How to preview wall paint color in photoshop?

[rott]

Maybe this is easier than I'm making it in my head, but I could use a wee bit of help. I'm already familiar with Photoshop, layers, masks, etc, but less familiar with color manipulation and/or replacement.

We want to paint our interior walls in our house. I have digital photos of the rooms and paint chips. How would you preview the wall color paint in Photoshop?

There's probably 50 ways to do this, but I'm not sure what the best way is. Color overlay wouldn't work because you lose the natural fluctuation of light/shadow throughout the room. Thanks, friends!

[Patti Edens]

I can't help with Photoshop but what we did was pick up a CD at Lowe's with Signature Colors Virtual Painter software on it.

We took some photos of the rooms we wanted to paint and using the software we were able to "apply" the paint to the baseboards, walls, door frames, etc. It helped to visuallize what the different colors would look like.

The on-line version is www.valsparatlowes.com/painter.html

[rott]

Yeah there's a few pay sites online that allow your own photos, including Behr. I was hoping to avoid that. Maybe I should swing by Lowe's on the way home. Thanks for that!

That online version is cool but I didn't see that it allowed user-supplied pics.

[Roadrnr]

you know, I've tried it before and you would think it would be pretty easy. I bought the cd from HD that was from Glidden. Honestly, it was a program that was a little better than MS Paint.

All you did was paint on top of the places you wanted to color. after you did that and you decided to switch colors, you click a different swatch and it changed the colors you painted.

I'm sure that you could do the same thing in ps by using a separate layer for your wall color and then use the replace color function to change colors on the fly.

The hardest part would be to match the same colors from the paint company. However, I'm sure if you got it close, it would work just fine too

[kalikilum]

We have done this multiple times before. It only works well to get a general idea, do you want a red room, blue room, yellow room etc.

[rogerfsmith]

You would usually do this using the Hue and Saturation tool under adjustments. Select the channel closest to the color of the wall now, then sample the wall with the eyedroppers and then adjust hue, saturation and lightness to get the color you want. Here is a screen shot that illustrates the principle in changing the color of a bra using the above technique:



Every photo is different however. Post a sample photo of a room and perhaps we can give other suggestions.

Cheers,
Roger

[rott]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. The problem with the original pic I had was that the walls were white. Color replacement didn't do it for me, so I ended up using the pen tool (which I need to learn anyway) to select out the wall for a new layer. Since the walls are white, and mostly white in the picture despite reflections and such, I just changed the mode on my wall layer to multiply and filled it with whatever color we might use. Worked pretty well in this case. I think we might go with the mustard at bottom. Maybe.



Don't be bashful about speaking your mind on the color choices either. You won't hurt my feelings.

[Graydon]

I'm partial to the green as I think it compliments the existing cabinets and black appliances and it's light enough to not make the space look small.

Great job masking and getting the different colors in also. : )

[Roadrnr]

Nice, glad that worked out well for you!

I personally like the mustard color, that's about what I have in my kitchen. I'm biased though, I've got a Gehan home too and that looks just like my kitchen, except I have a full wall over the dishwasher.

[bands321]

I like them both, but I think the mustard "opens" it up. Once you start putting appliances and furniture in, the room will become small.