you how to recolor a variety of elements using the Color Blend Mode method. In last week\u2019s \u201cRecolor \u2013 Part 2<\/a><\/strong>\u201d post I showed you how to recolor multi-layered and multi-colored objects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Up until now, you\u2019ve seen what kind of limitations this method presents. Using this method has required that the object to be recolored has a similar tint or shade as the desired new color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today that\u2019s about to change as I finally talk about how to increase the range of colors to which something can be recolored. I\u2019ll still be using the Color Blend Mode just with some enhancement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increase Color Range<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"Like<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I mentioned that I\u2019ll be using an enhanced version of the Color Blend Mode method. This time I\u2019ll be incorporating a Levels Adjustment Layer to give you more color options. And it\u2019s going to almost seem like magic when you see how spectacularly it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a quick reminder; I use Photoshop Elements (PSE) 2024. If you use a different version, some of my screen shots may look different from what you see on your screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a cluster I\u2019ve been working on and I thought I had the perfect flower. Well, the flower is technically perfect. It\u2019s the color that isn\u2019t sitting well with me. So, you get to watch me fix that\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picking Colors<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m going to start with a 12×12 file and a white background for now. I\u2019ll pull in the unfinished cluster:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Unfinished<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Note<\/strong>: If you\u2019d like to follow along exactly, you can click here<\/a><\/strong> and this layered cluster will be automatically downloaded for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You should be able to see the placeholder for the flower. And here\u2019s the flower I want to recolor:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Loopy<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

That shade of blue just isn\u2019t working for me. I\u2019d much prefer it was more in line with the earthtones in the cluster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/strong>: If you\u2019d like to follow along exactly, you can click here<\/a><\/strong> and that blue flower will be automatically downloaded for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are also welcome to use any flower that you like. But try to pick one that is close to the color of mine so you will more likely be able to use the levels settings I\u2019ll define.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I use the color picker to sample a section of the paint behind the cluster, I get an earthy brown tone (#917349). If I sample the color of the word \u201cPhotographs\u201d I get a light thistle color (#d5b383), while the word \u201cPrecious\u201d ends up being a dusty taupe color (#a4988c). The part of the word strip under the word \u201cMoments\u201d resulted in a light sand color (#e3c191). And the film strip is a dark red-brown (#522318) but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what I\u2019m looking for\u2026too dark. I also tried a mint green color (#b9d9be) that would coordinate with the leaves. Not sure about that one either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here\u2019s how all those colors turned out when blended over that blue flower:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Various<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

As varied as the lighter brown shades were, they actually all looked very similar. This just reinforces the limitations we encountered over the last two weeks. Colors in shades of the same hue will frequently look similar when blended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The limitation now is that there\u2019s really only one flower I might consider using without any adjustment; the Dusty Taupe one. Unfortunately, that one and the Red-Brown are my least favorites. The other four are all too dark. But that\u2019s kind of the point of this exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recolor Flower<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m going to open my blue flower in PSE and put a white background behind it. I then save this file as a PSD with a descriptive name (RecolorLoopyBlueFlower). I do this so I don\u2019t accidentally overwrite the original flower:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Blue<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The first thing I have to do is isolate that black button and put it on its own layer. If you read my \u201cRecolor Anything<\/a><\/strong>\u201d post two weeks ago you should already know how to do that. But I\u2019ll give you a quick refresher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best option for isolating that button is to use the Elliptical Marquee tool. I click on the New selection icon, set the Feather to zero px, the Aspect to Normal and check Anti-aliasing. Then being careful to select only the button and not it\u2019s shadow, I drag a selection around the button:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Button<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

You should be able to see that the selection is around only the button\u2026no shadow. This is very important because if I include the shadow in the selection, the shadow will still have a blue cast to it and I definitely don\u2019t want that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I then simply press Ctrl+J to copy this selection to a new layer, rename the new layer Button Center and make the flower layer active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided to try using the light sand color (#e3c191) and hopefully make it lighter. So, I create a solid fill layer with that color, clipping it to the flower and change the Blend Mode to Color just as I\u2019ve been doing for weeks:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Med<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This is where the Levels Adjustment Layer comes in\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding Levels<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"Adjust<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Before I start making any adjustments, I want you to understand a few things. The settings I\u2019ll use in the Levels Adjustment dialog box are going to depend on two things. First, the original blue color of the flower. And second, the new color I\u2019m trying to achieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no set formula for the Levels sliders settings. So, each time I use this method I very likely will NOT be able to use the same settings, even when using the same starting flower, I used previously. Nearly every time I use this Levels mode, I need to adjust the sliders until the desired new color is achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Levels\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It is also important to understand the different parts of the Levels box. If you look at the image directly above, you\u2019ll see that there are actually three parts or sections in the Levels box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first is Channels. This section defaults to RGB (all color channels). RGB works for brightness (or darkness), which is what I\u2019m doing today. There is also an \u201cAuto\u201d button that will automatically adjust the levels for contrast. My recommendation is typically to stick with the RGB channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I can honestly say I almost never use the Auto feature. But you are welcome to give it a try and see what happens. It\u2019s easy enough to reset things if you\u2019re not happy with the results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next section in the Levels box is the Histogram. This histogram is a graphical representation showing the distribution of brightness levels in an image. There are three sliders here: Black Point: Drag right to increase shadows\/contrast. White Point: Drag left to increase highlights\/brightness. Grey Point: Drag left to brighten, right to darken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third section in the Levels box is for Output Levels which controls the absolute range of brightness. There are two sliders here: Moving the white slider to the left darkens highlights, while moving the black slider to the right lightens shadows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is one last thing I need to point out\u2026the eyedroppers to the right of the Histogram. I highly recommend against<\/strong> using these. Unless you are a professional that has an expert grasp of color balance, these eyedroppers will only lead at a minimum, to confusion or worse, disastrous results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using Levels<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Using the Levels Sliders gives me the power to take this flower from a medium, sandy brown, to a light sandy brown. So how about we start playing around to see what happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my opinion, it is best to always clip a Levels Adjustment Layer to either the object being recolored or to the Solid Fill layer used for coloring, either will work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is possible to adjust levels on an existing object to just lighten\/darken it without also recoloring. In that case just clip the Levels layer directly to the object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, with the Solid Fill layer active, I go to the top tool bar and select Layer->New Adjustment Layer->Levels:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Open<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When PSE opens the New Layer dialog box, I check the Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask box and the Levels layer is created (Levels 1 for me) and clipped simultaneously to the active layer. The Levels box is now visible:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Levels<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I immediately rename the Levels 1 layer to Lightening Levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now it\u2019s time to lighten that flower\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lightening Levels<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I want to be able to see both my cluster and my flower at the same time so I have both files open in my workspace:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Two<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This will allow me to see all of the \u201ctarget\u201d lighter colors that I\u2019ll try on this flower. I can then just position my Levels box over the Layers Panel and it won\u2019t obscure the visibility of the cluster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start adjusting\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I move the top black slider to the right, this flower will start to get darker. That\u2019s the opposite of what I want here so I\u2019m not going to do that. If I move the top<\/strong> white slider to the left, this flower starts to lighten up. I moved it over until I hit around 150 for now:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Flower<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It\u2019s much lighter, but not quite there yet. If I move that white slider too much more to the left, I may start to lose some of the felt detail. So, this time I\u2019ll move the grey mid-point<\/strong> slider. If I move it to the right, the flower darkens again. So, I move it to the left until I got to about 1.45 (the middle number):<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Flower<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Getting closer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/strong>: If you take any of the sliders too far, you could start to lose detail. Try to never move a slider so far that the details of the object begin to disappear. When that happens, go back and move one slider at a time (in the opposite direction) until the detail returns. You may then need to adjust other sliders as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now I\u2019m going to concentrate on the Output Levels for a minute. If you remember, these control the absolute range of brightness. I\u2019m going to move the lower<\/strong> black slider to the right until I hit about 35. I think that did it:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Flower<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I think this might actually be the perfect flower. I\u2019m going to hide the white background and save this as a PNG file with a unique name (LoopyLightSandFlower).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s see how it looks on the cluster\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I already have my cluster file open in my workspace. Now all I have to do is open that new light sand flower. I can then just pull it into the cluster, position it over the flower placeholder, re-size it to fit, hide the placeholder and copy the layer style from the placeholder to the flower layer:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Cluster<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I\u2019m pretty happy with how this turned out. I can now save the cluster PSD file and go back to my flower file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m also going to save the flower file as a PSD with a unique name, something like \u201cFlowerLighteningLevels\u201d. I will then have a levels lightening template to use as a starting point for other elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darkening Levels<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Now I\u2019m going to go back to that light sand colored flower from above and hide the Lightening Levels layer. So, my flower is now back to the medium brown flower:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Med<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I have another cluster I\u2019ve been working on using this same flower shape. And this \u201csand\u201d color isn\u2019t going to work well on that cluster either. My goal is to get this flower as close to black as possible. And you know I can\u2019t do that with just a solid fill layer \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, I\u2019m going to open that unfinished cluster. And just as I did with the prior cluster, I want to be able to see both my cluster and my flower at the same time so I have both files visible in my workspace:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Twoo<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Again, this allows me to see all of the \u201ctarget\u201d darker colors from which I could choose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note<\/strong>: If you\u2019d like to follow along exactly, you can click here<\/a><\/strong> and this second layered cluster will be automatically downloaded for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want the cluster file to be completely visible so I just click somewhere within the file. I then click on the Foreground color chip to open the color picker. I can now sample any one of the really dark areas (preferably close to black).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, I\u2019m going to hone in on the one smaller \u201cblack\u201d dot near the lower left portion of the cluster. That resulted in a very dark (nearly black) red color #262626.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I go back to my other file. With the Flower layer active, I create a solid fill layer with that \u201cblack\u201d color, clipping it to my flower and change the Blend Mode to Color:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Flower<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

At this point, the flower is more grey than black so I need to darken it. And just as with the sand flower, I create a new Levels Adjustment Layer (Levels 1 for me) clipping it to the solid fill layer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Levels box, I drag the upper<\/strong> black slider to the right until it\u2019s at about 32. I then drag the upper<\/strong> gray slider to the right until it\u2019s at about 0.77. Next, I drag the lower<\/strong> white slider to the left until it\u2019s at 165:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Flower<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The reason I used these numbers is because if I went any higher or lower, I would start to lose the felt detail in the flower and I don\u2019t want that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can now close the Levels dialog box and rename the Levels 1 layer to Darkening Levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have one last fix to make. That button in the center of my flower is now way too dark. You might be thinking this is going to be tough to fix. But I have a plan!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you remember that way back in the very beginning with the blue flower I isolated that button and put it on its own layer (Button Center)? That\u2019s going to make it super easy to fix the color. All I have to do is duplicate the Button Center layer and change the blend mode of the duplicate button to Screen:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Button<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The button is still kind of black but not so dark that it doesn\u2019t show up nicely. Now let\u2019s see how this looks on my cluster:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Finished<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I\u2019m definitely happy with how this turned out. I can now save the cluster PSD file and go back to my flower file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After creating the lightened flower earlier, I saved the flower file as a PSD with the unique name, FlowerLighteningLevels. I now have both lighten and darken levels in this \u201ctemplate\u201d file. Rather than creating a separate file for the darkening, I\u2019m just going to save the current file under its existing name. After closing the file, I can rename it to FlowerLighten&DarkenLevels. This way I have both levels in one template!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I open this template in the future to recolor for a different project, I can either hide both of the levels layers when I need a medium color, unhide the lighten level layer, or unhide the darken layer depending on the new color I need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If any levels adjustments are required, all I have to do is double click on the thumbnail of the levels adjustment layer I want to change and PSE will open that Levels box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last thing left is to give you some tips on recoloring objects to white. I had really hoped to do that today. But this got a bit long after all the explanations about working with levels. So, as much as I don’t want to put this off to next week, I think it’s better for you if I stop here today!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top Tips<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
\n
\"Top<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Incorporating a Levels Adjustment layer into the Color Blend Mode method allows you to increase the range of colors that can be used to recolor something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just remember that using the Levels sliders will almost always be different for every recoloring scenario. So, each time you recolor something new, you\u2019ll likely need to move the sliders depending on the desired result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When using levels to lighten or darken an object always be careful that you don\u2019t move the sliders so much that details become lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creative quote for this week<\/strong>: The world is full of beautiful colors; don\u2019t let your mind live in black and white.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading this week\u2019s Tuesday Tip. Remember, if you have any suggestions or questions please don\u2019t hesitate to “Message Me<\/a><\/strong>“. Check back next week for more recoloring tips. Click \u201cFollow Me<\/a><\/strong>\u201d to stay in touch. I hope you have a wonderful week!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Tune<\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the last two weeks I\u2019ve shown you how to recolor a variety of elements using the Color Blend Mode method. In last week\u2019s \u201cRecolor \u2013 Part 2\u201d post I showed you how to recolor multi-layered and multi-colored objects. Up until now, you\u2019ve seen what kind of limitations this method presents. Using this method has required that the object to be recolored has a similar tint or shade as the desired new color. Today that\u2019s about to change as I…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tuesday-tip-day"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13627"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13847,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13627\/revisions\/13847"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yourscrappingcafe.com\/home\/d19521157\/public_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}