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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Step 11
After this, you’re free to go to the Color Grading section again and achieve all the bright colors, too!
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!
Recommended Photoshop Tutorials
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: