How to Change the Color of Clothing in Photoshop

If you want to learn how to change the color of clothes in Photoshop, in this tutorial I’ll show you a very simple method that works for all colors—even for changing a black shirt into a white shirt!

What You’ll Learn in This Photoshop Tutorial

  • How to change the color of clothes in Photoshop
  • How to change the color of a shirt in Photoshop
  • How to change a shirt color in Photoshop from black to white
  • How to change outfit color in Photoshop
  • How to change a shirt color in a photo

What You’ll Need

In this tutorial, you’ll be learning how to change the color of clothing in Photoshop, so of course you’re going to need a photo with some kind of clothes! You can use your own photo in this tutorial, but if you want to follow my steps directly, here’s a photo of a man in a black shirt that I’ve used.

Step 1

If we want to change a shirt color, first we need to separate the shirt from its background. To do this, take the Object Selection Tool (W) and outline the shirt. If the shirt is visible in a few separate areas, select them all by holding the Shift key during the outlining.

take object selection tooltake object selection tooltake object selection tool
outline a part of the shirtoutline a part of the shirtoutline a part of the shirt
This tool uses special algorithms to guess what you’re trying to select, so you don’t have to be precise in your selection
outline the whole shirtoutline the whole shirtoutline the whole shirt

Step 2

Click Select and Mask in the upper bar. Here you can refine your selection to make sure there’s no sharp edge between the shirt and the background, and add or remove anything from the selection that the automatic selection didn’t get right. When you’re done, select New Layer with Layer Mask for the Output, and click OK.

use select and maskuse select and maskuse select and mask
refine selectionrefine selectionrefine selection
If you want to change a shirt color in Photoshop in a realistic way, creating a clean selection is the most crucial step!

If you’ve never used the Select and Mask function before, check out our free Photoshop for Beginners course (specifically Lesson 7.5). This will teach you not just how to change the color of clothes in Photoshop, but also how to select difficult objects like hair—so that you can change its color too!

Step 3

Name this new layer Shirt, right-click it, and select Convert to Smart Object. Then double-click the thumbnail to open the file, and once again select Convert to Smart Object.

create two smart object layerscreate two smart object layerscreate two smart object layers

Step 4

Go to Filter > Camera Raw Filter. Find the Color Grading section. Create a new color for the shirt by dragging the circle in the color wheel to choose a hue, and dragging the slider to change the brightness of the color.

If your shirt is medium dark, start with the Midtones section. If it’s dark, start with the Shadows section. If it’s bright, start with the Highlights section. Then adjust the remaining sections to fit the chosen color.

change shirt colorchange shirt colorchange shirt color
When changing a shirt color in Photoshop, you need to carefully adjust the colors of the Midtones, Shadows, and Highlights. You don’t want them to be too contrasting!

Step 5

Press Control-S and go back to the previous file. The shirt has changed its color! To make it more convincing, we still need to deepen the shadows. To do this, duplicate the Shirt layer and change its Blend Mode to Multiply.

shirt with changed colorshirt with changed colorshirt with changed color
change blend mode to multiplychange blend mode to multiplychange blend mode to multiply

Step 6

Right-click the copy and select Blending Options. In the Blend If section, drag the lower white marker to the left to remove the shadows from the bright areas. Hold the Alt key to split the marker to create a more transitional effect.

adjust the shadowsadjust the shadowsadjust the shadows
shadows adjustedshadows adjustedshadows adjusted

Step 7

To make the effect even more convincing, Duplicate the Shirt layer once more and select the original. Go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur and increase the Radius to blend the color of the shirt into the other parts of the photo.

add gaussian bluradd gaussian bluradd gaussian blur

Step 8

Add a Layer Mask to this blurred layer and fill it with black. Then paint with a white soft brush over the areas where you want the shirt’s color to appear. This effect will make the shirt blend better with the environment. Feel free to adjust the Opacity to make the effect more subtle.

add a layer maskadd a layer maskadd a layer mask
Colors tend to reflect into their environment, especially if they’re bright. The lack of this reflection can make the effect less convincing

Step 9

If you want to change the shirt color now, just double-click any of the Shirt layers and adjust the Camera Raw Filter again.

other shirt colors examplesother shirt colors examplesother shirt colors examples

Step 10

You may notice that it’s pretty hard to achieve very bright colors this way, not to mention pure white. So if you want to Photoshop a shirt color from black to white, here’s what you need to do:

Go inside the Camera Raw Filter again and click the three dots on the right to select Reset to Default. Then go to the Basic section. Here you need to do a couple of things: increase the Exposure, Highlights, Shadows, and Blacks, and slightly decrease the Contrast and Saturation.

adjust brightness settingsadjust brightness settingsadjust brightness settings
turn black shirt into whiteturn black shirt into whiteturn black shirt into white
If you want to change clothes’ color in Photoshop from black to white, it’s slightly more difficult than simply changing Hue, but still pretty simple!

Step 11

After this, you’re free to go to the Color Grading section again and achieve all the bright colors, too!

bright color shirtbright color shirtbright color shirt

Good Job!

Now you know how to change the color of clothing in Photoshop and how to change a shirt color from black to white!

change shirt color final resultchange shirt color final resultchange shirt color final result

If you liked this tutorial on how to change the color of clothing in Photoshop, you may also like our other tutorials explaining how to achieve various effects in Photoshop:

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