I'm having some problems with what I am trying to do with Photoshop (specifically Photoshop 7)

Is anyone out there a whizz on that software and can drop me a PM, so I can go through with them what I want to do and what I am having problems with at the moment ?

I suspect it might be quite straightforward for someone who knows what they're doing with the software.

Thanks in anticipation

AH

Why dont you post the problem?

I'm using Photoshop 7 on Windows XP

It is an image that has been changed via threshold to a straight black & white design.

The background is transparent (it has to show a background colour) and the item is a default black.

What I want to do, using the easiest method (perhaps all at the same time) is change the object's colour from the current black to some other colour (white, yellow etc.)

What is the quickest / easiest way of doing it.

I'd appreciate links or step by step instructions !

Thanks in anticipation !

Not tested on PS7/XP because I don't have either, but IIRC this should be generic on pretty much every PS release.

1) Open image in Photoshop. You should see the black - is that a fishing reel? - thing against a grey and white chequered background, indicating that the background is, as you say, transparent.

2) On the menu bar, click 'Select' -> 'Color Range'. You'll get a dialogue box but, if you move your mouse over the image itself you'll see a dropper.

3) Move the dropper over a black part of the image, and click. This chooses the colour to form the basis of an automated selection. You can tell Photoshop how precise you want it to be about the colour by moving the 'Fuzziness' slider in the dialogue box (I set it to 40, which was overkill).

4) Click 'OK'. All the parts of your image will now be surrounded by those annoying flickery lines, indicating that it has been selected.

5) Select a brush, and choose a colour from the palette. Set the brush size as large as you like, then paint all over the image. Because you selected the image on the basis of colour, only the black parts will change colour.

I'm late to the party but a shortcut on that which I tend to use when dealing with objects that are block colours is to hold down CTRL and hit U. That brings up the hue/saturation options.

Alternatively, Image > Adjustments > Selective colours is another way to change an individual colour. That's probably better used if you're dealing with an image in which you want to alter individual elements of the image rather than the whole thing. Let's say you're cutting out several people from several distinct images and putting them together for a website header, or a flyer, or whatever it is, the likelihood is going to be that the shadows/highlights and the colouring of each image will have distinctions. That's when the selective colour tool really comes in handy. That's what the hipsters used to use to hipster up their image, before instagram came along, take an image, lighten up the black elements and give them a blue or red tinge... RETRO!

If you are going to select and brush over, assuming you've got an object on a transparent background, you should be able to, in the layers panel, simply right click your layer and hit "select pixels".

That's how I taught myself to do those kinds of things. A lot of ways to do the same thing

Layer > Layer Style > Colour Overlay

Easiest way to do it and you can pick the exact colour you need.