Jaguar Color Tuning

Trying to find our chosen subject in an ideal location is often impossible - more often than not we find objects in the way and reflections that can spoil the image. However, using some of Photoshop's tools we can transform the original image completely.

Our image of the Jaguar cars were taken on a garage forecourt from slightly different angles, with an aim to combine both images giving a glossy brochure effect.

With our Jaguar car opened in Photoshop choose the polygonal lasso from the toolbox and carefully click around the edge of our car. Using the zoom tool we can magnify our image which will ensure we achieve an accurate selection. Once we have finished our selection, the familiar marching ants appear. From the Select menu choose Feather and enter a Radius of between 2-3 and click OK. After all this hard work it is worth saving our image to use again. From the edit menu select copy - this will now copy the car to Photoshop's clipboard. From the file menu we select New and click ok, this will open a new background - using the shortcut Ctrl V will paste our car as a new layer onto our new document. This can now be saved as a PSD file (in layers) and used in other images.

Working on the background image we need to subdue some of the reflections so choose the Freehand Lasso and draw around the area of reflections. Once our selection is completed try using the shortcut Ctrl J which will paste our selection in as a new layer. Right mouse clicking on our new layer will open the Layers Properties box where we can rename our layer 'blur'. From the filter menu we select Blur > Gaussian blur and select a radius of approximately 3 pixels which will make the reflection less distracting. To enable us to see the profile of the bodywork clearly on our Blur layer change the blend mode to Lighten on the Layers palette.

To remove any further distractions we can create a new empty layer above our Blur layer, by clicking on the Create a new Layer icon. Select the clone tool making sure that the Use All Layers box has been ticked in the Options Bar - this will enable us to clone onto our new layer.

Call up our second car and using the Move Tool, drag it into our main image The Car is then copied in as a new layer. Using the Transform tool Edit > Free Transform adjustments can be made to the position and scale of the car using the grab handles. Tip - To keep the size in proportion, hold down Shift on the keyboard whilst dragging the handles.

To darken the windows of the car we first need to create another new empty layer by clicking on the Create a new Layer icon. Working on our new layer we call up the polygonal lasso and select around the area of our windows. Tip- make sure you have ticked the 'add to selection' box in the option bar or hold down the shift key - this will enable us to select all the windows. Using the Eyedropper from the tool box select the dark grey colour from around the window area. With the Paint Bucket tool selected we can fill our selection. At this stage our windows are a solid colour but by selecting Overlay from the layers blend mode the windows become tinted.

Now to give our image that glossy brochure effect. Using the Eyedropper select the darkest shade of red from the image. Create a new empty layer and using the Paint bucket fill the layer with our selected colour. From the Blend Mode menu choose Overlay and our image will now show through our 'colour' layer giving us that glossy look. Areas around the lights and wheels can be restored using the eraser tool.

To further enhance our image and increase the shiny effect click on the Layer Adjustment icon on the bottom of the layer's palette and select Curves. We need to make sure that the black is at the top of the palette, this can be done by clicking on the two arrows on the bottom bar. Our figure in the top area should be input 75% and output 80%. In the lower area both the input and output should be 25% - this is also known as 'adjusting the half tones' and makes quite a difference to our image.