How To Change Colour Of Background In Photoshop (step-by-step Guide)
Ever looked at a photo and thought, "You know what this needs? A splash of fabulous fuchsia! Or perhaps a serene sky blue to really make those puppy eyes pop!" Well, guess what? With a little digital magic from Adobe Photoshop, you can absolutely do that. It’s like having a super-powered, infinitely patient colour genie at your fingertips. Forget boring, static backgrounds; we’re about to unleash a rainbow of possibilities! Get ready to become a background colour-changing wizard!
So, let’s dive in. Imagine you’ve got a picture of your amazing cat, Mr. Fluffernutter, looking regal on his favourite armchair. But that armchair’s background is… well, beige. Utterly, dreadfully beige. Beige is fine for socks, maybe, but for Mr. Fluffernutter’s debut album cover? Not so much. We need drama! We need pizazz! We need… a new background colour!
First things first, you need Adobe Photoshop installed on your computer. Think of it as your trusty paintbrush, but instead of bristles, it has pixels and endless potential. Open up your chosen image in Photoshop. For our mission, let’s pretend it’s Mr. Fluffernutter on that beige armchair. He’s looking good, but the background is holding him back, like a villain in a superhero movie.
Now, the crucial step: we need to tell Photoshop where our subject ends and the background begins. This is where things get exciting! We’re going to use a tool called the Object Selection Tool. It's like a super-smart lasso that can sniff out your main star. Click on the Object Selection Tool. You’ll usually find it hiding in the toolbar, looking a bit like a square with a dotted line around it. Once you’ve got it, just hover your mouse over Mr. Fluffernutter. You might see a shimmering overlay appear. If not, a quick click and drag around him will do the trick. Photoshop is so clever, it’ll try its best to figure out exactly where he is. Ta-da! You should now see little marching ants (that’s what we call the blinking selection lines) marching all around our furry friend. This means we’ve successfully told Photoshop, "Hey, this is the important bit!"
But wait, we want to change the background, right? So, those marching ants are currently around Mr. Fluffernutter. We need them to be around everything else. Easy peasy! We just need to invert our selection. Think of it like flipping a switch. With your selection still active, go up to the menu bar at the very top of your screen. Click on Select, and then, with a flourish, choose Inverse. Now, behold! Those marching ants are merrily marching around the entire edge of your image, leaving Mr. Fluffernutter blissfully un-marching. This is our cue. The background is officially selected!
Now for the fun part: the colour! We need a new layer to paint on, so we don’t mess up our original Mr. Fluffernutter. Look over to the right side of your screen, and you’ll see a panel called Layers. If you don’t see it, go to Window in the menu bar and click on Layers. In the Layers panel, find a little icon that looks like a plus sign inside a square, usually at the bottom. Click that! Boom! You’ve just created a brand new, blank layer. This is our canvas for the new background colour. Make sure this new layer is below the layer with Mr. Fluffernutter in the Layers panel. You can usually drag layers up and down to reorder them.
Next, we need our colour. Head over to your Toolbar again. Find the little coloured boxes at the bottom. The top one is your Foreground Colour, and the bottom one is your Background Colour. Click on the Foreground Colour box. A big colour picker wheel will pop up. Go wild! Pick a colour that makes Mr. Fluffernutter look like the superstar he is. Are we feeling a bold ruby red? A sophisticated emerald green? Or maybe a playful, sunshine yellow that screams "adopt me, I’m adorable!"? Let’s go with a dazzling sapphire blue, shall we? Select your colour and click OK.
With your new layer selected and the background marching ants still in place, grab your trusty Paint Bucket Tool. It looks like a little bucket pouring paint. Click on it. Now, with your chosen colour as your foreground colour, simply click anywhere inside the marching ants on your image. WHOOSH! The entire background area you selected is now filled with your chosen sapphire blue. It’s like magic!
And there you have it! Mr. Fluffernutter is now sitting majestically against a stunning sapphire blue backdrop. He looks even more regal, doesn't he? You’ve just transformed a mundane photo into something truly special. Remember, this is just the beginning. You can experiment with different colours, try gradients, or even add patterns. Photoshop is your playground. So go forth and colour your world!