I have several "Cloth" psd products that are in a greyscale so that you can color them as you want them. But I can never seem to get the rich colors others achieve. They come out light and washed out looking. I am sure i am doing it incorrectly, but am not sure where to locate a feature to give them "Depth" and "Rich Saturation" while maintaining the Folds and details. Anyone want to help me here?

ThanX

Ariana

Apply a hue/saturation layer with high saturation, Alternately, you can paint the colors on using a Color blending mode, which will preserve the luminosity detail but replace your color.

It would help to know how you are applying the colors. Since I've never found a reason to do this, I haven't tried myself, but I understand the theory.

Well I basically have been "Flooding" the color into the material in (*don't say it, I'm still learning P/S and it's like a pacifier to go back to PSP) PSP.... I keep going back because the learning curve is very steep after using PSP for over 8 years! So I am trying to wean myself off of it... But it's hard :(

HuggerZ!

Ariana

Post a pic - I've never used any fabric brushes (or cloud brushes, or any other "elements" brushes), so I'm curious as to how I'd tackle it myself. But I think I need to SEE it first (and what kind of image it's being applied to can greatly affect technique as well) before giving you a comprehensive answer.

Let's see what we can all come up with for you.
-Lew ;-)

I did a composite of "PaperDolls" this is what I am trying to learn to do in PS.... the red cape is done in PSP, by creating a mask of it and flooding.  You see that they start as "GreyScale"? That is why I seem to not get true rich deep color, I don't know what i am doing. :(

Thank you for helping me learn...

Ariana

Ariana,

I still can't answer your question until I know how you are applying your colors to the fabric. I don not understand the term "flooding." Nor do I understand what you mean by "true rich deep color."

The first thing I notice from your new post is that the range from darkest-black to lightest-white in this cloth is very shallow. Could this be why you feel the colors don't have proper depth? I assume this is what you mean by "deep color."

What you are doing is best understood in HSB color mode. The optimal way to convert this robe from one color to another without losing detail is to alter the Hue and Saturation (H and S) while leaving the Luminosity, aka Brightness (the B in HSB). Are you sure your method affects both the Hue and the Saturation? I assume this is what you mean by "rich color."

I hope this helps.

Okay, see if THIS works for you... I have the layer of the "Brushes" set to Multiply (look in the Layer Stack and you should see where it says Mode - Normal, well hit the down-arrow and among the tons of modes, find Multiply (kinda near the top) and what that will do it show only the pixels darker than mid-tone (125 value). This, BTW, is also what you do if you are coloring for comics - you place the inks at the top, and set the mode to Multiply and paint underneath.

Okay, new layer on top - mode - Color. Paint a color you want the fabric to be - I used a fairly vibrant Blue. At this point you'll see the blacks go kinda mushy - at the bottom of the Layer stack, you'll see an icon that is a split of black and white - these are Adjustment Layers (AL) - click on it and choose Levels. Put it in the stack above your Brushes (but below your Color Layer). Hold the Alt key and click the line between the Brushes and the AL (and you will notice the cursor will change when you do this) - this links the AL (anything really) to the layer below so it ONLY affects the layer linked. Adjust your Levels (just double-click on the layer and the dialog box will open) to make it more contrasty - just pull in both left and right arrows to taste. This will make it more punchy.

NOW, since it still didn't look too "rich" I created an AL above the Colors layer and not only made it more contrasty, but I clicked on the little RGB at the top of the Levels Dialog Box and chose Red - pulled in the right and middle arrows to give a red sheen. Now here's the tricky part - make sure you click on the white box next to the AL layer icon in the stack, and hit Ctrl+i to "invert" the mask to black. This hides everything on that layer - why on Earth did I do this?

Get your paintbrush out, make sure you are painting white, and paint in where you want "highlights" to be in the fabric - this will make the highlights "punch" as well as give them a specular sheen that is a little on the red side, and looks a bit richer.

Once you've painted where you want all the highlights, open the dialog box again and feel free to make more changes - add more colors, etc.

It doesn't have to stop there - you can create as many ALs as you want, each for a different purpose - more highlights, even brighteneing spots of the shadows, specular colors, whatever you want - you can stack them infinitely to achieve the final look you want.

...Can you see why us Photoshop folks kind of "snicker" when we read about people who claim you shouldn't have to use any post work - that a software's renderer should be enough and you should just work harder to make it do what you want...?

Hope this helps - and lemme know if this isn't quite what you're looking for - I'll come up with something else for you.
-Lew ;-)

.....or Lew could just explain it for me.... grin

That was my test run - you can still see the very top layer is turned off. I was moving that thing all over the place, making it different modes, and I finally realized "hey, just use it for Color and use ALs to make it vibrant..."
-Lew ;-)

That is exactly what I was going for Thundering1!!! The color is deep and "Rich" very DENSE!!! Gads it is hard to describe something when it is foreign to your experience and you are transitioning from one program to a totally different program in every aspect!!! :P

Good basic Tut too! Cause I am a dum bunny about PS! 

OK, I will be trying this out in a day or so, I got some bad news on Monday, and then yesterday found out my dog has Lymphnoma, and we aren't sure, but we might have to put him to sleep in the next few days...it hit fast and severly. Last nite he almost suffocated to death because of the swollen Lymph Glands. It is very stressful, I am up for a Vet call... I will work on this stuff as life permits. But I appreciate the help, it IS exactly what I was asking about.

Thank you as well Amul!

Ariana