The fastest way to change one colour to another

The Hue/Saturation tool is the quickest route when you want to shift a colour across the whole image or a specific area. Open your image in Photoshop, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation, and you will see three sliders. The middle slider, Saturation, controls how vivid the colour is. The left slider, Hue, rotates the colour wheel — moving it left shifts colours one direction, moving it right shifts them the other way. Lightness controls brightness.

This method works best when the thing you want to change is already a distinct colour — a red car, a blue sky, a yellow shirt. The tool shifts that entire colour range at once, so you do not have to select anything first. If you move the Hue slider and the colour does not change the way you expected, you may be working with a colour that is very close to grey or black, which Hue/Saturation handles poorly.

One limitation: Hue/Saturation changes the colour everywhere it appears in the image. If you want to change only the car and leave the red traffic light alone, you will need a different approach.

Key Takeaways

  • Hue/Saturation (Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation) is the fastest tool when you want to shift a colour across an entire image or a selected area.
  • The Select by Colour tool lets you isolate one colour before you change it, so you can change a red car without touching a red sign in the background.
  • The Colour Range selection (Select > Colour Range) gives you more control over which shades get selected when similar colours appear in different parts of the image.
  • Painting over an area with a new colour on a separate layer set to Colour blend mode preserves the original light and shadow, which is useful for things like recolouring clothing.

Selecting the colour before you change it

If you want to change only one instance of a colour — the car but not the sign, the left wall but not the right wall — you need to select that colour first. The Select by Colour tool is in the toolbar on the left side of the screen. It looks like a finger pointing at a coloured square. Click it, then click on the colour in your image you want to change.

Photoshop will select all pixels similar to the one you clicked. You will see marching ants (a dotted line) around the selected area. The Tolerance setting at the top of the screen controls how strict the selection is — a low number selects only very similar shades, a high number selects a wider range. If your selection is too small or too large, adjust the Tolerance slider and click again.

Once you have the colour selected, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Now when you move the sliders, only the selected colour changes. The rest of the image stays the same.

Using Colour Range for tricky selections

When the same colour appears in very different parts of your image — a blue sky and a blue shirt, for example — the Select by Colour tool sometimes misses one or catches too much of the other. Colour Range gives you finer control. Go to Select > Colour Range. A dialog box opens with a preview of what will be selected.

Click on the colour you want to select in the preview window. Unlike Select by Colour, Colour Range shows you exactly what it is selecting before you commit. You can adjust the Fuzziness slider (similar to Tolerance) to include more or fewer similar shades. If you need to add more of the colour to your selection, hold Shift and click on another area. To remove part of the selection, hold Alt (or Option on Mac) and click.

When the selection looks right, click OK. You now have a selection you can use with Hue/Saturation or any other adjustment tool.

Painting a new colour while keeping light and shadow

Sometimes you want to change a colour but keep the original shading and texture — recolouring a shirt from blue to red while the folds and wrinkles stay visible, for example. Painting with the Colour blend mode does this. Create a new layer first by going to Layer > New > Layer. Name it something you will remember, like "Recolour".

Select the Paintbrush tool from the toolbar. At the top of the screen, change the blend mode dropdown from Normal to Colour. Pick your new colour by clicking the foreground colour square (the larger square in the toolbar). Paint over the area you want to change. Because you are on the Colour blend mode, the original light and shadow show through — you are only changing the hue, not the brightness.

If you paint outside the lines, undo with Ctrl+Z (or Cmd+Z on Mac) and try again. If the colour is too strong, lower the Opacity slider at the top of the screen before you paint. This method takes more time than Hue/Saturation but gives you much more control over where the colour goes.

Replacing one specific colour with another

The Replace Colour tool combines selection and adjustment in one step. Go to Image > Adjustments > Replace Colour. A dialog opens with a preview of your image. Click on the colour you want to change in the preview. The Fuzziness slider controls how similar colours have to be to get selected.

Once you have selected the colour, three sliders appear at the bottom: Hue, Saturation, and Lightness. These work the same way as in Hue/Saturation, but they only affect the colour you selected. This is useful when you want to change a specific colour without having to make a separate selection first.

Replace Colour is less precise than Select by Colour followed by Hue/Saturation, but it is faster when you just want to shift one colour and move on.

When the colour you want to change is very dark or very light

Black, white, and near-grey colours do not respond well to Hue/Saturation because they have very little colour information to shift. If you want to change a black object to dark blue, or a white object to light yellow, Hue/Saturation will barely move the colour at all.

For these situations, use the Colour Range selection method to select the dark or light area, then go to Image > Adjustments > Colour Balance instead of Hue/Saturation. Colour Balance has three sliders that let you push the colour toward Cyan, Magenta, or Yellow. This works better on very dark and very light areas because it is adding colour rather than rotating the colour wheel.

Alternatively, you can paint the new colour on a separate layer set to Overlay or Soft Light blend mode instead of Colour mode. This adds colour while preserving the original brightness, which often looks more natural on very dark or very light objects.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I change a colour back if I do not like the result?

Yes, as long as you have not closed the file. Press Ctrl+Z (or Cmd+Z on Mac) to undo the last change. If you made the change a while ago and have done other work since, go to Edit > Undo History and click on the step before you changed the colour. If you have already saved and closed the file, you will need to reopen it and start over.

Why does the colour not change when I move the Hue slider?

The object you are trying to change is probably very close to black, white, or grey. These colours have almost no saturation, so the Hue slider has nothing to work with. Try using Colour Balance instead, or paint the new colour on a separate layer set to Overlay blend mode.

How do I change a colour in only part of the image?

Use Select by Colour or Colour Range to select just that area first, then explore Hue/Saturation or Replace Colour. The adjustment will only affect the selected area. You can also use the Paintbrush tool on a new layer set to Colour blend mode to paint the new colour exactly where you want it.

What is the difference between Hue/Saturation and Replace Colour?

Hue/Saturation requires you to select the colour first, but gives you more control over the adjustment. Replace Colour does the selection and adjustment in one dialog, which is faster but less precise. Use Replace Colour for quick changes and Hue/Saturation when you need more control.