Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 - - - HELP!!!!

[vRS_Pagey]

Hi guys,

Last year I installed a copy of the photoshop software in the title, since then I have been playing around with it but something that has constantly frustrated me!  All I want to do is photoshop the wheels on my car to a smoked chrome or anthracite finish, if I want to change them to a 'colour' I simply use the paint brush tool using the pipette icon to extract a colour then apply.  However when I try that with a more greyscale tone it doesn't work, so far the only way I have figured to achieve the look I'm after (kind of) is to use the free hand selection tool, carefully trace the outline of the wheel, copy then paste as a new image, then alter the colour with the colour changer tool, unfortunately this will colour the caliper also.  I then select the finished wheel, cut then paste as a new image over the original picture and drag it in to place............. :S

Sorry, but its really hard to explain the problem, perhaps someone with the same or similar software can complete the task and post a how to?



The picture below shows where I can change from a grey to a colour, in this case the blue areas of the wheels -



Finally this picture is an example I did using the cut, paste colour changer procedure, pretty carp if I'm honest -



Thanks in advance for any help.  :thumbup:

[stealthwolf]

You should be able to select the whole wheel (as you have done) and then "subtract" everything not in the wheel. This leaves you with just the alloy, which you can fiddle about with and then paste back in.

Don't have the same software but it's the basic process. You may have the ability to "smart" select the alloy, but I find this crap at selecting. It's only really good for selecting ~70%, leaving you to sort out the remainder.

[vRS_Pagey]

Any idea how to 'subtract' stuff?

[stealthwolf]

It'll be one of the keypresses eg alt, ctrl or shift. Press and hold whilst you freehand select the area and see which one works.

[vRS_Pagey]

I've found the 'remove' but when you select an area nothing happens...........

[stealthwolf]

Have you selected an area first, before deselecting?

[vRS_Pagey]

I've just had a play, selected the whole wheel, pasted as a new image, then manually selected and deleted all the gaps through to the brake etc.  Changed the colour, re-selected then pasted it back onto the car.  Although this worked it seems like a lot of hard work.  I felt sure that with the paint brush tool or similar you could simply recolour an area!  As I said in the OP, like the wheels with blue, they were originally grey and I just carefully recoloured...............it just doesn't seem to work with colours in the greyscale!  I must be -  

[vRS_Pagey]

Still struggling here! 

[Betty02]

Get photoshop.




























  Sorry but can't stand PSP!

[stealthwolf]

Gimme a chance. I'll see if I can download a demo version and see what's causing you problems.

[vRS_Pagey]

That doesn't help.....

[Betty02]

This may help you?

[stealthwolf]

Okay so seems like Corel took over Jasc. I have PSP9 so the process is the same. Either way, here's what I did:

1. Use the magic wand tool to select the rims. You have to adjust tolerance and feathering. It won't necessarily select the entire rim but at least most of it.
2. Use the freehand tool. With your left hand, press and hold shift. With the right hand, click and drag the cursor to outline the areas you want to add. If you need to subtract any areas, press and hold ctrl instead. Either way, you should have just the rim selected.
3. Now you can do what ever you want. You can't change the colour. What you do is change the brightness and contrast settings, and adjust the colorize or the hue/saturation/lightness settings to get the effect that you want.
4. Ctrl-D to deselect everything.

This is what I got from PSP X3:



Same process (And same brightness and contrast settings) in PSP 9: