Photoshop help?

[dcx_badass]

Hiya doing some work in photoshop, basically got a map of a city centre, what I'm trying to do is cut all the shops into a new layer, then cut the restaurants into a seperate layer. I can do that fine. But how would I colour all the restaurants red for example, and then all the shops blue? And be able to change the colour of them at will?
Basically colour all itms in a layer at once, regardless of the actual pattern or picture?
Thanks.

[dcx_badass]

I've found colour replacement tool, but the colours seem limited?

Als you have to do it on each layer, I want loads of layers and then have put them in groups, I need to apply the colour change to the group of layers, and not each one individually.

[dcx_badass]

Any ideas, it's really important that I can do this.

As in my Uni degree partly depends on this.

[Artas1984]

Originally Posted by dcx_badass

Hiya doing some work in photoshop, basically got a map of a city centre, what I'm trying to do is cut all the shops into a new layer, then cut the restaurants into a seperate layer. I can do that fine. But how would I colour all the restaurants red for example, and then all the shops blue? And be able to change the colour of them at will?
Basically colour all itms in a layer at once, regardless of the actual pattern or picture?
Thanks.

Show in pictures how does this look, and perhaps we will fix this by writing a script that does all auto..

[Glidefan]

If you want to change the color of the layer for each type (shops and restaurants)
Then make a layer on top of lets say the things you want to paint red (and fill it with red), assign the structure layer as the mask for the said layer, and set the mixing of the layer into "color".

Then if you want to change color like that, all you have to do is change the color of the colored layer and its going to paint everything under it according to the mask.

[ground_zero298]

Are they just suppose to be a solid red? or tinted red so you can still see the building detail?

[dcx_badass]

Sorry just seen this, I'll throw up an example tomorrow evening.

[bokah]

think u need to adjust that layer into something else to use it properly, sry its been long since i used any those

[ground_zero298]

Post up the original image if you can, then we can walk you through it.

[dcx_badass]

Right, I've not got my maps handy so used a basic google earth.

I've got my base map, I'm classifying buildings into a number of categories (such as restaurant, cafe, bar etc).

I want them in groups and then to colour code all restaurants red say, and all cafes blue, I need to keep each building as a layer (atm cutting and pasting to a new layer then grouping), I want to change the colour of a whole group at once, but need to keep seperate layers incase I need to move or reclassify, here is a basic example:

Original:


Example of what I want to do with layers:


Rough idea of how I want final one to look (but with around 500 buildings)


Using professional maps though. I need to start this sunday morning so any help before then is great.

[ground_zero298]

Alright, we can work with this.

Open your file get you photo on a layer. Go ahead and create 1 more layer for each color you have. Double click the layer name and rename it to what it needs to be.

Click on your picture layer to set it active.

Now select your quick selection tool (w key) adjust the circle width with the [ and ] keys to get a workable size.

When you Left click hold shift and drag it around the inside of the buildings. Don't worry if it goes outside. If it goes out side hold Alt Left click and it will subtract when you move over it and snap to the building edges.

Shift L click will add, Alt L click will subtract.

Select all the buildings of 1 color like this.

After you get all the buildings of 1 color selected. Click on the coresponding layer. Now click on your paint brush tool, select your color, and paint all the buildings selected. Use [ or ] keys to make your brush bigger to paint faster.

After its painted you can hit Ctrl D to unselect everything. You now have your colors for your buildings on 1 layer. You can also slide the transparency bar down if needed to give it a more natural look instead of solid colors.

This is the quick and easy way to do this.

[dcx_badass]

Thanks, will I have to colour each one in though? No way of doing a whole group of layers at once, as there will be 500 or so.

Thanks.

[Extraordinary]

Originally Posted by dcx_badass

Thanks, will I have to colour each one in though? No way of doing a whole group of layers at once, as there will be 500 or so.

Thanks.

You checked for layer tutorials on youtube? Sometimes watching someone do it is easier than reading how to

[dcx_badass]

Originally Posted by Extraordinary

You checked for layer tutorials on youtube? Sometimes watching someone do it is easier than reading how to

Yeah loads for layers, but none for groups that I can find.

[ground_zero298]

It will paint whatever you have selected. So if you have 250 buildings selected, it will paint all of them at once. Just follow the steps I posted, you will be alright. Shouldn't take anymore than 30 minutes to do.

[dcx_badass]

Originally Posted by ground_zero298

It will paint whatever you have selected. So if you have 250 buildings selected, it will paint all of them at once. Just follow the steps I posted, you will be alright. Shouldn't take anymore than 30 minutes to do.

Thanks, will give it a go shortly.

[dcx_badass]

Right, your method didn't really work with what I wanted to do as everytime I have to reselect every building. I've worked out a way to do, am using the colour replacement tool, but it's not working properly.

I select the colour I want to replace select yellow to make it all yellow, but instead of replacing the colour, it adds them together and makes a horrible brown. Any ideas why it won't work properly?

[Nato.dbnz]

If you have all your buildings cut out as one layer surely you can just right click the layer, go to blending options > color overlay and set the color in there?
Pretty haxy and not as good as masking as per the directions above but a hell of a lot easier i'd say.

[dcx_badass]

Originally Posted by Nato.dbnz

If you have all your buildings cut out as one layer surely you can just right click the layer, go to blending options > color overlay and set the color in there?
Pretty haxy and not as good as masking as per the directions above but a hell of a lot easier i'd say.

Thanks, that works really well and is the easiest method so far I'd say. Will have another play tomorrow and decide, will either be this way or colour replacement if I can get it to work (most likely yours though).