Find out how to turn any color object into a believable jet black.
There are a ton of ways to change colors of objects in Photoshop. So many, in fact, that it's often difficult to choose the correct way to do it. But what happens when you try to turn objects into black? Do you simply remove the color and you're done? Usually doesn't work that way. All you're doing then is changing the object to gray.
I recently figured out how to do this in a few easy steps.
Here is the file I will start with. You can use any image that has jewelry in any color.
Step 1
Step 1
Make your selection of the object using any selection tools you like. In this case, I used the quick selection tool and zoomed in to clean it up.
Step 2
Step 2
Create a black and white adjustment layer with that selection. You can ignore the adjustments panel that will appear. We won't have to change anything there.
Step 3
CMD+click the Layer mask to make the same selection as before.
Step 3
Step 4
Create a new layer 
and fill it with black (press ALT+Delete or go to Edit>Fill and choose black)
Step 5
This is where the magic happens.
Go into the style of the object by double-clicking on the layer. Be sure not to double-click on the name of the layer. This will open the Layer Style Panel.
Step 5 - Before
Step 6
Use the white slider below "Underlying Layer" to the left and split it until you get the highlights you want to pop out. What this does is bring the highlights of the layer underneath our black filled layer. This is what makes the effect realistic.
Step 6 - Before
Step 6 - After
Try using these same steps on anything you want. I found that it's worked with just about everything from furry materials to shiny diamonds.
Have you ever changed something to jet black? I'd love to see your before and afters. Leave a comment on Facebook, Twitter, or you can send a good old fashioned email to passthepen@gmail.com.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012 at 7:16AM 
