CHANGING COLOR IN Photoshop CS

[glonet]

I would like some tips on changing an element or paper to a specific color in PS CS. If I use the Layer Style, Color overlay - you have to reduce the opacity in order to have any contrast in the item. This ends up being lighter than the desired color. If you use the Image >Adjustment>Hue/Saturation - it is hard to match the color. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Gloria

[elenasworld]

hey gloria
I use a combination of a few things -- i am sure there are lots of methods too

I first use the color picker tool and select the color I want so that it is the foreground color. I often duplicate the layer I want recolored, change that to grey scale, and the use Image>Adjustment>Hue Saturation>Colorize

I will tweak this a bit, but avoid using the darker/lighter since for me it tends to lose detail, especially lighter.
I might then duplicate the layer and adjust the blending mode to "screen" if it is too dark and also adjust the opacity layer

i like to play around with soft light, color burn, multiply and pin light
sometimes creating three or four layers

in a pinch, I will take the original layer and place it on top of my "recolored" layer, and play with the blending modes to get the effect I like too

recoloring something with shadows and highlights gets tricky
sometimes with that I will also go to Image >Adjustment>Hue/Saturation, and then from the drop down (which says Master) select another color family, for example "green" and then adjust those sliders. Sometimes doing that is simple enough.

I dont usually use the color overlay, but I almost always duplicate the original, and recolor my duplicate.

I would love to hear what tips others have too

(oh, sometimes I use the gradient overlay -- you can get carried away with that and get some really cool effects)

[glonet]

Thanks for your comments. When you make 3 or 4 layers, do you merge and see what you come out with? See which you like best? I have tried some of those but usually on the same layer. I use irfanview for quick & dirty color change (doesn't have blending options, but does have colors separate that you can add & subtract, and many other options. The one I have most trouble is with color challenges where the color is exact (except I've noticed designers use a smidgeon of the designated color mixed with others many times). When I use color overlay, I go to image>adjust>bright/contrast> and inc. the contrast and get more detail back.