Adobe Photoshop Basics

Exercise 7 - Rainbow Paint Job

Download this zip file for all the images you need to complete the exercises for Lesson 7. (Mac users can use Aladdin's free Stuffit Expander to extract the zip file.)

In this exercise we're going to give this car a new paint job!

Open the image.

Select the linear gradient tool, and choose the Spectrum preset gradient.

Set the paint mode to Hue. The Hue mode works very much like Color, with one distinct difference: gray or unsaturated areas in the image are not colored. Because this image has a mostly gray background, the color will only appear where color already exists.

Switch to the info palette before dragging the gradient out. Start at the front bumper of the car, then watch the A (angle) indicator in the info palette and drag upwards at an angle of about 112 degrees. (I only know this number as a result of trial and error experimentation.) Release the mouse button just above the roof of the car at the 112 degree angle.

Right now the image probably looks pretty good, but there's a bit more we can do to touch it up.

Paint with black in saturation mode to remove all traces of color from the background and on the wheels.

Then use erase to history to touch up a few areas like the hood emblem, fog lights, windshield, and the front license plate.

For the final touch, add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer and bump the saturation up to about 20-30.

No selections, no masking, and it probably only took you a few minutes. Now how much would you have to pay for a paint job like that in real life?

Don't save over this file because you'll need it again for the next exercise. Use Save as or Save a Copy if you want to save your work.

Next > Exercise 8 - Background Eraser
(This exercise is for Photoshop 5.5 and up only. If you have Photoshop 5.0, you can skip ahead to Exercise 9.)