A simple technique that you can use to change the colour of part of an image without having to make tricky cutouts or complex selections.
| Other SoftwareFirst a quick explanation of what this command offers.
 | With an image opened up in Photo ImpactgotoFormat>Hue & Saturation (Short cut keys Ctrl+E) to call up the relevant palette. Here you will see a preview of the picture you will work on, with three tabs above it. Before shows the unedited image; After shows the edited image and Dual view splits the box to show a before and after version. This is the best mode to use. Just under that are several icons that let you magnify or reduce the preview image within its box, 1:1 shows the image at actual size. The next one makes the full image fit inside the preview window and the fifth centers the image. |
 | The next thing you see are the three controls used to adjust Hue, Saturation and Lightness. The Hue slider changes the colour of pixels, Saturation changes the depth of the colour. Move this to the left and the colours become muted move it to the right and they become vivid. The Lightness slider controls the strength of the colour taking it from dull (left) to bright (right). Below these sliders are three buttons to turn on how these adjustment will affect the image. Let's first look at Master. This will affect the whole image so as you adjust the Hue slider, as shown here, all the colours in the picture are affected. |
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The range option gives us more selective control. When you click on it a few small markers appear in the colour bar at the bottom of the palette. These can be used to select a range of colour that you want to change. In this example I have decided to make the yellow area of the boat more vibrant so I dragged the markers so they cover the yellow area of the spectrum and then adjusted the Hue and Saturation to make the yellow more vivid. Notice all the other areas have not been affected. |
 | Now if we try the same technique, but with the markers over the blue area we can change the colour of the sky. Notice the colours that will appear are also indicated in the bottom spectrum bar. |
 | The next button is the Colorise option which converts the picture to monocolour. Here you'll see the bottom spectrum bar show a range of tones within one fine band of colour, in this example, olive brown. You can use this to create similar effects to darkroom toning, by adjusting all three sliders to obtain the desired effect. Making sure the Saturation slider is some way to the left will ensure the results look more natural. |
 | One final thing you can do is convert the picture to black & white with ease by dragging the Saturation slider full across to the left to remove all trace of colour but maintain the RGB profile that is used for your inkjet printer. |
You will have seen from this tutorial that it's easy to change the colour of selected areas of an image or the whole thing using Photo Impact's Hue & Saturation command. Now go and try it with your pictures, there are some great effects waiting.
If you have Photoshop or Elements the Hue & Saturation command is found by going to Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation (Shortcut keys Ctrl+U)
If you use PaintShopPro go to Colours>Adjust>Hue/Saturation/Lightness (Shortcut keys Shift+H).
In both these programs the Range option is found by pulling down from the Master menu item and has a predefined selection of colour ranges to choose from.
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