Changing color of a car

[albatrosss]

I have an image with a car which is completely black since the photo was taken in shadows. I would like to change the color from black to a light silver gray. I have used masks in the past as well as other techniques to modify or change colors. Since this car is black however, I don't know of any method to change its color to a much ligher color. I assume that it's possible since nothing seems to be impossible in Photoshop but I haven't the faintest idea of where to start.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

[Chris49]

Black is tricky, I would try brightness and contrast to turn black to gray and, a curves adjustment too.

[albatrosss]

Chris,

Thanks for the input. Will give it a try.

[Scott]

Black objects are really difficult to alter to lighter objects.

What I would do is select the areas of the car and cut them to their own layer.

Then fill the original areas with white or silver and set the cut layer to multiply and play with opacity.

Otherwise, I'd grab a brush and start painting in color and details.

[albatrosss]

Jolt,

Sounds good and will give it a try along with Chris' suggestion.

Can you answer a question for me. Not a Photoshop one however. In the gray column where the Avatar should be Etch a Sketch Elmo appears under my name. Certainly not mine. Any significance or just an error?

Thanks.

[Scott]

Etcha-sketch-Elmo is just a title. You receive different titles based upon the number of posts you make. It changes about every 10 posts. There's no significance to them at all. A complete list is ---> <a href="http://www.pixeladdiction.com/bb/showthread.php?t=45&highlight=User+titles?do=markread">here</a>

Note you now have 10 posts .. so Eric Eraser. It's just nonsence :)

[albatrosss]

Thanks for the timely response

[albatrosss]

Used a combination of Jolt and Chris 49 suggestions and got the color fairly close. Then I masked out all the refections and the end result wan't bad.

I irony is that when I checked with my neighbor, whose photo is was, she reminded me that she was using the BLACK car. So all was in vain EXCEPT that I learned a technique that I'm sure will come in handy in the future.

Thanks again.

[Joezilla]

Are you aware that CS & CS2 have a color replacement tool? I bought a book last night while waiting on Harry Potter to arrive, and the photos are quite good. In CS it is with the healing brush and in 2.0 it is with the brush. I have not tried it yet, but the samplle photo of a green pepper turned purple is fairly realistic.