Hi All!
I need some help with a color change in PhotoShop 7 and not sure how to make it happen.
I work with Poser and have a great Donkey figure with a gorgeous and very detailed very realistic medium gray texture. I need to create an albino donkey and repeated attempts to turn the medium gray texture to white is driving me crazy....with failure after failure. I have tried desaturating and contrast exposure/density controls. I have tried using gamut adjustments, curves and levels combinations all without any success. I have made it lighter but if I go overall too light to make it look white I lose the texture details or it starts to beam especially in the highlights or it goes muddy overall.
I have pored over all my photoShop books and can not find the magic key to make this happen. Does anyone proficient in Photoshop 7 know how I would accomplish this magic feat?
Would appreciate any help I can get here.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Try copying the layer and play with the blending modes of the top layer. The opacity of the top layer will effect the results of the blending.

You can also try using the Adjustment Layers and remember that you can use a mask with anything you do to airbrush out parts that don't work and leave parts that do.

You can also try Desaturating the top layer and uping the contrast and erasing the parts that don't look good (probably the non fur parts) 

Good luck - if possible post pics of the effect you are going for and a sample of the image you are working with for reference.

LukeA

Hey Luke.
I have tried most of that. I am pretty good with layers and making adjustments to designated adjustment layers. I have worked with many of the functions you mentioned.
Because the whole texture is fur just lighter or darker areas as it appears on the donkey skin, there islittle I have been able to do to adjust it without getting mud or loss of the great fur detail.

Looks like your only option is to go find an albino donkey and take pictures of it :)

Sorry I couldn't help, maybe if I had the texture to play with.

Thanks
Luke

I'll see if I can post the versions I have so far and perhaps an image of the texture and you can see what the frell I am talking about! :)
You a Poser user? What are the chances of finding a real albino donkey in North Virginia!?
Maybe if I was in New Mexico......  :(

Attached Link: This donkey?

Are you talking about the donkey from the marketplace here?

Laurie

Well, I don't have a donkey, so I used a jiffy quick ps motion blur to simulate donkey hide.

How light do you want it? If you want it really, really light then you can't help but lose details. However, you can put them back in slightly if you're careful.

I've posted before and afters.

Laurie

And here it is after.

Laurie

I used a white layer over the gray hide, set it to Luminosity and slid it down to 72% fill. Then I copied the original layer and placed it on top, setting that layer to Overlay at 69% fill.

You're going to lose detail, but you can put some back in, so long as you don't destroy the original layer. I always keep a copy layer of the original so that I have a copy of the unaltered version. I'm using PS 7

Laurie

Thanks Laurie. I'll try this routine tomorrow.
I tried getting this donkey but the artist took it off the market place. I wish they would remove all reference to items that are no longer available for sale. It would make things so darn much easier.
The one I think is from DAZ and might be SilverLeaf donkey from the bundle: THE GOOD, THE BAD and THE UGLY! Great Set all around.

Have you tried the color replacement brush? I'm not sure what versions of PS it'sin (I use CS4) but it's in the brush tool sub-menu. Basically it allows you to sample a colour and paint over it with another one. You can use various settings such as color, hue, luminosity, etc. Might be worth a try.

I've been playing with this a little bit - as soon as you said the Good, Bad and Ugly, I remembered I had that one (I had originally wanted the bison, but the other figures were a plus). I just never had the opportunity to use it yet and therefore forgot about it...LOL.

Anyway, if you're going to go lighter than the original texture map, there's just no getting around losing some detail. However, if you have a good bump map, it should go a long way to making the lighter texture look a little better.

I used the original map to create the bump. I'm thinking you're never going to go completely white and have any detail, so really light shades of gray are the best you can hope for. I've had this same problem with white hair textures (and I created my own a lot). White hair/things wind up not having much in the way of detail, especially without a bump map.

This has been nice though, because now I wanna see if I can get that buffalo white...LOL.

Laurie

Oh, btw, if you use a gradient map on the texture you can lighten it some as well. Use a medium gray and white. Overlay with a less than 100% fill desaturated original texture. I really like the "Fade xxx" command as well. Sometimes if something you do is in the right direction, but too much, use the "Fade x" (whatever filter/adjustment it was you used). Sometimes it works.

Laurie

Spedler: Thanks but I never learned to use that brush. Maybe I should learn it huh!?  :(

LaurieA:  I came out with a lighter one but it lacks pizazz. The original texture is sweet and I was hoping making it lighter would be sweet.....white.....but it didn't work out quite according to plan.
Always get disappointed when I try deviating from the trodden path.
It happens when you "go for wood without a cord,,,or an ax"!  :(
Oh....means I should learn how to use my tools more effectively before I make plans to come up with brilliance in my images.
I learned anther old Italian phrase:
"Man Proposes and God Indisposes".
Thanks all for your ideas and help! I better get busy reading my PhotoShop for FOOLS book!  :(