In need of photoshop instruction

[crashwg]

Long story short, I'm going to paint a white car orange and I'm trying to figure out which orange to go with.

So I've got Photoshop CS3 and I could use a brief walkthrough on how to color match one part of a photo with another.  I've twiddled with PS for a few years but to be safe, instructions for a complete noob would be best.

As you can see in the picture, I've taped a bunch of color swatches to the window so I can see them in the same light as the photo.  If at all possible, it would be nice to be able to "cut and paste" these colors onto the body of the car.

[Le Chuck]

Short of creating a mask of all the white on the vehicle you won't get great results but an easy way would be to Image>adjustments>selective color then select whites and adjust the sliders through a variety of hues or go Image>adjustments>replace color select the white of the car then use the eyedropper to select the oranges from the window as your target. 

Hopefully that works a bit

[shponglefan]

Using the selection tool, I'd select the white body of the car and then copy+paste to another layer.  Then play around with the Image adjustment tools (i.e. Channel mixer, Hue/saturation, etc) to get to the colour you want.

[Vigo]

Using the selection tool, I'd select the white body of the car and then copy+paste to another layer.  Then play around with the Image adjustment tools (i.e. Channel mixer, Hue/saturation, etc) to get to the colour you want.

This would be an option if it was something like a blue car, but since the car is white, you can't really change the color/hue if there is no color/hue to begin with. We need to add some hue into it. What you need to do is select the body of the car with your selection tool, but don't do any copy or pasting. In the layers window, simply create new layer. Then go to that layer and fill your selection with an orange color. Any color will do at this point.

Then there are two things you need to tweak to get a realistic looking color, both in the layers window. First is the opacity slider, and the second is the blending modes dropdown. (It is the dropdown with options like "dissolve", "Hard Light", "Multiply", etc.) Both of these options change how the layer interacts with the layer below it. The Opactity makes the layer "see-through" and the blending modes are sorta filters of how the layer is viewed against the layer below.

I can't remember the exact settings you want to tweak them to, but trial and error with those settings will get you a realistic color showing through.

Then after you get your color right, you can adjust the color of the layer itself, go to the hue/color settings, use the paintbucket to put in a new color, etc. You should be able to try all sorts of colors.

The only thing I have to warn you of with using this method is that the color of the car will not be the "true" color you plopped in there. Meaning, the color will look different than the exact tone you pasted in because you filtered the crap out of it to make the car look realistic. Make sure you get your true color from eyedropping the image, not by going with whatever color you pasted into the layer.

[shponglefan]

This would be an option if it was something like a blue car, but since the car is white, you can't really change the color/hue if there is no color/hue to begin with. We need to add some hue into it.

Hence, using the channel mixer to get an initial hue followed by manipulation with other tools to match the swatch in the image.

That would be my approach anyway.  Like anything in Photoshop, there are probably a dozen ways to do it, all equally valid.

[Vigo]

This would be an option if it was something like a blue car, but since the car is white, you can't really change the color/hue if there is no color/hue to begin with. We need to add some hue into it.

Hence, using the channel mixer to get an initial hue followed by manipulation with other tools to match the swatch in the image.

That would be my approach anyway.  Like anything in Photoshop, there are probably a dozen ways to do it, all equally valid.

Never tried the color mixer to insert a hue. I'll give that a go some time to see if I like the results.

And you are right that there are a number of ways to skin a cat in photoshop. Another method of inserting color on that car would be to select the white areas and go to blending options, then add a color fill and throttle down the opacity. It is a pretty easy method that works well, but it is a pain to go back into the blending options over and over when you want to change the color every 5 seconds.

[Pixelhugger]

Heres an example, let me know if you want the PSD to play with.

Isolated the white using levels controls.
Sent the resulting BW image to a new alpha channel.
Used alpha as selection to create a colored fill sampled from the lower left swatch.
Set original car on top and blended as "Linear Burn"

You can now just duplicate the color layer in Photoshop, select it's transparency (ctl+click on the layer (cmd+click on mac), sample a new color and fill your selection to see the paint.

I also repaired your door trim.

Enjoy.

[crashwg]

Heres an example, let me know if you want the PSD to play with.

Isolated the white using levels controls.
Sent the resulting BW image to a new alpha channel.
Used alpha as selection to create a colored fill sampled from the lower left swatch.
Set original car on top and blended as "Linear Burn"

You can now just duplicate the color layer in Photoshop, select it's transparency (ctl+click on the layer (cmd+click on mac), sample a new color and fill your selection to see the paint.

I also repaired your door trim.

Enjoy.

Holy crap.  I didn't understand, well all of what you just said.  That's pretty awesome though.  Yes please on the PSD.

Oh, and I have the trim.  It was partially falling off, I figured I needed to remove it for painting and also, I'm not sure if it can be painted or not.

[shponglefan]

Heres an example, let me know if you want the PSD to play with.

Isolated the white using levels controls.
Sent the resulting BW image to a new alpha channel.
Used alpha as selection to create a colored fill sampled from the lower left swatch.
Set original car on top and blended as "Linear Burn"

You can now just duplicate the color layer in Photoshop, select it's transparency (ctl+click on the layer (cmd+click on mac), sample a new color and fill your selection to see the paint.

Wow, nice approach! *takes notes*

I also repaired your door trim.