In this guide, you will learn practical techniques to adjust colors, create color fills, and use adjustment layers in Photopea to achieve accurate and appealing color results.
Understanding Fill and Adjustment Layers
There are two types of fill layers: solid color fill, gradient fill and pattern fill. A fill layer has a parameter (e.g. the color, the gradient or the pattern) that can be easily modified. Just like any other layers, fill layers and adjustment layers can have their own blend mode, opacity, masks etc. Adjustment layers are the special kind of layers. For direct raster layers, the pixel information is the only information we have. Undirect layers are e.g.
Press Layer - New Fill Layer in the top menu to add a new fill layer. Press Layer - New Adjustment Layer in the top menu to add a new adjustment layer. In PSD files, any layer can have the clipping mask option enabled. Here we can see a text layer containing Photopea, and the photo of grass on top of it. Just like any other layers, the clipping mask can help constrain edits to a specific area.
Initial Preparation: Open Image and Create a Project
First, you need to create a new Project by going to File >> New. You can also open an image by pasting it onto Photopea. Open the image in Photopea by either clicking on the going to File -> Open. If your browser automatically saved it for you, it is probably in your Downloads folder.
Simple Color Adjustments for Broad Changes
When it comes to adjusting colors, your choice of adjustment will depend on your specific goal. The most simple one is the hue/Saturation adjustment layer. Step 1: Once you open the image into Photopea, click on the New Adjustment layer. Step 2: Go to the sidebar and select the Brush Tool for masking refinements if needed. Step 4: In order to enhance the image colors, it’s important to make adjustments to the Saturation using the slider. Step 5: Go to File >> Export As and save your image in any desired file format.
Color Replacement with Fill Layers and Blending
The second method we will look at is that of using the Paint Bucket option from the toolbar. Step 2: Choose a Selection tool from the toolbar and use it to select the shape you want to change the color of. Step 3: Select the object you want to change. To ensure you select the entire subject area, you can zoom by pressing the Ctrl key and then the ‘+’ or ‘-’ key to zoom in and out, respectively. If the Magic Wand does not select the entire area at once, hold down the Shift key and click on the unselected areas.
In this section, we will discuss practical techniques to change the color of the outfit effectively. Create the color fill layer using the adjustment layers button from the layers panel. You can choose any color according to the color of your outfit. Step 4: Clip the color fill layer to the t-shirt layer. To do that, right-click on the color fill layer and choose a clipping mask. Step 4: Change the blend mode. Remember that the blend modes will work differently for every color; we have a white t-shirt so the Darken blending mode will work best. Here’s the before and after.
Colorizing Specific Areas: Faces and Objects
If you took a photo and would love to change how it looks, you can do so in simple steps. Step 2: Go to the sidebar and select the Brush Tool. Step 4: Click on ‘New layer’ button at the very bottom of the Layers panel. Step 5: Select the transparent layer from the Layers panel and use the brush tool to color the face. After coloring the face, take care not to cover the eyes. The transparent layer will now blend with the face. You can disable the transparent layer to see the before and after results. Feel free to choose any color to change the appearance of the face. To view the final result, switch from Soft Light to Normal.
Hue/Saturation: Fine-Tuning Specific Colors
There are multiple ways to change color in Photopea. The Hue/Saturation adjustment layer is one of the most straightforward methods. Step by step, you can change object colors easily by selecting a color range and adjusting the Hue slider. For images with multiple parts sharing the same color, isolation is possible by masking the adjustment layer and applying changes only where desired. The process often includes selecting the color to change, applying a mask, and refining with the brush until only the target area is affected. Save or export the image as you did in previous exercises.
Practical Examples: Color Changes on Outfits and Objects
To change the color of the outfit, you need to make a selection around the outfit. Use any selection tool which is more suitable for the image you are using. Press Ctrl + J to create a separate layer for the outfit. Create the color fill layer using the adjustment layers button from the layers panel, then clip it to the outfit layer and adjust the blend mode and opacity to achieve a natural result. This approach helps preserve shading and textures while altering hue and saturation.
For targeted color changes on facial features, you can create a new transparent layer, brush in the color over the desired area, and adjust opacity and blending mode to blend with skin tones. If you need to compare before and after, disable the top color layer to see the original beneath.
Go Further: Masks and Refinements
Using masks is essential to restrict color changes to precise regions. The Hue/Saturation tool allows masking through painting with black to protect areas and white to reveal changes. This refinement ensures natural transitions and avoids color spill onto unrelated parts of the image. Practice on sample images to become proficient in masking and selective color adjustments.
Additional Tips and Resources
Step-by-step practice exercises, such as changing the color of an object or removing color cast from a photo, help you master Photopea’s color correction workflow. For more complex edits, combine adjustment layers, fill layers, masks, and blending modes to achieve subtle, professional results. Save or export the image in the desired format as you complete each exercise.
Color Correction Basics | Understanding Scopes
