How to Change Any Color to Black in Photoshop

In this video tutorial watch, as I show you how to change a bright saturated color to black in minutes.

A few years back I used to create book covers for a German book publisher. Usually action, horror, or thriller titles. These were always really fun shoots to do, often action-like poster looking images. In these kinds of images, the hero usually clasps a gun in one hand. It is very easy to buy prop guns for these shoots, but there is one issue. Due to the gun laws in the U.K., all of these prop guns are usually bright orange or yellow. Not the best color for a realistic-looking gun. One option would be to spray paint them, but due to the number of shoots, this would be unrealistic for each prop, and it takes a lot of time. So I decided I would work out how to do it in Photoshop. After some experimenting, I come upon a decent formula that works quite well, and it is this technique I am sharing with you today.

This tutorial is great for beginners who want to learn how to change any color in Photoshop, it is always good to build up a list of different techniques. But this tutorial also works for other cover artists who maybe do not want to spend all that time, effort, and money on spray painting props. The tutorial is fairly easy to follow along with just a series of levels adjustment and layer masks.